Remember this. When American Atheists set up a monument at a Florida courthouse (it was part of an agreement that the court would permit many different flavors of ideas), Eric Hovind leapt on it to “proclaim the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord”.
What an ass.
And we atheists are supposed to be the intolerant ones? Right. Anyone want to take any bets on whether some of the local Christians aren’t planning to vandalize the monument at the first opportunity?
Typical religionist grandstanding. They have to shove their zombie god into everything, all the time.
You’ll note none of us barges in on their brainwashing woo-woo shows and demands they produce evidence for the existence of their death god.
Wait, what?
“According to the Associated Press, someone in a car also attempted to throw a toilet seat and a roll of toilet paper at the crowd, but missed”
I genuinely can’t get over how fucking disrespectful that is. I wouldn’t go clambering about on a religious monument during the dedication, no matter how much I disagreed with it.
He basically said “I’m going to use your tolerance to be intolerant back at you and it’s all your fault for having the audacity of exhibiting your existence?”
What an abject, shit-spewing, gag-inducing asshole.
But remember everyone! We are the militant ones! If only we accommodate really really hard then everything will be fine and we will all get along!
Even after dedication. You know what, as a quite strident atheist, I still visited a lot of historical churches. And when I enter a church, I remove my cap, not because I believe in anything of their nonsense, but because it’s their place, their rules, and you have to have respect for at least that.
Only, Eric doesn’t believe what the atheists have done with the monument is actual tolerance (never mind that’s a misapplication of the word.) He really believes it’s intolerance which spurred the atheists, so he’s having a little tit for tat tantrum, and he’s making a spectacle of it to the delight of his brain-dead cultists, and to the chagrin of people who invested their time and effort to feel represented within that community. Eric Hovind, I know you’re the type of self-obsessed shit that you will read this. Fuck you, man. What you did was hateful, spiteful, petty and mean. Motes and logs, asshole. Motes and logs.
Incompletely developed deuterostome
But, but, but… respect isn’t supposed to flow both ways because we are evidently inferior. If they feel like chiding us, we’re probably wrong. Or not explaining ourselves well enough. Because why else could they disagree with us? (Culturally reinforced prejudice? Oh, c’mon. No, no, no. Their dislike can be ‘rationally’ rationalized.)
/snark
(But I’m sensing a pattern that fits a lot of marginalizations.)
many years ago, I had a blog. In one comment thread, there was a discussion of the Golden Rule(s) (in all its permutations). A particularly obnoxious godbot showed up on that one to claim that persistent proselytizing was exactly what the Golden Rule mean. He knew that if he were an atheist, lost without gods, that he would want someone to lead him to the love of gods — doing unto others as he wants others to do unto him. He claimed to be an ex-atheist who was saved (yeah, never heard that one before).
Hovind, I think, actually believes that he is giving us (atheists) what we really want but are too afraid to admit — gods’ love. For him, nothing is too extreme, too rude, too annoying, too anything, if it exposes us to the one true gods of which we have never heard.
The Hovinds are so stupid that there is nothing we can say that will get through to them how stupid they are.
Yeah, Eric, we caught the “irony” about tolerance. Did you catch the irony about truth?
It was amazingly tolerant of the audience to not falcon-punch him off there—and they did tolerate his gooberishness. I have never disrespected a church or a person anywhere near the way Junior just did. There was some kid babbling about gay marriage and America yesterday, in public, being very intolerant, and I just let him rock. I guess I shoulda jumped up on him and preached. You. know, preaching in public like the Bible forbids.
(Honestly, I did once step up to a statue of Samuel Hahnemann, the homeopathy guy, and whack it over the head with my walking stick. Not during a ceremony, though, and mostly because it was bigger than so many other monuments in Washington D.C., and no damage to the statue. )
Eric stomped on everyone else’s rights.
I, for one, am tired of God-botherers trying to shove their god into the god-shaped hole in my heart without my consent.
Well, it’s just a monument, nothing holy about it. Isn’t it great that Eric uses it to provoke and demonstrate his arrogance? Isn’t it great that atheists can just shake their heads without feeling the urge to kill him for desecrating a symbol of some hateful supernatural maniac? I certainly don’t hope that some lunatics will vandalize the monument but if they do it will just expose their intolerance, not help their cause.
Hey, Eric! http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/03/19275007-homicide-convictions-upheld-for-wisconsin-parents-who-treated-dying-daughter-with-prayer?lite When the next little girl dies because of her parents religion, what is the appropriate thing to do at her funeral?
Yes, I know. You jump up and preach Christ. We keep our damned atheist mouths shut and our shame decently hidden until we agree with you.
