Ellinais spokeswoman, Doretta Peppa told reporters that her Pagan group will hold a prayer protest on Sunday at the Parthenon. The prayer being done will be in worship to the Goddess Athena and to also protest the Christian destruction of the Acropolis grounds 1,500 years ago.

The group also, intends to ask Athena for help with the protection of Athen’s and the temple that use to belong to her that is known worldwide as the Parthenon. In the 5th century A.D the Parthenon was converted to a Christian church.

Ellinais has held several public ritual prayers at ancient Pagan landmarks, despite Italy’s Cultural Ministry banning the Pagan expressions.

“I don’t know how many of us will be there.” Peppa said, “People are afraid. The fact is that we are subject to religious persecution.”

Read more here.

Technorati Tags: athena, athens, doretta peppe, greek pagan, pagan news, parthenon

Before continuing with the What is…? series here at Simple Abnormality, I’m going to take a break to cover something that I find a bit disturbing. While doing my general net surfing I came across some remarks made by one of our Supreme Court Justices in an article from The Wall Street Journal. You can read that article here.

After reading the following: ‘Rulings that seek to totally separate religion and government, Scalia said, run counter to the Constitution’s meaning.’ The thought occurred to me that apparently we have yet another government official who is under the misguided notion that our country was built out of Christianity.

The Wall Street Journal article intrigued me, so I decided to find out a little more about Justice Scalia and what I found was an essay written by the man himself entitled God’s Justice and Ours. You can read his essay here.

In Scalia’s piece he states: ‘All this, as I say, is most un-European, and helps explain why our people are more inclined to understand, as St. Paul did, that government carries the sword as “the minister of God,” to “execute wrath” upon the evildoer.’

Justice Scalia’s personal religion does not bother me at all. What bothers me is that here is a man who sits as a judge on the highest court in our country who honestly does believe that the founders of our country were Christians. What’s even sadder to me is that he repeatedly points to having “In God We Trust” on our currency to align others with the thought of our nation being Christian. Does the man not know that from the time our Constitution was written “In God We Trust” was neither our national motto nor on our currency? “In God We Trust” showed up on currency during the American Civil War. Our country’s original national motto was E Pluribus Unum (From many come one), our national motto changed to “In God We Trust” on July 30th 1956.

From USA Today: ’Scalia emphasized his “originalist” view that the Constitution should be interpreted based on what those who wrote it wanted in the 18th Century, not based on the evolving needs of society.’ Read that article here.

So, honestly this man is committed to upholding what he considers a “dead document” and it’s great that he takes his position to interpret the Constitution seriously, I find that a great value in a Supreme Court Justice. What I do not find to be a great value is to misinterpret that document based on personal religious beliefs when it comes to the law of the land from a government that is supposed to be of the people and for the people.

Technorati Tags: justice scalia, laura jean karr, religion and government

Merlin Williams, a chief Bard for the Insular Order of Druids, who once had to fight to get his sword Taliesin back from the authorities, has decided to turn it back into the Portsmouth Police.

Merlin chose to turn the sword in after careful meditation on world peace and in light of the recent rash of stabbings in the area.

Standing outside the Portsmouth Central Police Station, Merlin stated: “I wanted to show that druids are peace-loving and although the sword was never used for violence, I thought handing it in to the police station where it was confiscated would be a good way of doing this.”

To read more on this story click here.

Technorati Tags: Druid, laura jean karr, merlin williams

Article Link: It’s Dangerous for Children To Know Atheism Exists, Says Illinois State Legislator-Friendly Atheist

Excerpt - Rep.Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!~Rep. Davis to Atheist Rob Sherman

Terry sent me the above link today and I thought it was an interesting article. Reading through it and listening to the audio, I have to admit that the shocking part to me was not that Rep. Davis became irate but that the shear number of people applauding her and the seemingly mass group energy of anger towards Rob Sherman was the most disturbing part.

I fully understand that there are many people in our country that still believe that American was founded as a Christian nation, which it was not and I understand the pervasive attitudes towards any one who is not of the Christian faith or even those who do not have a faith bubbling up to the surface and overriding the First Amendment. Those things I understand, sometimes I wish that I didn’t understand… but I do.

Technorati Tags: atheism, freindly atheist, Illinois, laura jean karr, Monquie Davis, Rob Sherman