Billboard reaches out to atheists
With its image of blue sky and fluffy clouds, the rectangle floating lately over I-95 near Allegheny Avenue suggests something dreamy, almost heavenly. At least from a distance. Drivers headed north toward the giant billboard might first discern the words God and Believe and suppose this to be the work of a fundamentalist church. But this is the work of no church.
“Don’t believe in God?” it asks. “You are not alone.”
Think of it as a sign of the times. Mounted by a consortium of local atheists, it is an invitation to the area’s atheists, agnostics, skeptics, rationalists and religious freethinkers (no one label fits them all) to overcome their differences and form a coalition.
“Hundreds of thousands of your neighbors in the Delaware Valley feel the same as you do,” according to the Web site www.phillyCOR.org, to which the billboard directs passing motorists.
“Our mission is not to convince fundamentalists to change their position,” Steve Rade, a Huntingdon Valley businessman, said last week. He donated the $22,500 needed to mount the billboard, which appeared May 1 and is to remain until the end of August.
“What we want to do is give people questioning their beliefs a place to go for more information and to meet like-minded people.”
“I’d like everyone to believe what I do,” he said, referring to his “absolute certainty” that there is no divine being running the universe and no life after death. “I think it would be a better world if they did.”
The 20-by-60-foot sign has generated 7,000 hits for the Web site, which offers links to such member organizations as the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia, the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia Atheists Meetup, and the Secular Society of Temple University.
The sign’s original, geographically limited toll-free phone number generated only about 300 calls, however. The new number, 1-877-99HUMANIST, is reachable from any area code.
No one knows how many American adults identify themselves as being in the atheist spectrum, but surveys suggest between 4 percent and 9 percent, the lowest of any industrialized nation.
Read more here.
[From me]
What is sad to me is that the atheists are becoming more evangelistic than many of our churches. I wonder why someone would spend that much money to put a sign up to convince people not to believe in God.
What do you think?
Isn’t it odd that people who do not believe God exists fight so hard against someone, who in their thinking, does not exist? If God does not exist then why is He so much of a threat?
Scott’s last blog post..Miracles were not Common Place in the Bible ? They were Rare!
I have no issue with like minded people gathering together. It is there money and if they have fun encouraging one another then so be it.
I do see your point about how non-evangelistic Christians are. Our church started a billboard but I find it pretty weak. It is like we’re afraid to mention Jesus on it.
I do find the “religion is dangerous” rallying cry that I get from lots of atheists to be amusing. It doesn’t take long to realize that their “enemy” is Christianity and they do virtually nothing about Islam - even those living in countries with rapidly growing Muslim populations. It is like, “Yeah, better watch out for us . . . we might pray for you, visit you in the hospital, give you food, build a house, etc.”
Neil’s last blog post..The audacity of being an abortion survivor
Let’s see…no Creator running the universe…no life after death…this life is all there is!
Gee, I’d like to attend a happy, joyful, celebratory meeting like that!!!
NOT!
M. Steve Heartsill’s last blog post..Christian or A Christ-Follower
Scott and M. Steve Heartsill
You both sound like reasonable people. And as reasonable people, I’m guessing you both recognize that other people generally have reasons for what they do, even if you might not agree with the reasons. So I’m curious:
Scott: you seem to recognize that it doesn’t make sense to fight against something that doesn’t exist. Then who or what do you suppose atheists see themselves in conflict with?
M. Steve Heartsill: you seem to recognize that there is no joy in the realization that there is no life after death. Then what would you guess the focus of the meetings might be?
aska:
Your question is the same question I ask of all atheists. Why are you in conflict with any type of religion in general and Christianity in general? Your conflict with a belief or non-belief in God actually gives credence to the very fact He does exist. Ignoring Him would make more sense if He doesn’t exist.
Scott’s last blog post..ME Church
Scott,
I was sort of hoping you would try to guess who atheists see themselves in conflict with because I thought you would probably get it right if you gave it some thought. But since you asked me the same question back, it made me realize that maybe the concept is just to foreign to some folks, so I’ll try to explain my perspective.
Personally, I don’t feel that I am in conflict with any religion per se. I do feel conflict with the fundamentalist and dogmatic mindset; I think that that mindset is a key enabler of authoritarianism. I can, however, understand how a person who does define Christianity in fundamentalist and dogmatic terms might feel that I am in conflict with Christianity in general, especially when that person might not consider the forms of Christianity which I would not be in conflict with as truly “Christian”. Nevertheless, you can see from my blog that I do indeed see eye-to-eye with non-fundamentalist Christians who have posted there.
Having lived nearly all my life in the US, I am much more well versed in Christianity and Judaism than I am in other religions so I tend to talk about those religion more than others. I also feel more harassed by Christian fundamentalism on a daily basis than by other types of fundamentalism. However, I have been feeling more compelled lately to understand Islam better.
Could you explain why you feel that the conflict is evidence for God’s existence?
aska,
Its not the conflict but the observation of folks who do not believe in something being against what they do not believe in. Ironic that if something does not exist that time and energy is exerted against — nothing.
Scott’s last blog post..Which is not of God?
Scott,
I’m honestly not intentionally trying to be dense but I’m still trying to understand your point: if it’s not the “conflict” as you said earlier, what behavior on the part of atheists is the evidence for the existence of God?
If I understand you correctly, you seem to be saying that because atheists are, in your view, either “against” religion or “against” God, then that is somehow evidence for God. But you seem to also recognize that atheists being ‘against God’ makes no sense if atheists don’t believe that God exists. So do you mean that atheists are not against God after all, but that they are against the belief in God (i.e., religion)? Or do you mean that atheists just don’t realize how foolish it would be to be against something that does not exists?
If you mean that atheists are against belief in God and not against God per se, then how is that evidence that God exists?
I’m sure you have a rational reason for believing the way you do, and I’m just trying to understand what your reasoning is.
Add A Comment