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556 Comments
- Dagreenman, on 10/21/2009, -12/+262I like the slogan for the British campaign
"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life - Alheithinn, on 10/21/2009, -7/+186And why not? If Christians can advertise, why not atheists? If I had an advertising budget, I'd be advertising polytheism.
- Diefree, on 10/21/2009, -19/+151Explain to me why no one has a problem with Christianity advertising all the time but such a problem with Atheists exercising the same right? Seems like simple hatred for anyone who refuses to believe in their god, hmm hatred for a group of people that don't share your belief didn't this happen before with Christianity? Oh yea the dark ages!
- shaka776, on 10/22/2009, -4/+124First rule of Atheist Club: There is no Atheist Club.
- kylescousin, on 10/21/2009, -24/+139Hurray!
Oh wait, this isn't going to convert anyone. It's only going to create anger.... unfortunately. - rancemo, on 10/21/2009, -3/+103I don't think it's meant to anger or convert anyone. I think it's meant reach out to closet atheists, who might fear oppression for being "good without god". That's how I feel sometimes, but I'm also in the midwest where there's a church on every other block.
- a2wickedd991, on 10/21/2009, -9/+95Because having billions of people who believe in an invisible man in the sky run the country I live in is a recipe for disaster. It's like a kid never growing out of their imaginary friend, and then believing that he'll protect them in dangerous situations etc, and then doing crazy ***** that could get them killed. Same *****.
- Alheithinn, on 10/21/2009, -7/+88I don't think it matters if anyone is going to be angered. I get angered by all the Christian ads I see but I don't reject their right to advertise. We worry too much in our political correct culture that somebody might be offended.
- Coven, on 10/21/2009, -5/+81"literally buying advertising is the same exact thing as Jehovah's witnesses going door to door"
except those ads are not waking you up at 9am on a Saturday. - Alheithinn, on 10/21/2009, -4/+66How is advertising your belief (or lack of belief an example of intolerance? Intolerance would be denying people a right to express their belief or non-belief.
- HisNoodly, on 10/21/2009, -5/+65Pascal's wager fails.
If we're right, and this life is all you get, and there's nobody out there... then every split second of your tiny flicker of life in the abyss of eternity is *infinitely* precious. You really don't want to be pissing a third of them down the drain by wobbling around on your knees telling the ceiling how much you love it... - Alheithinn, on 10/22/2009, -3/+62Let me put it this way: I've never had an atheist confront me at
1) Work
2) A parking lot
3) A public street/sidewalk
4) My own yard or door
Christians do this. When atheists start doing that, then I'll say they're getting in my face. Until then, they're not. - Landover, on 10/21/2009, -4/+57"And the ads won't ruin people's day, every day? When your faith is called into question, even by a simple ad, you get pretty upset.
People were once forced to have faith upon pain of death (or worse). Did the religious stop to consider that this might eventually have a backlash? People get pretty upset when they're told they're going to burn forever in eternal anguish, too.
Especially by multiple groups all claiming to have the One Truth. - AngryDeuce, on 10/21/2009, -3/+51@fajitmelt: "And the ads won't ruin people's day, every day?"
How? If you're secure in your beliefs what the hell does seeing another viewpoint all the time matter? I would argue that if seeing an atheist ad upsets you to the point of ruining your day, then you have some serious issues with your faith already...
Do you feel that way about all advertising from religions that differ from yours? Or just the lack of religion, i.e. atheism? - eir574, on 10/21/2009, -1/+49"So I ask you, who is more developed?"
I would say that the people who understand that atheists and religious people act as individuals and not as single groups with uniformity of thought are more developed. - eir574, on 10/21/2009, -3/+44"When your faith is called into question, even by a simple ad, you get pretty upset."
Then your faith is quite weak, isn't it? That, and/or you have a very thin skin. It ruins your day just to see some anonymous person or group question some of your beliefs? Your life must be incredibly depressing. - Alheithinn, on 10/21/2009, -6/+46If you let one side control the terms of the debate, you also let them control its outcome. If you don't speak up, you've no right to complain later. I think atheists hope to avoid this mistake. Besides which, they're not being like the people offending them - they're not proselytizing. Their only advertising an alternative.
