Posted by Hemant Mehta in Back in September, Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers (one of the few openly atheistic elected officials in America) was in the news because he was suing God:
Why was he doing this?
To show (in his words) “that anyone can sue anyone including God. It’s an object lesson too. It demonstrates that the mere filing of a lawsuit doesn’t guarantee a win.”
Chambers appeared in court on Tuesday, where a judge “took the case under advisement.”
“He may reach a decision on the 12th of never and when that happens I may be crippling around here and I’ll say it came to pass on my 120th birthday, and at that point I’ll be able to tell that it did come to pass,” Chamber said.
Chambers said he’s been surprised at how many Christians attacked him and his family after the lawsuit (PDF).
He said Baptists, Methodists and Universalists all urged him to leave the lawsuit with them. But he couldn’t, he said, because each of them doesn’t accept each other’s God.
“For all we know, God was sitting in one of the empty chairs in the courtroom today chuckling at the lawsuit, laughing that he made this guy, Chambers — if you believe in that sort of thing,” [Chambers] said.
The lawsuit, a hilarious read, is here (PDF).
Hopefully the judge understands the point Chambers was trying to make.
(via The God Blog)
The reasoning is ambiguously worded enough that I can’t tell whether he’s trying to make a point for or against frivolous lawsuits. Which is it?
I always found this story really amusing.
It’s always been a distinct pleasure to have him in our legislature. The guy is probably the most knowledgeable person alive when it comes to the Nebraska Constitution. Supposedly the other lawmakers introduced our new term limits legislation in part to specifically get rid of him since he’s so good at stonewalling legislation he doesn’t like. Also, I think technically he describes himself as agnostic and not atheist, but in this red state, I’ll take what I can get.
If he wins, I’m gonna sue Santa Claus for not getting me that bike I wanted when I was 9.
The alliteration was my favorite part:
That would earn some brownie points if I was the judge.
This reminds me of the Aussie movie “The Man Who Sued God” who was pissed that insurance companies used the claim “an act of god” when his boat was struck by lightening and then class-actioned God – as represented by leaders of all major religions. I highly recommend the movie.
Apart from joining in what THz said (the man who sued god in the film is played by Billy Connolly, if you needed any more reason to see it), I do have to wonder about this case.
However, a question occurred to me, and I couldn’t be bothered looking up the previous thread: Has Senator Chambers perjured himself?
The declaration which closes the filing of any lawsuit states that the plaintiff believes the alleged acts to be true. Senator Chambers does not believe that the defendant is the perpetrator of the alleged acts, such as earthquakes. So is he guilty of perjury?
This is ever so amusing… =)
[...] State Senator Ernie Chambers resumes lawsuit against God -I thought Pete Stark was the only openly atheist member of our government, though Lori Lipman Brown says that she knows of at least 20 other alleged atheists in our government who admitted to being non-believers but asked her not to disclose their identities out of fear of it damaging their career in politics. So I’m glad to hear about Ernie Chambers. I hope that when God doesn’t show for court that he’s held in contempt. [...]
Sheesh. As if our courts aren’t burdened with too many junk cases as it is. I hope the judge not only throws out the case but at least threatens a contempt of court citation for this well-meaning but stupid stunt.
~David D.G.
Very funny!