Saturday, February 09, 2008

New atheist billboards


From FreeThoughtAction For a Rational America. This billboard was placed on I-95 along the New Jersey turnpike. "The point of the billboard is to let nontheistic people, such as atheists and agnostics, know they’re not alone," explained Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association.

Quote: "With all the endless God talk from preachers and politicians you might think you're the only nonreligious person in America.

Not true! Tens of millions of your fellow Americans are not religious. In fact, the number of secular Americans has doubled over the past ten years while the number of religious Americans has actually dropped. Nonreligious Americans now outnumber Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons combined."

Then there is this one from Freedom From Religion Foundation:

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is the nation's largest association of atheists and agnostics, unveiled what is believed to be one of the first nontheistic billboards in Madison, Wisconsin back in October 2007.

And we have just begun to come out of the closet. Atheists and agnostics are no longer hiding in churches, no longer keeping quiet, no longer keeping their "freethinking" to themselves.

As stated at the FreeThought Action site, " Together we can help America evolve into a more rational, less superstitious society."

ADDITION: h/t to vjack at Atheist Revolution for this one . . .

. . . . with a very maddening story attached which demonstrates just what we are up against. While freedom of speech will work in some areas, other areas this freedom is apparently guaranteed only for some, and businesses will go with the lemmings if their profits are threatened.

I am sure down south these billboards m
ight go up in flames. But a lot of people will see them before they are taken down or destroyed by "loving and patriotic" Xians" who have little respect for the par t of the Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech to ALL people. Eventually, they will have to accept the fact that this is a diverse nation of many beliefs, and the fact that there are many of us who have no beliefs and that it doesn't make us any less American.


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9 comments:

CyberKitten said...

Cool.

Stardust said...

Aren't these great? There was another one but haven't been able to locate it on the internet yet.

How about this one for the most disturbing Xian billboard. How lame it is to have to try to use scare tactics like that. Their church memberships are not going to increase with that kind of message! People are going to dump religion altogether or find a peaceful one.

vjack said...

I really do hope that this is a trend which will continue. It seems like a great way to remind a lot of people that atheists exist.

vjack said...

Crap! Hey Stardust, you see this yet: http://tinyurl.com/2f7676

Stardust said...

Thanks for the link, vjack. I added that to my post. If people started doing that with religious billboards the god believers would all start crying about their free speech being violated and how they are being persecuted.

jhbowden said...

"and how they are being persecuted."

True. Christians who act like victims in America don't know how it is like to live in a country without religious freedom, such as Saudi Arabia.

True, the ACLU often goes over the top. When people are quibbling over nonsense like nativity displays though, we forget what is not disputed-- the morality we share when it comes to tolerating religious expression. No one is being persecuted in a real sense in America, not even atheists.

Anonymous said...

Maybe atheists aren't being persecuted ... now! But they sure were back when Xtians had their hay-day! Some of them were even burned at the stake for proclaiming that there was no such thing as a Gawd. True, not in america. This happened in Europe. Still, ya just can't help but feel that religious fundies would like nothing better than to torch us damn atheists.

And the FACT that an atheist can not even get CLOSE to running for president speaks volumes.

Stardust said...

greg, what you say is so true! For evangelical xians, it's not about whether a candidate can do the job, it's how much he loves Jeebus. Most of the candidates have to butt kiss the religious right and tell them what they want to hear in order to get their vote. Huckabee is a preacher. I pointed out to a family member Huckabee's lack of a proper education, he has a degree in religion from a Baptist university of all places, and this person's response was "just because a person doesn't have the education doesn't mean he can't do the job, and just because a person has an education doesn't mean he has common sense"...well...running a country takes MUCH MORE in addition to common sense.

Huckabee is an eye-fluttering Baptist minster on a mission to turn out secular nation into a theocracy. Huckabee wants to dismantle the constitution. All those folks down south do not give two shits about the constitution, or freedom, or the principles this country was founded on. If they ever win the country for Jeebus, we will be no better than muslim nations where women are oppressed, gays murdered at the hands of religious zealots, and the love of god and jeebus will be used as justification to wipe out all who will not accept Jeebus as their savior from imaginary sins.

I am so sick of fundies. I swear too...that if Huckabee or anyone like him is ever elected, then it will be time for my husband and I to find another country to live in. We have talked about this, and could not live in a theocracy.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you on that one, Starry.
Although I wonder if there will come a time when we (as atheists and agnostics) will have had enough of moving from country to country trying to avoid the religious lunatics. Maybe we should make a stand now - by somehow - getting the media to pay attention to our cause.