It’s National What Day?

April 1, 2008 By Guest Contributor 39 Comments

How do you reply to the %$&#holes who say this:

It’s April 1st.

Happy National Atheist’s Day!

Get it?

Get it…?!

*Hemant raises his fist*

No, wait. Violence won’t do it.

A snarky response might.

I just can’t think of one.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

Filed Under: General 39 Comments
  • http://t3knomanser.livejournal.com t3knomanser

    You know how common wisdom says that the actual day of Christ’s birth isn’t really on Christmas? Even though no one can actually agree on a date for that, we actually do have some more research about events that happened later in his life.

    Easter is not the right day to celebrate the resurrection, today is.

    (Too subtle?)

  • Joseph R.

    This, coming from the banana guy? It doesn’t get much more foolish than “proof in bananas.”

  • http://hoverFrog.wordpress.com hoverFrog

    All Fools Day is a traditional day where the gullible and foolish are exposed for what they are. I think we should adopt the day and make it our own and make it our mission to expose foolish beliefs.

  • http://darwinsdagger.blogspot.com Darwin’s Dagger

    It’s an excellent day to say: God exists. Really, he does. Oh, and the Earth is only about 6,000 years old. But it may be that I think that only because a Tiktaalik ate my clock.

  • http://www.cognitivedissident.org cognitive dissident

    Every time we hear that “fool” quote (“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”) from Psalms 14:1, we can respond with this:

    “But whomsoever shall say ‘Thou fool’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” (Matthew 5:22)

  • http://bruisescolours.wordpress.com BC

    The first commenter over on Comforts site seems to have come up with the prefect response.

  • Christophe Thill

    For atheists, April Fool jokes last for one day only. But for the religious, they last much, much longer.

  • http://www.youtube.com/morsec0de MorseCode

    We’ve renamed today “National Creationist Day”. No need to do anything special, if you’re a creationist. Just doing what they do is celebration enough.

  • Pingback: What a fool I’ve been to dismiss god « Bruises Colours

  • Bo

    Cognitive Dissident came up with the end-all response.

    Brilliant.

  • http://darwinsbeagle.wordpress.com/ Darwin’s Beagle

    How about responding with:

    I thought it was National I am going to Hell Day.

    Get it?

    Get it … ?!

    Cheers,

    Darwin’s Beagle

  • Ron in Houston

    Hey I don’t care if they call me a fool. Just don’t try to burn me at the stake.

  • Shauna

    Are you sure violence isn’t called for?

  • Sarah H.

    Ugh. Unfriendly behavior abounds.

  • http://limadean.wordpress.com Nadine

    Aw. Awwwww. That’s just mean.

  • http://www.bernerbits.com Derek

    Ugh. Unfriendly behavior abounds.

    With all the unmitigated, unwarranted namecalling from self-righteous Christians, can you really blame people for reacting?

    How many times would you take someone calling you stupid, foolish, amoral, etc. before you finally just give up and call them an asshole?

    Yay, I got you to be unfriendly by being a jerk. You’re a hypocrite! I WIN!

    Unless you were referring to Ray Comfort, in which case I misunderstood you and I apologize.

  • sabrina

    You’re looking at it wrong. It is national atheist day, because everyone else is a fool today. I’m glad Comfort has finally realized it, maybe it was after viewing his banana video.

  • Arlen

    What’s gained by taking time out to call folks who think differently than you “fools?” It doesn’t serve to elevate the dialog; it doesn’t work toward any solutions; it just pisses everybody off. I won’t be a part of it.

  • http://www.offendedyet.com Tom

    Atheist Day?

    This is my little comic. Enjoy.

  • http://faith2truth.org Mike

    How do you reply?
    How about Happy Easter

  • Sarah H.

    With all the unmitigated, unwarranted namecalling from self-righteous Christians, can you really blame people for reacting?

    No, I think it’s natural that atheists feel disgusted and unfairly targeted. The unfriendly behavior started with Comfort and his gleeful ‘joke’ about what unsaved heathens we are.

    On the other hand, none of this is remotely new or unexpected, as far as I’m concerned. I know it’s natural to want to bite when this sort of thing gets thrown at us, but I think it just serves to help propagate the ‘angry atheist’ stereotype.

    I’m angry about a lot of things, but I try to save my reactions for instances when I have a real chance at stopping an injustice or fighting for rational and legal solutions when theism gets aggressive and state-sanctioned.

    I guess I just feel the way Arlen does. I’m not pissed, it’s not worth the energy. I’m just kind of disgusted by the original post and the understandable anger it’s spawning and the inevitable conclusions the smug Comfort supporters will draw from the angry responses. It’s such an old, horrible circle.

