Atheist ad campaigns come in peace, love and understanding
Filed under: Extracurriculars, Charity, Relationships
On a stretch of highway 20 near Pell City, Alabama, a billboard instructs drivers to "Imagine no religion." The sign, which is looks like a stained-glass window, accompanies the John Lennon quote with the url for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit group that lobbies to support the separation between church and state. While the message is restrained, it has already inspired a heated public debate.In the grand scheme of things, it seems odd that the question of whether or not God exists is so controversial. Just as some people go to church and others don't, the dividing line between atheism and belief is largely a private concern, relegated to how people spend their weekends and, to some extent, how they explain their actions. In fact, the battle over which God one worships seems far more likely to result in broken noses and bruised feelings.
However, the Pell City billboard has transformed a private question over God's existence into a very public battle. Initially, the Alabama Freethought Association attempted to install the Lennon billboard near the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International airport, but was rebuffed by Lamar, the company that controlled the site. The second site, on highway 20, ultimately worked out, but has resulted in irate phone calls and a petition to force its removal.
Signs that endorse Judeo-Christian religions have been part of the American landscape for decades. Recently, however, a growing chorus has pushed for greater inclusion of non-religious messages. Britain's Atheist Bus program led the charge when it placed the slogan "There's Probably No God...Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life" on 30 London buses. The message was subsequently picked up by similar campaigns in Spain and Canada. In Washington, DC, the American Humanist Association ran bus ads asking "Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness' sake."
At the same time, several municipalities soundly rejected Atheist ads. Australia, Italy, Croatia, and Switzerland all refused to allow them, as did Bloomington, Indiana and -- thus far -- New York City.
Even in areas where the Atheist ad push has failed, however, the public discussion has inspired a serious -- and energetic -- discussion about community values and the place of religion in society. As Pat Cleveland, a Freethought Association member in Alabama notes, "I'm proud to be an American [...] I'm a good person. I pay taxes, abide by the law, and I'm good to my family. I help people. I believe hands that help are better than hands that pray."
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=580896&pid=580895&uts=1247777294
http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf
Can They Really Do That?
In a stretch of highway 20 near Pell City, Alabama, a billboard instructs drivers to "Imagine no religion." I bet you're wondering: Can They Really Do That?" Click through this gallery.
Getty Images
AP
WalletPop is not responsible for caption content.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
7-17-2009 @ 2:56PM
tbr said...
Bruce, your article is incredibly naive. In "the grand scheme of things" what could be MORE important than whether God exists or not? Your assessment that belief amounts to incidentals such as how you spend your weekend or explaining some behaviors is condescending and simplistic. Belief and faith, by definition, are dynamic and life-shaping forces. If you want to do an article on atheistic advertising, then do so. But you display both ignorance and bias in making dismissive comments about matters that are ultimate and profound.
Reply
7-17-2009 @ 10:42AM
Bruce Watson said...
TBR-
There is no doubt that the issue of whether or not God exists is personally important. On a social level, however, it is only important to the degree that it affects one's treatment of others. As pro-atheist groups often point out, it is certainly possible for non-believers to be courteous, loving, and socially responsible. Similarly, it is clearly possible for religious folk to be condescending, closed-minded, dismissive, reductive, and cruel.
While I won't even begin to question the importance of religion in your personal life, unless it informs the way that you treat me, it is -- from where I'm standing -- irrelevant. To go further, unless it inspires you toward the traditional religious values of kindness, tolerance and decency, I have to question whether your personal reverence is even socially productive.
7-17-2009 @ 11:13AM
Helen said...
That's the point -- it's only profound if you're religious. Religion is the only area of life in which a group of people can proclaim something for which they have no evidence, and this claim takes precedence over everything else. To the rest of us, it's not as profound as it is naive, and the bible is just a book, and no more significant than Who Moved My Cheese.
7-17-2009 @ 11:22AM
sambo said...
I like the statement on the bus in England,but as a christian i would have it say, there is a God so quit worrying about it and enjoy your life.Watch,the god butt kissers aint gonna like this statement.
7-17-2009 @ 11:08AM
Dave B. said...
So what's the problem?
For generations, centuries, religionists, particularly supernatural religionists, have been in our faces, our ears, both locally and regionally, to say nothing of nationally. If they're so much in favor of freedom, as they claim so loudly and incessantly, unlike a century or so ago, back to the Bronze Age and counting, then let them let the others who don't buy into their threat-garnished religious advertising have our say. At long last. And that say should be permitted on public highways, in public places, even in public schools insofar as the supernatural religionists are already there.
