# Religious Nutjob Nomination Thread....
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [October 12, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995 "2003-10-12T15:12:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/1 "2003-10-12T15:12:46Z")
Is it a leap year?
Full Moon?
Election year?
Gas Leak?
Holes in the Ozone?
Tainted Water?
Y2K craziness all over again?
These religious wacko’s are just crawling out of the woodwork lately.
To start this off, I humbly bring your attention to:
[Pastor Jeffery Smith](http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/template/Article.html/id/17097)
> [@](#):
>
> Jeff Smith, 43-year-old pastor of Young Memorial Baptist Church, is on a 400-mile journey – by horse – in an effort to encourage debate over Darwin’s evolutionary theories and academic freedom in U.S. classrooms.
>
> According to an article in the AgapePress, in Concord, Smith embarked on his “Creation Quest Journey for Academic Freedom,” a three-week, 400-mile horseback ride that he hopes will encourage people nationwide to reconsider the prevalence of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in modern science education.
>
> Smith believes creationism should be taught alongside the theory of evolution. “I’m not saying they should kick evolution out,” Smith said in the article. **"What they need to do is teach the scientific facts. If they do that, evolution will fall by the wayside."**
>
> The pastor-activist says the public schools’ exclusion of creationism from America’s science classrooms is a form of discrimination. He said public education in America is ruled by “a philosophy that presupposes that there is no God, and we need to change that.”
>
> Throughout his journey, Smith is stopping at churches and preaching his Creation Quest message. He will conclude his journey in Washington, D.C.
Bolding mine.
I would like to nominate this for the \*\*2003 Lebon Award ™ . \*\*
Lebon Award would be \*\*Nobel \*\* backwards. Nobel awards are for people(s) advancing the human race, **Lebon Awards** are for those who are trying to desperately set humanity back through their uneducated, poorly -if-at all- researched diatribe, fear and ignorance mongerers and general hatred towards humankind.
Please submit your found entries and catagory they should be entered in.
---
### Author:  [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/2 "2003-10-12T15:19:56Z")
Where to begin?
Pat.
Jerry
Jack.
Fred.
---
### Author:  [@Gadfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadfly)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/3 "2003-10-12T15:28:37Z")
And Biblical Stupidity week comes to a close, with a nice little fizzle.
:wally
---
### Author:  [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/4 "2003-10-12T16:15:24Z")
My goodness.
I think I spend a lot of my time refusing to believe that there are such people.
I like the **Lebon** … sort of in opposition to the Darwins. Which, in this case, he must be.
---
### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/5 "2003-10-12T17:07:11Z")
Here are some of my nominations for the first week of October:
[Rob Sherman](http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/localnews/current/wh/10-09-03-126614.html)
> [@](#):
>
> A Buffalo Grove atheist is threatening to file a federal lawsuit against Wheeling Elementary School District 21 if the district doesn’t remove a song from an upcoming choir program.
>
> Rob Sherman contends the song “Hashivenu” – one of four songs picked to be sung at a Riley Elementary School choir program later this month – offends his 10-year-old daughter’s atheistic beliefs. Sherman’s daughter, Dawn, participates in the extracurricular choir.
>
> […snip]
>
> “It’s asking God to do something, and it’s not for the Cubs to win,” Sherman said. “It’s asking to cause me to believe you are God.”
>
> […snip…]
>
> Sherman is also calling for the removal from the program of an African-American spiritual song containing references to the Lord. Sherman said the song is also offensive to his and his daughter’s beliefs.
[Alan Millar](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3525893&thesection=news&thesubsection=general)
> [@](#):
>
> The debate over the cross on the Palmerston North Square clock tower could be heading to the Human Rights Commission.
>
> City employment relations consultant Alan Millar might complain to the commission because he believes the Palmerston North City Council is discriminating against him and other atheists by keeping the cross on the tower.
>
> […snip…]
>
> Mr Millar says the council should uphold everyone’s beliefs, not just councillors’ philosophies.
