Florida court sets atheist holy day

[Tinker Boyd]

Edited to add: Someone sent this to me but I think it is a joke and not real: anyone know?

In Florida, an atheist created a case against Easter and Passover
Holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case
against Christians and Jews and observances of their holy days. The
argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized
days.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the
passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel
declaring,"Case dismissed!"

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your
honor, How can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have
Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and
Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such
holidays..."

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do. Your
client, counsel, is woefully ignorant."

The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special
observance or holiday for atheists."

The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day.
Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.'
Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that, if your client says
there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day.

[David Graham]

I think that in my country the Magistrate in question would find himself embroiled in a media storm for blatently attacking Athiests as fools. A court of appeals might also be able to overturn his ruling because of the perceived Judao-Christian bias of his ruling..... quoting the scripture the way he did.

I think that the judge was FOOLISH to act the way he did!

In my country our secular holidays include: "AUSTRALIA DAY".... 26th January; "ANZAC Day" ..... 25th April; "The QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY"..... early June (it varies from year to year), and "SHOW DAY"........ a day to enable local people to attend a local exhibition of their community's produce and industry...... ours, I believe, is in February.

APRIL FOOL'S Day is not a public holiday in my country, and these days, it is hardly remembered at all.

Edited to add:
I apologise for the "tone" of my response Tinker. I came accross this when I fist logged on to Naznet at the Community forum and didn't see that it was in this "fun" forum........ and so in the spirit in which you have offered this I can see the funny side of it. However, I never feel comfortable with any group of people being put down because of their beliefs...... even Athiests.

Peace,
Dave

[Tinker Boyd]

Edited to add:
I apologise for the "tone" of my response Tinker. I came accross this when I fist logged on to Naznet at the Community forum and didn't see that it was in this "fun" forum........ and so in the spirit in which you have offered this I can see the funny side of it. However, I never feel comfortable with any group of people being put down because of their beliefs...... even Athiests.

Peace,
Dave

David, I shouldn't have put it in the good clean fun section. I would like to know if it is real or not.

Edited to add: I admit I did find it both humorous and sad. My first response was to think we should be praying not laughing. It makes me all the more curious to know if it is real or not.

[Glenda Harvey]

I think this was on the ArcaMax Jokes that I get on line so I am pretty sure it is not serious.

[Joanne Vergin]

False.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/atheist.asp

[Gina Stevenson]

Tho't I'd seen it as a joke somewhere before. Also, they probably picked Florida, [sadly] denoting that as the place where a "fool" is most apt to be found, after the trouble with ballots/hanging chads several years ago. Some jokes ... dunno ..................