Those poor atheiests. They don't have anything better to do with their time. They must have very sorry lives.

GMAFB! Give it a rest already... live and let live...

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods. "What majestic trees!
What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself. As he continued walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes.
Turning to look, he saw a 7 foot grizzly charging towards him. He ran as
fast as he could up the path. Looking over his shoulder he saw that the
bear was closing in on him. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear raising his paw to take a swipe
at him. At that instant the atheist cried out: "Oh my God...";
Time stopped.
The bear froze.
The forest was silent.
It was then that a bright light shone upon the man and a voice came out of the sky saying: "You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others I don't exist, and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"
The atheist looked directly into the light, "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps, could you make the BEAR a Christian?"
"Very well," said the voice. The light went out. And the sounds of the forest resumed.
And then the bear lowered his paw, bowed his head and spoke: "Lord,bless this food which I am about to receive and for which I am truly
thankful. Amen."

((chucklin')) Bravo Chaos.

Chaos, you made my day! As for the atheists, what are they so afraid of, if in fact God does not exist? My guess is that it's just wishful thinking on their part. Eternity is a long time to spend realizing you are wrong.

@Chaos

Good one. I went to an atheist funeral once. As I always do when standing over a casket, I put my hand on the deceased and said a prayer. By the reaction of his family, you would think that I turned the casket over. They were upset that I prayed over a non-believer. I simply said, "He is the atheist, not me", and walked outside. Atheists "preach" and force-feed their agenda as much as, if not more than any religion out there. If the atheists are right, and the Christians are wrong, the Christians lost nothing, and still lived a good life. But, if the opposite is true, "there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth".

Some people just don't know what to do with the raging hate they have bound up inside themselves other than to pick on others with useless trivial nonsense.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”

I challenge all Athiests out there to come up with the answer to this question. Who or What created the very first piece of dirt that became the universe?

Oh man! What a great story Chaos! I love the extent in which Christians go to prove they are right. I am not an atheist, but I have to look at every belief as possible, which is the same thing others should do. Good luck with everything. I hope I am wrong and heaven/hell does exist.

Those who find this absurd and want to defend
both the constitution and the right to include God
in any public display should be writing the Uniontown school board and its superintendent as well as the ABJ

@bikergirl...it's called a joke. Not trying to prove anything.

Separation Of Church & State. . .

Let’s put the record straight. The Congressional Records from June 7 to September 25, 1789 record the months of discussions and debates of the ninety Founding Fathers who framed the First Amendment. Thomas Jefferson though not one of those, ninety who framed the First Amendment, had his comments included in those debates. His debate in modern history is being completely misconstrued.

During those debates not one of those ninety Framers ever mentioned the phrase "separation of church and state." It seems logical that if this had been the intent for the First Amendment – as is so frequently asserted-then at least one of those ninety who framed the Amendment would have mentioned that phrase; none did.

The “separation" phrase so frequently invoked today was rarely mentioned by any of the Founders; and even Jefferson's explanation of his phrase is diametrically opposed to the manner in which courts apply it today. "Separation of church and state" currently means almost exactly the opposite of what it originally meant.

Jefferson believed that the government was to be powerless to interfere with religious expressions for a very simple reason: he had long witnessed the unhealthy tendency of government to encroach upon the free exercise of religion.

Freedom of religious expression is per the Constitution of the United States an inalienable God-given right and therefore is protected from federal regulation or interference.

People refuse to study the constitution!!!
Or the Founding Fathers intentions!!!

Three things are required to destroy this Republic known as the United States

Destroy Nationalism, Destroy Patriotism, Remove God
from the public arena. All three are occurring at an alarming rate.

"Faith is believing something you know ain't true." - Mark Twain

"Of all religions the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men." - Voltaire

To further elaborate on a few great comments here. The "Separation of Church and State" was intended to NOT allow any religious sect dictate rule in this country, the way it was in England at the time. The Catholic Church set laws based on religious beliefs. THAT is what our founding fathers meant. Not that God must be removed from anything public. Every oath of public office refers to "so help me God". We place our hand on the bible when swearing in.

While I am not a religious zealot, I do feel that these people who argue this matter have nothing but time and money, and need a cause.

Our freedom of religion allows these people the right to NOT have a religion, but it should not deny those who choose to do so. No where does it require a non believer to believe or subscribe to a religion.

Funny... Christmas and Easter are religious holidays, yet the agnostics and atheists take those paid holidays. Shall we require them to work on those days?

@Jeff

Jeff could you please give us a modern example
of Christian Intolerence?

PS - ALL of our money says In God We Trust. I dont see these people not using money. They are hypocrites of their own cause.

