The Atheist Mama

Now here is a petition worth signing! Make sure you read it… It’s very funny!

1) The Holy Bible demands that readers murder hundreds of thousands of Wal-Mart employees.

In Exodus 31:15 the Holy Bible demands: “For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.� This demand is repeated in Exodus 35:2: “For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death.�

Mr. Scott, you are in a unique position to understand how dangerous these statements are. Hundreds of thousands of Wal-Mart’s employees work on the Sabbath. The Holy Bible demands their murder. This threat to employee autonomy and safety should be both repugnant and highly offensive to Wal-Mart’s senior management team as well as Wal-Mart’s employees.

Hattip to UTI, Pharyngula, and the guy in my Ohio Atheists Yahoo! Group.

Seeing Stardust’s post of the Atheist “Prayer” prompted me to write this post. I wrote about the “Little Books” in a comment once on a post by The Freethought Mom (who has since disappeared…).

When our boys are ready for bed, we go into the bedroom and “do little books.” The “little books” is a collection of about 12 or 14 very small (maybe 2×2?) books all contained in a little box that’s made to look like a bed. All of the stories are short bedtime stories or songs. I got these as a gift while pregnant with my oldest. We started this probably about 2 years ago and we still do it. Even my 17 month old asks for the “little books” when we go into the bedroom.

They each get to pick one, and we read 3 or 4 of them. My oldest has them all memorized now. As soon as we’re done with the books, they get put away and they get into bed. My husband takes one boy and I take the other and we lay with them and talk about what they are going to dream about. Then my husband and I switch (they are in the same room) and we usually continue the dream talk (my oldest dreams about a lot!).
Then we say good night!

I wrote this several months ago. The 17 month old that I was speaking about will be 2 years old on the 7th. But we still “do little books” every night. I consider some of these books a great substitue for that evening prayer that so many children say. If and when we are faced with the question about why they don’t pray before bed (which I expect to hear from one of their friends some day in the future), they can say that while they don’t actually pray, they do have some stories that help them have good thoughts through the night. You can see the pictures of these books here (on Amazon).

Here are a few of those stories:

Good Night

Good night.
Good night.
Sleep tight…
Wake up bright,
In the morning light,
To do what’s right -
With all your might.

Come to the Window

Come to the window, my baby with me,
and look at the stars that shine on the sea!
There are two little stars that play at bo-peep,
with two little fishes far down in the deep.
And two little frogs cry, “Neap, neap, neap.”
I see a dear baby, who should be asleep.

And my favorite:

Sleep, Baby, Sleep

Sleep, baby, sleep,
Thy father guards the sheep.
Thy mother shakes the dreamland tree,
and from it fall sweet dreams for thee,
Sleep, baby, sleep.

Sleep, baby, sleep,
Down where the woodbines creep.
Be always like the lamb so mild,
A kind, and sweet, and gentle child.
Sleep, baby, sleep.

I encourage you to share these little stories with your children!! I think they are beautiful, and they have been a part of our bedtime routine for so long… They are sure to be precious memories some day.

About 2 weeks ago, I went to Vermont to see an old friend from high school get married. They live about an hour away from Stowe, and even closer to Canada. It’s such a beautiful part of the country, and it was the first time that I’ve been that far north in the United States.

The wedding was held at the groom’s folk’s house. They have a good
amount of land there. I don’t remember exactly… I heard 60 acres and 120 acres being discussed. They had a hog roast, and all of the food and the flowers were locally grown. It was a great experience, and a whole
different life than the one that I lead here in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio.

Oh, and “god” wasn’t mentioned once. Not that I would have minded… I was just there to be with my friends on this special day in their lives. But it was nice that there was no mention god. I know that the bride isn’t religious (despite the fact that her family is). She’s not an atheist. I’m not sure exactly what her beliefs are. But I was glad that they chose to leave god out of their ceremony.

You can pictures of the whole event here!