Atheist Gives Books To Cartersville's Red Top Mountain State Park

Red Top Mountain State Park may be one of the first Georgia parks to get atheists' literature.

Ed Buckner, a former president of American Atheists Inc., said Wednesday he delivered books to several state parks in Georgia, including two for each cottage at the state park in Cartersville, reports The Associated Press.

The New Jersey-based organization said it would supply atheist texts for lodging facilities at Georgia state parks after Gov. Nathan Deal in May sent donated Bibles back inside the parks' cabins and said any religious group could donate literature.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources had removed Bibles from its rooms "out of an abundance of caution to avoid potential litigation," Deal said in a press release, after Buckner complained about nine copies found in an Amicalola Falls State Park cabin he rented.

"American Atheists does not believe the state of Georgia should be placing Bibles or atheist books in state park cabins; however, if the state is going to allow such distribution, we will happily provide our materials," group president David Silverman said in a statement, according to the AP.

Buckner said Red Top Mountain State Park officials indicated they would review the books he dropped off before distributing them to the cabins, WSB-TV reports. A sticker in each says the books were donated as part of a program developed by Deal.

Planning to distribute atheist texts to other Georgia state parks later in the week, Buckner said he believes religious books belong in libraries.

"It promotes hatred of atheists," Buckner told WSB-TV. "There are things it does that I don't think the state should be involved with. But if they're going to be involved, we should at least have some counters to it."

The Skeptics Annotated Bible by Steve Wells and Fear, Faith, Fact, Fantasy by Dr. John A. Henderson are the two titles Buckner gave to Red Top Mountain State Park, and he plans to later introduce a third at other state parks—Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq.

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• Gov. Deal Orders Return of Bibles to Rooms at State Parks
• Atheists Plan to Send Books to Georgia State Parks