@ Zapdog

To reiterate

Though Jefferson discussed it,it is not in the Constitution Of The United States .

It simply does not exist,and it never did.

What is disturbing is if the Uniontown legal dept
and its lawyers knew the constitution they
would know the Freedom of Religion group does not have a legal ground to stand on and would tell them so.

@Slovensko ~ Separation Of Church & State. . .



Perhaps some education you may not have gotten when you were in school.


When our forefathers came to this country to escape the religious persecution, it was not that they were the state being persecuted by the religious, but rather that they were the religious being persecuted by the state. Think on that for a while and ask yourself the question:

Why would a bunch of religious people who wanted the freedom to practice their faith come to this country to escape being persecuted and then place state limits upon themselves that hinder their same freedom?

And if our forefathers and framers of the Constitution wanted to silence and restrict the freedom of the people of faith and to hinder God within the Government, then why did the same framers of the Constitution include and mention God, and why did and still does our Government offer up prayer?

Why then did these same forefathers have the halls of Congress aliened with images of God and the Ten Commandments and so forth if it was their desire to keep the church out of the state?

If their TRUE intentions were to exclude God from Government then they would have done so during their founding of this country and not have INCLUDED Him!

NO! The concept of Separation of church and state was not to keep the church out of the state but rather to keep the state out of the church. There is a difference!

And BTW…why is it that government tells the church to take a hike on all other matters but come election time or when they want to pass a bill then they come and love all over the church? Just a little bit two faced would ya say?

THE PROBLEM TODAY IS THAT EVERYONE WANTS GOD TAKEN OUT OF EVERYTHING - I'M NOT OFFENDED! I SAY KEEP GOD IN EVERYTHING!!!!!

Chaos, I thought that was a very funny story. I actually LMAO! I'm not trying to defend anyone. I'm Switzerland, I stay neutral.

I would rather live my life as if there is a GOD, than to live my life as though there isn't and die to find out that there is. Chaos that was good !!!!

Where is Ben Stein, when you need him.

Those atheist things would not be here on this earth to complain if it weren't for GOD. People like that drive me crazy! I just don't understand where the heck they think they came from if there's no GOD?? There is a God. He is a very Powerful and Loving God. Thankfully for those unfortunate souls, He is also a forgiving God!

@DS - Actually, it is, but not in those exact words. The First Amendment states, and I quote word for word "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ."

The actual term "Separation of Church and State" was used by Jefferson (first used by English philosopher John Locke) while addresing the Danbury Baptists in an effort to explain the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

We have allowed the non religious to bend that amendment to fit their wishes, taking the entire amendment out of context.

Furthermore, an August 15, 1789 entry in Madison’s papers indicates he intended for the establishment clause to prevent the government imposition of religious beliefs on individuals. The entry says: “Mr. Madison said he apprehended the meaning of the words to be, that Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience...

Now, tell me what that has to do with the use of the "Separation..." phrase as it applies to this story??

Well in thinking the way that most of you do, it should be the belief of Gods (plural) among the school's values. If you teach one form of creation you must teach them all, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Pagan, Native American. By pushing Christianity onto people it is just about the same as living in a church state especially all this political hooting and hollering about their strong faith in god. But these politicans live horrible corrupt life that is really anything but christian. Christians are just as bad as Muslim extremists when it comes to intolerance and I know most of you would be outraged if the schools were teaching the other religions to your young and easily impressionable kids to have them come home believing a different religion.

God has no place in a classroom and I will stick to that. If you teach one, you must teach them all. But so many people believe the earth is less than 4,000 years old and throw science completely out of the window. If this country allows freedom of religion and the freedom to practice one's religion than who is to say that the Christian God is the one to be on our money and the one spearheading our politics. School is not a place to have raise your kids. Parents need to do that on their own as school is a place for learning your academic studies.

Oh, and Robert, Everything in our universe is composed of the same elements. The earth just didnt suddenly start out like this. The things that make up life here on earth were not formed here on this earth. They were brought here and optimized conditions allowed for these things to slowly evolve, the different forms of life created everything you see here. The grass, the water, the soil are all made up of organic objects that were once alive(and still are). We are no more special the other members of the great apes, we have no more right to this earth than they do. We are the same as the pets you keep in your home and the insects you swat in annoyance.

I am not saying there is no God, but who are we to have the audacity to think we can even comprehend what God remotely resembles. I think organized religion creates more problems than it helps. Who are you to think you know anything about a God in this infinate universe and who do you think you are to even imagine god made you any more special than the ground you walk on.