- digitalpencil, on 10/22/2009, -6/+44***** it.. last i checked we weren't out to 'convert' the world. just push God out of the scientific arena so we can carry on investigating the meaning of existence without fear of stepping on theist's toes.
my family are all Christians.. personally i think if you believe in God you are at best, naive and at worst, willfully ignorant but I honestly couldn't give a ***** if you believe in God or Unicorns as long as that *belief* doesn't suppress genuine lines of scientific research and you don't force your own beliefs on others. - piieerrrree, on 10/22/2009, -2/+39I don't know, fajitamelt. When people come up to me and tell me that I'm a terrible person who deserves incarceration or worse just for liking other men, I can't help but feel worried.
That's only one example of how religiously-based intolerance can be aggressive. - tdmeth, on 10/22/2009, -3/+38As a devout Christian, I really can't give a crap if someone wants to advertise Atheism, so long as they afford me the right to advertise Christianity. Great non-story, CNN.
- nepidae, on 10/22/2009, -2/+36Really, you think that no one has a problem with Christianity advertising all the time?
- nepidae, on 10/21/2009, -5/+38Oh my science, what is this world coming to.
- Suricou, on 10/21/2009, -2/+33On the other hand, children tend to believe in a lot of non-existing figures. Father christmas, the easter bunny, the tooth fairy, their own personal imaginary friend. Then one by one they realise as they mature that these are merely stories.
Perhaps atheists just go one imaginary friend further.
Just look at the simularities between God and Santa:
- Omniscient: They watch everything.
- They watch, and they also judge.
- They reward the good (Presents, heaven) and punish those they judge bad (Coal, hell)
- They have limitless or near-limitless power (Santa has no trouble achieving an impossible rate of travel)
- Both live in places which cannot be inspected by the believers - children lack the resources to travel to the pole.
- Both, conveniently, may never be seen directly - though children may stay up very late watching the chimney, they always feel asleep and presents mysteriously appear. - TwwIX, on 10/21/2009, -2/+32Not as much as the Mausoleums.
- rancemo, on 10/22/2009, -3/+32Churches and bars are very similar. They both serve you something that makes you feel good, is addictive, and kills millions of people every year.
- cosworth99, on 10/21/2009, -4/+33No, it's an attempt at making it ok to say "I don't believe in God" without fear of being fired, looked down upon, preached to etc.
- xenuxenuts, on 10/22/2009, -4/+32Don't worry, three days later you'll be dugg up.
- DaviDTC, on 10/22/2009, -2/+30But will cry and complain when someone does it to religious postings.
- badkid99076, on 10/22/2009, -4/+32Atheism != Religion. Why the hell does everyone think atheism is a religion? It's NOT a religion. It's the belief that there is not god or gods.
- Taiyoryu, on 10/22/2009, -4/+31unfortunately atheism isn't immune to zealotry
- pilot3033, on 10/22/2009, -0/+24Not to mention I see ads for various churches and religious groups on the subway and around NYC daily. Where I live there are at least 5 churches in a 5 block radius, as well as other various places of worship (2 or 3 jewish synagogues, a buddhist temple, and a mosque). Each of these places has banners or other signage promoting themselves and their religion; when you say "[one can] get pretty upset" by the display of material promoting something other than their belief, I can't help but wonder how you didn't understand atheists would be pretty upset having to walk around all day and be bombarded with these messages.
In fact, we are. You're so worried about peoples day's being ruing, but didn't consider that my (atheist) day would be "ruined" by religious promotion. Well, I'll make clear that I, nor almost any other are actually offended by advertising of this nature, despite the daily bombardment and constant harassment. - paulvq, on 10/22/2009, -0/+23Agnosticism isn't believing in a god without religion.
