Please note: This festival usually has a local street preacher guest stop by and try to save our souls. He’s typically engaged in friendly conversation with us, and usually comes by in the early afternoon.

First I want to say that I think the Reason Rally was a smashing success. It was covered in every major news outlet, as well as hundreds of smaller outlets. I can say quite clearly that it succeeded in all of it’s goals.

On behalf of PA Nonbelievers, “Thank you!” to every single person who went. You helped all of us nonbelievers nationwide stand up in public and reach an official count of at least 25,000 attendees. This number is larger (by a factor of nearly 10!) than any other Atheist rally to date. To put this into perspective, this number is larger than Glenn Beck’s “Tea Party” rally. Some of the unofficial numbers have also indicated that the count could have been as high as 40,000!

Personally, I had a blast, and I hope you all did too. After the rally, I (and several other PAN members – Thank you to them too) went to the American Atheists national convention in Bethesda, MD. It was re-energizing, informative, helpful, and above all, fun!

Now comes the hard part – we all had fun, there’s no doubt about that – but we can’t stop there. There’s a lot more work to do. If you are local to PA Nonbelievers and can find ways to get active, donate or volunteer, we need to keep this up! This is an election year. With everything going on in PA, we can’t stand by and let theists inject religion into our secular government. There are a many issues coming up and lots of events. We need all hands on deck!

Please – Come to our meetings – Come to our booths. And if you can spare it, donate to this organization. We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and all donations are tax deductible as permitted by law. Keep an eye on our website (http://www.panonbelievers.org), and at the risk of overselling, don’t forget that donating is as easy as filling out the small donation form in the upper right of that page. Our meeting information is here: http://www.panonbelievers.org/about/

Brian Fields
President
PA Nonbelievers

The following press release has gone out from the Interfaith Coalition of Washington County:

The Interfaith Coalition of Washington County presents a “Non-Theist Dialogue- Conversations with Local Free-thinkers, Agnostics and Atheists” on April 11, 2012 at 7 p.m. This presentation will be held at the Hagerstown Church of the Brethren on the corner of Washington and Mulberry Streets. An overview of beliefs and definition of Nontheism, with members of the panel sharing how they became Nontheist and the major influences in their beliefs, will be followed by a Q&A time. Light refreshments will be served and a Goodwill Offerings accepted.

The Interfaith Coalition exists to bring people of different beliefs together to promote peace, respect and compassion in our local community. Through dialogue and public presence we welcome each person’s unique spiritual perspective, strive to learn more about each other and honor the diversity of our various traditions. The Coalition provides a monthly ‘Second Wednesday’ series from September through May.

In addition to this press release, I’d like to add that I am one of the three speakers invited, asked to speak from the perspective of an atheist. If you can make it, please do, I’d love to have the support!

Brian Fields
President
PA Nonbelievers

A few last minute things:

1. We have a few signs we will be holding with the organization’s logo on it. There’s a copy of the sign’s design below the fold, please, join us to show your support. We’ll be arranging volunteers with those signs to try and herd all of us into one area.
2. It may rain tomorrow. Please, bring a poncho to stay dry, and we’ve been asked that people favor the color red if at all possible. Umbrellas may block the view, so if you can avoid them, please do so.
3. If you haven’t already, please review the Reason Rally FAQ list online here: http://reasonrally.org/info/faq/

Ten members of PAN marched proudly in York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, marking the third year of PAN’s participation in such parades in Central PA.

We had a three-fold goal this year: first, to make a statement of solidarity with our Irish Atheist brothers and sisters in opposition with Ireland’s incredible blasphemy law; second, to emphasize the outrageousness of the PA legislature’s Year of the Bible resolution; third, to remind York residents (especially closeted atheists) that there are atheists in Central PA.

The upcoming April issue of PANViews discusses the Irish blasphemy law (and no, it is not a holdover from the Dark Ages.) PAN Board Member Carl Silverman found a great quote from the renowned Irish writer, George Bernard Shaw, about the Bible, that our members carried on a banner: No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says. He is always convinced that it says what he means. Let’s hope that some of the parade watchers took a minute to think about that.

We’re happy to report that the PAN marchers received only a few rude gestures and boos, while also garnering plenty of smiles and cheers.

photo credit: Carl Silverman

1. The bible is NOT holy or moral as promoted by the PA House of Representatives in the “Year of the Bible”.
2. The bible was used as an excuse for many very bad things – Including American slavery.

We would have hoped this message was clearer to observers. In any case, the point is currently moot. The billboard was destroyed by vandals overnight. Attached is an image, submitted by one of our members who discovered it, of the destruction.

The irony of course is in what they destroyed: they left the bible verse that supports slavery, one of many missed opportunities in the bible for the authors to actually say “Slavery is bad”. They removed the entire point of the billboard, the criticism, and left the actual ignorant and savage part.

Brian Fields
President, PA Nonbelievers

In January 2012, the PA State House of Representatives passed HR 535, declaring “The Year of the Bible“. We think this is an egregious breach of the wall of the separation between Church and State, and also think it necessary to show WHY it’s not just wrong on legal grounds. It’s wrong on moral grounds as well. You cannot claim the Bible to be a moral book without examining that morality. If you do so, then you are declaring even the most horrific parts of the Bible to be moral – And we think that needs to be addressed.