And let's start to recognize all the religious critiques, particularly of the fundamentalist religion so prominent/dominant out there. There are a heck of a lot of published books answering their usual sales pitches, so let's get them into our libraries and schools. Try googling up Prometheus Books for starters.
Reply
7-18-2009 @ 11:02PM
reidgator said...
Actually, you do not have to imagine life without religion. Just do some research. Read the stories or talk to anyone who lived under Stalin, Lenin, or Mao. That should give you an idea of what "life without religion" would be like!!!
7-19-2009 @ 3:13AM
Lin said...
No problem, Go ahead burn in hell.
7-19-2009 @ 6:25AM
brentaal said...
@reidgator
Sure, but do you remember what happened with True ChristianTM ideology? Nazism. Do you also know that 99.9999% of all murders on this world were commited by Azeusists? If we embrace Zeus, there would be no murders!
Seriously, your way of generalising does nothing to further your point (that people "should be religious"), because you can find examples for both sides.
7-17-2009 @ 11:46AM
brad said...
do you believe for 1 minute you could be blessed by anyone other than by GOD we owe him everything,for everything we have . stop and think about it .
Reply
7-17-2009 @ 1:40PM
CeiThor said...
God has done NOTHING for me, Brad. If it has done something for you, that's fine. However, I owe no deity anything. Everything I've achieved, I've done so through the sweat of my own brow, not through supernatural intervention. When a deity starts writing my code for me, I'll start believing in them. From what I can tell, there's more evidence that "gods" came from another planet than there is evidence that it is some invisible, universal being.
7-18-2009 @ 11:42PM
sean dzurenda said...
People, especially adults need to grow up and stop actually thinking a fictitious character called GOD made everything and controls everything. Kids believed in Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the boogey man but as they grow up these Ill informed adults who believe in such a superstitious figure implant these ridiculous thoughts that there is actually a GOD into their minds. The church and all who believe in GOD need to stop and think; read a science book. The earth is not 6,000 years old! How else would we have oil/fossil fuels!?! It takes a LONG time for fossils to turn into oil, not 6,000 years!!! GOD IS MAKE BELEIVE AND JUST AS KIDS LEARN THERE IS NO SANTA, ADULTS NEED TO GROW UP AND REALIZE THERE ALSO IS NO GOD!!! THERE IS NO PROOF, THE BIBLE IS A FICTITIOUS FAIRY TALE, AND SCIENCE EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!!!
7-18-2009 @ 11:51PM
reidgator said...
Responding to Sean:
It appears that you think very highly of your reasoning skills. However, you do not practice what you preach. Tell us, Sean, what EVIDENCE do you have that God does not exist?
Bear in mind - ABSENCE of EVIDENCE is NOT the same as EVIDENCE of ABSENCE!
Have you ever heard of "dark matter"?
When the "experts" peer into space, galaxies and stars do not always behave as the experts say they should. So, they theorize that "dark matter" exists and its gravity is affecting the behavior of these astronomical bodies. Without any empirical that this "dark matter" exists, they have reached thse conclusions.
Would you laugh at them? Call them superstitious?
7-19-2009 @ 11:50AM
talktome525 said...
Here's the deal, religious folks:
God isn't real. Reidgator seems to think an absence of proof is proof of God's existence. It's not. Just as the myth of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny (both of which are stolen Pagan traditions) have been debunked but repeated to children to trick them into believing in a magical creature and convince them to be good for said magical creature, the myth of God has routinely been conditioned into children from the time of infancy. The only difference with the God myth is some adults can't grow up and realize it's just another lie. The myth of God has been routinely used by cultures for centuries to explain the unexplainable (and justify the terrible). How was the world created? God did it. Why does it rain? God did it.
God didn't do it. God doesn't exist. Pointing to an omnipotent deity who allegedly appeared to a desert tribe and told them he liked them more than everyone else is naive. Yet it's the basis of Judaism and Islam, and several other major religions. The Christians just added the extra part about a zombie vampire who committed assisted suicide to cleanse the world of evil (that worked out great, btw).
At the end of the day, the world's greatest evils have been propagated by RELIGION, not Atheism. Even Hitler was a Christian, and frequently opened and closed mass rallies with Christian prayers. There's video. Look it up. And Christian Hitler isn't alone. Among the other atrocities propagated by religion:
-The Mountain Meadows Massacre when Mormons slaughtered settlers headed to California (actually, some bad blood never changes)
-The Inquisition
-The Sexual Abuses of Children by priests in the Catholic church.
