independent atheist perspective
Panel at Comicon Discussed No-Laughing Matters
5/28/2017
By Eniko Nolan
At Comicon in Phoenix. AZ there was a panel Saturday night that had a discussion about some issues that are serious no-laughing matters. They were not dressed as superheroes. They are superheroes. They are the legislators, community leaders and educators that are standing up for science and representing the Secular Humanist community’s voice in our state congress.
The panel discussed how science and Secular Humanism -a naturalist worldview based on science- ought to play crucial roles in how decisions are made in our state legislature. They spoke about topics ranging from how our legislature reviews bills, to gender equality, to guns and the crazy person who came into this very Phoenix Comicon just two days ago with several guns and planned to harm police officers, but luckily was caught before he could do so. Security was heightened and people took more precautions after that, but fear didn’t stop anything and the show went on.
One of the panelists was Serah Blain, a Secular Humanist entrepreneur and a senior partner at a political consulting firm called Spectrum Experience. She is also starting an organization called Center for Humanist Policy, which aims to bring together a coalition of different communities whose political interests align around equality, justice and compassion, and to engage these groups in ways that allow their voices to be heard by legislators when making decisions about policy. Rounding out the panel were Katie Paetz, educator and president of the Osborn School Board, and Juan Mendez – state Senator, and Athena Salman- state Representative, both openly atheist congresspeople, in AZ! They consistently assert our equal rights to have a secular prayer platform prior to sessions .. if the Christians can do it, so can we. The religious Republicans get so enraged that we simply won’t allow the exclusive privilege they try to fenagle for themselves. It’s almost comical.
Thank you panel for braving the blinding AZ storms on all fronts, and keeping your senses of humor about it.
5/28/2017
By Eniko Nolan
At Comicon in Phoenix. AZ there was a panel Saturday night that had a discussion about some issues that are serious no-laughing matters. They were not dressed as superheroes. They are superheroes. They are the legislators, community leaders and educators that are standing up for science and representing the Secular Humanist community’s voice in our state congress.
The panel discussed how science and Secular Humanism -a naturalist worldview based on science- ought to play crucial roles in how decisions are made in our state legislature. They spoke about topics ranging from how our legislature reviews bills, to gender equality, to guns and the crazy person who came into this very Phoenix Comicon just two days ago with several guns and planned to harm police officers, but luckily was caught before he could do so. Security was heightened and people took more precautions after that, but fear didn’t stop anything and the show went on.
One of the panelists was Serah Blain, a Secular Humanist entrepreneur and a senior partner at a political consulting firm called Spectrum Experience. She is also starting an organization called Center for Humanist Policy, which aims to bring together a coalition of different communities whose political interests align around equality, justice and compassion, and to engage these groups in ways that allow their voices to be heard by legislators when making decisions about policy. Rounding out the panel were Katie Paetz, educator and president of the Osborn School Board, and Juan Mendez – state Senator, and Athena Salman- state Representative, both openly atheist congresspeople, in AZ! They consistently assert our equal rights to have a secular prayer platform prior to sessions .. if the Christians can do it, so can we. The religious Republicans get so enraged that we simply won’t allow the exclusive privilege they try to fenagle for themselves. It’s almost comical.
Thank you panel for braving the blinding AZ storms on all fronts, and keeping your senses of humor about it.
Atheists in Arizona: Baby Got Backbone
9/12/2016
by Eniko Nolan
In AZ on 8/30/2016 several freethinkers won local primaries!
Seriously, hallelujah. We need them desperately.
http://freethoughtequality.org/endorsements2016/arizona/
Anyone with the courage to run for public office in AZ as an open atheist deserves much respect. Thank you thank you thank you to these courageous candidates. It is a lion's den in there, scary even from afar. But we are here and must continue to not be afraid to make our presence known. I'm still a little afraid tho, I’ll be honest, I can't help it. Not because I have the fear of god in me, that’s one fear I feel safe in not having, but because I don’t put anything past god-fearing zealots who keep trying to insert laws based on their religious beliefs into my state government. But the point is to keep speaking and writing and fighting in the face of that fear. To not allow them to make me afraid enough to not write this. That would be dangerous ground. Fortunately, we live in a society where the freedom of speech is highly valued.
I wasn't afraid enough to not write an 'atheist prayer' after the Greece vs Galloway Supreme Court decision (which said prayers are allowed to be said before government sessions), to be read in our state congress. And I was most definitely angry enough to write it. Anger at injustice can and will and should help us overcome the fear. I disagreed with the verdict, but if Christian, Muslim or other prayers can be said, then Atheist prayers can also be said. Because I will not allow anyone to use my government to trumpet their personal belief system, while I must sit silently.
