Insane religious billboards

[wautd]

Remember the terribly offensive billboard promoting atheism that had to be removed?

Place your bets on how long this will stand



Yup, an atheist kid going on a killing spree because he doesn't believe in sky pixies

Gotta love those double standards in Jesusland

[CarsonPalmer]

What the hell?

That isn't even a "be a Christian" billboard, but instead "be afraid of atheists". That's madness!

[Brain_Caster]

Is there no way to sue them over this? I mean they're in effect implying all atheists are murderers, which goes way past free speech, I'd say. In fact, I'd call this the very definition of hate speech. Not sure about the US, but I think in most countries in the world you could probably get them in trouble for that.

It would certainly make more sense to sue someone for this, than sueing about the word "god" in a politican's pledge.

[Lord of the Abyss]

That looks like a snapshot from a pro-Christian YouTube clip that I saw mentioned on various forums a while ago.

[Karmic Knight]

1. Is that real? I find it hard to believe that is actually existing in a location on this planet, just based on my personal naivety.
2. Where is that located?
3. Obligatory, What the Fuck?

[wautd]

There is also a lovely vid.

If you don't matter to God, you don't matter to anyone. What the hell is that supposed to mean?

edit: ah Lord of the Abyss was ahead of me

[Samuel]

1. Is that real? I find it hard to believe that is actually existing in a location on this planet, just based on my personal naivety.
2. Where is that located?
3. Obligatory, What the Fuck?

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/ ... rd-compare
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76586818@N00/3320607491
http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/06 ... to-murder/

It looks real, although it seems most of the hits are linking the same image and not secondary source.
And I don't find it so surprising. Christians seem to be often unable to imagine that there is the possibility of morality without God in the US. Remember that moral values is code for religious control in the GOP.

It is in Texas, although there are supposed to be others throughout the United States- ad campaign.

Don't you know? Atheists are evil and without god they will do evil things.

[Oskuro]

Yay! Loving God is more important than human life!

[Soldier of Entropy]

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/ ... rd-compare
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76586818@N00/3320607491
http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/06 ... to-murder/

To me, the video in that seems like it would be an even more valid premise for a lawsuit; the wording in that is:

If you don't matter to God, you don't matter to anyone.

which is quite different from the billboard's message. The billboard is saying "Atheists have no morality, so they'll come kill you," which is obviously hate speech in of itself. On the other hand, the video seems to be saying, "If you don't care about God, we don't care about you, so we'll shoot you," which would be inciting violence against a particular group, on top of hate speech.

[Coyote]

Even though almost all the domestic terrorism in the USA has been... Christian motivated? Killing abortion doctors, bombing gay clubs, even a lot of the race-based violence has been carried out by white supremacist groups that claim an adherence to Christianity as part of their justification.

I can't think of a single case of an atheist going off and killing people because of his... 'belief' (in no belief, I guess).

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I saw this billboard in northern California (Sacramento valley) while driving to LA over the weekend, except it used a trucker as the guy being transformed into a monkey, presumably to appeal to truckers.. Who one things already believe in literal genesis for the most part, so why preach to the choir? But that they did.

[Frank Hipper]

No one's noticed that the billboard in the OP is an Answers in Genesis creation?

[Samuel]

No one's noticed that the billboard in the OP is an Answers in Genesis creation?

That was how I found the other examples. It is listed on the image.

Also, that monkey looks awesome.

[Kanastrous]

Actually, my first thought looking at the first billboard was, there's the last thing some gay/bi/transgendered/non-white/etc person sees, maybe just outside Billings, or Laramie, or Harlingen - a God-fearing, queer-hating good 'ol type, behind the trigger...

[Stark]

This is why daoists are so violent, you know.

[Themightytom]

What a bunch of tasteless assholes, do they think JESUS would use a billboard?



tasteless COPYCAT assholes...

Can atheism be considered a religion, and therefore entitled protection against discrimination?

re⋅li⋅gion  /rɪˈlɪdʒən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ri-lij-uhn] Show IPA
–noun 1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

I am disgusted by the first billboard, simply amused by the second, and while I acknowledge that religion enjoys unfair protection, Not to apologize for the billboard, but the kid to whom God doesn't matter, could very well believe in God but his parents don't take him to church, or some other non atheist-centric message. on the other hand if Atheists feel maligned, well, we used the same logic when it was Christians so time to reap the rewards of overly sensitive self censorship.

By the way I went to the website in question and had a seizure trying to read the article about mathematical information. Any interest they aroused with the billboard was overridden by my desire to check on my facebook mafia.

[Mayabird]

I wonder if they're getting a net gain in funds from these billboards. Will the amount they pay out for them (...how much do highway billboards cost, anyway?) get returned in higher donations? That's the thing to worry about if they're just sticking them in areas where they'll be preaching to the choir. If they're not getting more funding than they're just throwing their money away and won't be able to use it for something more harmful.

[K. A. Pital]

I just hope they go bust spending their financial scam money on these ads.

[Tolya]

Can atheism be considered a religion, and therefore entitled protection against discrimination?

There is a second meaning given to religion on dictionary.com:

2.a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.

By that standard atheism could be, legally speaking of course, considered a religion. But the difficult part is to get enough political influence to pass such a law.

[Themightytom]

Can atheism be considered a religion, and therefore entitled protection against discrimination?

There is a second meaning given to religion on dictionary.com:

2.a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.

By that standard atheism could be, legally speaking of course, considered a religion. But the difficult part is to get enough political influence to pass such a law.

Well on one side, you would have the slavering proselityzers, who would feel that if atheists embraced ANY religion its a step closer towards accepting THEIR religion, and on the other hand you'd have a more rational base who understand that there is a fundamental vocabulary shift at work here, which was preceded by defining marriage in a non-religious context.

I realize I just suggested we define religion in a non religiopus ccontext, and that ultimately tthat statement would need to be amended to "We should define religion in a non spiritual context" but I anted to remain cconsistent in my language.

[Khaat]

I realize I just suggested we define religion in a non religiopus ccontext, and that ultimately tthat statement would need to be amended to "We should define religion in a non spiritual context" but I anted to remain cconsistent in my language.

Unfortunately, the logical language would define religion as delusion, so it wouldn't get any traction with law-makers (who are traditionally hamstrung by vocal minority religionists.)

[Darth Wong]

Religions are actually defined as belief systems, and not all belief systems are necessarily supernatural. Morality schemes, for example, can be considered belief systems. In order to accept them, you need to accept certain underlying premises, so in that sense (no matter how reasonable those premises may be), they are not strictly empirical or scientific, although they may employ empirical methods of judging situations.

[Coyote]

So "atheism", since the word exists as a means to define one's stance vas-a-vis supernatural belief (in this case, none), fits in the "religion" category..?

[Darth Wong]

So "atheism", since the word exists as a means to define one's stance vas-a-vis supernatural belief (in this case, none), fits in the "religion" category..?

No, but everyone has some kind of morality scheme, and that would qualify as a religion. For example, many atheists are humanists; that is a legitimate religion.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Unlike what AiG and other religious fundamentalists would say, it's impossible to have freedom of religion unless you are also able to abstain from religion entirely.