You missed Madalyn Murray O'Hair's b-day, ya buncha slacker atheists!

[Dogmudgeon]

I did too ...

It was on Thursday, April 13th. She was born in 1919. Murdered after giving a long-time loser a second chance -- in other words, performing an act of Christian kindness the kind of which damn few Christians still perform. Ain't that ironic?

"Rest In Peace?" Fuck no! If she turned out to be wrong about the afterlife, then she's certainly kicking either God's ass, or Satan's.

More info for the un- and under-informed: Madalyn Murray O`Hair at Wikipedia
(Note: A script coding error will require you to correct the URL by hand.)

--p!

[medeak]

1. wouldn't say she was giving a loser a chance.

just watched documentary...seems like they were sympatico...setting up accts overseas pillaging the atheist accounts

[beam me up scottie]

3. What documentary?

And how old was it?

Google David Roland Waters.

[medeak]

4. It was on last night

must have been for anniversary of her death....re the mystery of her and kid's deaths.

Portrayed her as not such a nice gal.

edited to say...Waters was protrayed even more evil

[beam me up scottie]

5. Nobody said she was nice.

Least of all Madeline.

Why am I surprised that, in spite of the evidence, people still believe that she was complicit in her own kidnapping and extortion?

[beam me up scottie]

2. You're an atheist, p?

Get out of here.

[ClintonTyree]

6. Being an Atheist, I don't follow anyone....

why would I want to glorify her life, just because she was so vocal about it? I don't try to "convert" people, I live and let live. She chose to make a spectacle of her life for a "cause" she believed in but that doesn't mean she's my patron saint or anything. Or am I being more nihilistic? :shrug: Whatever, it wasn't because of her that I'm and Atheist. On the contrary, I think she did Atheists more harm than good.

[beam me up scottie]

7. I don't "follow" anyone either,

and I certainly don't try to deconvert anyone.

But I do celebrate Madalyn Murry O'Hair's life, for many reasons.

Not the least of which is this:

...what are the purpose and primary effect of the enactment. If either is the advancement or inhibition of religion then the enactment exceeds the scope of legislative power as circumscribed by the Constitution. That is to say that to withstand the structures of the Establishment Clause there must be a secular legislative purpose and a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion.

And I disagree that she did more harm than good.

Christans were persecuting and vilifying atheists long before she was born.

Madalyn just put them on notice that we weren't going to take it anymore.




Salud, Madalyn.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

8. She's the only atheist

I can name. I guess her atheism was more or less her mission.

[beam me up scottie]

9. Really?

Here are just a few of the more famous ones:

Woody Allen
Isaac Asimov
David Attenborough
Clive Barker
Dave Barry
Marlon Brando
Berkeley Breathed
George Carlin
John Carpenter
Noam Chomsky
David Cronenberg
Richard Dawkins
Ani DiFranco
Phil Donahue
Roger Ebert
Albert Einstein
Harvey Fierstein
Jodie Foster
Janeane Garofalo
Sam Harris
Robert Heinlein
Billy Joel
H.P. Lovecraft
John Malkovich
Mike Malloy
Julianne Moore
Jack Nicholson
James Randi
Ron Reagan Jr.
Gene Roddenberry
Andy Rooney
Salman Rushdie
Bertrand Russell
Michael Shermer
Peter Singer
Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Howard Stern
Ted Turner
Eddie Vedder
Gore Vidal
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.


We're everywhere.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

10. Oh, yeah...

I know the list is extensive. I think I have seen this list. Heck, I can name about five I know personally. But what I meant was an atheist who was famous because of her atheism. These other folks are just regular folks who happen to be atheists. Well, they are not quite regular folks. That is a fine list of some good creativity and brainpower!

I am surprised the Phil Donohue is an atheist. I had the impression he was still a Catholic.

I really like Eddie Vedder. Haven't heard much about him lately. My kids have grown past that...my daughter was totally in love with him back there in the grunge days when she had purple hair.

[beam me up scottie]

11. T. Grannie's an Eddie Vedder fan!

[trotsky]

12. I think her "mission" was for separation of church and state.

I don't recall O'Hair ever wanting to mandate atheism or force people to de-convert.

[Dogmudgeon]

13. This wasn't exactly a serious announcement

I didn't intend that it be taken as an indictment of atheism or atheists, or anything like that. I noticed her birthday and come and gone, and decided to post about it. The subject line was composed tongue-in-cheek, not as a serious announcement.

My connection to O'Hair is tenuous, but she wasn't just an abstract media figure. I personally never met her, but she was a close friend of one of my buddies. His girlfriend wanted us to all take a road trip to visit her later in the year before she disappeared. After she went missing, he was quite glum about her fate, and thought that she had been murdered by a religious fanatic.

I would also have done things differently with the activism, too, but she was the first person in the postwar (WW2) era to speak up about the flood of public piety who really made waves. Mike Newdow is a similar case. Bad tacticians, maybe, but at least somebody is kicking up a fuss. Sentinels not just to the atheist/agnostic/freethinker community, but to Christians and believers who seek to practice what they preach.

--p!