On September 25, 2014, the Faith & Values reporter from the Mobile Press Register / Alabama Media Group reached out to me regarding a Huntsville atheist’s plan to deliver an invocation before the Huntsville City Council. She asked me what an atheist invocation would sound like. I explained that all invocations are different, but it would most likely express values such as secular humanism, skepticism, critical thinking, and scientific discovery.

Amanda Scott, a student, atheist and activist in Mobile, described how an atheist might deliver an invocation.

“An atheist ‘invocation,’ or message, mostly likely would express secular humanistic values such as putting aside our religious differences and working together for the common good for humanity,” said Scott, 21. “It could show reverence for the scientific method of discovery and express wonder for the universe and the world as it has formed under the Big Bang and evolution.”

Scott, a paralegal student at Faulkner State Community College, spoke against a proposed “In God We Trust” display at Mobile Government Plaza last month. Since then, Scott has received hate mail and death threats.

She said the “invocation” would probably be directed toward the council members and audience rather than a deity. “It would ask them to keep their heads up and their eyes open, and look toward one another rather than bowing their heads in prayer,” she said.