"In the best possible world a moment of silence would be the best answer, then anybody who felt fit could say something to what they believe in, that would be the perfect answer," says Chris Beardsley.

Chris Beardsley is a member of the Western Colorado Atheists and Free Thinkers, the group that challenged the city counsel's right to hold an invocation before each meeting prompting the council to enact a resolution allowing an invocation by a chaplain or randomly selected speaker.

"The council has never attempted to establish a religion or promote one over the other in this they've asked for guidance from themselves and I think that's a right," says city council member Linda Romer.
Beardsley says members of the Western Colorado Atheists are not trying to change anybody's religion. "We are not in the business of getting people to think like us, were just saying that this is how we think, do not discriminate against us cause we don't think exactly like you do."

Council member Doug Thomason says the city supports their decision.
"We got as a council many, many emails on both sides of the issue, certainly predominately positive for maintaining the invocation. It was something that we wanted to maintain, the only issue was to make it defendable and have it stand up in a court of law," says Thomason.