National Atheists Day
Although I had read online about the joke that 1 April is “National Atheists Day,” it was not until yesterday that I saw a bumpersticker with this message on a vehicle while driving around town. At the top it had the name of the day, then “April 1st” in large lettering, and then “Psalm 13:1 — The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God.” I fully support the constitutional right of citizens to express their opinions, including views directly antagonistic to mine. I wish to point out, however, that this message is the paragon of “preaching to the choir” as it says nothing more than, “We are smart. They are stupid.” Deprecation of the intelligence of unbelievers is a completely ineffective method of evangelization.
Purely linguistic considerations
- Why is the day national instead of international or even universal?
- Why is atheists plural? It's grammatically incorrect to use a plural in a compound noun.
- Why isn't it Atheism Day? I know of no actual observance that uses the term for the person rather than the idea.
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2 comments:
LOL...Is that all you could come up with? I bet you spent the whole day dissecting a bumper sticker!
Well, ok...I'll take a few minutes & entertain the occasion:
Why not national? Because all the other holidays in this country are either National or State holidays. I don't recall our government ever being able to dictate holidays for the rest of the world...have you? If you want to call it "World" or even "Universe", have at it!
Is atheists plural? Who cares? I would assume it's plural possessive. Punctuation marks are left out of many phrases like this. I did a quick check of Presidents Day and found "Presidents Day", "President's Day", and "Presidents' Day"...have yer pick!
(3) If you "know of no actual observance that uses the term for the person rather than the idea", you obviously missed "Mothers Day". I guess we SHOULD have been calling it "Motherhood Day" by your standards...right?
Oh well...if you're upset at being called a fool, you can be upset at God. As you noted, it's right there in His Word.
Here's another for you:
"The man without the Spirit (unsaved) does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." -- 1 Corinthians 2:14
Doesn't matter, really, whether you believe or not. It doesn't make God "go away". He's been here forever and He'll be here forever. You, on the other hand, will be leaving this planet for either a home in Heaven or to burn in an eternal fire in Hell. Your choice. And I do sincerely hope you make the right one.
The bumper sticker is a joke. But I'm sure whoever made the sticker sincerely cares for you...as I do.
My best, my friend!
To the previous anonymous:
I'd like you to note that the writer of the blog was undoubtedly referring to the existence of atheists outside the US.
As an atheist myself, I feel sorry for humanity whenever I see the "fool hath said" line. I feel sorry that so many people's belief was dictated to them by their parents, and that so many people tell themselves that their belief is correct because of some book, written 2000 years ago by anonymous authors and whose factual and historical accuracy cannot even be concretely proven, told them so.
Also, as a humanist too, I do believe that nobody can impose beliefs on another person. You can believe in whatever you want but I do sincerely hope for your sake and for humanity's sake that people start basing their beliefs on verifiable fact and not on faith.
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