According to Yahoo News, a man was fired from his job at Home Depot for a pin which read “One nation under God, indivisible.”

A former cashier for The Home Depot who has been wearing a “One nation under God” button on his work apron for more than a year has been fired, he says because of the religious reference. The company claims that expressing such personal beliefs is simply not allowed.

So technically, he wasn’t supposed to have the pin anyways. Home Depot is a private entity and really can do whatever they want. Of course, the man is going to bring up a lawsuit saying this violates the First Amendment. From what I can see, this is a lost cause. If Home Depot doesn’t want religious beliefs shown, they have a right to not have them shown. I wouldn’t be allowed to wear a giant “God is for suckers.” pin on my uniform either.They even offered him an alternative button, but he refused because none of them mentioned God.

Fishel said Keezer was offered a company-approved pin that said, “United We Stand,” but he declined.

So they even offered the guy a chance to change and keep his job. The man mentions being punished for loving his country, wouldn’t United We Stand show patriotism for America? It makes sense for Home Depot to have such a policy. It helps to prevent issues between employees and even with customers.

But Keezer says, “It never crossed my mind to take off the button because I’m standing for something that’s bigger than I am. They kept telling me the severity of what you’re doing and I just let God be in control and went with His plan.”

Apparently God’s plan was for you to lose your job. Honestly don’t you think that such a loving and benevolent God like Yahweh would understand? It’s just a simple pin. This is not about infringement of free speech. This is about the decisions that a private corporation decides to make in order to maintain profitability. If you disagree with their practices, don’t shop or work there. It’s that easy. I hope this case is thrown out as it should be.

According to the NewZealand Herald,

The church of Scientology has been branded an “organised fraud” by a French court and fined 600,000 euros ($1.2m) for preying financially on vulnerable believers.

This seems like a victory to me. Scientology is a truly crazy cult and the article also mentions the fact that L. Ron Hubbard himself had been convicted of fraud. I am totally for freedom of religion, but the Scientologists went beyond that. They went after people and their money. Unfortunately, I do not think this type of prosecution is likely to occur in America anytime soon.

Surely the enlightened text which is derived straight from God would not condone slavery, right? I mean God loves us all and wouldn’t have some people as being less than equal. Unless you know the Bible was written by men with their own agendas. The Bible seems pretty okay with slavery and with treating these slaves like dirt. A good example would be Exodus 21:20-21:

“If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.

Maybe, this is just a rare example though.Not so much. This supposedly “good” book values the life of an animal over a slave.

Exodus 21:28 “If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible.” Exodus 21:32 “If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull must be stoned. (but not to death)”

Lord help you if you attempt to treat an Israelite as a slave.

Deuteronomy 24:7“If a man is caught kidnapping one of his brother Israelites and treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.”

That seems like a pretty clear passage about human equality. All of us aren’t in the eyes of God. You would think this kind and benevolent creator would care equally for everybody and not pick favorites. Although when you read the Bible literally and take it as His “word” that does not appear to be true. Don’t worry, this isn’t even confined to the Old Testament. We can find phrases about slavery in the New Testament as well:

1 Timothy 6:1″All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered.“

1 Peter 2:18 “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.”

Colossians 3:22 “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.”

That seems pretty clear to me that the Bible is completely okay with slaves. Some would probably argue that times have changed and this no longer applies. How does that work? The Bible is supposed to be the unchanging and unabridged words of God. How could they be wrong? Seeing something like this in the Bible should make anybody question the accuracy of the rest of it.

Today the blog turns a year old. I just renewed my domain, so yes there will be another year. When I started this blog, I had no idea anybody would end up reading it at all. At first, this was true. Some of you may remember the old site which had a dark greenish theme. Eventually I also ran out of time to maintain the site too. So it sat idle for 6 months. Recently I decided to give this another go and with the support of my friends on Twitter, Reddit, ThinkAtheist, AtheistNexus and other sites I have enjoyed some success. Thank you for visiting my blog, I look forward to another wonderful year of blogging. If you have any suggestions on improvements please post a comment below. Remember, there is never a bad day to be who you are. Why not pick today to declare your atheism?

In fact, Hell could actually be fun. I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy shooting the breeze with George Carlin? Although the menu is limited to dust… I am offended when people try to “save” me from going to Hell. It is simply insulting when they condemn me to something I have no belief in. It’s almost as if they are telling me how obvious it is and I am simply trying to avoid the awful truth. No. The Bible is pretty ambiguous on Hell anyway. The idea of it doesn’t even show up in Scripture until the New Testament.  And as Mark Twain said “How can it be heaven if it is crawling with Christians?”. Many of these people who go around trying to save atheists and the like are not people I would like to spend eternity with. I would rather be in the center of the Earth dining on dust with my fellow atheist/agnostic bretheren.