The good people of Elyria, Ohio are in an uproar with the appearance of a school poster featuring a “Gay Jesus.” The poster was the work of a student atheist group at Lorain County Community College and the students are now facing allegations of violating school prohibitions of insulting a religious faith.
I can actually claim the distinction of visiting Elyria repeatedly as lead counsel in the espionage case of Petty Office Danny King, who returned to Elyria after we won the case. Nice town. Nice people. But it appears that this poster has caused something of an uproar over freedom of speech versus respect for the religion of others.
The poster was made as part of Club Awareness Week, along with many other displays advertising student-run extracurricular organizations. If they weren’t before, people are certainly aware of the atheist club now. Activists for Atheism at LCCC have been swamped with complaints and notified that the poster violates a rather sweeping school policy: “Harassing any person(s) verbally, in writing, by graphic illustration, or physically, including any abuse, defamatory comments, signs or signals intended to mock or ridicule race, religion, age, sex, color, disability, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin” is not allowed.
That is a remarkably broad prohibition, particularly in an academic setting where students are supposed to engage in free and passionate debates.
The poster is referencing a passage of the so-called Secret Gospel of Mark — found inscribed in a letter by Greek historian Clement of Alexandria. One section suggests that after Jesus resurrected a man from the dead, he had an intimate relationship with him.
The controversial passages falls between verses 34 and 35 of Mark 10:
And they come into Bethany. And a certain woman whose brother had died was there. And, coming, she prostrated herself before Jesus and says to him, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me.’ But the disciples rebuked her. And Jesus, being angered, went off with her into the garden where the tomb was, and straightway a great cry was heard from the tomb. And going near Jesus rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb. And straightway, going in where the youth was, he stretched forth his hand and raised him, seizing his hand. But the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him. And going out of the tomb they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days Jesus told him what to do and in the evening the youth comes to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God. And thence, arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan.
It is viewed as entirely false and outrageous by many Christians. In the meantime, the school will have to decide whether such debates are part of the academic experience or should be banned as offensive to religious sensibilities. I tend to favor free speech and leave the merits to such debates to the students and faculty to hash out.
For the full story, click here.
Mornin’, JT
I have determined that CroMagnon is the former ‘Bartlebee’
newly returned to, once again, commandeer and disrupt your Blog.
Your call, as always! However, I have a request.
Should he continues to post here, he is not permitted to pervert, or otherwise copy any portion of my writings except in their entirety and then only for purposes of discussion on the blog.
I insist his remarks be written underneath mine, clearly separated, with mine enclosed in quotations.
Whatever this nonsense is, it’s not called debating.
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Atheism
(AY-thee-iz-uhm) Denial that there is a God. 1
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Copyright © 2002
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atheism
noun [U]
the belief that God does not exist
Cambridge Dictionary of American English © Cambridge University Press 2008.
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Atheism
A”the*ism (#), n. [Cf. F. athéisme. See Atheist.]
1. The disbelief or denial of the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being
Webster’s Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition
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atheism
noun
Absence of belief in the existence of God or deity, gods.
Disbelief in the existence of God or deity, gods.
Etymology: athéisme, from athée “atheist” < (polytonic, ) (atheós) “godless” < (polytonic, á-) a-Prefix_5, (a-) “without”, + (theos) “deity, god”.
AllWords Dictionary.Com\Wiktionary.org
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atheism
A’THEISM, n. The disbelief of the existence of a God, or Supreme intelligent Being
Webster’s Dictionary , 1828 edition
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Atheism
1. The disbelief or denial of the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1912 edition
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atheism [‘ei?iiz?m] noun
the belief that there is no God
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary, © 2000-2006
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atheism
noun
1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God
WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
——
atheism
(´th-z´´m) (KEY) , denial of the existence of God or gods and of any supernatural existence, to be distinguished from agnosticism, which holds that the existence cannot be proved.
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07
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ATHEISM (from Gr. a-, privative, and O€6, God), literally a system of belief which denies the existence of God.
Encyclopedia Britannica
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a-the-ism
Pronunciation e thi ih zEm
Definition 1. the belief that there is no God.
Wordsmyth.com ©2002 Wordsmyth
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atheism
the absolute denial of the existence of God or any other gods. — atheist, n.
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc
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atheism
n atheism [ˈeiθiizəm]
the belief that there is no God.
Password English Learner’s Dictionary © 1986-2008
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a·the·ism (th-zm)
n.
1.
a. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
b. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000
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atheism [aith-ee-iz-zum]
Noun
the belief that there is no God [Greek a- without + theos god]
Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006
TYPO CORRECTION:
That was supposed to read, “it began around the 5th Century”.
I’m in the next thread. Already posted for you.
And as I said Josh, we are not talking here about your imaginary history.
We are talking about recorded history.
