More bad atheist advertising

Via Free Thought Blogs

Angry atheist advertising continues to make other unbelievers look bad. In this case, they started with a valid insight, that some of the worst things ever done to other people used the Bible as justification.

From Wikipedia:

"[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts ."
- Jefferson Davis, President, Confederate States of America

In a detailed, educated argument, you could easily use the slavery case against Biblical literalists, including the modern-day oppressors who use it to justify war, sexism and homophobia. But the other side could easily retort that Christians were behind abolition of slavery as well. The religion wasn't the cause of the evil, it was simply used as a justification for it.

This ad brings us a terrible reminder about a crime against humanity — the enslavement of millions of Africans and their descendants to build the agrarian economy in the United States (and elsewhere, including Canada). While it's good to never forget past evils, the image must be terribly hurtful to African Americans of today, and its powerful emotional impact is being co-opted by people who just want to bash religion.

There is really no need for evangelical atheism. It is not an alternative to religion, it is just a lack of it. As I've pointed out many times before, atheist groups do themselves no favours with nasty anti-religion ad campaigns. If anything, they just seem to validate the victim complex of some religious groups, like the fundamentalist Christians who claim they are victims of hate.

source

Look, guys, we secularists don't need your help. Some of us don't see religious people as deluded bumpkins, but as people with a different point of view. As long as they're not imposing unscientific views in government communications and school curricula why fight faith. It's been around for a long time. Instead, join people of all beliefs in fighting human rights abuses from any source.

Thanks to my brother David for the tip.

American Atheists going after Muslims and Jews now #FdAdFriday

Animal NY reports that the Hebrew one will be erected in an Jewish area of Williamsburg (known for its Hasidic community) and the Arabic one will appear in a predominantly Muslim area of Paterson, New Jersey (home of the American Arab Forum).

It's as if American Atheists are daring both communities to see which one reacts first, and how.

I just think it's stupid. And I don't even believe in any god. But affronting people's deeply-held faith with fighting words like this is no way to open minds. It will just shut you out more forcefully.

American Atheist ads fight one myth with another

What a strange strategy. American Humanist is launching this Christmas campaign in Kearny, NJ, Washington, DC, Cranston, RI, Bastrop, LA, Oregon City, OR, Bryan/College Station, TX and Rochester Hill, MI, this month.

The odd assortment of target markets is based on AH's list of places where self-identified atheists have experienced discrimination in their communities.

Here's the example from Cranston:

Jessica Ahlquist, a student at Cranston High School West, filed a federal lawsuit asking that a prayer banner be removed from the public school. The banner, which violates the First and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution, includes the phrases “Our Heavenly Father” and “Amen.” Local authorities are asking that the banner remain.  

According to a story in The Providence Journal, “students and adults have called [Ahlquist] a ‘stupid atheist,’ an ACLU tool, a witch and a ‘media whore.’ They’ve also threatened her through e-mails or at school, she says. A former classmate told her that, if she knew what he really thought of her, she would kill herself, she says.”

These bullying incidents, by peers and institutions, shouldn't be tolerated in any case. The implication is that in very "Christian" areas of the US, Atheist-bashing is tolerated by the public.

But is this any way to address the issue? I don't think so. Because various atheist causes have been running anti-belief campaigns like the one below, they continue to brand themselves as "anti-God" instead of just free-thinkers. While the message that there are other atheists out there is not specifically anti-religion, it will be taken as such by the very people who hate them. And so on. And so on. It's a very American "us versus them" approach.

My solution? Lose the whole "atheism" label. It makes the lack of religion sound like a religion itself. If you want to get through to people, don't attack a deeply-entrenched belief that they have not come upon through rational discovery. You cannot argue them out of it.

You need to show them that you are really so "good without God" that you feel no need for comparison. Just be the individual thinker who you say you are. Lead by example in showing the true Christian values of compassion, humility and charity — as opposed to the false Christian vices of xenophobia, pride and social coercion.