-The Witch Hunts
-9/11
-The Persecution of Christians by Romans
-Aztec Human Sacrifice
-Islamic Jihad
-Domestic Terrorism (Christians bombing clinics and blowing people's brains out in CHURCH; apparently someone forgot Matthew 7:22-23)
-The Routine Attacks on Women perpetrated by religions of all stripes, particularly Judeo-Christian and Islamic faiths.
-The Rampant Discrimination against "Others" (See Prop 8 as the most recent example; Apparently Jesus loves everyone except the people Christians don't like)
I could go on and on and on. The simple fact of the matter, however, is that religious folks are still members of a group, similar to thousands of others worldwide, who believe the religion which they were born and raised into (or born again, in some instances) is infallibly the only true and correct one. An arrogant statement given the sheer number of religions in existence, and a foolish one given the overwhelming lack of evidence for any type of deity (sorry, saying "God gave you everything, THINK about it!" means nothing; I've thought about it--there's no proof).
Religion is for small-minded people who need an excuse to discriminate against others, a justification for their evil actions, who lack the maturity and wisdom to do good for goodness' sake rather than out of fear of punishment (hell) or promise of reward (heaven), and who can't wrap their minds around the magnitude of our universe (on a side note, how did God create all the stars, literally TRILLIONS of them, each with their own solar systems and sets of planets, in a day when it took six just to make this tiny rock we live on?). These things more than explain the simple-minded, God-is-right, the-Bible-is-infallible-so-I'm-right, you're-going-to-hell mentality I've seen in these comments.
To quote William Gascoyne: "I'm not convinced that faith can move mountains, but I've seen what it can do to skyscrapers."
7-19-2009 @ 1:23PM
Bleck said...
Your right! Dark matter is a theory. Theories have this wonderful ability to be changed based on scientific research and evidence. This research and evidence will then be published and scrutinized by many others in the science field.
Most religious people don't consider the existence of god a theory, but an absolute truth. Is it OK that the existence of god is now referred to as "The God Theory"? And until such evidence exists we will consider it a possiblitiy, but not an absolute truth? Most scientists wouldn't get up and say blatantly "Dark matter exists, and this is how it exists, and this is how its always existed".
The theory argument is old. If you wanna use it, apply it to both religion and science then.
7-19-2009 @ 1:47PM
Bob said...
Wow. You do realize that you have chosen one of an infinite number of possibilities of where you came from.
Now, doesn't that sound dumb? Just because someone told you this is how you were created, you had to believe it without question?
People have no idea how the universe was created and probably never truly will. Waste your time believing what someone else told you. As for me? I don't care at all. Whatever happens when you die happens. You become worm food. End of story.
7-17-2009 @ 12:33PM
Tammie said...
There is something in these United States of America called the Bill of Rights. This is part of the Constitution of The United States of America. This precious document guarantees us the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The #1 right the Bill of Rights gives us (you guessed it) is Freedom of Speach. Like it or not, the Athiests do have the right to voice their opinions just like everyone else. They do not have the right to impose their minority opinions on to the majority in the form of Supreme Court rulings. If I want to pray in public, that is my GOD given right. We The People must band together to defend and keep the Constitution of these United States of America, with the Bill of Right, intact as our forefathers intended. Let no greedy, corrupt politician put asunder!
Reply
7-17-2009 @ 2:00PM
Jimmy said...
Nobody is trying to stop you from praying in public. We are trying to stop religious influence on our government. You can hold all the superstitions you want as long as you don't legislate it.
7-17-2009 @ 2:04PM
Jimmy said...
Sorry for double posting, but I also feel this notion that we must keep the constitution intact as our forefather's intended is misguided. We must govern this country based on what is best for us right now. It so happens that the framers had good forsight, and most of what they enacted applies today, but the fact that there are 16 Amendments on top of what the founding fathers gave us is proof that the Constitution must change as society does.
7-18-2009 @ 9:12PM
dale m said...
and let no church group do it either
7-18-2009 @ 11:20PM
reidgator said...
Responding to Jimmy,
You are correct. The Constitution can be amended as WE the people see if fit. If enough of us believers decide to pass an amendment stating that Freedom of Religion does NOT mean Freedom from Religion, that the government can in fact endorse religious principles and values, then, your argument goes bye-bye!
Face it - your side has been lying for years. The principle of "separation of church and state" is NOT in the US Constitution. Sadly, so many Americans (un-informed and mis-informed) believe your lie!