Atheist Calls on 'Holy Trinity of Science' to Guide Lawmakers in Bizarre Iowa Invocation Prayer
A member of an atheist organization delivered an opening invocation before the Iowa House of Representatives last week, in which he invoked "the holy trinity of science made up of reason, observation and experience" to guide the lawmakers.
It was the first time that the state's legislative body allowed a professing atheist to offer the morning invocation. The body has a longstanding tradition of opening its meetings with prayers, which are typically offered by local pastors, according to Christian News.
"As you convene here in the people's House, let me implore this body to invoke the holy trinity of science," Justin Scott of the Eastern Iowa Atheists organization said.
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"This trinity has allowed humanity to explore the deep reaches of space, develop life-saving medicines, and vastly improve the human experience," he added.
Scott mimicked the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which holds that God is three "Divine Persons"—the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit.
The doctrine is at the very root of Christianity as expressed in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. "The mystery of the Trinity is inaccessible to the human mind and is the object of faith only because it was revealed by Jesus Christ, the divine Son of the eternal Father," according to the Jesus Christ Savior website.
It cites the Gospel of Matthew 28:19-20, which says, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
"Matthew has written 'to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,' not in their names, for there is only one God," the website points out.
But Scott did not have this in mind when he spoke about the "trinity of science" which, he said, "isn't rooted in any kind of doctrine or dogma ... in its pursuit of truth."
Scott said using the trinity of reason, observation and experience would allow lawmakers to address issues before them "without allowing confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance or intellectual dishonesty to blindly guide positions and votes," the Gazette reported.
He said he represents not only atheists but also freethinkers, skeptics and humanists and that he hopes his appearance before lawmakers will help "normalize what atheism is, what atheism isn't."
On their Facebook page, the Eastern Iowa Atheists hailed the invocation as "historic," and said the message was "dedicated to the atheists whose voices were never heard due to fear of rejection, harassment, retaliation and discrimination."
In September last year, Pastor Dan Delzell of the Wellspring Church in Papillion, Nebraska, writing for The Christian Post, derided atheism, saying "atheists have no authority to speak to the rightness or wrongness of any worldview" since "they believe everything is ultimately the direct result of random accidents."
"This means atheism itself is an accident," he said, adding that "this is the quintessential example of self-deception."
