In this episode, Douglas talks about the lack of heroes in the atheist movement and why that isn’t a problem. Next he highlights an excellent TV program that explained why we teach US History all wrong, and finally Douglas revisits an essay he wrote about the 1st amendment violation having the Ohio state motto engraved on the grounds of the statehouse.
02:45 An Atheist Hero Is A Social Justice Warrior
15:39 The Whitewashing of US History
23:25 The Case Against The Ohio Motto
Extras:
Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: Separation of Church and State April 22, 1971
This 2002 PBS debate over the Iraq War is both weirdly prescient and totally bonkers
Sam Harris, the New Atheists, and anti-Muslim animus
Atheism’s shocking woman problem: What’s behind the misogyny of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris?
US History: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
John Oliver Examines Whitewashed U.S. History in the Wake of George Floyd
Tom Cotton describes slavery as a ‘necessary evil’ in bid to keep schools from teaching 1619 Project
An Overdue Debt — Why It’s Finally Time To Pay Reparations To Black Americans
A Humanist You Should Know: A. Philip Randolph
ACLU vs. The State of Ohio (1997-2001)
Host Notes
One of the interesting aspects of the stories I covered this episode was the take away between the premise that William F. Buckley Jr. used to Madalyn Murray O’Hair to justify prayer in the public schools. He tells her at one point that the prayer is not a big deal and she comes backs and says if it is no big deal then why do it.
In the essay on the Ohio Motto that I shared, the Columbus Dispatch columnist complains about the judge in the case saying the motto “With God All Things Are Possible” is a generic and trivial platitude that doesn’t call out any particular religious sect. The reporter then asks that if the motto is so generic then why use it?
That is the kind of argument I use all the time. If a prayer or religious symbol means nothing then why say the prayer or put the symbol up in a public space? As the Dispatch reporter says it is because to the religious those symbols aren’t meaningless.
That’s why such symbols shouldn’t be used in the public spaces like courthouses and schools – because they do have meaning and it is a religious one.
Credits:
Written, produced, and edited by Douglas Berger and he is entirely responsible for the content.
The GCH theme is “Your Call” by Kevin MacLeod from filmmusic.io and licensed under creative comments using attribution 4.0 international
This episode by Glass City Humanist is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
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