- uncleosbert, on 10/21/2009, -0/+23bohica, that's how you framed it:
"I remember learning that in early stages of development, children only understand rewards and punishments, but eventually they move beyond these simplistic concepts."
you never said why exactly this doesn't still hold for faith. can you? - uncleosbert, on 10/21/2009, -5/+28right, because buying ad space on a billboard is JUST LIKE bothering someone at home!
i'm from texas and one day, we just got a jesus video in the mail for no reason. some group was sending them to every address. i'm still waiting for my atheist video...
http://www.jesusfilm.org/ - CaptainNoPants, on 10/21/2009, -4/+27Thanks for opening my eyes, I really had no idea that I was intolerant for not wanting public policy to be shaped by religion. You've saved me, sir.
- BurntToShreds, on 10/21/2009, -3/+25Dugg for Chaos
- Alheithinn, on 10/21/2009, -2/+24It could be argued that that is the intention of Christian groups who post their advertisements.
- HisNoodly, on 10/21/2009, -0/+22Oh, and also, there's *plenty* of afterlives better and worse than the Christian ones.
Read up on the islamic version of hell, and their heaven. Never mind clouds and harps, you get 72 virgins all to yourself, not to mention carpets and fruit. That's not to be sneezed at, you know. If you're putting your money on the biggest payoff, you'd best work out which way it is to mecca.
(of course, the Flying Spaghetti Monster offers a beer volcano and a stripper factory, which is also pretty damn awesome. I highly recommend it - check out http://www.venganza.org ) - digitalpencil, on 10/22/2009, -1/+22@shrude: how i feel about them? i love them, with my whole heart so i ***** well hope they know..
just because i don't agree with them, doesn't mean i don't care about them.. in my opinion, there is no evidence that corroborates the existence of God and for me, 'faith' without reason or cause is little more than a pretty ribbon people tie around ignorance.
Children believe in Santa because you tell them he's real and they simply don't know any better.. At a point in that child's life though, they question the idea that an omnipotent being can be watching them day and night, creating gifts and then distributing them on a global basis in a mere 24hrs.
Most would jump to the logical conclusion that, given there is no evidence to back-up this claim, it stands to reason that the claim itself is a falsehood. Those who question this belief, recognize the lack of evidence supporting it, but still cling to it for comfort are being ignorant at the cost of their own intellectual salvation. This, is of course something we would discourage in a child, as it should be discouraged in adults.
Unfortunately, the longer an individual clings to these beliefs and immerses themselves in the re-affirming world of the Church without seeking to find answers elsewhere, the more difficult it becomes to separate the self, from the believer.
Many have died for their beliefs and unfortunately many more have killed for them. True Christians by their very nature cannot easily abandon faith for to do so would be to abandon themselves and everything they understand to be true, many therefore choose ignorance over enlightenment as the myth is much more settling than the cold, undeniable truth.
I won't lie to you in the slightest. I was once that child and when i lost my faith i was inconsolable. There is little more daunting than the realization of the futility of your own existence, the fact that there is no grand plan or purpose, no eternal father figure watching over you, steering you towards a path you should follow. Sheer want alone however, is not enough to turn fantasy to reality.
It was this though that was curiously my liberation, overcoming this sudden lack of identity causes you to re-examine existence and allows you to define your own purpose..
My family, like many, believes in God because to accept the alternative would obliterate the bubble in which they dwell. That i recognize this does not mean i don't care for them, it just means that, when possible, i try to look at the world from the perspective of logic and absolutes, unclouded by personal indifference. - enantiodromia, on 10/22/2009, -2/+22will God hear you whimper all night in a holding cell? sources say "no".
- enantiodromia, on 10/22/2009, -2/+22Remember the Great Atheist Inquisition during the Dark Ages? Or the Atheist Crusades?
Science damn, those intolerant Atheist!!!
(history lesson: had you divulged you did not believe in God during the Inquisition, you would have been murdered almost immediately.) - sivyr, on 10/21/2009, -0/+20"Secular morality? Is that anything like Christian values?"
Secular morality -- go to a philosophy class instead of church.
Any of the following: Kant's categorical imperative, social contract theory, utilitarianism, etc. All of which are systems of morality that do not have any basis in religion, and qualify as secular moral principles.
