An atheist monument will soon be constructed next to the Ten Commandments at a courthouse in Florida.
The 1,500 pound bench will sit at the front of the Bradford County Courthouse in Starke, Florida, and will feature quotes from famous atheists like Thomas Jefferson. It will also feature biblical punishments and a passage from the Treaty of Tripoli which states that the U.S. government was not founded on Christianity.
According to Gainesville.com , this will be the first public monument dedicated to atheism in the United States.
Dave Muscato, public relations director for American Atheists, one of the groups responsible for creating the atheist monument, argued that the Ten Commandments shouldn’t sit in front of a court house.
Muscato said : (The first commandment says) thou shalt have no other gods before me. That’s not an American thing to say, that you’re supposed to be punished for worshipping another god.”
After the Ten Commandments monument was unveiled last year Muscato and his filed a lawsuit saying that the Ten Commandments didn’t belong on federal property. When the Bradford Courthouse refused to remove the monument the group started working on their own.
Muscato said that he would prefer that the courthouse was free of any religious monuments but was happy to see the atheist monument go up as an alternative.
Muscato said: “If religious groups are going to have monuments, then it’s only appropriate that we have matching monuments. But it’s our preference that none of these are here.”
Yahoo News reports that the atheist monument would go up in late June.