Imagine if an atheist climbed onto a christian monument while it was being dedicated and screamed “god is a myth!”. The RWNJosphere would light up with seething outrage at the disrespect, and everybody from Fox News to Rush Limbaugh to Sara Palin would be screaming for the guy’s arrest. And they wouldn’t stop their screeching until it happened.
The hypocrisy of these people is so intense it hurts.
ERic is just getting free advertising for his buisness
@7 wins the thread. I am soooo stealing that….
@7 wins the thread. I am soooo stealing that….
Can I have the Band Name Rights?
If you look closely toward the end of the video, you can see another creationist stalwart, VenomFangX (Shawn Karon), doing his goofy snake-like grin as well.
Like breeds like.
It’s hardly amazing that they will act in this way given their proud lack of any ethical intelligence. They’ll just keep pushing until they hit a wall, then accuse the wall of wrongdoing.
@zenlike #5
Exactly. My mum, despite not being religious (and, I sometimes suspect, an Atheist, though we’ve never spoken about the subject really. She knows my views, and certainly has a few harsh things to say about sectarian violence, the Bible, and Fundementalism in general) loves going round churches, so on holiday I get dragged along. I have a hard time keeping my trap shut sometimes, but never the less I do. I do not have the right to stroll into their place and start rubbishing their beliefs with no provocation. Outside, it’s a free for all, but in the church I’ll show a modicum of respect. We have no “holy places” so the analogy is not exact, but he could at least have enough respect not to bugger up a dedication ceremony.
That someone would be our old pal and giant dumbass, Sye Ten Bruggencate
@Ogvorbis #9
There is a certain class of genuinely nice, very sincere believers who are possibly the worst sort to be preached at by. They genuinely believe the shit they spout, and they genuinely believe that converting you is for your own good. They’re trying to save you from Hell. They’re doing the wrong thing, but they’re doing it for all the right reasons. Sometimes, that makes it really hard to be angry at them. But normally, it makes it all the more annoying, because you know they’re being nice but find them annoying anyway. And then you feel guilty because they’re being an arsehole. Ugh.
In his own mind, Eric Hovind thinks he is a hero, facing down a “satanic” crowd out to destroy people like himself. If only he were self aware enough to realize what a cowardly bore he actually is.
Nothing new from Eric. Deliberately distorting and misusing scientific and philosophical foundations to spread nonsense.
I have seen Eric Hovind lead his students to this site in order to have them “teach” us about their ever loving god. No distorted science to be had because there was no science at all. And the only philosophy is the idea that a creator is needed in order for logical thought to be possible.
They were very noisy but yet extremely dull.
Oh, a grandstanding primate.
About as original as chest beating.
Glen Davidson
Eric jumped up there talking about tolerance, because he was forcing the people to tolerate his intolerance. He was exploiting their openness against them, treating it as a weakness, trying to scare them, shame them and make them less tolerant. Then, of course, he could abuse them for their lack of tolerance.
You know who else does that?
Terrorists.
Religious terrorists.
Eric travelled there to disrupt the lives of people not of his religion, to desecrate and dominate what he thought was a monument to their way of life, to show the world his religion, and to encourage the faithful by defeating the unbelievers. And, doubtless, to get points in Heaven.
—-
Eric, if you show up here, you need to explain how your little stunt was different from religious extremists flying an airplane into a building.
Yeah, nobody died, but the terrorist didn’t die—they were transported to paradise—and the unbelievers were all damned anyway, so the terrorists didn’t care any more than you cared about lives of the people you were terrorizing.
You weren’t preaching Christ, you were terrorizing people. People were looking up at the senseless destruction of their work, their lives and their ideals, by a religion that hates the freedoms of America. An American court had ruled in favor of Americans rights, Americans had worked for their share of America’s freedom, and you, Eric, went to trample on America in the name of your religion.
What a nice man this Eric Hovind seems to be. Are we taking bets on how soon this monument will be vandalised?
Call me a cynic, but I see it as a short lived publicity stunt that will, when vandalised, rather eloquently make our point rather well. I think this might be a subtle play by Mr Silverman.
Louis
I can stop this problem on the next one…
The next atheist monument should be a bouncy castle. He can jump on it all he likes, the only thing he will be getting out of that is FUN
Indeed: look up canalis neurentericus. Mwahah.
Whoa. Evidence?
I wonder if he has read too many martyr stories of 6th-to-8th-century missionaries being hacked to pieces by benighted heathens. Maybe he’s really disappointed that this hasn’t happened to him.
I love this plan!
David Marjanović, you might enjoy this short story by Mark Twain, The Story Of A Good Little Boy.
I read this in a high school English class over thirty years ago. I am trying to imagine this story being assigned in the US now.
Honestly, I don’t care if he sits on the monument, eats off it, has sex with his biblically-mandated 700 wives on it (but hopefully serially, an upside-down human pyramid of sexytimes sounds really dangerous). It’s not holy, it’s just a rock.