"As I said in the beginning, I can be a good person without God. That applies to Atheists as well. I just feel my faith makes me better."
Please describe to me any way in which you are improved by God in terms of morality. Others have asked, but so far all you've been able to say is "I just feel my faith makes me better" which is great and all, but all that tells me is that your faith makes you a pompous ass.
Or is being imposingly self-righteous okay in your moral code? - enantiodromia, on 10/22/2009, -0/+20oh, so you admit religious types are willing to look the other way when a crime is committed, as long as you go to the same church?
brilliant. - diggerpleez, on 10/22/2009, -14/+33I would just like to say that I am a Christian so I can see how buried I get. Here we go!
- ElysianGold, on 10/22/2009, -1/+20^This
The posters are there to reach out to existing atheists and people who are already skeptical about religion, not hard-line Christians/Muslims/Jews/etc. - RockOfVictory, on 10/21/2009, -3/+22Sweet. It's like the bus ad campaign that ran all over the UK earlier this year.
http://guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/21/asa-clears ... - curtisag, on 10/22/2009, -4/+23Unfortunately millions of children are being brainwashed to not believe in basic scientific theories due to fundamentalist christians that believe in a literal interpretation of the bible. Congrats on breaking free of your parents' attempts at brainwashing you, others are not so lucky. Young people trapped in highly religious families and societies need to know there is another opinion out there before their minds are completely warped and rendered incapable of reasoning appropriately. People only know what they're told for the most part.
- Tarhish, on 10/21/2009, -1/+19Any religion who thinks that a kind and loving god would also condemn to hell anyone who has never even had the opportunity to know and praise them needs to do some rethinking. If there is a god, and it is compassionate, then surely it doesn't care about all the crazy stuff we invented on our own.
That said, there are religions out there that are very reasonable, including ones without gods or spirits. Taoism has a couple branches: one is the original, and one has all this stuff to do with chi and ritual, which was invented by the Taoists who attended emperors or generals because Taoists, being critical thinkers, needed a way to safely tell their leader if they thought their plans were horse-*****. Telling them that charging across the river against a better-led force was foolhardy might get them castrated or killed, but consulting the signs and concluding that because four magpies were seen alighting on the trees by the water and a dragon was witnessed in the skies to the east so we should bide our time was generally a lot safer.
The original Taoists, like Lao Tzu and Chuang-tzu were pure philosophers, and I call it a religion only because the way it treats the natural workings of the universe is almost undeniably worship. They don't have a fixed morality, any fixed taboos, any command to convert, any commandments at all other than to follow the Tao, which is just the way things works. Understanding the way people work, the universe works, fire works, or medicine works; it's all holy. Good and peaceful deeds tend to be the most natural, but Taoists were some of the best war strategists China ever saw, because they were analytical, and if they decided that war was the best option available, they would be absolutely ruthless. And none of the founders pretended to have a divine connection that let them know they were correct; the major writers all admitted that the mere fact that they were writing about it meant they were far less than perfect. - cthellis, on 10/22/2009, -0/+18If you belong to one religion, MOST other religions are implicitly calling YOUR faith into question by their basic existence. Shouldn't you be more concerned by the number of churches, temples, and mosques that exist and are calling YOUR faith into question by their very existence? Buildings don't have limited display runs! Why, you might have to walk by MULTIPLE places-of-worship-that-are-not-yours every single day!
Or perhaps is it that "if you get pretty upset if someone calls your faith into question," the problem lies entirely within yourself? - Suricou, on 10/21/2009, -0/+18At best, pascal's wager is support for accepting *a* religion. It doesn't tell you which one - it doesn't even say if you should go monotheistic or polytheistic. It certinly doesn't specify a denomination. Assuming only one is right, your chance of picking correctly would be tiny. It would be most embarassing if you decided to be a devout protestant all your life and finally went to the final judgement to be told that only catholics are saved - or worse, to find someone in egyptian clothing waiting with scales and a feather.
What if the afterlife consists of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens capturing the minds of everyone who dies, and judging only those who rejected religion sufficiently intelligent to grant immortality? -
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