It doesn’t bother me, I always open them and leaf through the pages hoping a Good Samaritan left a $100 bill in there for me.
I was gonna joke about putting it between the mattress and the box springs, to stiffen the saggy hotel bed, but you trumped me!
OMG, could you imagine the outcry if an Islamic group wanted to put copies of the Koran in hotel rooms?
I’m pretty damn sure the outcry wouldn’t be coming from atheists.
This is getting worse than being a Catholic. Too many rules.
You need to burn the kindle.
At both ends?
I’ve seen bibles and Korans and The Book of Mormon, but in Sedona I found a copy of The Urantia Book in my hotel room.
ETA - None of them offended me, and I neither asked to have them removed nor did I accidentally read one and convert.
Here’s the Snopes page on this issue. Although it doesn’t include the most recent event earlier linked to, it covers pretty much the same ground regarding the efforts by FFRF in this area, as well as the over-reaction by the religionists.
I’ve never seen that; I would just close it up and put it away myself, and I’m Christian. Maybe the housekeeper did it on their own? Who knows.
Marriott hotels, which are owned by a Mormon family, also have the Book of Mormon in their hotel rooms. A while back, someone on a religious public access show in my area was making a big deal about the fact that he stayed at one and they offered pornography on the PPV network. :rolleyes: Don’t want it? Don’t order it.
I haven’t seen that either, but it would make sense, especially if it was in an area with a sizable Muslim population, who would presumably have Muslim guests, or if the hotel’s owners were Muslim. (From what I’ve seen, they’re probably more likely to be Hindu, although I once stayed at a place where the south-central Asian owner had rosary beads and was presumably praying the rosary in his first language.)
bolding mine,
This is interesting to me, I stayed in a motel once that was owned or operated by…a Hindu fellow?.. I’m not sure really, conversation never really went that far with him but there was this display set up in the lobby that I would (did) call grand when asking him what it was as I was checking in. He told me it was a religious shrine. Don’t know if he was pulling my leg or not. The room had a Gideon bible, a Book of Morman and a Koran, but no jewish religious writings that I ever found.
I don’t understand the fuss from either side, well maybe a little bit about the claim of constitutional violation, but it seems to me that that is a shallow and assholish claim.
As long as the facility is privately owned, they can do whatever they want regarding religious imagery. I might personally appreciate it as a work of art.
A Christian ministry in my old town, which also owned a TV station, purchased a defunct motel and turned it into “a place of refuge” but it was poorly maintained and usually had almost zero occupancy, unless the ministry was hosting an event. :dubious: I went in there once, to a rummage sale, and couldn’t get out of there fast enough because the place totally gave me the creeps.
I heard that a lot of its business came from the local domestic violence agency, which would house clients there, with a voucher, if the shelter was full, the abuser knew where it was, or they had a male client.
I look for the bible, say “Aha!” and feel like I’m in a real hotel room.
I feel cheated when there is no bible. But more cheated when there is no room service menu, guide to the hotel, or channel listing. Gosh, I hate that.
First, to the OP, I really don’t care, I probably won’t even notice it. I can’t say I even really open the nightstand drawer to begin with. Maybe sometimes because I’m curious as to if they still put them in there.
I could see them maybe getting removed, but there would have to be a lot more push than ‘some Atheist groups’. Major hotel chains would much rather lose a handful of fringe ‘Atheist groups’ than religious right that might not have anything better to do that week than die on that hill because they want to Make America Great Again or something. Double that if they tried (as a few people (sarcastically, I know) mentioned in this thread) getting it replaced with Atheist/Darwin/etc text.
Before we read too deep into this, we should all remember kanicbird’s Rule #1 of Atheism "- ignore your God your creator. "
Of course “athheism” is a religion when he defines it as ‘well, you’re still religious, you’re just in a rebellious phase right now’. But that’s like saying “John thinks he’s gay, but there’s no such thing as gay, there’s just straight people that think they’re gay”
Of course, and I’ve asked this before and never seem to get an answer, if you want to call it a religion or belief, that why don’t you respect it like one? Instead of trying to change my mind or insist that I’m wrong, just treat me like I’m a member of another faith/culture. It doesn’t even matter what I think (religion vs not a religion), I’m just asking that if you think it’s a religion, fine, then treat it like one. I’m guessing you don’t go around treating other religious people like that.
Meh… sounds like he was just a shill for the optometry industry. Reading pocket-sizes bibles is just like masturbating. If you do it enough you’ll go blind. 
This atheist has about ten version of the Bible in my bedroom at home and another ten books about the Bible, plus one Quran and one Book of Mormon. Finding just one lonely bible in a hotel room just makes me feel like they aren’t really trying.
How would you feel if a group was committed to leaving a copy of Mein Kampf in every hotel room? Would the hotel allow it?
How about if a group started leaving loose sheets of paper in hotel rooms saying “Uppity slaves should do as they are told, and homosexuals should be killed”? How about if they went upmarket and bound the sheets of paper nicely with a leather cover?
I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard of atheists caring one way or another about books in hotel rooms, but as a matter of hotel management policy the only reason the bible is seen as acceptable is through a combination of cultural familiarity and the fact that few people have actually read it. If it were something new, and the hotel owners assessed it on the merits of its incredibly bigoted and offensive content, there is no way they would ever allow it.
I just wish they’d leave larger and heavier ones that you could use to hold open those annoying spring-loaded hotel doors while you’re bringing in the bags.
Meh. I’ve stayed in hotel rooms that have Gideon Bibles, the teachings of Buddah, and the Book of Mormon. Similarly, they have a local phone book and Yellow Pages.
If I do not wish to look at any of the above, nobody is going to make me. They’re harmless, present or not.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…
So according to the above:
- you can’t make Christtianity the official religion of the USA :smack:
- anyone is free to be a Satanist :eek:
This is one of those things that some christians claim atheists are fighting for.
My “thing” is to find the bible, open it to a random page and point to a random line. I then read it aloud. I’ve done this dozens of times now and I’ve yet to have it be meaningful.
And yes, in a pinch you could use the paper to roll up a j, but I’d make an apple pipe first. Indeed, I have. Verily.
I have thought about, but not actually done, opening the bible to one of it’s more disturbing passages, (ones about being commanded to commit genocide, take slaves, commit rape, and so on), and leave it highlighted on the nightstand.
Or, maybe put in a nice bookmark with scripture from 1 Timothy 2:12 inscribed on it to mark the place.