Monday, September 17, 2007 | Reason : In the News | print version

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State Senator Ernie Chambers Sues God

by MSNBC

Thanks to rowed for the link.

Reposted from:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20823832/

ernie

OMAHA, Neb - State Senator Ernie Chambers is suing God. The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday in Douglas County Court, seeks a permanent injunction ordering God to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.

The lawsuit admits God goes by all sorts of alias, names, titles and designations and it also recognizes the fact that the defendant is 'Omnipresent'.

In the lawsuit Chambers says he's tried to contact God numerous times, "Plaintiff, despite reasonable efforts to effectuate personal service upon Defendant ('Come out, come out, wherever you are') has been unable to do so."

The suit also requests that the court given the 'peculiar circumstances' of this case waive personal service. It says being Omniscient, the plaintiff assumes God will have actual knowledge of the action.

The lawsuit accuses God "of making and continuing to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons, including constituents of Plaintiff who Plaintiff has the duty to represent."

It says God has caused, "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like."

The suit also says God has caused, "calamitous catastrophes resulting in the wide-spread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants including innocent babes, infants, children, the aged and infirm without mercy or distinction."

Chambers also says God "has manifested neither compassion nor remorse," proclaiming that Defendant "will laugh" when calamity comes.

Chambers asks for the court to grant him a summary judgement. He says as an alternative, he wants the judge to set a date for a hearing as "expeditiously" as possible and enter a permanent injunction enjoining God from engaging in the types of deleterious actions and the making of terroristic threats described in the lawsuit.

We tried to reach Senator Chambers to find out what prompted him to file this suit now. But so far we?ve had no luck contacting him.

RELATED: "Ernie Chambers steps up"
From:
http://www.secular.org/contest/

Apr. 2, 2007 - Nebraska State Sen. Ernie Chambers has confirmed his nontheism to the Secular Coalition for America. Sen. Chambers, who holds the record for longest tenure in the Nebraska Legislature, now becomes the second highest level public servant to self-identify with our community, joining the ranks of U.S. Rep. Pete Stark and three local level elected officials. (Photo by Brent Nicastro courtesy of FFRF, a Coalition member group)

Also see:
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070917/K091706AU.html

Posted: Monday, September 17, 2007 | Permalink

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1. Comment #71136 by Veronique on September 17, 2007 at 10:26 pm

Yummy, yummy:-)

I thought it was the Onion to begin with. I love it. Pete Stark started this; I hope it snowballs. #2 is up and running with a delicious law suit.

Please Josh, post everything that happens with this one. It will be so much fun, hahaha.

It's going to be fun if and when our Aussie police try to prosecute The Chaser for getting through their locked-down Sydney for the APEC conference. Apparently The Chaser goes to a hearing on October 4th.

I hope you all saw that. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) let The Chaser's dodgy motorcade through all the checkpoints to about 10 metres of where Bush was staying. The Chaser wore 'Insecurity' badges, their motorcade flew Canadian flags. Nothing gelled with the AFP. Absolutely hilarious. Erm, very embarrassing for our top brass:-). Noses severely out of joint. We loved it.

Here's a youtube link - you'll find quite a lot uploaded to youtube about this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo2aUUFGDIg&mode=related&search=

This conference was the one where Bush thanked our PM Howard for inviting him to the OPEC conference and expressed gratitude that Howard had kept the soldiers from Austria in Iraq. I think the whole of Australia cracked up. Didn't do Howard much good either.

I just adore shit like this. It takes the mickey out of everything and provides so much light relief.

Again, yummy
V

Other Comments by Veronique

2. Comment #71137 by BAEOZ on September 17, 2007 at 10:26 pm

Where's the Onion when you need them?

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3. Comment #71138 by BAEOZ on September 17, 2007 at 10:27 pm

Hey V, how goes it?

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4. Comment #71142 by Veronique on September 17, 2007 at 10:44 pm

4. Comment #71138 by BAEOZ

At the moment, I am in heaven and laughing my guts out sweetheart. I must be very bent:-) I get so much delight out of things like this. I have just added a youtube link to my post so others can watch The Chaser, if they haven't already.

Shit, we are an irreverent lot down here, aren't we? Thank fuck for that. We would never have survived the Henri's of the world otherwise:-).

