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Do we need a Universal Atheist Motto? e.g. "In Darwin we trust".
Aberingi's long-running topic entitled "Do we need a Universal Atheist Symbol?" leads me to ask "Do we need a Universal Atheist Motto?".
Well, perhaps we don't, or perhaps we could, but some theists might get deservedly irritated if we chose to use something like "In Darwin we trust" at appropriate moments.
These words, suitably translated into other languages, have a basic international atheist appeal with respect to truth and helpful anti-theist sabre-rattling and debating.
e.g. they might look good on the side of a bus/ coach.
Well, perhaps we don't, or perhaps we could, but some theists might get deservedly irritated if we chose to use something like "In Darwin we trust" at appropriate moments.
These words, suitably translated into other languages, have a basic international atheist appeal with respect to truth and helpful anti-theist sabre-rattling and debating.
e.g. they might look good on the side of a bus/ coach.
Tags: Darwin, bus slogan
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by D.O.S on -
If we have one it should not be "In Darwin we trust"!
Creationsist and religious right wingers already are incapable of ditinguishing Evolution theory as it currently exists from its origins. I can't count the number of time critics, including some of the more moderate ones, have used the terms Darwinism and/or Darwinian as synonyms for Evolution. It's annoying. -
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Permalink Reply by La Gaya Sienza on -
If we have one it should be "In Knowledge We Trust" or "In Science We Trust". Then the religious would be forced to look at the distinction between "knowledge" derived from science and faith derived from "mumbo jumbo".
The decline of America as a result of the assault on reason and science started by Reagan and brought up in the rear by the Bushes is frightening. Obama vowed to restore science to its rightful place. I see no evidence that he has even tried. I mean, Francis Collins as the head of the NIH? Frightening! He was the guy that said he knew god was real when he saw a water fall. Preachers have such power in America! Can't you guys vote them out so that they cannot have such a deleterious effect on your country and the rest of the world?
America has so much to be proud of. It was never a nation “under god” until Bush senior. Franklin and the other founding fathers would be appalled at what has happened to their country – that great bastion of democracy and secular freedom that they established.
As America declines under the dead weight of religion we see China, godless, unencumbered by such nonsense, and rising like a phoenix from the ashes of western imperialism. It is a secular country without a democratic constitution. Just as frightening as the modern USA, a county with a nominal democracy but a non-secular constitution; a country almost totally in the thrall of theism, of supernaturalism.
Can you American atheists not educate your religiously oppressed masses. Can you not stop the creationist rot in your schools so that America will be able to take a leading place once more in the biological sciences?
Imagine a world tri-polarized by an American theocracy in one corner, a Muslim theocracy in the other and a non-democratic but secular China in the other. Who will win out? Te answer is that the power of science will win out. The big question is whether it will be science in a democratic milieu where it can be made to serve the people or science in an authoritarian state where individuals are no more important then insects. Who will win?
Atheist Americans, aux armes! Contre vous de la tyrany religiuese! Sauvez-vous!
Rob -
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Permalink Reply by La Gaya Sienza on
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Thanks for correcting me on the historical details, Bill. Didn't they even put "Under God" on the money?
It is true that you got your fundies from the UK - the so called "puritans" etc. Luckily, the first white Austrlians were sinner convicts from that god ridden empire - many of whom hated preachers.
Alas, of late the fundies have been making life difficult here in Autralia, too. Mormons, SDA's scientologists and other lunitics. As if the catholics and Anglicans and the other loonies we inherited from the UK and Ireland were not enough! But , amqzinglyly, it seems we are on the verge of electing a female, unmarried, childless and atheist prime minister who lives in sin with her boyfriend. I'd love to see that happen in the USA. Not inour lifetime I think.
May you be free from gods
Rob -
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Permalink Reply by D R Hosie on -
The more I think about it, the more apparent I think it becomes - to all of us - that the answer is NO - we don't need a universal atheist motto. What's cool, is that no one can be branded a heretic for using whatever sounds good, or whatever floats your boat. When it comes right down to it, nothing sends the intended meaning behind being an atheist more that the free proliferation of dozens of different mottos. The only important thing, is getting them out there - on tee shirts, coffee cups, bumper stickers, and anything else people can come up with, to get and keep our messages in the public eye.
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Permalink Reply by Jack Matirko on -
So ... (to co-opt a line from R.A. Wilson) we non-theists need to stick apart? ;p
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Permalink Reply by D R Hosie on
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OK, I even hate to even bring this up - so strictly as an asside - from Timo Ostrander's Discussion:
I think therefore God does not exist. -
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Permalink Reply by Tim McElligott on -
It's up to us.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Spicer on -
Huh. "It's down to us" and "it's up to us" mean the same thing.
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Permalink Reply by Glenn Sogge on -
It's especially up to us when it's down to us.
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Permalink Reply by Tim McElligott on
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Jason and Glenn. I'm down with that :)
I don't think atheists need a motto, but I do think humanity needs a mission statement. It could answer the "why are we here?" question with something other than "To serve the Lord."
Here is one I wrote long ago. It is too long for a mission statement, but collectively we could edit it and whittle it down to the size of, say, a biblical proverb so even the religious could understand it. Here goes:
As humans, we will make responsible stewardship of the earth our highest priority. By not fouling our beds, we will provide an environment where our children’s children can survive, thrive and strive to discover and explain all there is to discover and explain.
We will set a date in the near future where upon such date, and forever forward in time, all claims of previous transgressions between peoples of different nations and peoples within nations will be forfeit, all claims to be the chosen people of any deity will be abandoned, and every gun, bomb and bullet will be recycled. We will move on.
Until it comes, we will not pine for, plan for, wait expectantly for or rejoice in the end of our time because some ancient text tells us rapture awaits us. We must prepare for a long and sometimes difficult future. We must plan to survive--together.
We will apply our best and brightest minds to the efforts of alternative energy, global food distribution, the transportation infrastructure, waste and resource management, medicine, our environment and to discovery—on every frontier.
We have accomplished much despite the distraction and destruction of hating and killing one another. Imagine what we could accomplish without it. -
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