{The mission statement listing ''belief in God'' among its values.} The mission statement is NOT promoting one religion over another. That is why this should be allowed in the mission statement. The statement does not refer to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, or tree huggers as the source of the term 'God'. 'God' is referred to as the source of values that we all hold as the basic principles of life. (an example, the 10 Commandments). The statement is NOT promoting organized religion, nor promoting Christianity. Our founding fathers all used the BIBLE as a source of our laws. Atheists need to get a life. Or just maybe, they lack the direction since no 'higher power' is guiding them.

@IamCob - I dont believe that the school district has defined "which" god. I dont recall seeing any mention of a religious sect either. In generality, when "God" is used, it means which ever God YOU choose, if you choose. The district did not say we believe in the catholic, baptist, hindu, muslim, etc God. For some reason, you have deduced that it automatically refers to a Christian God. Maybe you are the one who brought in the out-of-state group to champion YOUR belief.

While "God" is not taught in our schools, evolution is, and yet it has NOT been 100% scientifically proven. It is still just a theory, yet you support that. See, in my sons textbook it is referred to as "The Theory of Evolution". Not a proven fact. A theory. It plainly states that it has never been a proven fact. What makes your belief in a theory any more plausible than someone else's?

@Zapdog

I am looking for the words Separation of church and state in that inclusion.

The clause you mention does not forbid the word God from being displayed in a government place or public place. It states that the GOVERNMENT shall make no law establishing a certain religion.

The inclusion was a reaction to the Church of England and their believe of being the "Official" church of England.

Zapdog, it may have been a while since you were in school but a theory is much much different than a Scientific Theory (which is what Evolution is). Evolution has scientific evidence backing it up and loads of it. If you even started looking into the scientific theory of evolution and could get over the fact that, yes, you are an ape, you would see all of the evidence. We already have proof that the world is 4.5 billion years old much much longer than the 4,000 years the Christian Bible speaks of. We see evolution on a daily basis. I really would suggest you reading Darwin's "The Origins of Species." I have read the bible and grew up very strong in my faith in a God until I stopped and looked around me. We don't have the ability to even begin to fathom what "God" may be or even think of us.

to iamcob: back to the very beginning, where did the very first speck of dirt come from?

If we evolved from apes why are there still apes?

I don't believe in Dinosaurs because they aren't in the Bible!

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The Liberal Loonies have selective reading syndrome. They STOP at the word "religion", ignore the comma and the words, "OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF;". They must not teach the meaning of those words in the colleges that they go to, and that is why they "overlook" them.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,ha!!!! Represent your master well my Liberal Loonies. You WILL have your reward!!!!

Bikergirl, the Bible does not state that there were no dinosaurs on the Earth before man. Try reading the first few words again. Discard what organized religion teaches. That is what really messes things up. What I have learned from science discredits organized religion, but enforces that there is a creator. The universe is too complex to have just "BANGED" into this complex universe. I truely think that man interjected some verses in the beginning based on the "science of that day" to explain between the lines. If you know what I mean.

@ iamcob

You are correct about organized religion.The Bible
itself warns the seven churches about such things.

....
A priest and a taxi driver both died and went to heaven. St. Peter was at the Pearly gates waiting for them.

"Come with me", said St. Peter to the taxi driver.

The taxi driver did as he was told and followed St. Peter to a mansion. It had anything you could imagine from a bowling alley to an Olympic size pool.

'Wow, thank you', said the taxi driver.

Next, St. Peter led the priest to a rugged old shack with a bunk bed and a little old television set.

"Wait, I think you are a little mixed up", said the priest.Shouldn't I be the one who gets the mansion?

After all I was a priest, went to church every day, and preached God's word.'

'Yes, that's true. But during your sermons people slept.

When the taxi driver drove, everyone prayed!'

It wouldn't have been "dirt" then at the moment of creation. Just because we don't have the exact answers of how everything was formed doesn't mean we don't have any answers. It is all physics and we learn more everyday. But I guess I could use your logic and say that it is possible these particles and energy have always existed. Not once did I say there is no God, but I am also not saying there is. Everything came from some sort of matter and antimatter and unstable conditions. There are many scientific theories about the creation of our universe. And all you have is a book written by people who heard stories that were passed down from generation to generation to generation before it was even put on paper that says the world was created in 7 days then god made man, then god made woman from man's ribs, then god flooded the earth and parted the red sea. If anyone claimed to have those religious experiences today they would be labled mentally unstable. What has changed? Who are we to write a book and call it the word of God. We still have a lot of learning to do but I think it just proves that the reality of the bible is completely bunk.

iamcob,

Most christians believe that man has been walking on this Earth for around 6000 years, not 4000 years. For crying out loud, if you are going to kew the truth of another persons' belief to belittle them. What is stopping you and others like you to skew the truth of your "findings" to make yours seem "better"?

