Register of Atheists...

[DanaC]

Before anybody gets upset I am not posting this as an example of Christian thought. I realise more Christians are reasonable people than are not. But still, this really got my goat :p

Pastor Mike Stahl of the Living Water internet church has called in his blog for a register of admitted atheists.....kind of like the sex offender registers.

It's caused something of a stir (unsurprisingly) and his blog has now been changed to private access only.

Fortunately (?) one blogger cut and past large chunks of the original, so we can get a flavour of it.

First the news blog that alerted me to this story:

Sure, he's an angry, mentally-challenged American nobody, but Florida "pastor" Michael Stahl triggered a whirlwind of controversy after he compared atheists and free-thinkers to child rapists and terrorists, and suggested that America institute a national registry for atheists. This registry, which he referred to in his original blog essay as "The Christian National Registry of Atheists", would make public all the registrants' personal information.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/pu.../2011/sep/04/1

So I followed the links and got to this blog:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatch...-for-atheists/

Which includes transcripts of parts of the original blog post:

Brothers and Sisters , I have been seriously considering forming a ( Christian ) grassroots type of organization to be named “The Christian National Registry of Atheists” or something similar . I mean , think about it . There are already National Registrys for convicted sex offenders , ex-convicts , terrorist cells , hate groups like the KKK , skinheads , radical Islamists , etc..

This type of “National Registry” would merely be for information purposes . To inform the public of KNOWN ( i.e., self-admitted) atheists . For example , let’s say you live in Colorado Springs , Colorado , you could simply scroll down ( from the I-Net site /Blog ) I would have , to the State of Colorado , and then when you see “Colorado Springs” , you will see the names of all the self-admitted atheist(s) who live there ( e.g., if an atheist’s name happened to be “Phil Small” ) . The individual’s physical address , and other known personal information would NOT be disclosed ( though , perhaps a photo could be ).

Now , many (especially the atheists ) , may ask “Why do this , what’s the purpose ?” Duhhh , Mr. Atheist , for the same purpose many States put the names and photos of convicted sex offenders and other ex-felons on the I-Net – to INFORM the public ! I mean , in the City of Miramar , Florida , where I live , the population is approx. 109,000 . My family and I would sure like to know how many of those 109,000 are ADMITTED atheists ! Perhaps we may actually know some . In which case we could begin to witness to them and warn them of the dangers of atheism . Or perhaps they are radical atheists , whose hearts are as hard as Pharaoh’s , in that case , if they are business owners , we would encourage all our Christian friends , as well as the various churches and their congregations NOT to patronize them as we would only be “feeding” Satan .

Frankly , I don’t see why anyone would oppose this idea – including the atheists themselves ( unless of course , they’re actually ashamed of their atheist religion , and would prefer to stay in the ‘closet.’ ).