In Florida, an atheist became incensed over the preparation of Easter
and Passover holidays. He decided to contact his lawyer about the
discrimination inflicted on atheists by the constant celebrations
afforded to Christians and Jews with all their holidays while
atheists had no holiday to celebrate.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the long
passionate presentation by the lawyer, the Judge banged his gavel and
declared, 'Case dismissed!'

The lawyer immediately stood and objected to the ruling and said,
“Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians
have Christmas, Easter and many other observances. Jews have
Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah...yet my client and all other
atheists have no such holiday!”

The judge leaned forward in his chair and simply said, 'Obviously
your client is too confused to even know about, much less celebrate
his own atheists' holiday!'

The lawyer pompously said, 'Your Honor, we are unaware of any such
holiday for atheists. Just when might that holiday be, your Honor?'

The judge said, 'Well it comes every year on exactly the same
date---April 1st! Since our calendar sets April 1st as ' April Fools
Day,' consider that Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart,
there is no God.' Thus, in my opinion, if your client says there is
no God, then by scripture , he is a fool, and April 1st is his
holiday! Now have a good day and get out of my courtroom!

I love it!!!!

I saw this and just had to post it...smiles

Amen to that

I have seen this before passed around as a joke years ago.

morning all...

Score one for religion!!!

Thanks for posting, yeahitsmeok

My hats off to his honor!!!!!!!

I hope this is not a true story.

As misguided as the original action was (the idea of people celebrating holidays, religious or otherwise, creates no hardships for others who choose not to, in my opinion), I find it far more disturbing that a sitting judge would label all nonbelievers as "fools" simply for not believing.

This indicates a lack of objectivity and impartiality on the judge's part, and, if he felt that way, he should have recused himself from the case, at the very least.

And yes, I would say the same thing had the ruling gone the other way, if he had referred to the believers as "fools." The law does not exist to determine who is or is not a "fool."

I would prefer to see this as an apocryphal little story designed as a "feel-good" for believers....who claim to follow their Christ but miss no opportunity to put non-Christians down....

Haha, that's pretty good, even as someone who only celebrates passover, if you don't like a holiday don't participate in it, that simple. Kudos to this judge;^]

I think it's more designed to put down atheists who think that those holidays should be celebrated in secrecy;^]

Turtle, I agree with you, and that policy makes no sense to me. I'm an atheist myself, but I fail to see how it hurts me if someone wants to celebrate a religious holiday. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, in my opinion, including what is or is not designated as a special day, for whatever reason.

And for the record, I don't have any problems with people saying "Merry Christmas," either. I grew up with that, so it has a certain familiarity to it. Just because I don't believe the story behind it doesn't mean I can't appreciate that others attach a much greater significance to it, and their beliefs deserve to be respected as well.

a holiday is celebration of something. atheists dont believe in any religious beliefs so what are they celebrating? if they want to make up their own holiday and call it "common sense day" or "atheist day" or whatever other day they wanna call it, let em, but i doubt our government will recognize it as a holiday you get off from work.

IM SORRY THAT SOME DONT LIKE THIS BUT YOU KNOW DIVERSITY IS WHAT THIS COUNTRY IS MADE UP OF..AND IM A TRUE BELIEVER THAT WE NEED GOD IN COUNTRY CUZ LOOK AT US RIGHT NOW..IN THE LAST FOUR DAYS I HAVE LISTENED TO AT LEAST 4 SHOOTINGS AND ALOT OF SENSELESS VIOLENCE...AND TO ALL THE CHRISTIANS OUT THERE DONT TAKE THE NEW GOLD 1 DOLLAR COIN..THEYVE TAKE IN GOD WE TRUST OFF OF IT

But hey!

Now God can give the smack down a little bit with the money only being Caesar's

Think about that... it might hurt a little, but maybe this country will straighten up if God shows some displeasure of things. Yes? no? I don't know.

It's funny but a biased ruling from the judge because obviously he takes the stance of religion.

Luckily, the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals is in California where it belongs....in the zoo.


Caged in and nothing more than an oddity... a freak of nature to mock itself and be scorned.


Judges are for the most part, God fearing men.

But people that don't understand (the weight of duty) cannot bear the burdens of responsibility.

Let the conscience show the competence that is expected.

Judges don't get approved for public service because they disrespect authority, but on the contrary they understand and respect authority.


Segregate the clowns for the circus. Where they belong, not on the bench of jurisprudence.



What? big words getting you down?


learn what time it is and one will not miss the appointment.

This has been posted here before, and it's as much an urban legend this time as it was the last. Check it out at www.snopes.com.

As for atheists and agnostics not having a holiday to celebrate, I'd say July 4th suffices nicely to remind some of us that the Establishment Clause of the Constitution protects us from the tyranny of the majority. Or from folks like the King of England who was also the head of the national Church.

-Kerry O.