And I am now officially 64, so I demand respect from all and sundry! If you don't laugh uproariously at least once a day, I'll send in the tickling police:-)

How are you going BAEOZ - did you get my PM? I may be in Melbourne on Guy Fawkes Day on my way to Perth.

Cheers
V

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5. Comment #71143 by Damien White on September 17, 2007 at 10:49 pm

I've always considered The Chaser boys to be a bit of a joke (no pun intended) up until the APEC Motorcade Fiasco.
It's always annoyed me that America has people like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, while down here all we've got is the Chaser and Jack Marx making what are essentially poo and wee jokes.

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6. Comment #71144 by BAEOZ on September 17, 2007 at 10:51 pm

Got the PM. Sorry I've not responded. I'm not sure what day Guy Fawkes is and in any case I was hesitant to say "yes" to catching up and then have you arrange to meet me instead of going some other route, if I couldn't guarantee I could make it that time and date.

Happy Birthday, I was 35 last friday. Getting old, but not getting wisdom. :)

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7. Comment #71145 by Veronique on September 17, 2007 at 10:54 pm

Hey everyone, this is a good post APEC Chaser run down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3zKuLgH_l8&NR=1

Enjoy!!
V

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8. Comment #71146 by Flagellant on September 17, 2007 at 10:56 pm

I love Aussie humour - I've just watched V's Chaser clips - hilarious. What a good thing it is that Aussie police are so nice!

Wrt Sen. Ernie Chambers' suit, it's a shame he hasn't somehow included the super-wingnut groups. Perhaps he could turn his attention to them, as well.

I dunno if anyone has seen stuff about Prince Charles's constitutional position as 'Defender of the Faith'. He wants to be 'Defender of Faith' - subtle difference. The Archbish of Canterbury has said 'No!' I think we ought to have an official 'Attacker of Faith', instead. I wonder if RD would be interested...

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9. Comment #71147 by Jolly Bloger on September 17, 2007 at 10:58 pm

I'd like to get in on that class action, Beth.

This is the greatest thing I've read all week. I love the little jabs he throws in. Waiving personal service because He's omniscient, thats priceless.

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10. Comment #71148 by Veronique on September 17, 2007 at 11:10 pm

7. Comment #71144 by BAEOZ

What happened between 35 and 64? I thought everyone knew that Guy Fawkes and his team nearly succeeded in blowing up the British Houses of Parliament on November 5th. We have celebrated with fireworks every since. Well, until the powers that be banned fireworks. When I was a kid, we used to build fires in the vacant lot and hang up an effigy of Guy Fawkes and let off penny bangers, catherine wheels and rockets. There were a number of accidents to both people and dogs and it was eventually outlawed. Nothing ever replaced it.

As an act of reverence of this event and because my surname is Guy, I have elected to travel on this auspicious day!

Happy birthday to you, mate. I hope you had as pleasant and boozy afternoon as did I last Sunday.

Cheers
V

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11. Comment #71150 by BAEOZ on September 17, 2007 at 11:12 pm

I was quite boozed up and supprisingly un hungover. I know the Guy Fawkes was a catholic involved in the gunpowder plot. I just didn't know the date. Sad, oh well.

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12. Comment #71151 by Russell Blackford on September 17, 2007 at 11:20 pm

That's odd - when I was a little kid growing up in NSW, cracker night coincided with Empire Day in late May. Something must have changed by the time us baby boomers came along.

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13. Comment #71152 by BAEOZ on September 17, 2007 at 11:23 pm

As far as I recall, fireworks were illegal in my adolescence. So, I don't know what date they did the crackers when not illegal. However, I was in Scotland back in 2000 and we had a fireworks night (bonfire night?) and that was sometime in November. I'm agreeing with V on this one.

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14. Comment #71154 by Veronique on September 17, 2007 at 11:32 pm

13. Comment #71151 by Russell Blackford

I know this, but didn't realise until I traversed the continent in 1969. I could never understand cracker night in NSW being in May.

To me it was always a celebration of Guy Fawkes' day. What was the NSW May celebration about? Do you recall?

Of course, it's all gone now. Pyrotechnicians need licences to operate and there has to be an exclusion zone so that no-one gets hurt.

My memories, however, are full of screaming, laughter and warmth (from the bonfire). We used to lock the dogs and cats inside the house so they wouldn't be frightened by the noise etc. But kids lost an eye or were burnt by the phosphorus.

