Ellen Johnson-- President of American Atheist
 

Thumbing through the channels, I noticed a speech given by Ellen Johnson, President of American Atheists, at a convention given on April 6 (ironically enough). In an effort to better understand a group with whom we often do not get along, I watched. I found the bulk of her speech to be angry and vindictive, celebrating the attack of religion in the media (citing such sterling examples as the movie "Saved" and "South Park") and rejoicing in its decline, and eulogized the war against theism being fought in classrooms, government buildings, and other public institutions.

I am hesitant to speak against an ideology that I don't fully understand. I don't complain when these and similar organizations fight against public funds being used to support religious ideas and practices. I'm actually somewhat in favor of the ACLU, for example, even though as a white Mormon in Utah, I've never heard of a case they've prosecuted wherein we were on the same side. I am all for the separation of church and state and allowing others to believe as they will.

But this speech, as well as the one that followed it, was well beyond arguing for the separation of church and state. I don't know how any organization survives whose essential tenet is to fight the ideas of others. I can support the right of any, atheists or otherwise, to believe or disbelieve as they feel is right, but not the attack of others' beliefs.

I would have liked to have come away from that speech with a little more respect than I did.

along those lines, I caught the end of a documentary "urgan child of the himalayas" on one of the VOOM channels.

As far as I could gather, it was the story of a young boy (non-fiction) who is taken by his family to be a monk. Full of verve and excitement, and suddenly he is in the monastery, told to shut up and start chanting his mantras.

I have to admit, I felt terrible for him. A boy of say 9 years, forced to be an ascetic, in a monastery in the middle of nowhere. The last shot is of him reading a mantra late at night to his mentor. Suddenly he stops and asks, "Do you like cricket? Have you played cricket?"

I have to understand, however, that SU would put us in the same category as this boy. We are in the monastery in the desert chanting mantras when we could be sipping wine and banging rich non-Mormon chicks.

There is no SU.

This is no reincarnation.

The is no afterlife.

There is no belief, only doubt and disbelief.

If you're up for biting satire, Saved! will have you laughing until your side aches. The ending is much too John Hughes, but Saved is still funny.

I don't watch South Park much, but it is too much on a soap box for my taste.

I thought "Saved" was hilarious.

Sure there is - it's a University in the arctic tundra aka Syracuse, New York - Syracuse University.

Actually, I have no friggin' clue what SU you are talking about!

I am always humored by the email that comes around eveyr so often re: Madeline Murray O'Hare. Apparently, she is still alive and working behind the scenes to get rid of religion on television.