now the group american atheist is suing to stop the cross from being placed at the nine eleven site the spokesman appeared on fox news and if this reasoning for the lawsuit people will down to the constitution and what it really boils down to and why we all have emotions in this issue including me who was up in that area and we in new york to you to p.b.s. for this the emotions can't trump war. are it's not simple enough the group is making a valid point there is that whole constitutional issue of separation of church and state then again a lot of people feel inspired by the cross i don't know doesn't bother me to the point of getting really passionate and angry about apparently for a few other people that really did see after blair's got a communications director appeared on air he started getting death threats when he returned home after the interview his voicemail was full of hateful messages and he was quoted on the american atheist log saying that you can always tell when somebody from the group is on fox news because in inbox explodes with e-mail and over the fox news facebook pag

home after the interview his voicemail was full of hateful messages and he was quoted on the american atheist log saying that you can always tell when somebody from the group is on fox news because in inbox explodes with hate e-mail now over the fox news facebook page irate christians did like the interview either they left behind some really blistering comments and american atheists decided to grab a few screenshots of those comments so we're going to be nice we're in a blur out the names and the faces of the people who left the messages and also do know these messages have a lot of spelling errors so we're not correcting this one guy wrote i say kill them all and let them see for themselves that there is a got to people like that comment another woman posted here's my solution kill the group just kidding you figure it out i'm so sick of people that pick and choose when they want to truly be american they can go to hell oh wait they will let me just feel the christian love coming from that lady now another young girl that behind two facebook posts she said stupid atheists i hope god kills th

. >> here's a quote from dave silverman, the president of the american atheists organization. "the world trade center cross has become a christian icon. it has been blessed by so-called holy men and presented as a reminder that their god, who couldn't be bothered to stop the muslim terrorists or prevent 3,000 people from being killed in his name, cared only enough to bestow upon us some rubble that resembles a cross." [audience reacts] >> jon:, well, i can see why he's the president. [laughter] "as president of the american atheist organization, i promise to make sure that everyone, even those who are indifferent to our cause, will [bleeped] hate us." [laughter] of course, the atheists symbol is this, the atom, which the group suggested as an alternative statue at ground zero, because we're all made of atoms. but unless i'm wrong here, atoms are already well represented at ground zero. there are billions of them there. [laughter] so i guess it all comes down to a size issue. you're mad that the atoms are microscopic and the cross is big. perhaps as a compromise, we could build

[laughter] as president of the american atheist organization, i promise to make sure that everyone, evenhose who are indifferent to our cause, will [bleeped] hate us. [laughter] of course, the atheists suggested an alternative statue at ground zero. atoms are already well represented at ground zero. there are billions of them there. [laughter] so i guess it all comes down to a size issue. you're mad that the atoms are microscopic and the cross is big. perhaps as a compromise, we could build you an atomic symbol statue, but it has to be made out of billions of crosses. [laughter] we'll be right back. [cheering and applause] >> jon: welcome back to the show. you know, we cover a lot of medical issues on the program. recently one of these stories, well, it hit a little too close to home. our own jason jones had a health scare that tore his life apart. he's here now discuss it with us. >> thank you, jon. [cheering and applause] i decided to share my story so people out there know they don't have to go through something like i went through alone. take a look. ♪ ♪ for the past five years i not

david silverman president of the american atheists. dr.jeffers, it says in the rules, you shouldn't have a religious prayer before an event. but this is something that everybody has done for years. do you understand that the sentiment that it shouldn't happen? >> well, i think everybody needs to understand that the first amendment is the guarantee of the freedom of religious expression of all faiths. not a guarantee freedom from religious for atheists and liberal activists and i would ask our viewers to consider this. as you said, 20 years ago, prayers were common in graduations and at football games. and we have to ask ourselves now that they are extinct what has changed in the first amendment hasn't changed. the constitution hasn't changed. what has changed is we have allowed liberal activist judges and left wing groups to erode our rights as christians. and i'm proud of these residents who have stood up and said we're as mad as hell. we are not going to take this any longer. we're going tond sta up for our rights as american citizens. >

as a group, again, nothing against atheists, of all the groups in american politics you could conceivably think to ask about, republicans, democrats, gay people, conservatives, muslims, atheists, all of them, the tea party is the single least respected, least liked group in the entire country. i do not mean that as an insult. i'm reading you the data. if you asked america would you want a muslim president or a tea party president, the data shows that america would pick a muslim president, not a fake muslim president, but an actual muslim president. we'll have one of the researchers behind that data on the show tomorrow, which i'm very much looking forward to. but it does bring us to this question, and it's an open question because i don't know the answer to it. 1 if you were the republican party and were going to give one of these groups veto power over who was going to be your presidential nominee. there could not be a republican nominee unless it got these people's approvals first, which of these groups would -- i mean, really? you would give that power to

that the tea party ranks lower than 23 other groups they asked americans about, including unfairly but widely maligned groups like atheists and muslims. the tea party is increasingly the tea party is increasingly becoming a liability for republicans because what started as a small movement as morphed into another vehicle for social conservatives to inject exclusionary ideas into government. so important to their mythology, looks like the tea party is formed by a group of veteran activists with a very specific political agenda. so while the number of tea party core supporters haven't changed much over the past year from 21% in april 2010 to 20% today, the number of americans who have an unfavorable view of the tea party has jumped dramatically from 18% in 2010 to 40% today. the poll also found that 43% of americans, including 40% of self-described independents, think the tea party has too much influence on the republican party. and that is up from 27% just four months ago. joining me now is slate political reporter and msnbc contributor david weigel. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> he told the new