And that didn't need banning legislation, just some smarts by parents. As we know (now), parents are just stupid and have to be legislated against because they allow their children to be damaged.

Sorry, that's the bitch in me:-)
V

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15. Comment #71156 by Philip1978 on September 17, 2007 at 11:42 pm

My goodness what a great day!

V and BAEOZ I wish you the finest, wildest and most naughty birthdays imaginable, pleased be advised I have a gargantuan imagination so get to it!!

This article has made me smile sooo much, I would love to see what happens when God also gets done for not turning up at court! Hang on, what happens if all this goes through all the way, does this mean the entire clergy of the world goes to prison for accessory to murder, surely they would get an ASBO (English stupid law to stop people being a pain in the arse, Anti Social Behaviour Order, the only degree some kids will ever get!) for all the wanton destruction and fraud! Maaaarvelous, what a lovely day!

Cheers all,

Philip

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16. Comment #71158 by Veronique on September 17, 2007 at 11:58 pm

Hi Philip

You won your challenge!! I love this site. Thank you for your birthday wishes - I was extremely circumspect given my advancing age:-). Well, sort of!

It's good to be back
Cheers
V

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17. Comment #71160 by Theocrapcy on September 18, 2007 at 12:09 am

@BAEOZ

"Remember, remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot..."

You must be thinking of Guy Fawks night.

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18. Comment #71168 by Philip1978 on September 18, 2007 at 1:27 am

V
My prediction had to come true in accordance with the laws of probability, I knew several were leaving and the chances of someone coming back were pretty high! I know full well I could not survive cold turkey, the addiction has become too much!

One thing that grabs me about this article is that if God a) turns up and proves his existence then Senator Chambers better start searching for asbestos underpants b)what if God is found guilty? if he is charged with the above, surely like all the other laws that he has broken (Laws of Physics, Chemistry and Biology to name but a few!) Heck, he even breaks his own 10 commandments on a regular basis esp about the killing one, how is he going to be stopped by the injunction?

My theory on this one is hopefully quite sound, if humans can create their gods then they can jolly well conjour up a god shaped injunction! Ha! Get out of that one Yahweh!

Philip

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19. Comment #71196 by Russell Blackford on September 18, 2007 at 2:44 am

On topic: I must admit that I laughed out loud when I read this article, even though my first reaction was a more curmudgeonly one about wasting valuable court resources.

Off topic: V., I had no idea what it was about when I was a kid, but a bit of googling shows that it was the birthday of Queen Victoria! See this article, for example

http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/stories/s1930741.htm

However, the article seems to be wrong in claiming that Empire Day ceased to be a half-holiday after 1958. We had cracker night long after that where I was - as you say, it was still cracker night in late May in the late 1960s - and my memory is that we still had some kind of holiday to go with it when I was in primary school. I must check around to see if I'm suffering false memory. Very odd.

Do you belong to the social network? Do you, BAEOZ? We really should take these off-topic discussions there, I suppose, but nothing ever seems to happen there so far.

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20. Comment #71222 by fin on September 18, 2007 at 4:52 am

Reminds me of the Australian movie "The Man Who Sued God".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Sued_God

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21. Comment #71243 by Barbara on September 18, 2007 at 6:50 am

Loved this article. Maybe the judge will declare the defendant not-guilty due to nonexistence?

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22. Comment #71248 by bamafreethinker on September 18, 2007 at 7:20 am

I am reminded of the movie, Miracle on 34th Street, where they had the old man on trail to determine if he was really Santa Claus. The judge knew, the lawyers knew, everyone knew that there was no such thing as Santa, but nobody wanted to be the one to say so in public - in front of the kids! The old judge was just about ready to break the news until he looked at his wife (who was giving him quite a look) holding his kid (with those sad puppy dog eyes) and he couldn't do it.

Perhaps the plaintiff will first have to prove that God exists, or does the court assume that already? If you ask me, this puts the theists between a rock and a hard place. They can't say that God isn't real, but�

I've been a non-believer for about six years now, but I still go to church every Sunday with my family (I am somewhat in the closet still � but I do not participate in the service in any way). It does upset me sometimes to listen to the things people believe, but I am becoming more and more convinced that most of the Christian I know really don't believe most of the crap they say they do. I can tell that my wife is beginning to change � not so much in what she says, but in what she doesn't say. I can tell that her heart just isn't (as) in it any more. I think most of the poor folks are just afraid of hell so they go through the motions.