DS, are you serious? Because we don't all follow the same evolutionary line. If your proposed statement had any merrit, well I guess wolves wouldn't be around today since the modern dog has been bred and evolved from the wolf, there would be no great apes, old world monkeys, or new world monkeys. Simains and Prosimians along with every other animal would be the same, there would be no diversity since life on this earth was started in primordial goo. We adapt to survive and it is not overnight at all. Archaeologists have found foot prints that show evidence of bipedal locomotion from before the first known homonoid relative. We got lucky, we adapted and evolved. We started walking upright freeing our hands to use tools more and walking longer distance. Through diet changes and learning how to use tools we created cultures and in turn created comprehensive reasoning. Like I said this was all over a long long period of time. The neanderthals and other homonoids inhabited this earth much longer than we have been here. We left africa and moved to what is now Europe and Asia furthering our distance from the other members of the great apes. No one follows the same evolutionary line, we don't know what will happen next but evolution never stops.

TheRealJoker, Okay so you are right, it's 6,000 not 4,000 years old but according to the bible Adam was created on the 6th day of God's creation week.. meaning that world is also 6,000 years old.

@iamcob

It was a Joke !!

I am done moving on....

@ DS - I totally agree with you. There is no mention to prohibit the word God. The athiests and agnostics have interpreted it that way. That is why I used the exact quote.

@IamCob - your "Scientific Theory" has still not been proven and fact. It is, and will always remain, a theory. An, as was asked by another post, If man evolved from ape, why do we still have apes? What great cosmic error made them unable to evolve? You opine that all others have is a book of stories from generation to generation. Yet, all you can reference is one persons (Darwin) book and his theory of creation.

Sadly, this argument will go one as long as man walks the earth, and just as sad, there will never be any hard evidence that proves or disproves one or the other.

BTW - here is the definition of Scientific Theory, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica:

A systematic ideational structure of broad scope, conceived by the human imagination, that encompasses a family of empirical (experiential) laws regarding regularities existing in objects and events, both observed and posited. A scientific theory is a structure suggested by these laws and is devised to explain them in a scientifically rational manner.

No where in that definition does it state that scientific theories are 100 accurate or factual, rather that they are from the human imagination and used in an attempt to explain.

You lose this one....

Maybe apes evolved from man...

I don't lose this one because at least we have evidence to back it up. You have a loosely translated book that really goes against everything we know is true these days. We know that the earth is older than 6,000 years. We know God didn't write the bible therefor it is the writings of simple minds trying to explain creation... compared to science with hard evidence supporting it. If anyone loses it's you because I never said scientific theories are 100% accurate. And a scientific theory is different than your average joe's theory. I referenced Darwin because he is the most widely known. Do you want me to talk about Charles Lyell, Malthus, Linnaeus and Mendel? Did you know there is less than a 1% difference between the human DNA code and a chimpanzee's. Do I really have to explain how evolution and genetics work. Have you ever taken even a basic class in biology. Do you want me to explain Mendel's Law of Segregation? What do you want to know? A lot of the medical science today would turn out to be complete bunk of evolution proved to be false. This isn't a competition but I know what it is like to have faith in a religion. I will say that there is no chance in hell any of these religions here on earth have the right answer and I am in no way saying there is no god.

Zapdog, I am not going to argue with someone on this subject who cannot even pass a simple biology class. Wow..

There is no winning or losing because I never said scientific theories are 100% accurate but they must have the strong evidence to support and back it for it to be accepted by the scientific community. All I am saying is that not one religion, aside from maybe Buddhism which is headed in the right direction because it is about the search for enlightenment, has the right answer about what "God" is. We don't have the capacity to begin to comprehend it. It will be an eternal search that we will probably never get the answer to as human beings on this earth.

Oh and Robert, I challenge you to a question. Who created God?

And DS, to answer the question for Jeff

One of the biggest right now is the Westboro Baptist church.. you can find them at www.godhatesfags.com.. sounds like a very tolerant bunch of christians. What about the many christians who don't believe a woman or Gay man can be a priest. Not everyone is like this there are many great christians out there but there are many who ruin it for the rest. Like the gangsters who wear a cross and rob, beat up, and even on occasions kill. Well God will understand, right? Things seem a little out of whack.

Chaos - Thanks for the laugh -
I still like the old saying - as long as there are tests there will be prayer in schools.

i would say TGIF but maybe i shouldn't- people may get offended.