american who's a little suspicious of mormons. >> according to polls, just 45% of people have a favorable view of mormons. only atheists and muslims rate lower. >> stephen: it's true. i don't trust a muslim as far as i can throw him at an atheist. [laughter] but the mormon church is looking to change its image, with a pr campaign called "i'm a mormon." >> my name is joy monaham, i live in hawaii and i'm a mormon. >> my name's jeff decker. i'm sculpture for harley davidson and i'm a mormon. >> i'm a bee keeper. my name is mark cupertini and i'm a mormon. >> stephen: motorcyclist surfing beekeepers? is this a religion or a new show on spike? [laughter] so are mormons normal? yahweh or no way? yahweh! ♪ this campaign is making mormons irresistibly cool! who wouldn't want to -- ride unicycles, climb mountains, have great hair, or make out with birds?! [laughter] that's awesome. what am i saying? i'm a catholic! we need to fight back with an even cooler ad campaign, like this one. >> oh hi, i'm jason. i was just skateboarding while playing this guitar and ♪ falconing. and i'm a catholic. high-five a tiger! ♪ in your face mo

atheists >> when it comes to bedroom issues there is a very powerful impulse. but that impulse isn't winning in the republican party. it's getting 84% of adult american identify themselves at christian. 82% of americans believe jesus is god or the son of god. 79% of americans believe in the virgin birth of jesus. how can anyone think that americans's religious faith cannot shunted aside by a dutch flo philosophy pushed aside by personal autonomy. wife edie two daughters apits kaw pale 81. politics yale university american studies with an emphasis on religious and politics. ba some come law day. harvard university ph.d. religioum cum laude. harvard university ph.d. religion. "new york times" magazine. new york book review the "wall street journal" "l.a. times" the washington post. so on.com. three books on white buddhists, recently american jesus, how the son of god became a national icon. red sox die fan and ken u.s. richard plotherow. >> bangor maine 47 years of age. wife na g i sa. jewish. politics independence. wesley 81. london school of economics ms international relations. business week magazine moscow burro chief 4 4 years. the atlantic contri

only twenty percent of americans now approve of the tea party and forty percent disapprove of twenty three different groups asked about the poll who democrats republicans atheists and muslims tea party ranked dead last in approve in fact the only group that rival the tea party's unpopularity was the christian right it looks like america is finally moving on and leaving the tea party crazies behind and a very very ugly herman cain pizza shop owner turned islamophobia republican presidential candidate jumped on the impeach obama bandwagon yesterday speaking to a conference call of internet bloggers cain said impeaching the president would be a great thing to do and then ran down the list of impeachable offenses beginning with the president's support for the affordable care act and ending with the president's opposition to the defense of marriage act so let me get this straight president obama passes a law to provide health care coverage to nearly every single american so they don't die and takes a position supporting greater equality and civil rights for gays in america. and cain things those are impeachable offenses that's appearing here. coming up disaster cont

>> i'm inviting you to join your fellow americans in a day of prayer and fasting on behalf of our nation. >> reporter: critics are complaining. in fact, atheists went to court to stop perry's involvement in his own event. >> what governor perry is doing is totally unprecedented. this goes way beyond a nominal proclamation. >> reporter: they lost. perry says this is not a political event. but for a potential presidential candidate in a campaign expected to focus on the economy, he was asked by the christian broadcasting network, what he would be praying for. >> i'm going to be praying for our country's economic prosperity. there's just so many people that can't take care of their family because government's overtaxed, overregulated, overlitigated. >> reporter: even some mainstream christians are concerned about the event, which is being paid for by the american family association, which has been called anti-gay, a cultural warrior. it's who he is associated with the event that you're troubled by. >> that is what i think is the most disturbing thing. these are the people who have called the catholic church the great whore. >> reporter: from a po

they're less light than atheists and muslims who in republican circles it's not politically correct to openly hate you know so if the tea party is doing so poorly with the american public and yet the republican base is pushing all these tea party candidates in are they going to end up with another barry goldwater situation i think it's very possible i mean with rick perry and michele bachmann in particular. the tea party if we all recall those poll numbers of the tea party love to push back and you know two years ago a year now to go sixty five percent of americans approve of the tea party that's what sixty five percent of americans thought the tea party was what they read about in their high school or you know junior high school or elementary school textbooks right now they know what this tea party really is and they don't like it a bit carl on the democratic side is joe biden is considerably older than barack obama and it was four years that we've been over that and i think a lot of democrats think that he's a little bit of a loose cannon to be president. or maybe have characterized that run but whatever he's not generally considered to be the guy who's going

americans. and that i think that i just want to thank you again for your efforts and what you've done for the muslim community. i think more of us need to come together where we are atheist, muslim, hindu, whatever faith. i think we can meet on common goals and try to establish something, work towards goals that we may not believe have come together on foundational beliefs or practices. i think there are thing that is we can come together on. one of those things i read a quote once again words make worlds. one the things i read in usa today article about general petraeus who has not been assigned, he continued to use islamic terrorist. there's no such thing of terrorism in islamic. i thought it was unfortunately that he continues to use that throughout his term. one the things you used the term, the term that you used was fundamentalism. i think that's a tricky word when it comes to islam or any religion. because someone that might look at me and say, wow, he's strict. i think a radical person like the kkk or al qaeda or some of the forests individuals or group. i don't know what you think of that in terminology and how it affects people and thinking. >> thanks for your