Ambiguous copywriting kills God

Well, that's unfortunate.

This real church billboard was placed in Mansfield, Ohio, as a response to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's "Good without God" campaign.

It caused Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist to comment:

"Not only are they telling us that god doesn’t exist (in a large font, no less), they’re also telling us to be skeptical of what we hear! I couldn’t have said it better myself :)"

Oh, God!

Dangerous Talk posted a collection of Christian and Atheist evangelical billboards from the United States.

First, some Godly ones:

Hate sure isn't.

Now some ungodly ones:

Love this one.

Atheists really dig public transit.

The blogger's point to the comparison is that he feels the Christian ads are harsh and threatening, while the atheist ones are pretty friendly. "Despite trying our best to be an unthreatening as possible," he says, "atheist billboards seem to always cause controversy."

Personally, I've never understood atheist evangelism. Like the Church messages, they're just preaching to the converted. The fact that the atheist ones seem a little more sophisticated just fits the demographics of unbelievers.

Or so I thought. It seems atheist advertising has now decided to fight hellfire with fiery rhetoric.

Seen on Adfreak, December 2:

I told you atheists love public transit!

And this one was on AdFreak just this week:

Jesus. Or whoever. That's just uncalled for. Whatever happened to taking the high road? Don't you remember what Fred "God is Dead" Nietzsche said about fighting monsters?

I have no faith in this campaign

Adrants posted this item from an article on canada.com headlined, "Christ meets Big Foot: more irreverent atheist ads to hit Canadian cities":

All I can say is, "Jesus Christ, guys!"

The organization behind the campaign, which will hit Toronto streets after Xmas, had this to say:

"I'd love it if everyone saw the ads and know the point of the campaign is to emphasize not the kind of knee-jerk debunking to anything suspicious but that we're interested in a genuine debate, a conversation about so-called extraordinary claims. We're not here to mock people who believe in these claims."

Let me change my response to, "JESUS TAP-DANCING CHRIST ON A CRACKER!!!"

I was raised going to church. I stopped going to church. I changed from liberal Christian to agnostic (in the true sense of the word) while still respecting the role progressive Christian beliefs can play in filling a void in many people's lives.

I hate fundamentalism of any stripe and I despise totalitarianism, sexism, oppression, regression and hate perpetrated in the name of religion. But as an unbeliever, I also recognize those things as human flaws. If there are no Gods, then it's important to understand why people would want to do those things to each other.

I won't wax philosophical any more here, except to say that I find this campaign provocative in all the wrong ways. It's like one of those sarcastic trolls you see online who make nasty jokes for their own amusement — or at most, a small circle of like-minded douchebags. Talk about preaching to the choir.

But there was some salvation here, and it came from the very people the group was trying to offend: a church.

This isn't just any church. It's the largest Protestant congregation in Canada. And unlike its literalist and fatalist counterparts (especially in the U.S.!) The United Church of Canada is not treating the ad as a declaration of culture war, but lovingly providing a broader perspective.

Rev. Bruce Gregersen, UCC general council officer:

"Conversation is welcome and invitational to all people to think about the meaning of faith. It's a fair question that goes to the heart of what you count as proof. There are millions of people who have sense of the mysterious . . . deeper within our spirits...

"Our perspective is that Christ is able to stand in that kind of situation and not be ridiculed. Our belief about Christ is much bigger than anything related to Zeus, or psychics or homeopathy, so in that sense it's trivializing the nature of faith. On the other hand, it's not enough that I'd want to raise issues."

In fact, the UCC is all about questioning and discussing things. They've even made it part of their sect brand with Wondercafe, an open community for thought-provoking discussion. And one which was launched with ads like these:

(See the whole campaign at Osocio)

This was my church, and to some degree still is. Perhaps you can understand now why I am not as "angry with God" as the Centre for Inquiry.