American Atheists had been invited to have an information booth at the conservative gathering next month called The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) … then 24 hours later they got a phone call and were told in no uncertain terms “You are banned”.
Yikes.
It makes sense for American Atheists to be there and to have a booth. “‘Conservative’ isn’t a synonym for ‘religious’,” said American Atheists president David Silverman in a statement announcing the booth. “In fact, a fifth of conservatives seldom or never pray, and the same number state that religion is not important in their lives.”.
American Atheists had planned to have a booth and give out information leaflets, so what happened?
CPAC spokeswoman Meghan Snyder said Monday the group was included because “conservatives have always stood for freedom of religion and freedom of expression.” But by Tuesday, she was telling CNN Silverman’s purportedly divisive language would not be welcomed at the event.
“He pledged that he will attack the very idea that Christianity is an important element of conservatism,” Snyder said. “People of any faith tradition should not be attacked for their beliefs, especially at our conference.”
Ah I get it, and so all is now clear – myths that don’t have a jot of evidence are apparently a key element of their thinking, and that perhaps explains rather a lot of their rather weird and completely irrational policies.
However, if you would like to laugh at a real gem of complete and utter lunacy, then try this …
Conservative leader Brent Bozell then jumped in the middle of it. In a statement, Bozell said, “The invitation extended by the ACU, Al Cardenas and CPAC to American Atheists to have a booth is more than an attack on conservative principles. It is an attack on God Himself. American Atheists is an organization devoted to the hatred of God. How on earth could CPAC, or the ACU and its board of directors, and Al Cardenas condone such an atrocity?”
“Atrocity” !! … “Hatred” !!! … “attacking” conservative principles … !!!!
Really?
The truth is that people that do not actually believe “hate” god with exactly the same degree of passion that they “hate” Zeus, Thor, Loki and invisible pink unicorns.
OK, let’s test all this and take a peek at the leaflets that American Atheists had proposed to hand out, and see if you can spot any “atrocity”, “Hatred” or “attacking of conservative principles” …
These are not leaflets that attack, or promote hatred, but rather consist of very positive proposals that promote an inclusiveness for all, which is in stark contrast to the special privilege being demanded by some for Christian belief.
There is an Inevitable consequence to all this
The decline and demise of right-wing US Republicanism is inevitable as long as they persist with their embrace of an irrational belief, one that promotes intolerance, misogyney and homophobia. The un-stoppable rise of the None’s will continue to grow and push them further and further into the fringe, so much so that they will become completely irrelevant and totally unelectable.
… and to be frank, the sooner that happens the better off everybody will be.