The issue that I have with these billboards is that it is exactly the type of thing the typical Angry Persecuted Athiest claim is their biggest issue with hardcore religious groups.
The biggest issue atheists have with religious groups isn't that they promote their beliefs with billboards or even door-to-door evangalism. The biggest issue we have is that they attempt to force their own views of morality on the entire population by attempting to have their beliefs legislated into law. I really don't care if a church in my neighbourhood publicly displays a poster promoting their beliefs; that doesn't bother me at all. I do care if members of that church try to remove the teaching of evolution from the public school science curriculum (or give creationism equal time), try to ban abortion, prevent medical advancements by placing limits on stem cell research, etc.
Last edited by MarchHare; 01-28-2009 at 04:08 PM.
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I'm split on this.. on one hand I don't like the advertising aspect of it, it smacks of proselytizing (which I don't think it is, that would be "be an atheist or go to atheist hell whereever that is, probably Kansas).
On the other hand, being an atheist can be extremely difficult even in today's society. I know lots of cases where people have been rejected by their families, marginalized at work, harassed, sent death threats, etc all because of their lack of belief.
So in that respect this is good in that maybe it helps build a social awareness.. atheists are here, they've always been here, and they aren't stealing babies and setting fires to old ladies, so maybe being a bigot against an atheist isn't ok.
A sign isn't going to change anyone's mind, but it does give the subconscious implicit message that it's ok to say and think such things.
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I'm split on this.. on one hand I don't like the advertising aspect of it, it smacks of proselytizing (which I don't think it is, that would be "be an atheist or go to atheist hell whereever that is, probably Kansas).
On the other hand, being an atheist can be extremely difficult even in today's society. I know lots of cases where people have been rejected by their families, marginalized at work, harassed, sent death threats, etc all because of their lack of belief.
So in that respect this is good in that maybe it helps build a social awareness.. atheists are here, they've always been here, and they aren't stealing babies and setting fires to old ladies, so maybe being a bigot against an atheist isn't ok.
A sign isn't going to change anyone's mind, but it does give the subconscious implicit message that it's ok to say and think such things.
Wait till they find out we BBQ kittens! OOPS!
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I don't associate with people who don't let people of different beliefs leave their lives...
So that means anyone who tries to tell me about their religion, or tell someone else they are wrong, is going to get un-associated with me pretty damn quickly.
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I'm not sure about the efficacy of this kind of advertising, seems to me it is likely just going to rile up the emotions of the insecurely religious and do nothing at all for the more thoughtful sort of believer who already know godlessness doesn't necessarily equal moral depravity. Atheism isn't like a new flavour of energy drink that just needs some exposure on a billboard to get people to try it.
I'm not sure if any kind of public relations campaign could do much for atheism, no matter how it was done. At its core atheism is anti-emotional, relying upon its proponent to discard everything but reason in an attempt to comprehend the fundamentally indifferent nature of the universe. Advertisement is all about invoking emotion, which is a difficult contradiction in goals to be resolved effectively.
To elaborate, with religion, you can speak to the heart - but atheism speaks to the mind in spite of the heart. It demands that you disregard the inbuilt human drive to anthropomorphisize the universe, which is the (I think) big appeal of religion: religion makes the world entirely comprehensible in the context of a personal relationship, and relationships are what humans are GOOD at and what we have evolved to understand. The appeal of a personal saviour is right there to see - it's personal. The appeal of not believing in any God is a lot harder to quantify and is not amenable to slogans and signs.
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Originally Posted by 4X4
Kinda lame if you ask me. I ended up atheist after being brought up in a fairly religious atmosphere. I didn't need anyone to tell me that there likely is no god. It's a deduction that I made on my own. And one of the things that I really have enjoyed the past few years, is that in general, Atheists do not 'preach'. This is preachy. I don't like it. Let everyone think what they want.
Makes them out to by hypocrites. They bemoan about the religious knocking on thier door trying to preach to them. Now they want to do something similar through advertising. Ohhhh the irony
I will love showing this to the guys at my work (hardcore Muslims). I hate when they try and "convert" me to believe. I don't need analogies of a Computer chip and water in a desert to understand your loopy.
I'm not sure about the efficacy of this kind of advertising, seems to me it is likely just going to rile up the emotions of the insecurely religious and do nothing at all for the more thoughtful sort of believer who already know godlessness doesn't necessarily equal moral depravity.
I liked that whole post. It was well thought out, and considerate. In particular I liked this quote.
I have not shied away from stating my belief in God, and my comfort in my faith on this forum. I won't restate all that here, but I just want to say that you described my viewpoint well. I have friends who are non-believers, and I still respect them as the rational, respectful human beings and good friends that they are.
That's one of the things about faith (or lack thereof). We're all trying to figure this out for ourselves, and ideally we should all respect each other's reasoning for our beliefs.
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Makes them out to by hypocrites. They bemoan about the religious knocking on thier door trying to preach to them. Now they want to do something similar through advertising. Ohhhh the irony
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Personally I think this is great. People believe in God mainly because they are indoctrinated when their minds are vulnerable. Atheism needs to educate people to gain enough strength that the religious people won't be able to legislate unnecessary restrictions on freedoms.
I know this is not PC, but to I'm looking forward to seeing these buses. To me, they'll be a symbol of progress.
Advertising is a good way to sell something, particularly if that something has no actual value.
Personally, I can't stand anyone pushing their beliefs through unsolicited advertising. It doesn't make it any more cute or tolerable if it is something I believe in or not.
With this particular campaign, I don't really see what it hopes to accomplish other than to give the people making them attention. They're marketing themselves more than a message imo. I can't stand attention whores.
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I agree with FlamesAddiction.I think believers and non-believers alike should both refrain from publicly pushing their bill of goods. Some non-believers are getting as evangelical about their cause as a lot of believers, and that ain't good.
I personally don't care what a person believes or doesn't believe in. Just keep it out of the public arena.
Last edited by Ford Prefect; 01-29-2009 at 10:38 AM.
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