In 1964 Life magazine referred to her as "the most hated woman in America."
- atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Moar:
http://videosift.com/video/Godless-in-America For over three decades, Madalyn Murray O'Hair and members of her family labored on behalf of the cause of Atheism and the separation of government and religion. As Madalyn Murray, she was a plaintiff in the historic MURRAY v. CURLETT case which helped to end coercive prayer and Bible verse recitation in the public schools of America. She founded a series of organizations including American Atheists, wrote books, articles, and pamphlets, lectured at major colleges and forums throughout the country, and appeared in the media as an impassioned advocate for Atheism and the First Amendment.
Even today, more than three decades after the famous U.S. Supreme Court case that transformed her into "the most hated woman in America," Madalyn Murray O'Hair remains badly misunderstood by many people, including her ideological allies. Some have distorted her role in the battle to remove coercive religious practices from the nation's public schools, maintaining that "this would have taken place even if Madalyn Murray hadn't been around." Others inaccurately claim that MURRAY v. CURLETT was a legal curiosity, a suit of minimal consequences. They instead point to other First Amendment litigation as significant milestones in the history of the state-church conflict in America. This belies both the facts and the significance of the MURRAY v. CURLETT case.
While nearly 10% of Americans -- some 26,000,000 people -- describes themselves as Atheists, agnostics, freethinkers or some similar appellation, we are very much a divided, even marginalized collection. "Organized atheism" remains a painfully small movement, one still deeply divided over those perennial questions such as how we should structure ourselves, even what we should call ourselves. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, though, as Madalyn Murray was first articulating her sense of Atheism and the separation of church and state -- and laying the groundwork for the Baltimore prayer suit -- she found an "atheist" movement poorly organized, divided, in shambles and often led by "old white men" more rooted in the past than in the challenges of the present or a vision for the future.
Murray, then, had to fight to be heard as both an Atheist and a woman. Even today, that is no small achievement. Four decades ago, the idea of an Atheist -- and an Atheist woman, to boot! -- daring to speak out and challenge the cultural assumptions of the mid-twentieth century was simply unheard of. In 1964 Life magazine referred to her as "the most hated woman in America."
http://www.atheists.org
25 Comments
jan*quality
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gwiz665*doublepromote
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JiggaJonsonSo THAT'S why all the moon men are Christians now?
Somethin new every day.
schlubFrom wikipedia:
>>The police concluded that Waters and his accomplices had kidnapped all three O'Hairs, forced them to withdraw the missing funds, gone on several huge shopping sprees with the O'Hairs' money and credit cards, and then murdered all three people.
>>In January 2001, Waters informed the police that the O'Hairs were buried on a Texas ranch, and he subsequently led them to the bodies. When the police excavated there, they discovered that the O'Hairs' bodies had been cut into dozens of pieces with a saw.
Yikes!
DerHasisttotThanks, @jan and @gwiz665 !
Her death was effed up.
And the police, as always, eager to serve everyone equally. <-- Sarcasm
citomy cousin got tired of her and made chop suey out of her as I recall... waters the man who killed her is a 3rd cousin of mine
lol
MaxWilderRemind me again of how Christians feel so persecuted these days? Just insane.
xxovercastxxhttp://videosift.com/video/Godless-in-America
quantumushroomwiki:
Ultimately, a murder investigation focused on David Roland Waters, who had worked as a typesetter for American Atheists. Not only did Waters have previous convictions for violent crimes, there were several suspicious burglaries during his tenure, and he pleaded guilty earlier in 1995 to stealing $54,000 from American Atheists.[21] In the wake of the disappearance, Madalyn Murray O'Hair's estranged son William Murray publicly stated that his mother had a tendency to hire violent atheist criminals because "She got a sense of power out of having men in her employ who had taken human life." [22]
PROTIP: don't hire violent atheist criminals because they give you a sense of power out of having men in your employ who have taken human life.