Cob - there is no argument. You dont know what constitues a theory. You reference your obscure books, but to call Encylopedia Brittanica a loosely translated book shows YOUR ignorance. You do not have evidence that man cam from ape. IT DOES NOT EXIST!! Maybe apes were Gods mistake while making man, and that one DNA chain you speak of was his correction. Can you provide scientific proof that did not happen? nope... You can only theorize. Theories do not stand up in a court of law. Evidence does. No scientist can provide evidence that we are evolved apes, again its only theory.

You can also make personal attacks against me, as that seems your only way to defend your position. I am sorry that you cant understand the words used to define a scientific theory. I do agree with you, however, that as humans, we will never know th truth. Thats the great thing about being a human and not an ape... We can take whatever outlook we choose on this issue, but the fact remain there are no facts to prove or disprove either stance. Both side rely on theories.

@iamcob
Where did all these particles come from that slowly evolved and created dirt water etc. if there is no God who created them?

I simply can not believe the amount of people in here who do not comprehend the basic principles of biology. I mean, didn't any of you take science in school? Seriously?

I hate to break it to you people, but there is no 'god' or heaven waiting for you when you die. The Bible, and every other religious text was written FOR and BY man, to, in the end, CONTROL man.

Atheists argue and point out how silly you all are because deep within us all, we hope and pray (since showing you obvious factual evidence supporting evolution from a trillion sources) that you will one day come to your senses and realize how dangerously close we've come to having two of the worlds' largest religions cause world war 3.

Why do you think we don't want fanatics in the middle east to gain a nuclear weapon?? Because religion might convince them, (how stupid is that?) to actually use it to trigger Armageddon.

THAT'S why the atheists won't EVER give up. Because (and I'm near in tears over this) all we want is to not see our entire world get destroyed over something as real as Santa Claus.

So Firestone Park...

You do not believe in Santa Claus?

Dear God you ARE an athiest.

If there was no God ... People, atheists and agnostics, wouldn't feel so threatened by him!

Who created god?

The deists here have done a perfect job of equating deism with ignorance of science and logic. And that's a shame, because I know many deists who are trememdously intelligent persons. So maybe I'm just mistakenly confusing stupid hillbillies with deists. Now, if I were to say they are the same thing. I would be the one guilty of reflecting my own ignorance. So, I ask the deists to please establish an argument that doesn't paint yourself as ignorant, stupid or "southern". Thank you.

The Creation itself proves His existence. It is a much greater leap of faith to believe it all "just happened", than to believe that a Creator is responsible. The debate over evolution/creation will continue and this is not what this article is about.
An excerpt from the 1st Amendment;
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech.....
The Lake community has approved this mission statement and it is certainly covered by the 1st amendment, not only in the "religion" aspect but also as a freedom of speech issue. The community majority has expressed their belief in God and the free exercise of religion. That should be the end of it. There are those who want to exclude God from every aspect of life. That is their choice, exclude God from every aspect of thier lives. But don't demand a community remove from the mission statement of their schools a value they hold as key.
Removing God from public debate and public view is the goal and we see in our schools, prisons and streets the results of this. Teaching the simple values contained in the now vilified Ten Commandments, how can that hurt? Teaching kids to treat others and love others as they love themselves and wish to be treated, how can that harm anyone? It can't.
The idea that separation of Church & State was endorsed by the Founders is wrong and a scapegoat. Those wishing to remove God from any and every thing hope that eventually they will not have to answer to any higher authority than themselves. The laws of this nation were based upon the fundamentals of the Ten Commandments.
Liberty, freedom, the pursuit of happiness are all unalienable rights, granted by the Creator, not by man or government.
The mission statement of Lake Schools should in no way change, but reinforced and saluted. With this challenge, it should be engraved in the walls of the buildings.

I hope the Lake School Board won't fold on this and maintain the stand of the community they represent. Go to the next board meeting and show your support for the members and with firmness of purpose declare that this mission statement will stand. The Board needs to know where the people stand and that the firm conviction of the community is to support the current mission statement.

Never do anything to encourage the kids to stop believing in God.

This nation has.

you can argue all you want over the existence of God. But no Santa Claus? Thems fightin' words!

No other literary work has a history like The Bible: It was written (breathed) by God, through the Holy Spirits' indwelling in believing men who hailed from many Nations and centuries and has been preserved through thousands of years of persecution because it is Gods' love letter to ALL people for whom Jesus died.

http://www.epm.org/artman2/publish/creation_evolution/Ten_Major_Flaws_of_Evolution_-_Revised.shtml

If I convert to being a Muslim, and die as a martyr, I'll get 52 virgins! Why don't they list this as a value?