  • http://augustberkshire.com August Berkshire

    I respond that February 30th is National God Day. (As far as I know, this response is original.)

  • http://www.rekounas.org rekounas

    I posted a comment:

    Come on Ray. Why are you such a coward? Why don’t you call people of Islam and Muslims fools? Why don’t you call everyone with different beliefs then your own a fool? But why single out atheists?

    You and I both know the answer to that Ray. And it is not the banana. Anything that actually shakes up your belief structure, petrifies you!

    Christian civility? Deuteronomy 22:13-21, is that an example of Christian civility?

  • http://skepticsplay.blogspot.com/ miller

    Maybe it’s time you take Comfort food off your reader.

  • http://www.cognitivedissident.org cognitive dissident

    August Berkshire’s response is great, but maybe we should tweak that idea for April Fool’s Day next year:

    Promote a “National God Day” to be celebrated on April 31st…build a website, design some banner ads, send out press releases to all the atheist (and religious) bloggers and websites.

    (It could be a great prank, if everyone forgets about this whole thread by next year…)

  • Siamang

    Gee, before I hit those links, how did I KNOW that it would be Ray Comfort’s blog?

    I must be psychic!

    I once heard you could tell a Christian by his fruits. Well, we know who the banana is!

    Best response? Laugh. Comfort is best seen as evangelism’s answer to professional wrestling. He’s there for our entertainment value alone.

  • chancelikely
  • http://thinktoomuch.net/ Hugo

    I don’t think many will swallow my interpretation of that psalm:

    http://thinktoomuch.net/2008/03/07/the-fool-says-in-his-heart-there-is-no-god/

    *sigh*. Being relatively new to the plight of the non-theist, it will probably take me a while longer to feel the frustration of those that just don’t want to think. (My explicitly theistic days were always full of doubt. That had me believing that everyone had doubts. I’ve yet to discover how black-and-white even moderate theists can be.)

  • Erik

    Sigh. When will Christians stop being their own worst enemy? Never in this country and this century, that I’m sure of. As a Christian, I think we’d be better off as a group if we were a minority. You don’t see Christians in other countries where they are a minority pulling this kind of shit…

  • OneTrueCanadian

    Ray Comfort is just a loser. Why would we care what he thinks anyway? Also isn’t it fitting that a fool would comment on fools on fools day?

  • http://axisofjared.blogspot.com/ AxisofJared

    The fool hath said in his heart “Bananas are the atheist’s worst nightmare”

  • jdcollins

    I just stare back at them in disbelief.

    (drumbeat)

  • http://fideism.googlepages.com Fideism

    I don’t have a blogger account so I can’t comment over there, but maybe someone else could point out to Ray Comfort what Matt 5:22 says, from the (alleged) words of Jesus himself to boot.

    (Matthew 5:22 NASB) “…and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ [According to Strong's, Raca means "Oh Empty One, i.e. thou worthless: (as a term of utter vilification)"] shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

    But then again, is anyone surprised? Christians aren’t the best example of humility and consistency anyway.

  • jonathan

    The first time I saw the bumper sticker of the Christian fish eating a Darwin fish, I laughed and laughed. I thought, wow, that was pretty clever of some Christian. The problem with Comfort is that he’s not funny. [sigh], I do long to be adequately mocked.

  • http://unorthodoxatheism.blogspot.com Reed Braden

    Just laugh in their faces and eat their babies. They’ll learn eventually.

  • http://brownjs.wordpress.com/ J.S.Brown

    All of my efforts to resolve the issue have produced the odd effect of making them, not me, appear foolish. Five minutes worth of comparing a christian’s supernatural beliefs with reality will reveal the foolery in all it’s glory.

  • http://smackshack.livejournal.com/ Marvin

    My response: “That’s pretty clever, Ray. Too bad creationist zealots are fools 365 days a year.”

    But it’s still not as good as the one about eatin’ dem babies.

  • Cade

    This would be my reply:
    “A fool says in his heart there is no god. A smart person says it to the world.”

    I’m not sure who first came up with it, but it wasn’t me.

  • Richard Wade

    He Who Will Be Forgotten Long Before Death is a troll not just on blogs but in everyday life, degrading dialogues down to his level wherever he goes. If you really want to cause him discomfort, pretend he doesn’t exist and ignore him. That’s his greatest fear. He only keeps up his chattering to reassure himself that he somehow matters, incessantly and impotently barking like a tiny, annoying dog. Don’t feed his appetite for notoriety, let him keep starving in the oblivion he so deeply deserves.