As for the Dictionary defintion, one of the ones I produced dates back to the 15th century, and as for you telling me about the origins of A-THEISM, something I’ve had to explain to you here, is laughable.
We know when A-THEISM began. It began around the 15th century. Whether or not some individual personally denied the existence of a god has nothing to do with A-THEISM.
A-THEISM is a DOCTRINE.
Let’s move to the very next thread.
The one on the “LIVING GODESSS”.
See you there.
I’ll move on to whatever thread you like.
History does no such thing a show us when atheism emerged. It may show when it became prominent in history, but most assuredly not its creation. I’ve never read anything that said, “and atheism was created in the year…” Nor have you.
If you would like to continue can we move to the next thread? This one is bogging down.
Josh
1, August 27, 2008 at 1:30 am
It is not impossible or even implausible that people considered a god and subsequently decided there was no god. It may not be likely, but you must admit it could have happened.
I must admit no such thing.
It is entirely implausible, and impossible.
If no one had ever defined a god, then there would be no concept of a god, for the people to deny.
😐
Duh…
The dictionary definition describes an idea that existed before the dictionary was created sir.
History shows us when A-THEISM first emerged as a Belief System in our world.
It does not show us your fairy tale.
It shows us facts. Read about Diagoras. Read about Hinduism.
They will help you to understand the ridiculousness, of what you just tried to sell here tonite.
It is not impossible or even implausible that people considered a god and subsequently decided there was no god. It may not be likely, but you must admit it could have happened. An honest person must also admit that evidence for this would be unlikely to exist today and almost impossible to find or prove at any rate. There, an honest person must admit that they do not know.
See, we are not talking about fairy tales.
We are talking about A-THEISM.
So you are now, not arguing with me, but like your fellow A-THEISTS and or A-THEIST Apologists, you are arguing with the Dictionary, and Recorded History.
What you are trying to pass now, would not pass on a paper on ancient religion, or its relationship, to A-THEISM.
Because you are not defining A-THEISM with your scenario. You are INVENTING a defintion for it, that is not only ludicrious (the notion of creating a belief system to denies a belief system no one believes in), but not plausible.
Josh
1, August 27, 2008 at 1:20 am
Of course they’re impossible to prove, that’s the point. If you can’t disprove them then you are as good as admitting that you don’t know. So then stop pretending you do
Lol, no Josh, I know you are inventing a childs argument to sell your untenable position that dismisses thousands of years of recorded history in place of your own little fairy tale.
See, in school, you’ll learn that A-THEISM, first showed itself as a DOCTRINE of BELIEF, around 2500 years ago.
In school, you will NOT learn your little implausible, impossible fairy tale.
So while you may think you’re being smart, you’re really denying education, historical records, and fact.
Oh, wait, there isn’t one, because nobody knows. You are phoning it in now CroMM. It could have happened your way and it could have happened mine. Of course you can not prove it no matter how many books you read. You are making stuff up sir.
Ok then, what book contains the evidence for a group believing in god before a group disbelieved in god?
Josh
1, August 27, 2008 at 1:18 am
Ugg, stop assuming I don’t care about the evidence. I do. But in this case, the only evidence that would be conclusive is unavailable. And, you know better.
No you don’t care about the evidence. You have proven that.
See Josh, we have schools, universites, professors, like Professor Turely for example.
They use things called books, and facts, and historical data.
Not imaginary scenarios that children dream up that cannot possibly be examined or tested in any way.
No one in the history of mankind, has yet to produce a meter, or machine capable of telling us what someone is thinking in a narrative manner.
Therefore, your scenario, like most childrens scenarios, presents the impossible demand that someone produce evidence to prove what some imaginary character you have invented, may have possibly been thinking thousands of years ago, without even identifying the indvidual or records associated with him.
That’s what kiddies do Josh.
Not scholars and not adults.
Of course they’re impossible to prove, that’s the point. If you can’t disprove them then you are as good as admitting that you don’t know. So then stop pretending you do.
It is downright intellectual dishonesty to say that religious texts are older therefore it came first. It is not conclusive evidence and you know it.
Josh
1, August 27, 2008 at 1:13 am
So, I can still propose a plausib;e scenario by which even more people disbelieved god first. The number is irrelevant. I dunno, make it a thousand people. You still can’t prove otherwise.
First, your scenario is many things.
Plausible, is not among them.
Second, you now have created a thousand imaginary characters, who somehow managed to disbelieve in something, as a group, that NO ONE EVER PROFESSED.
😐
Third, your childs argument, of inventing ridiculous scenario’s that are impossible to prove one way or the other, is a sure token of the THEIST and the A-THEIST fanatic, who does not ascribe to science as he claims, but the realm of the fairy tale.
Ugg, stop assuming I don’t care about the evidence. I do. But in this case, the only evidence that would be conclusive is unavailable. And, you know better.