Two points. First, just because someone is able to quote the Bible, you presume that equates to "praise" for the Bible? Really? let's be clear, I have never suggestred that the Bible does not contain some positive suggestions for how to behave ethically. Guess what? I have also read the Quran, the Satanic Bible, The Book of Mormon, and many others.
Most of them contain some positive suggestions for how to live one's life.. "The Prince" includes useful ideas. Tsun Tsu has some fantastic advice for political leaders. However, I do not believe that
any of them were written, or even "inspired" by some mythical magical skyman. They were written by men. Their narratives were imagined, and written by men. They were, every one of them, the creation of men. Which is why everyone of them also include portions that are absolutely contrary to healthy living. In the case of the religious texts, it is why almost all of them also include narratives, and stories of events for which there is not a single shred of independent corroboration - and let us be clear; theists keep insisting that, because
the places spoken of in the Bible have been discovered to have actually existed, that is proof that the people, and events occurred; it's not - and many of which defy the laws of physics. It is also important to note that theists - particularly Christians - have, throughout history, constantly moved the bar for acceptance of the Bible as reliable. From the time that the bible was written, it was considered to be the literal truth, and every single event recorded in the Bible was considered to be unquestionably accurate, and true. Over the last few centuries, any Christian that expects to be taken seriously has consistently, as science has been proving that the events of the Bible were actually impossible, relegated the bible to "Allegory, hyperbole, and metaphor". Were any science book, or any other work so consistently disproved, they would be discarded as works of fiction, and completely unreliable, yet Theists, in their need to continue to believe in a magical skyman, repeatedly redefine the nature of the narrative of their holy books in order to justify continuing to accept them as "accurate", and relevant. It rather begs the question, just how much of these books need to be demonstrated to be inaccurate, and impossible, before Theists give up on their holy books, and admit that they are works of fiction - works of fiction with some very good philosophical ideas, to be sure, but works of fiction, nonetheless.
Second, you mock my use of Denmark, and Sweden as if I mentioned them as the
only modern atheist societies; they aren't. I only use them as
representative of modern organic atheist societies, as opposed to the authoritarian societies that all attempted to force atheism on their societies by use of force, and law. Allow me to be clear; authoritarian atheism is just as wrong, dangerous, reprehensible as are forced theocracies. Neither I, nor any rational atheist I know, would ever advocate forcing atheism on a nation's citizens as a matter of law, any more than we do forcing theism on its citizens as a matter of law. Look at the clashes between atheists, and theists in our nation - particularly in the courts. Name a single case where the ath3eists are demanding that some atheist position be dictated to the people? Are we demanding that "One nation under God" be replaced with "One nation under logic"? No, we are just advocating that the religious indoctrination be removed from the pledge. Are we demanding that "In God We Trust" be replaced on our currency with "In Reason We Trust"? No, we just want the religious indoctrination be removed from the currency. And this is true in every case. In not a single instance do atheists want atheist dogma (such as it exists) to
replace religious dogma. We just want religion to stay out of the public arena, and allow citizens to decide for themselves how religious, if at all, they wish to be. That being said, Denmark, and Germany is far from the only modern examples - almost all of them positive - to embrace atheists. There is the Czech Republic, Austria, France, Norway, Australia, even Japan, just to name a few. Now, am I suggesting that any of these nations is a utopia that is devoid of any problems? Of course not. Does any rational person actually believe that it would actually be possible to find such a Utopia in the real world? I would hope not; to believe that would make one criminally naïve. However, many of the issues facing those nations is certainly not endemic of atheism. For instance, the problem of violence against women was brought up, as if that is only a problem created by atheism. I would suggest that there are many religious nations - those in the Middle East come screaming to mind - to see that this is simply not the case. However, what these nations
do demonstrate is that religion is absolutely not necessary to create a positive, ethical society.
Where did the weekend come from?
The Industrial revolution. The typical work week was actually six to seven days, right up until the 1920's. It wasn't a biblical principal that brought about the two-day weekend; it was economics. As farms began failing during the early 20th century, and factories began huge hiring drives to accommodate mass production, and the increase in demand that came with it, farmers began moving to the cities, and going to work for the factories. Unfortunately, these farmers were used to setting their own hours, and resented the factories demanding the long (sometimes as long as 18 hours) days, and the seven day work weeks. A prominent
factory owner —
Henry Ford — also played a big role. Even though the federal government didn't begin to limit companies to a 40-hour
workweek until 1938, Ford began to give his
factory workers a two-day
weekend in the early 1900s.
Why did he do this? He wanted to sell the cars his workers were making. He realised that his own workers were some of his best customers. If he wanted to sell more cars, he decided that his workers needed time off to be able to
drive and enjoy them.
So the next time the
weekend rolls around and you want to thank someone, thank the
labour movement, including
labour unions, that existed in the late 1800s. And thank Henry Ford, who recognised that the
economy gets a boost if workers have a couple of days off each week to purchase goods and enjoy using them! And you can thank the
Christian tradition - not to be confused with the religion - as well as Jewish tradition, but don't thank the Bible, because it had nothing to do with it.
Sorry, to disappoint, but I not only read your opinions, but pointed out where you were mistaken. No memes necessary. The storm of memes was for dingdong's benefit. When I decided that he was incapable of original thought, and therefore not worthy of real discussion, the memes were all he deserved until I go bored, and blocked him.