The obnoxious part is interrupting the doings of the people gathered for the dedication. That’s just boorish. Uncivilized. Grandstanding.
Wonderful. Maybe Hovind Jr. doesn’t believe he’s St. Boniface, maybe he believes he’s a good little boy…
It’s also, deliberately, a fully functional bench.
(out before “fully armed and operational” joke)
Nah, they should have pictures of Jesus inset into the top; not only would it stop the loonies from jumping on it or wrecking it, but also,since no Christian would sit on the big guy’s mugshot, atheists will be able to use the bench safe in the knowledge that the person sat next to them is probably not a threat.
I thought this article was actually pretty funny- the bench is reprehensible on purely aesthetic grounds.
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/7181/atheist_monument__proof_of_unintelligent_design/
@22 Thumper; Atheist mate
So you’re saying it’s ableism, where christianity is his disability?
I already predicted that. Mine was within a month.
1. I do hope they have video cameras pointed at the monument. The Youtube videos will be valuable in demonstrating the religion of peace and tolerance.
2. I do hope they kept the plans and have a replacement. Or replacements.
3. I will donate some money to have it fixed or replaced.
Atheist monument = some dollars.
Xians demonstrating their malevolence again = priceless.
Screw it…is there any way that we can make an internet meme out of this? Maybe photoshop Eric standing on various historical monuments and “using” them to preach?
Just to make some amusement out of this?
I really hate to be the militant one, but personally, I think someone should have kicked his legs out from underneath him.
*Flying leap* “Atheists suck!!!! ” ….. *bounce*bounce*bounce* “Wait, this is great!” *bounce*bounce*
Oh dear, is he still around? I thought his career ended when he got caught swindling money out of people under the pretext of donating it to a children’s hospital.
I’ll take that bet. Because if there are any Christians in town that are not planning to vandalize the monument at the nearest opportunity (or even that are planning to vandalize it at some future opportunity), then you lose.
As much as athiestically fly-kicking Hovind sounds cathartic it would have been great if there was a prearranged response: everyone just turns and walks away.
As long as people stand and watch he will believe that they are “souls to be saved” etc etc
What is it with the dead magic jew that the christians love so much? Dead people can’t love anything, they’re dead. Dead means deceased and non-existant, they’re here no longer, ashes to ashes dust to dust etc. It’s pretty obvious and it’s not rocket science. Shut up about the baby f*in jesus loving someone or something, it can’t happen, it’s a lie, a fraud. Clerics who tell people this are lying through their teeth and deep down they know it.
The thing about this that seems silly to me is that Eric can stand on that bench and scream, “Jesus is Lord!” or “I like cheese!” anytime he wants. He did it at that time because he could not stand someone else expressing themselves the way he can. He already has a monument to his beliefs there. His proclamation is not necessary. He wasn’t silenced before he acted like a brat and he isn’t now. He never will be and that’s great. He didn’t make the statement he thought he did. He can have a prayer or study the Bible on that bench. No one at all would stop him. He isn’t a marginalized minority desperate to call attention to his oppression. He’s in the majority and his views are front and center all too often. The only point he made was, “I’m a grand-standing bigot and I don’t like other people being able to express themselves! Everything is about meeee! Argle Bargle!” I’m only saying this because it takes one to know one, but he just came off as an asshole*. Maybe he’ll grow to be a better representative of his position, but for now, he’s just making AA’s point for them.
*I’m a recovering asshole. It’s a process. Thanks Horde for being encouraging without enabling me. I appreciate it bunches.
Nah, he oozed his way back onto YouTube after a short hiatus. His mommy and daddy found out what he was up and put a stop to it for a short time, but when last I heard he went off to some divinity school where he can spew his bullshit without his parents butting in.
It doesn’t surprise me that Shawn has taken to sleazing around with the Hovind clan. VFX used Kent’s material extensively.
This is a wrong response for multiple reasons.
You should seek help for your violent tendencies.
Koshka, you should seek help for your tendency to diagnose others.
Kicking Eric’s legs out from under him wouldn’t be much more than helping the guy trip. He jumps up, he goes down—gravity does the work. That wouldn’t be the good response to his shenanigan, but I figure if somebody breaks the rules, they can’t complain if somebody breaks the rules back at them.
Of course, Eric would complain, no matter what—he’s probably scoffing at the atheists who didn’t even have the courage to defend themselves—because he’s an asshole, and he is seeking to put others down.
You seeking to put someone else down for what they personally think isn’t a help. You diagnosing someone over the internet, from one sentence, is bizarre. If there’d been a long and gory rant, with teeth and globs and gobbets, yeah.
I’m not advocating violence, nor am I advocating labeling someone for expressing their opinion.