The 2014 court ruling made clear that no group could be excluded from taking a turn at saying the prayers if they wanted to, and Secular Humanism by law has equal standing to any religion. The constitution makes it clear that you cannot force me to proclaim your god. Sorry, not sorry. Inherent within the freedom of religion is freedom from religion, because you have to be free from one to conform to another, or to none. Pretty common sense. I wanted to make it clear that the invoking of a deity is not what constitutes a 'prayer'. It's an expression of whatever the speaker holds sacred. I hold the truthseeking of the scientific method to be sacred, and the evidence of the process of evolution to be sacred. These realities are just as sacred to me as your religion is to you. I have just as much right to make proclamations before a government session as you do.
And we did not relent when they attempted to shut us up and ‘disallow’ our prayer or make us 'redo' our prayer because it didn't meet THEIR standards for a prayer, a standard that wants to force us to invoke a supernatural deity that we don't believe in. No, I will not be intimidated into doing that. Just like Rep Juan Mendez was not intimidated when he read my atheist prayer aloud on the floor of the AZ State House of Representatives into the righteous sensitive ears of outraged Christian legislators. Because he has a backbone. The openly secular candidates running here have backbones. It takes guts to do that. Courage in the face of fear. He REPRESENTS us in there! He also just won his District 29 primary with a 75% landslide victory. Boom!
9/12/2016
by Eniko Nolan
In AZ on 8/30/2016 several freethinkers won local primaries!
Seriously, hallelujah. We need them desperately.
http://freethoughtequality.org/endorsements2016/arizona/
Anyone with the courage to run for public office in AZ as an open atheist deserves much respect. Thank you thank you thank you to these courageous candidates. It is a lion's den in there, scary even from afar. But we are here and must continue to not be afraid to make our presence known. I'm still a little afraid tho, I’ll be honest, I can't help it. Not because I have the fear of god in me, that’s one fear I feel safe in not having, but because I don’t put anything past god-fearing zealots who keep trying to insert laws based on their religious beliefs into my state government. But the point is to keep speaking and writing and fighting in the face of that fear. To not allow them to make me afraid enough to not write this. That would be dangerous ground. Fortunately, we live in a society where the freedom of speech is highly valued.
I wasn't afraid enough to not write an 'atheist prayer' after the Greece vs Galloway Supreme Court decision (which said prayers are allowed to be said before government sessions), to be read in our state congress. And I was most definitely angry enough to write it. Anger at injustice can and will and should help us overcome the fear. I disagreed with the verdict, but if Christian, Muslim or other prayers can be said, then Atheist prayers can also be said. Because I will not allow anyone to use my government to trumpet their personal belief system, while I must sit silently.
The 2014 court ruling made clear that no group could be excluded from taking a turn at saying the prayers if they wanted to, and Secular Humanism by law has equal standing to any religion. The constitution makes it clear that you cannot force me to proclaim your god. Sorry, not sorry. Inherent within the freedom of religion is freedom from religion, because you have to be free from one to conform to another, or to none. Pretty common sense. I wanted to make it clear that the invoking of a deity is not what constitutes a 'prayer'. It's an expression of whatever the speaker holds sacred. I hold the truthseeking of the scientific method to be sacred, and the evidence of the process of evolution to be sacred. These realities are just as sacred to me as your religion is to you. I have just as much right to make proclamations before a government session as you do.
And we did not relent when they attempted to shut us up and ‘disallow’ our prayer or make us 'redo' our prayer because it didn't meet THEIR standards for a prayer, a standard that wants to force us to invoke a supernatural deity that we don't believe in. No, I will not be intimidated into doing that. Just like Rep Juan Mendez was not intimidated when he read my atheist prayer aloud on the floor of the AZ State House of Representatives into the righteous sensitive ears of outraged Christian legislators. Because he has a backbone. The openly secular candidates running here have backbones. It takes guts to do that. Courage in the face of fear. He REPRESENTS us in there! He also just won his District 29 primary with a 75% landslide victory. Boom!
Solidarity gathering in Arizona
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Tomorrow Sat 9/10/2016 there will be a Phoenix Solidarity Gathering against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The gathering will be happening at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza Park from 11am to 2pm.
Facebook Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/293192487714480/ We want to show that we stand with those attempting to prevent another oil pipeline being built near a water source and on Native American treaty land. Here in our own state we have been fighting a similar fight about Oak Flat, also Native American land being exploited by a multinational corporation for profit, threatening habitat and water sources. |