>
> “When an authority discriminates against any religious belief, that takes away people’s freedoms,” Mr Millar said.
[Dr. Robert Spitzer](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/12/wgay12.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/10/12/ixworld.html)
> [@](#):
>
> “My conclusion is that the door is open,” Dr Spitzer said. “I came to this study as a sceptic - I believed that a homosexual, whether born or made, was a homosexual and that to consider their orientation a matter of choice was wrong. But the fact is that if I found even one person who could change, the door is open, and a change in sexual orientation is possible.”
>
> Dr Spitzer has said repeatedly that as an “atheist Jew” his only interest in the issue is scientific truth, adding that an orthodoxy which forbids acknowledgement of the possibility of change is as flawed as that which labels homosexuality an act of will and morally wrong.
>
> But gay rights groups insist that Spitzer is a “cultural conservative” who is supporting “therapies” for changing behaviour which are doing psychological damage to troubled homosexuals.
>
> According to Joan Garry, the executive director of Glaad, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation: "No research nor findings should have any bearing on whether people - gay, lesbian, bisexual or straight - are treated fairly.
>
> Spitzer’s conclusions are based on a self-selected sample of people who are so troubled by their sexual orientation that they will go to any lengths to try to ‘change’ it."
[Daniel Dennett](http://www.crosswalk.com/news/weblogs/mohler/?adate=9/29/2003#1222302)
> [@](#):
>
> Daniel Dennett claims that atheism is getting a bad press. The world is filled with religious believers, he acknowledges, but a growing number of atheists lack the respect they deserve. It’s time for a new public relations strategy for the godless, Dennett argues, and he has just the plan.
>
> The central point of Dennett’s strategy is to get rid of the word “atheist.” It’s too, well, negative. After all, it identifies an individual by what he or she does not believe–in this case the individual does not believe in God. A more positive approach would be helpful to advance the atheist anti-supernatural agenda.
>
> Dennett, joined by Richard Dawkins, thinks he has found the perfect plan.
>
> […snip…]
>
> As Richard Dawkins explains, “A triumph of consciousness-raising has been the homosexual hijacking of the word ‘gay’… Gay is succinct, uplifting, positive: an ‘up’ word, where homosexual is a down word and queer [and] faggot . . . are insults. Those of us who subscribe to no religion; those of us who rejoice in the real and scorn the false comfort of the unreal, we need a word of our own, a word like ‘gay’.”
>
> The word chosen to be the atheists’ version of ‘gay’ is bright. That’s right, they want unbelievers to call themselves brights.
>
> […snip…]
>
> Brights are all around us, Dennett claims. Brights are “doctors, nurses, police officers, schoolteachers, crossing guards and men and women serving in the military. We are your sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters. Our colleges and universities teem with brights. Among scientists, we are a commanding majority.”
[Will Osuna](http://www.dailycal.org/article.asp?id=13062)
> [@](#):
>
> A former UC Berkeley employee plans to sue the university to recover his job, alleging pressure to participate in religious rituals on the job made him so uncomfortable that he quit.
>
> Will Osuna, a former UC Berkeley assistant director of a math and science recruitment program aimed at American Indian students, has already filed a grievance against UC, claiming his bosses pressured him to participate in “fundamentally Christian” opening ceremonies.
>
> During the opening ceremonies of statewide Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement meetings, attendees held rituals that often included burning sage, reciting blessings and speeches about “Jesus Christ” and “the Almighty Father,” Osuna said.
>
> Osuna, who is an atheist, declined to participate.
>
> But Osuna said his bosses pressured him into participating out of respect for the various tribes attending the events.
>
> In one instance, in July 2002, when Osuna refused to attend a ritual at a summer camp where he was working, he was told to pick up trash while the students participated in prayers, he said.
>
> The constant criticism for not wanting to participate stressed him out, and made his job unbearable, Osuna said. In October 2002 he resigned.