I dont get it. Christians are irrational about monuments etc, whereas we hold ourselves to a higher standard (nothing is sacred etc), but we should be offended that some christian stood on a lump of granite more than capable of supporting his weight?
Seriously, this is what we should be upset about? Are you freakin kidding me? Their shit is important to them, dont stand on it or theyll get offended. Personally I couldnt care less if this guy jumped on the new monument thingo….. do you really care?
It’s the right to assemble peaceably that’s at stake, Simon.
How is that hard to get?
Glen Davidson
I never said I would have done it. I’d just like to see it done, and no, I don’t care what he jumps on. Personally, I think it shows that he knows he’s starting to lose ground in the public square.
But, you are right Koshka, violence gets us nowhere. Though, after a while, one does get tired of hearing the same dribble from him, and, imagining what it would look like can be a good way to let off some of the steam.
Ahhhh, thankyou Glen, I completely misread the OP. Right you are.
Yes, he’s a nob for interrupting.
@30
http://www.alligator.org/news/local/article_f9a8713c-e2cf-11e2-b9d8-001a4bcf887a.html – Sye took a toilet seat and toilet paper along, and placed it on the monument declaring ‘now it’s complete’ (or words to that effect)
There are numerous photographs on Twitter of Sye with the seat.
Simon Scott #50
First of all, who’s that upset? : people are merely drawing attention to it.
And then, it’s one thing to make a demonstration, and quite another to try to hijack the whole event.
The appropriate epithets could start with discourteous and rise from there.
As others have pointed out, imagine if atheists or muslims tried to do anything like this at a christian event.
Arion,
I apologise for my overreaction to your comment.
That’s funny. Eric is usually so measured and sensible.
Excellent! I’ll put up 50 cents on the vandalization (not just the planning of it, although if it could have been certified, I’d have thrown $100 at that too).
I am completely confident of winning.
And 2 bucks on the grey dog to place.
Avicenna @29 my suggestion is to make the next monument sufficiently pointy so that no one can stand on it.
Is Sye Ten really his name?
If you Google “sye ten”, you get a bunch of listings, including a facebook link, that do make it sound like it might be his first and middle names. Or, he simply uses them on-line. I’m not clicking on any links to such an odious character.
@47: FWIW, rationalwiki.org has an article on VFX that outlines his career (though it leaves off with him being part of Jews For Jesus in NY. The Hovind/FL connection must be new.)
Well, ten Bruggencate looks like it might make sense as a Dutch surname, ten perhaps meaning “to the”, which would totally make sense *nodnod* in that some German noble families have surnames with “to” or even “to the” in them.
VenomToothieX is a convicted fraudster? I had no idea…
@63: Careful. “Convicted” implies a legal judgement, and I’m unaware that VFX has ever actually seen the inside of a court (yet — but keep up the good work, Shawn!).
It’s quite alright Koshka. I was attempting to be a smartarse, and wound up allowing the darker side of my humor to show through.
On the other hand, I will admit, it peeves me off a bit that he felt like he needed to hijack the event, it doesn’t irritate me nearly as much as the fact that he thinks a bunch of atheists, at an atheist event, want to hear that crap.
It’s just another example of the entitlement many christians feel. I’m sure he feels completely in his right to interrupt any sort of atheist event to bring the word of Jeebus. And in his eyes, if you object to him interrupting your event, you’re stomping on his religious freedom.
I guarantee you, this monument will be vandalized. I just hope they have security cameras trained on it.
Oh, he doesn’t.
He believes that the souls, the hearts, of those atheists want to hear that crap even though their brains don’t.
I think that’s exactly why it’s a solid block of granite.
(A rock that Eric Hovind promptly tried to build a church on, LOL.)
Hopefully, we are not dead yet. We don’t need any monument!
@60 Rey Fox
Explanation of dutch ‘tussenvoegelses’. Like prefixes to surnames
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_name#Tussenvoegsels
I’m not sure if capital letter is correct when the complete name is written.
No, it shouldn’t be a capital unless there is some other reason for it (e.g. at start of sentence or a surname-first use. For an example of correct use, see the Wikipedia article on van der Waals.
I’m a bit surprised people aren’t more familiar with Dutch names, though perhaps they aren’t as common as where I grew up in Canada. It also seems that lots of people of Dutch ancestry either drop the prefix or simply “integrate” it e.g. de Leeuw becomes Deleeuw
I sometimes think Holland became a very liberal country by sending the illiberal to other countries (e.g. Jim Keegstra, notable central Alberta holocaust denier, though he was actually born in Vulcan).
You know, speaking as a pacifist, just because it’s ethically wrong to, yanno, hurt people absent pressing need, doesn’t make it an unusual reaction.
Erk. To want to, I mean.