Atheist billboards wont have impact acccording to preacher.
Offline HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/af0c600529a14909b679c9347e488c66/CO--Atheist-Billboard/
Yea, and I am sure the church thought Galileo's observations were just a fad too.
I hate to tell believers reading this, our movement is having and will continue to have an impact. 9/11 was the worst thing to happen to theism but exposed it for the tribal bullshit it is. It was a kick in the pants to atheists, AND a wake up call to believers that naked assertions would be challenged.
Now, there are even doubters in the atheist community who think we haven't or don't have an impact. This is mostly spoken by short term thinkers. When one is active, like I have been on a daily basis for the past 10 years, you notice the difference.
I remember when "atheist" was hardly if ever mentioned in media other than to demonize it. There were only handful of active websites, and even back then when I first got on the web, because of deep seeded indoctrination, feared needlessly the "cult" treatment most of society considered.
But that is changing as it should. Just like we no longer believe the earth to be flat. This preacher is dead wrong. We are here to stay. We are here to challenge the notion that invisible friends by any label, are needed to live a decent life or to do good or be good.
The dismissive attitude only serves to me, to motivate me to continue. And to the atheist who read this. One voice does count. This is not a short term sprint, but a long term marathon.
NOW, before any theists goes shouting the bullshit of hate and bigotry, most atheist here are very realistic. We do want you to give up on your superstition, it is our position that you dont need it. But, on a planet of 7 billion it is not our tactic to use force of law. We are simply using the same free market of ideas to compete and challenge you to think outside your social norms. We are your family, friends and co-workers. We don't want to oppress you, but merely to challenge you.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
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I wonder how anyone can doubt what you say here.
Of course, being older than 14 years means that I, too, can remember when 'atheist' was a position that few, if any, would seriously consider adopting into their daily lives. The word itself was rarely even used by the majority. While it is true that the US is lagging behind several other countries in it's religious outlook, one must bear in mind how many more people are declaring themselves atheist now than ever before in American history. In the past 12 years, Americans have become TEN TIMES more likely to call themselves atheists or agnostics.
What we need to do is continue questioning people's religious assumptions without completely alienating them. Make it difficult for the religious to defend their positions, and eventually they will give them up. But, as long as we coddle them by allowing them to hold superstitious views without challenge, those views will remain.
I for one WILL defend my fangs. When we have people shooting abortion doctors or seeing the murders of abortion doctors as heros, when we still have people committing acts of violence in the name of a god, when someone in the world today can still be arrested for merely saying "God does not exist", I refuse to play nice with my words all the time.
I am extremely realistic that theism isn't going anywhere and I have family and friends who do believe. But claims should never be given a pedestal. Context of situation is my guide. I certainly would not use my fangs at a funeral or wedding. But when someone claims that creationism or ID should sit side by side in a class teaching evolution, I will not play nice with my words. When someone claims that their society's women should be submissive because their god said so, I will not play nice with my words. When someone threatens ANYONE else with physical violence because their deity got picked on, I will not play nice, with my words.
But outside debate in daily life, I will lend you(believer) aid, and still be your friend, and still love you(as an individual), outside these issues, regardless of your label. I am a human first. And as such all I can do is bitch without getting violent. The worst my believing counter parts have to fear from me is considering that they might be wrong. But under no circumstance will they silence me.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
That billboard will have no impact on believers which is what the pastor really said. I think it's pretty funny actually the atheists spending over a thousand bucks to put up billboards to protest something they KNOW doesn't exist. How come we don't see any billboards about the flying spaghetti monster being imaginary?
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:20
I like how many conservative and libertarian atheists there are. I wish there were more, but it encourages me. It seems that the right-wing makes it out that atheism is a left-wing thing. Off the top of my head I can think of some conservative and libertarian atheists in the media or at least that are celebrities: Penn Jillette (libertarian and illusionist); Matt Stone (libertarian and co-creator of South Park); S.E. Cupp (conservative commentator); John Stossel, the libertarian commentator; Michael Shermer (libertarian, psychologist, and agnostic); Adam Carolla (libertarian and comedian).
Religions will evolve into self-help systems and mix with clinical psychology. That's my prediction. There's already evidence of this. Look at a lot of mega churches, they look like motivational speaking seminars, mixed with booming entertainment. Eventually religions will drop the supernaturalism for the most part. It will eventually be a fringe thing to be a supernaturalist. Michael Shermer said that religions will eventually go away because they won't be useful anymore.
If the billboard has no impact, perhaps the preacher could explain the newspaper articles being written about it, or maybe explain why a news crew is filming him and his opinion outside an otherwise insignificant church [one of eleven in the area]. My point is it clearly is makeing an impact and atheists should keep up the good work.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
The part that does exist is fundamentalist forcing laws on non-believers and of course they always are ranting they are poor victims when they are in the majority. If you get them to think about the validity of their god then you have done something important for them and non-believers. That is the point of creating yet another man-made god the FSM, all hail his noodl-essences. He was boiled for our sins.
You got hundreds of years of marketing to disagree with you. Companies invest millions, even billions of dollars on such things (superbowl anyone). And one of the biggest businesses that do it is Christian churches. Out on Interstate 81 along the east coast there are multiple places where they have put up huge, I mean HUGE, crosses. I know that one of them hasn't even built their church yet but invested $60,000 to build a humongous cross. We call that branding.
They know something you don't.
## edit
The church on 81 is the open door baptist church. They added lights to it and they have a Jesus story for each color light
http://thechurchthatprayerbuilt.org/reason-for-the-cross.htm
Check out the size in relationship to the tractor-trailer trucks.
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/
Yea, you must have had your head buried in the sand for the past 11 years like this preacher.
This is such a stupid question. RELIGIOUS PEOPLE affect politics and education, as long as that is the case damned right we are going to challenge their claims.
What do you think the world would be like today if Galileo had said, "I'm going to keep the truth to myself because it might offend the majority"?
IF the majority of our society were electing people who believed in FSM, then WE WOULD challenge those people too.
You don't believe in Allah but I am damned sure if you lived under the theocracies of the Middle East as a non-majority, you'd have a much better understanding of WHY we question pulpit politics here.
WE question because that is the only way to keep religious monopolies on politics at bey. To suggest that we sit quietly at the back of the bus since we don't worship a god you do is absurd.
"NO RELIGIOUS TEST' UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION'S REQUIREMENTS FOR THE OATH OF OFFICE
"As the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion" Barbary Treaty article 11 signed without dissent by both houses of Congress into LAW by President John Adams June 10th 1797.
"QUESTION WITH BOLDNESS EVEN THE EXISTENCE OF A GOD" Thomas Jefferson(a deist, not an atheist_
Why do we question the existence of a god we dont believe in? Because apathy is the quickest way to allow people to take your rights away. If you want to live as a minority under a government run on religion, ask a Christian or Jew or atheist living in Iran how much fun pulpit politics is for them.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Nothing to add to Brian37's comment, just want to
Although I agree with most of it... I have been INACTIVE "for the past 10 years", I like it that way, and I notice the fucking difference myself.
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
When pastors, preachers, or any other holy men claim that a certain symbol or sign that is designed to refute their faith has no effect on their beliefs and goes ahead making an ass out of himself telling everyone that it's something to ignore, that tells me that there's an extremely high degree of insecurity there. If said leaders of their flocks actually kept the faith rather than look desperate to round up the sheep every chance they're tested, there might be less confusion and more understanding.
Gotta love double posts...