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23. Comment #71274 by Barbara on September 18, 2007 at 9:20 am

From the above article, one (me, for instance) could assume the good senator was out to make a point about his non-belief. However, when I read the article at http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070917/K091706AU.html another motive is apparent.

Angered by another lawsuit he considers frivolous, Chambers says he's trying to make the point that anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody.

Chambers said the lawsuit was triggered by a federal suit filed against a judge who recently barred words such as "rape" and "victim" from a sexual assault trial.

The accuser in the criminal case, Tory Bowen, sued Lancaster District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront, claiming he violated her free speech rights.

Chambers said Bowen's lawsuit is inappropriate because the Nebraska Supreme Court has already considered the case and federal courts follow the decisions of state supreme courts on state matters.

"This lawsuit having been filed and being of such questionable merit creates a circumstance where my lawsuit is appropriately filed," Chambers said.

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24. Comment #71279 by Yorker on September 18, 2007 at 9:25 am

23. Comment #71248 by bamafreethinker

Been a long time since I was in church - funeral a few years back I think. When I was younger I went to wedding and funeral church events and had good fun singing harmony to the hymns excessively loud. It was hard not to crack up watching the faces! Like many, I like some religious music but of course it was written in the days when the only way a musician could eat was to write for the religites.

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25. Comment #71307 by bamafreethinker on September 18, 2007 at 11:14 am

Yorker,

Oh, it's pretty fun sometimes (and sometime depressing). I even go to bible studies in small groups and fall right in there with everyone. I was a fairly well-studied Christian for most of my life (led classes/prayers etc.), so I know more about the bible and theology than the average churchgoer. I can generally shed some light on many conversations, partially because I do not have to twist my mind around some stark contradictions and try to make sense of them. For example; Sunday night we were trying to solve how being saved by "grace" (through believing/faith) can be rectified with Jesus' commands to do this and don't do that. It sometime difficult to watch friends and family members squirm as they try to figure out just how to avoid eternal damnation when it is in no way clear in the bible how to do so. That very subject is what motivated me to study the bible in-depth because of conflicting ideas about which (mine or my wife's) side of my family was going to hell! Of course an open-minded, in-depth study of the bible generally leads one to either atheism or to a much more liberal form of religion than when you started : ) Our church sings a cappella and is good at it, and I do enjoy the singing (after ignoring the lyrics of course). Some of the songs are really pretty good if you substitute the word "nature" in all the places where god is used.

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26. Comment #71318 by konquererz on September 18, 2007 at 12:29 pm

I think that Chambers is making a statement both about the legal system and about god. By suing god, he is exposing the silliness of the law suit system. By this same action, he is showing gods inability to act, thus questioning his very existence.

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27. Comment #71319 by jakelovatto on September 18, 2007 at 12:30 pm

There is a similar thing going on in India. Quoting from a bbc news story:

"The Indian government has withdrawn a controversial report submitted in court earlier this week which questioned the existence of the Hindu god Ram."

"...with a case against a proposed shipping canal project between India and Sri Lanka.

Hindu hardliners say the project will destroy what they say is a bridge built by Ram and his army of monkeys.

Scientists and archaeologists say the Ram Setu (Lord Ram's bridge) - or Adam's Bridge as it is sometimes called - is a natural formation of sand and stones."

Here are some links to the stories:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6996621.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6994415.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6990847.stm

In a word ridiculous.

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28. Comment #71624 by Steven Mading on September 19, 2007 at 11:23 am

I like this from a satire point of view, and it does illustrate an important point. But given that everybody knows there's no way to summon up the defendant (even if you believe the defendant exists you still don't think he's under US Court jurisdiction), it can never be anything more than a satirical joke. And my point is that I think that makes it a tactically stupid idea. The notion of filing court paperwork to make a point when you know darn well it's a meaningless case, will make our cause look silly and idiotic in the eyes of the public. I really think this will backfire.

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29. Comment #71721 by kev_s on September 19, 2007 at 2:32 pm

It's funny. It will help.

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30. Comment #71958 by BMMcArdle on September 20, 2007 at 2:16 am

I'm going to sue Santa Claus for not bringing me what I wanted...I was nice for a whole year!

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