And finally, [Claude Vorilhon](http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-raelleader07.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Constantly surrounded by bodyguards, Claude Vorilhon is convinced he’s the target of numerous assassination plots.
>
> The prophet known to his followers as Rael wants his disciples to share his paranoia that George Bush and Jacques Chirac themselves want his skin.
>
> […snip…]
>
> Vorilhon is a former race car driver and journalist who created the Raelian Movement, which he calls “an atheistic religion,” in 1973. He says he was visited by aliens in France who told him they were the “Elohim” mentioned in the Bible and had created the human race through cloning. Today his movement boasts 55,000 members in 84 countries.
>
> Vorilhon claims the secret service of France and the CIA have been trying to eliminate him because he’s dangerous. The name of their secret extermination operation: the Abraham Project.
>
> According to his theory, the mentally ill would be used as agents to assassinate him and carry out other crimes. Schizophrenics would obey voices emitted by audio systems secretly installed in their homes.
>
> […snip…]
>
> The former journalist goes as far as citing an alleged directive of President Bush: “I want the skin of this Rael who preaches atheism at all costs.”
---
### Author:  [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/6 "2003-10-12T17:17:19Z")
With the exception of Rael, who I don’t think **anyone** would deny is a nutjob, the other ones seen to lack one specific requirement for this award - they’re not religious. I won’t deny some of them are, well, “special”, but notwithstanding your attempts at balance, I’m not sure if they really fit in here.
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### Author:  [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/7 "2003-10-12T17:19:01Z")
I wonder how long **libertarian** has been waiting to type that up 🙂
As for Will Osuna, I hardly think being discriminated against at work qualifies one for a Lebon.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/8 "2003-10-12T17:21:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by LaurAnge \*
> \*\*With the exception of Rael, who I don’t think **anyone** would deny is a nutjob, the other ones seen to lack one specific requirement for this award - they’re not religious. I won’t deny some of them are, well, “special”, but notwithstanding your attempts at balance, I’m not sure if they really fit in here. \*\*
Okay, sorry. Are you saying that this thread is exclusively for bashing people based on their religion?
---
### Author:  [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/9 "2003-10-12T17:33:30Z")
**Libertarian**
To hijack, (perhaps we should start another thread), but what is wrong with Daniel Dennet? I read his stuff and Richard Dawkins’s stuff on the whole “bright” thing. It seems as though atheists do have quite the image problem in the US today. From a [Slate](http://www.slate.com/id/2089641/) article:
> [@](#):
>
> When they asked people if they would be less likely to vote for someone because of religion, the big losers were not Jews or Catholics. Rather, the groups with the most political baggage were atheists, evangelicals, and Muslims. (Interestingly, many even atheists didn’t like the idea of voting for an atheist.) We have become a much more tolerant country, but that doesn’t mean we don’t hold religious biases.
From the actual Pew Religious Forum [survey](http://pewforum.org/docs/index.php?DocID=26)
> [@](#):
>
> Nearly four-in-ten (38%) say they would not vote for a well-qualified Muslim for president, and 15% express concern about voting for a well-qualified evangelical Christian. Far fewer say they would not vote for a Jewish (10%) or Catholic (8%) candidate. But fully half say they would not vote for a well-qualified atheist.
If the whole “bright” thing can change this even to a small extent, I’m all in favor. I don’t think Daniel Dennet is out of line or a “nutjob” for wanting to do a little image adjustment. The US was founded on a freedom of religion – and part of that has always been taken as a freedom from religion.
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/10 "2003-10-12T17:37:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Libertarian \*
> \*\*Okay, sorry. Are you saying that this thread is exclusively for bashing people based on their religion? \*\*
It didn’t look like that to me.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/11 "2003-10-12T17:44:18Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Kinthalis \*
> \*\*I wonder how long **libertarian** has been waiting to type that up 🙂
>
> As for Will Osuna, I hardly think being discriminated against at work qualifies one for a Lebon. \*\*
He wasn’t discriminated against. He was asked to do the same thing everyone else was asked to do: show respect for the various American Indian cultures, in which religious faith is deeply rooted.
