Kudos to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. On February 12th, he issued a proclamation declaring it to be Charles Darwin Day in the state!
How cool is that?!
Wait.
Check out the document itself (PDF).
Do you see it?
At the very bottom of the announcement — the announcement that extols Darwin’s incredible accomplishments and explains that his works have been challenging conventional views and encouraging critical thinking — is an inscription that reads:
God Save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Ha.
Ironic, no?
David Niose, the president of the American Humanist Association, said this about the juxtaposition:
“It’s fairly rare that we talk about humanist groups having political victories, but we had one last week, after the American Humanist Association and the three local chapters asked Deval Patrick to declare Feb. 12 to be Darwin Day. He did it, and he gave us a beautiful declaration, leatherbound, with his signature, and all the fancy language — chalk one up for the humanist groups. Darwin, of course, is kind of a symbol of the culture wars, because there is a lot of anti-Darwinism — so we consider this a victory. But the kicker is it says ‘God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,’ and we thought it was pretty comical that secular humanist groups would be given a Darwin Day proclamation with such a statement — a friendly reminder of how far we have to go. We’re not enraged — that language is something we’re just used to — but I think it’s just something to chuckle over.”
It’s the right way to take it. The statement about God seems to just be part of the letterhead and not something added to just this proclamation.
Funny, though…
(via Articles of Faith)
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