A local atheist (local for me here in the OC), rendered 38 bibles unreadable to celebrate International Blasphemy Day. He left the altered bibles around Laguna Beach, Ca. Atheist Niko Theris had this to say.
"The Constitution gives me the right to express myself," Theris said. "I wanted to make the point that it should be OK to ridicule religion."
Theris is 82. He was careful to leave his bibles in public places. He was trying to make a point.
Theris said he was trying to create "safe scriptures" by making it impossible to open some of the Bibles. Others had holes drilled into them to indicate that, "You can see through them," Theris said. He said atheist friends had collected the Bibles, mostly from hotel rooms.
I’ve been a member of OC Atheists for years but I’ve never attended a meeting. I’m a tad on the anti-social side. On the day this event took place, I was playing disc golf and did not participate in International Blasphemy Day (because I did not know about it). It’s my loss. I would love to me this old codger.
Do I support this? I do and I don’t. I’m not the type of person who sticks a finger in the eye of a believer just to see what they will do. I simply don’t care about what other people believe unless they try to force their beliefs on me. I will say this though, the Christians I know don’t hold a copy of Bible itself as sacred. They would simply buy another bible. So from a shock value standpoint I think the exercise was pointless. A much more effective demonstration would have been to do the same thing to 38 Korans and then place them along Brookhurst in Anaheim near the Islamic Center. I would be able to hear the resulting riot from my house and I would be making preparations to attend Theris’ funeral.