SDGundamXPope Paul VI, the pope at the time of the moon landings, had a lot of things to say about the event--pretty much all of them positive judging from this article. I can't find any record of him demanding missionaries be sent into space to convert other life forms. Anyone have a source?
In fact, the only thing about space missionaries I could find was this opinion article... which turns out to be a heavily slanted gross exaggeration of this actual news story which itself is clearly a humorous take on the subject and certainly not any sort of "announcement" from the Vatican.
I didn't know of this woman before this vid. I'm very grateful to her for helping getting prayer out of schools. I'm sickened by the way she died. But I get the feeling from this vid and the other one @xxovercastxx posted that she was hated as much for her extremely confrontational attitude as for her atheism. She's like a forerunner of Hitchens.
turboj0esays...I.... hate... her.
LawdeedawHuh? I don't really question authority that EXISTS, rather the one that probably doesn't...
MilkmanDansays...Hmm. I didn't really like her statements in the first portion of the video at all, but the rest were great.
I don't think that incorporating the questioning of "every kind of authority" into the definition of atheism really makes sense. Very frequently atheists will be skeptical of everything (including "authority"), and that contributes to their decision to describe themselves as an atheist, yet it isn't a necessary or sufficient condition.
Similarly her phrasing about questioning the "ultimate authority: God" was perhaps suitable for the time period, but seems somewhat weak now. Similar to @Lawdeedaw, I wouldn't say that I question God's authority; rather I did at one time question and eventually rejected the idea that any god or gods exist to exert authority over anything.
Morganth*controversy
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kceaton1Her definition of "atheist" was very liberal to say the least. This is coming from an atheist. She had a much broader view and ideal in thought and mind when she talked with that word. The word she wanted started with "anti" and ended with "ism" or "ist".
rottenseedI like her...
newtboyI love this woman....
She may be a little confrontational and even prone to exageration, but compared to the group(s) she's opposing, she's a timid saint with a golden tounge of truth.
Thank you, Ms. O'Hair, for saving me from forced indoctrination into the NAMBLA like group that is 'Christianity'.
Please note...if you believe that any of the old testament has priority over the new, or in dislikeing others because they are different from you or your beliefs, you are a Jew and not a Christian. Christ told you to love others because of their differences, not hate them.
bcglorfsays...>> ^SDGundamX:
Pope Paul VI, the pope at the time of the moon landings, had a lot of things to say about the event--pretty much all of them positive judging from this article. I can't find any record of him demanding missionaries be sent into space to convert other life forms. Anyone have a source?
In fact, the only thing about space missionaries I could find was this opinion article... which turns out to be a heavily slanted gross exaggeration of this actual news story which itself is clearly a humorous take on the subject and certainly not any sort of "announcement" from the Vatican.
I didn't know of this woman before this vid. I'm very grateful to her for helping getting prayer out of schools. I'm sickened by the way she died. But I get the feeling from this vid and the other one @xxovercastxx posted that she was hated as much for her extremely confrontational attitude as for her atheism. She's like a forerunner of Hitchens.
Maybe my opinion of Hitchens is inflated, but all I know about this woman is what she says in this video. Compared to Hitchens she(like most of us, no slight intended to her) is left looking like an incoherently rambling little child with a speech impediment.
blankfistShe sounds like an anarchist. No gods, no masters.
Opus_Moderandisays...I can remember having a "moment of silent prayer" every morning in grade school (and not really understanding what it meant) and then this woman came along and said we shouldn't be praying in school. And I remember thinking "What a bitch. Who is she to tell everyone else what to do?". Little did I know, I would grow up agreeing with her.
critical_dJesus Christ (pun intended)...why is it that "non-believers" (yes i know this is stereotypical) are characterized like this lady and "believers" are evil because they support the priests who fuck kids?
What is wrong with critical thinking AND recognizing that there is a higher power????
critical_dagreed.
>> ^blankfist:
She sounds like an anarchist. No gods, no masters.
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