Saw this on the blog of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (you know, the people led by UCC pastor Barry Lynn who apparently have no problems with UCC pastor Jeremiah Wright essentially campaigning for UCC member Barack Obama from his UCC pulpit in violation of IRS regulations):
Paul Carpenter, a columnist for the Allentown Morning Call, reported recently that state Sen. Lisa Boscola of Northampton has indicated that she will invite an atheist to the Senate chambers. Boscola’s offer came in response to a Carpenter column in which he proposed that real diversity would mean including a non-religious speaker every now and then.
Carl Silverman of Pennsylvania Nonbelievers has sent Boscola a list of three non-theists in the state who are willing to come to Harrisburg and offer an invocation. Carpenter reports that Boscola’s office has the list and sent it to an aide to Sen. Terry Punt, who arranges invocations.
Wrote the blunt-spoken Carpenter, “This idea may distress the Senate’s more extreme Bible-thumpers, but history may be made soon – an atheist giving the invocation to open a legislative session in Pennsylvania.”
I can’t help but ask: what, exactly, is an atheist going to, you know, invoke?
March 20, 2008 at 4:39 pm
And to whom will he invoke it?
March 20, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Themselves?
March 20, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Perhaps he will invoke the spirit of emptiness, the great void, the sum total of all the wisdom of the believing atheists of all times. What else could he possibly offer?
March 22, 2008 at 8:57 am
Maybe an Atheist might say something like; “love your neighbor like you love your fairytale god.” An atheist might say; “Morality is something good that you do when you know that no one is watching, including a god.” An atheist might say, “Figure out what you need to do for your state, fellow man and country without asking for voices in your head.” An atheist might evoke the power of positive thinking instead of the powerless exercise of praying.”
March 22, 2008 at 10:29 am
Oh, eternal and unchanging scientific method, we praise thee! That is, inasmuch as it is possible to praise a mundane technique of inquiry, which we admit, isn’t very much.
Grantest thou that we might love our neighbor and serve the weak, despite the fact that two million years’ worth of cold, Darwinian processes have programmed us to do exactly the opposite.
Teachest thou us to rely not on stale tradition or divine writ, but on our own brilliance to know right from wrong – which, come to think of it, hasn’t worked out all that well, but what the heck.
And as we write appropriations bills and are tempted to give favors to our friends and enrich our own families at the expense of the Commonwealth, remindest thou us that we are accountable to no one but the voters, and that once we’re dead, they can’t touch us.
Um, thus endeth the invocation, and thou, O anthropomorphised science, knowest that something should probably go here, but we can’t say amen, so… that’s pretty much it.
March 22, 2008 at 10:35 am
Dastardly: In other words, an atheist would get up and scold, belittle, mock, and preen self-righteously. Yeah, I can see why they’d want someone to do that.
March 22, 2008 at 2:43 pm
*shrugs* I have a sister who’s an atheist (though she likes to call herself a secular humanist, she’s all big on human values like charity and volunteer work and whatnot). And I can hear her now saying that “invocation” has a different shade of meaning than prayer and that that is exactly why the opening speech is called an invocation instead of a prayer, so that it’s more neutral and inclusive. Unlike prayer, the word doesn’t have to mean calling up anything anthropomorphized. One thing I think they can invoke is our lawmakers’ responsibility towards themselves, our community, and our world.
March 22, 2008 at 3:37 pm
So David F. what is wrong with that. Christians have been doing that very thing for centuries. I’ll bet you have never been to the capitol to hear their “invocations.” I have, and the self serving, vicious babel that they spew in the name of Jesus is enough to make you (and me) sick.
I know the people that are on the list and I can assure you that the invocation they give, whatever it is, will ba far more uplifting than anything spewed in the name of Jesus.
March 23, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Sounds like Dastardly has been listening to the august Dr. Wright again! In 72 years of listening to invocations at a lot of public gatherings, I can’t recall a single vicious or self serving paen addressed to God, Allah, Buddha or any other deity [I confess that I could not follow the Shinto priest, so I don't know what he was invoking or to whom he addressed it.] Most are rather bland pleas for wisdom, for a peaceful and productive session and for a safe trip home. Deists, theists and antis all seem to have the same aspirations when the legislature meets. Let’s withhold judgement until an ox is gored.
I must also observe that Sen. Boscola is getting more attention than she deserves. There is a genre of spoiled children who do outrageous things just for attention. They are best ignored.