But wasn’t slavery in the Bible ethical?

Some people claim that slavery in the Bible was only for 6 or 7 years, or that slaves in the Bible were treated better than American slaves. See Deuteronomy 15:12-15 and Exodus 21:2-6 for the discussion of the releasing of slaves. Note that ALL passages regarding the releasing of slaves say “Hebrew” or “Israelites”. Slaves taken from other tribes were enslaved for life, and the fact is that slaves were chattel. More here on the treatment of slaves:

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_Bible

No matter how you try to justify slavery – It’s still wrong, even if it’s temporary or permanent, or in some cases, passing slaves down from parent to children. The idea that one human being can directly force another to do their bidding is simply wrong. This has been well established in our society. One would think that a God who supposedly has superior morals to our own would have directed his followers to establish rules against slavery and other actions that we consider immoral today. God doesn’t get a pass on immorality if one defines God as a perfect being. It’s one thing to argue that we are more advanced than the society we are referring to from the Bible – But the claim that the Bible is perfect morally means we must consider the ENTIRE Bible in that argument. If it doesn’t measure up to even today’s standards of morality, it can’t be considered a perfect yardstick of morality, and therefore the content of the book itself defeats the argument that the Bible is “holy”.

Isn’t the root of the Abolitionist movement based in the Bible?

In a word: No. Many good, moral people joined the abolitionist movement, mostly Christians. Of course, most of the population at the time in this country was Christian, and if you look hard enough you will realize that the movement was made up of good and decent people of all stripes. That does not mean that the movement was rooted in the Bible. The fact is that no verse in the Bible speaks out against slavery as an institution. To do that, people needed to use their own inborn ethical compass to reject slavery, then search the Bible for support for their own beliefs – As many Christians today do concerning things like homosexuality and other issues.

It’s quite clear that human morality is evolving – We are still trying to figure out what is right and what is wrong. If there were a perfect God to give us perfect morals, that might be a good thing – But reality simply doesn’t bear that scenario out.

Isn’t your billboard racist?

Only if you would claim that pointing out a cause of slavery is racist. In this country, slavery was primarily of a particular race. To ignore that history would be irresponsible. Additionally, the Bible (specifically the verse highlighted on the billboard) was used in this country in support of slavery in the south. This is the pernicious problem of dogma – Slavery in the Bible justified slavery in this country. To forget that history means giving us the opportunity to repeat it. So, what is racist here is not the billboard, but rather the practice of slavery that the billboard condemns.

What’s wrong with HR 535?

We’ve written about this before on our site. Our HR 535 archives are here. Also, the FFRF did a fairly in-depth legal analysis of the bill here. Quite simply, this resolution is a clear government endorsement (establishment) of religion, in violation of the first amendment to the US constitution. It was passed using a mechanism reserved for “non-controversial” resolutions, things like naming softball teams and bridges. Then, later it was discovered that most legislators hadn’t even read the bill.

If you are coming from the York area, reserve here:

http://reasonrally.dcrallybus.com/Trip/From/YorkPA

If you are coming from the Harrisburg area, reserve here:

http://reasonrally.dcrallybus.com/Trip/From/Harrisburg

If you are coming from the Lancaster area, reserve here:

http://reasonrally.dcrallybus.com/Trip/From/Lancaster

If you haven’t heard about the Reason Rally, I strongly recommend checking it out. Lots of great speakers, and the chance to stand together as secularists and make a statement as a community!

More info here: http://www.reasonrally.org

HARRISBURG, PA, March 1 — PA Nonbelievers, Central Pennsylvania’s largest organization of atheists, agnostics and freethinkers, will jointly sponsor with American Atheists a new billboard to be posted in Harrisburg, PA. The billboard will be located at 13th and Paxton Streets.

The “HR 535 – Year of the Bible Resolution” declared by the PA House of Representatives asked us to “study and apply the teachings of the holy scriptures”. After considering the bill, we thought it necessary to highlight one of those teachings and share it with the public in the form of this billboard. It will be posted starting around March 5th, and stay up throughout the month of March.

We hope people will read and understand biblical lessons like this one, and strive for a more reasonable system of ethics. Our country’s history is in fact built on the moral achievements of great men and women, religious and non-religious alike. We encourage the House of Representatives to remember that when they pass laws, they are passing laws for all Pennsylvanians, both Christian and non-Christian. We humbly suggest it could start by re-considering and ultimately rejecting HR 535, as proposed in a press conference on February 13th, 2012.

PA Nonbelievers, Inc. is a local partner with American Atheists, and affiliated with Atheist Alliance International and the Council for Secular Humanism. PA Nonbelievers holds regular meetings in York, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Chambersburg, Lebanon/Annville, and Lewisburg. Further information is available by clicking here or by calling (717) 467-1266.

The announcement from American Atheists is here: http://atheists.org/blog/2012/03/01/billboard_to_challenge_year_of_the_bible.