{"id":2019,"date":"2011-06-22T13:21:31","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T17:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/?p=2019"},"modified":"2011-06-23T11:25:17","modified_gmt":"2011-06-23T15:25:17","slug":"atheists-livid-over-street-sign-honoring-911-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/06\/atheists-livid-over-street-sign-honoring-911-victims.html","title":{"rendered":"Atheists protest street honoring 9\/11 firemen"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Atheists are demanding that the City of New York remove a\u00a0Brooklyn street sign in front of a fire station\u00a0honoring\u00a0its seven\u00a0firefighters killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

They say they are offended by the word “Heaven.”<\/p>\n

The street, \u201cSeven in Heaven Way,\u201d was officially dedicated in Brooklyn outside the firehouse where the seven served. The ceremony was attended by firefighters, city leaders and widows of the fallen men.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
However, Ken Bronstein, president of the New York City Atheists say “Heaven” has no place in the Big Apple.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really insulting to us.\u201d said Bronstein, who said his group will sue to have the sign removed. \u201cWe\u2019ve concluded as atheists there is no heaven and there\u2019s no hell.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The sign\u00a0is a flagrant violation of\u00a0the U.S. Constitution, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a totally religious statement. It\u2019s a question of separation of church and state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>He said he didn’t care that the sign honors fallen heroes. \u201cIt\u2019s irrelevant who it\u2019s for,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

David Silverman, president of American Atheists, agreed calling on the city to remove the sign. \u201cIt implies that heaven actually exists,\u201d Silverman told Fox News Radio. \u201cPeople died in 9\/11, but they were all people who died, not just Christians. Heaven is a specifically Christian place. For the city to come up and say all those heroes are in heaven now, it\u2019s not appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concept of heaven is central to Christians — the idea that eternal life is a gift of God’s grace to those who accept Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The idea\u00a0that an afterlife is\u00a0filled with reward and pleasure is found in ancient Assyrian, Aztec, Egyptian, Canaanite, Phoenician, Polynesian\u00a0and Hittite theology. Today,\u00a0the hope of an eternal heaven is shared in\u00a0a variety of\u00a0forms by\u00a0the Bahai, Buddhist, Hindu and\u00a0Islamic faiths.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cAll memorials for fallen heroes should celebrate the diversity of our country and should be secular in nature,” said Silverman.\u00a0“These heroes might have been Jews.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jewish theology refers to the olam haba<\/em>, the World to Come. The classic Jewish text, the Pirkei Avot,<\/em> cites Rabbi Yaakov as saying “This world is like a lobby before the World to Come; prepare yourself in the lobby so that you may enter the banquet hall.”<\/p>\n

New York City leaders seemed dumbfounded by the atheists\u2019 outrage because they had not said anything during the lengthy and bureaucratic public approval process. “It\u2019s unfortunate that they didn\u2019t raise this as an issue while it was undergoing its public review either at the community board level or when it came before the\u00a0City Council,” said Craig Hammerman, the district manager for Brooklyn Community Board 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hammerman said in public hearings, the public was \u201csolidly behind this proposal. Not a single person stood up to speak out against it. I think it\u2019s a little late in the process for someone to be bringing this up now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think you\u2019ve heard it all, you haven\u2019t,\u201d Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz told Fox News Radio. \u201cThese seven brave souls who put their lives on the line and ultimately gave up the most precious gift that could be given, believe me are in heaven for serving us so admirably.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Atheists Protest Seven In Heaven Street Sign: MyFoxNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atheists are demanding that the City of New York remove a\u00a0Brooklyn street sign in front of a fire station\u00a0honoring\u00a0its seven\u00a0firefighters killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They say they are offended by the word “Heaven.” The street, \u201cSeven in Heaven Way,\u201d was officially dedicated in Brooklyn outside the firehouse where the seven served.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193,181,83,71],"tags":[256,419,381,439],"class_list":["post-2019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech","category-heaven","category-inspirational","category-news","tag-atheist","tag-heaven","tag-news","tag-september-11"],"yoast_head":"\nAtheists protest street honoring 9\/11 firemen - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/06\/atheists-livid-over-street-sign-honoring-911-victims.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atheists protest street honoring 9\/11 firemen - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Atheists are demanding that the City of New York remove a\u00a0Brooklyn street sign in front of a fire station\u00a0honoring\u00a0its seven\u00a0firefighters killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 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