Nativity Scenes on Public Property

I’ve heard that originally permission for the Box of Knowledge was refused on the grounds that it “wasn’t festive enough” to qualify as a holiday display. I recommend that tinsel and lights be added.

It’s time Americans turned over a new page in our religious history and permanently move all religious holiday displays off government property.

I am in love with the person who created the Box of Knowledge, whoever he or she is. It so totally sounds like some cheeseball object of a quest from Captain Planet and the Planeteers or maybe the animated Dungeons and Dragons cartoon from the 1980s. Please don’t tell GPop.

Our City Hall has a Menorah at the front…I just noticed it yesterday. The holiday display is completely secular, but our mayor is Jewish so I guess he felt the need to throw that in there. Trying to decide whether I should complain about it.

Any chance that the image files used to create the four sides be available for downloading somewhere? I would love build one!

I love the Kokomo display!

So this does pose a question: How do you approach objecting to a public religious display? There is one big nativity display at the Clawson Mi public library. Its pretty silly because there is a Santa sleigh right next to it, setup in a way that makes it look like all part of the same scene. But anyway, it is an elaborate display. I’ve thought about objecting to it, but what is the best way to go about this?

True story: I live just outside Marsing, Idaho, and every year without fail the town leaders decorate the place for Christmas. Most of it’s nice stuff – candy canes, trees, stocking, etc. But they also set up a large nativity scene in one of the parks every year.

I didn’t realize until this Christmas that that was actually potentially illegal… perhaps I need to donate a FSMas display.

I’ve always wondered what part of “separation of church and state” is so hard to comprehend.

The part where the separation of church and state include their particular religion, their particular denomination.

They have diluted themselves to think that their way is the right way and that the U.S is some kind of theocratic Christian nation, and thus all things Christian are exempt from that pesky separation of church and state.

Their nativity scenes could very easily go on church properties or private properties or form part of an inclusive display of many religions and non-religious displays. The reason they want it to be located on public property in front of City Hall’s and Court houses and to be standing on its own is to push the view that the U.S is a Christian Nation.

The U.S is not a Christian Nation and will never be a Christian Nation. If it ever did than that day would be the day that liberty and freedom died in the U.S and an American Taliban like state would be formed. Some of these fundamentalist groups might consider that a win but it is not it is a recipe for religious wars and a very unjust society and there is no guarantee that their particular brand of religion will be the one adopted by the state.

Accept the fact and be happy that you live in a nation where you can believe what you want and worship how you choose. The more you try to push your religion on others and the more hostile you are to differences the more push back your going to get from them and the fast your going to alienate potential or existing church members.

Wow those are impressive lights

UGH the text on the Box of Knowledge is thick. tldr much?

It’s not a trivial point; delivery of information is arguable just as important as the information itself. Dense articles are appropriate for venues where one looks for information – journals, essays, or other resources. But nobody on the street is going to stop and spend half an hour reading that monument. I would only look at it long enough to jeer at the noobs who fail at information delivery.

A display, especially such as one equivalent to a Nativity scene, should focus on visuals that convey a theme succinctly and clearly. Text is ok if used sparingly – preferably, to snare one’s attention and direct them to a resource for the to find out more. It’s an advertisement, essentially.

Though it wins the legal battle, that display, unfortunately, loses the ideological battle by a landslide by being completely blind to communication. In a larger sense, this is the difficulty that atheism, secularism and science have in dealing with religious encroachment – religion communicates with people far better. non-religious messages will have to be able to compete to gain any headway.

I love the idea of the “Box of Knowledge”. But I have to agree with RPJ – that box is a communication / graphic design disaster. Too much information! Who’s going to read any of that? Especially the text at the bottom, unless it’s going on a pedestal. I make posters sometimes for work, and I give my boss a non-negotiable word limit of, say, 25 words. Even that’s pushing it.

At no point could I work in the word “page.”

Really? I thought of one within oh, a second of reading that sentence… (it’s much harder when you’re on the spot, which is why you need to pre-plan that kind of shenannigans).

After saying:
“Religious or non-religious displays have no business being on government property, but if one iss allowed, they all have to be allowed.” you add
“I think it’s time we all turn the page and agree to stick to the law on this one.”

Get all this foolishness out of the public square. But, until they are, fight fire with fire. Every time there’s a religious scene let’s either, yeah, mock them (so what it’s mocking, if the government is giving venue to opinions you can display something mocking) with the FSM or counter with reason’s greetings.

And thanks for posting the story about Tod Billings. It was nice to drop an old bulletin board pal a line. It’s been about a decade.