RE: Atheists who changed the world
July 19, 2012 at 8:11 pm
(This post was last modified: July 19, 2012 at 8:15 pm by jackman.)
my first choice would be a(sa) philip randolph, but he was quite a pistol (read: malcolm x but without religion) and most of his work was civil rights related - so it may not have affected directly, the majority of people. he was also a socialist.
however, alton lemon may qualify in what you're looking for.
source: taken from the freedom from religion foundation (also from the blackatheists of america):
Alton Lemon won the case Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971, which successfully challenged a Pennsylvania law, the first such law in the nation providing public tax funds to religious schools for teaching four secular subjects.
The United States Supreme Court unanimously invalidated the parochial aid. In one of the enduring legacies of the Burger Court, it also codified existing precedent on the Establishment Clause into a test--called the "Lemon Test." The "Lemon Test" has three prongs. If any of the three prongs are violated by an act of government, it is unconstitutional:
· It must have a secular legislative purpose;
· Its principal or primary effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion;
· It must not foster excessive entanglement between government and religion.
"It has been hated and reviled by the religious right. Three presidents (you can guess which ones) have openly sought to overturn it. Justice Scalia, who's a pretty scary fellow himself, has made an odious comparison of the Lemon Test to 'some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried.' Despite attacks against it and attempts to modify and chip away at it, the Lemon Test endures.
however, alton lemon may qualify in what you're looking for.
source: taken from the freedom from religion foundation (also from the blackatheists of america):
Alton Lemon won the case Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971, which successfully challenged a Pennsylvania law, the first such law in the nation providing public tax funds to religious schools for teaching four secular subjects.
The United States Supreme Court unanimously invalidated the parochial aid. In one of the enduring legacies of the Burger Court, it also codified existing precedent on the Establishment Clause into a test--called the "Lemon Test." The "Lemon Test" has three prongs. If any of the three prongs are violated by an act of government, it is unconstitutional:
· It must have a secular legislative purpose;
· Its principal or primary effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion;
· It must not foster excessive entanglement between government and religion.
"It has been hated and reviled by the religious right. Three presidents (you can guess which ones) have openly sought to overturn it. Justice Scalia, who's a pretty scary fellow himself, has made an odious comparison of the Lemon Test to 'some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried.' Despite attacks against it and attempts to modify and chip away at it, the Lemon Test endures.
they can land a rover on mars, yet they still have to stick a human finger up my ass to do a prostate exam?! - ricky gervais