As for the others, Sherman is paranoid about age-old folk songs and African American music that mentions God, as though the mere mention of the concept “God” is prohibited. Plus, he thinks that someone who sings “Hashivenu” believes she is God.
Millar is trying to summon the authorities to impose discrimination against a religious belief while at the same time saying that authorities ought not to discriminate against religious beliefs.
Spitzer is cooking data, and advocating a position that could hurt the progress of gay and lesbian people in society who are just beginning to get a taste of acceptance.
I included Dennet because of his flippant and stupid remark about gays “hijacking” a word. Seldom is the term “hijack” (or any term based on a criminal act) not pejorative.
I think they all qualify for Lebons, so long as we are not discriminating on the basis of religion.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/12 "2003-10-12T17:47:20Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Lobsang \*
> \*\*It didn’t look like [this thread is exclusively for bashing people based on their religion] to me. \*\*
Then why did you say this?
> [@](#):
>
> …the other ones seen to lack one **specific requirement** for this award - they’re not **religious**.
Emphasis mine.
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/13 "2003-10-12T17:50:01Z")
oh.
nitpick: I didn’t say it. Someone else did.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/14 "2003-10-12T17:55:12Z")
You’re right, Lobsang. I apologize. But obviously, it looks that way to some people. (Including me.)
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/15 "2003-10-12T17:58:50Z")
No need to apologi **s** e.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/16 "2003-10-12T18:04:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by edwino \*
> \*\*If the whole “bright” thing can change this even to a small extent, I’m all in favor. \*\*
I have no problem with atheists trying to find a label that will help them project a more favorable image to the rest of the world. But somehow I doubt this is it. By calling themselves “brights,” they are implicitly saying all religious believers are “not-bright.” Which to me sounds like a very not-bright PR move on the part of atheists.
Putting aside the question of whether atheists actually are smarter than their theistic counterparts, it’s generally a bad idea from a PR point of view to insult those among whom you’re trying to soften your image.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/17 "2003-10-12T18:12:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Lobsang \*
> No need to apologi **s** e.
[Huh?](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=apologize) 😕
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/18 "2003-10-12T18:14:14Z")
It’s the British spelling. It’s in that dictionary too (with a shorter explanation)
I wasn’t _correcting_ you, I was being an annoying Brit.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/19 "2003-10-12T18:16:26Z")
D’oh! Sorry. I am unfortunately supremely ignorant about British culture, even though I love the British royalty. One example: I was recently corrected in a GQ thread when I mistakenly assumed that a Duke could give orders to an Earl.
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### Author:  [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-nutjob-nomination-thread/206995/20 "2003-10-12T18:22:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by Dewey Cheatem Undhow_
> By calling themselves “brights,” they are implicitly saying all religious believers are “not-bright.”
Not if you read the Dawkins [article.](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.10/view.html?pg=2) He says:
> [@](#):
>
> We brights are not claiming to be bright (meaning clever, intelligent), any more than gays claim to be gay (meaning joyful, carefree).
Nobody claims that straight people are more glum or less joyful than gays. Bright is just a term, used as a means of identification, that he hopes makes it easier for one to identify with a group. Pride follows identification, as he says happened in the gay community. He hopes that a similar PR move will follow for the bright community.
Ya know, “bright” wouldn’t have been _my_ first choice. I think it opens the door for a bunch of easy criticism and is based on Dennet’s (and others’) preconception of those who hold naturalistic beliefs. But it does make sense. For starters, much like the word gay, the word “bright” is linguistically redundant – “bright” can easily be replaced by “smart” or “sharp” or “strong” (when referring to light), like the word “gay.” Second, it is sufficiently ambiguous to be defended against most criticsm – they can say that they just were intending to portray naturalism as shedding a “bright light” on the world or whatever. Or that “bright” has no connection with intelligence. Lastly, it has no inherent derogatory overtones – it is sort of a blank slate of a word.
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