The Atheist Picnic?

July 12, 2009 By Guest Contributor 10 Comments

I’m sure this sign would come in handy if atheists are ever having a picnic…

AtheistPicnic

(Thanks to Rick for the link!)

Filed Under: Babies, General 10 Comments
  • Stephen

    Ok – I don’t get it. What’s with all the atheist baby eating references? Is there some bit in the bible that talks about it? Was there an infamous baby eater that also just happened to be atheist? Perhaps a theist that labelled all atheists baby eaters in the middle of a rant?

  • Richard Wade

    Thank you for asking that, Stephen. Actually, I would like to know that too. Does anyone know the origin of the atheist baby-eating idea? I remember long ago hearing horrid superstitions from eastern Europe attributing that to Jews, but I didn’t hear it applied to atheists until I started visiting atheist blogs.

  • Cafeeine

    I think it developed by people bemoaning the constant demonization of atheists as evil immoral pricks, often including “baby-eating” as a matter of hyperbole, and sarcasm and quirky sense of humor did the rest to propagate the meme.
    Of course thats just a PIOMA hypothesis…

  • Kiera

    Shouldn’t it be “Leash your dogS and pick up after them” or “Leash your dog and pick up after IT”?

    Although the mismatching grammar makes it more funny when you read it the babyeating way!

  • http://www.secularstudents.org Lyz

    That’s funny, I was just at an atheist picnic this weekend and there were ZERO babies on the dinner table. We clearly bungled that one up…

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

    I think it was made up by atheists to demonstrate how ridiculous theists notions about atheist morality were.

  • http://lyonlegal.blogspot.com/ Vincent

    I spotted that too Kiera, and figured “them” must be referring to “people”. Clean up after the people (or the people and the dog), and let’s be honest; people really are slobs.

  • http://aurorawalkingvacation.blogspot.com Paul

    I believe the baby eating idea is a conflation of several themes, including the common religious propaganda that “the infidel” eats the children of the faithful, and at the same time is a reference to Swift’s A Modest Proposal, which is often cited as an example of a general lack of skepticism and critical thinking in the public at large.

  • Jerad

    Well, great. now I’m gonna be rewriting The teddy Bears’ Picnic in my head for the rest of the day.

  • http://mnatheists.org Bjorn Watland

    Great! I found a perfect graphic for our atheist picnic for Facebook!