Atheists 'Scrub Away' Blessing on Highway

Atheists in central Florida scrubbed a major highway this weekend to symbolically wash away holy water left behind by Christians, Bay News 9 reports. Armed with mops, brooms, and hoses, they washed down a road on the Pasco-Polk county line that had been anointed last year by a group called Polk Under Prayer. "We come in peace ... now that's normally what aliens say when they visit a new planet, but we're not aliens, we're atheists!" shouted Humanists of Florida director Mark Palmer.

An associate at a nearby church was not amused: "I find it absolutely ludicrous that the atheists who say they don't believe in God have to erase something that they don't believe in," he said. But Palmer says their protest extends to anyone "who doesn't happen to be Christian" and "is about welcoming everybody into Polk county." The feud is long from over, because the atheists are miffed about "prayer bricks" that Polk Under Prayer buried beneath various roads, engraved with words from Psalm 37: "For the wicked shall be destroyed, but those who trust the Lord shall be given every blessing." (More atheists stories.)