The atheist blogosphere has been recently reporting about their billboards being vandalized. The obvious culprits are most likely Christians offended by the messages on their billboards. A Google search of "church vandalism" pulled up 1,460,000 results, "catholic church vandalism" 349,000 results and "atheist billboard vandalism" 57,800 results. It's not a scientific poll but one can see that churches are more likely to be vandalized by criminals and teenage nihilists than atheist billboards (however, "atheist vandalism" pulled up 510,000 results,- and there was an incident in 2007 where an atheist's private home was vandalized). Vandalism is criminal, no matter who the culprits and victims are.
So what's the point in atheist ads which mainly take the form of billboards? The American Humanist Association has been putting up billboards that state "Millions are good without God." While Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) has been putting up billboards that caution readers to "Beware of Dogma." The FFRF also has six sample bus campaign ads at its website. The FFRF bus ads read as follows:
•“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction.”-Richard Dawkins
•“’Faith’ is a fine invention for gentlemen who see-But microscopes are prudent in an emergency!”-Emily Dickinson
•“As my ancestors are free from slavery, I am free from the slavery of religion.”-Butterfly McQueen
•“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”-Mark Twain
•“I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose.”-Clarence Darrow
•“I’m an atheist, and that’s it. I believe that there’s nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.”-Katherine Hepburn
Various atheist organizations have put up or have attempted to put up similar ads in Europe and other parts of North America. The question is, what is the purpose of these ads? The Katherine Hepburn ad by FFRF is innocuous enough but the other ads are either overtly invective in nature or are in some manner underhandedly contemptuous to practitioners of religion.
The main reason given by atheists for their billboards is advertising,-to let other atheists know there are other atheists out there who they can socialize with and have a meeting of the minds. So the billboards usually consist of messages like "Don't Believe in God? You are not alone," with the atheist website beneath it. Certainly the reason for the ads seem innocent enough, and who could possibly object to people desiring to socialize with each other.
But are there really atheists out there who really need these billboards to get in contact with other atheists? Atheists are smart people. One group of atheists, associated with Daniel Dennett, likes to be referred to as the "Brights." In this age of the internet and high tech media,- and considering the high intellectual ability of atheists, the use of billboards seems to be a superfluous extravagant exercise.
It is quite disingenuous for atheists to claim that these billboards and ads are for other atheists to read. Anyone could see that the billboards are inflammatory in nature. Atheists know that there are Christians who will react in various degrees to their billboards' messages. More likely than not, they anticipate Christians' reactions with glee to confirm their own beliefs that Christians are bad people. The most disappointing thing for atheists would be not to get a reaction from Christians over their silly billboards and ad campaigns.
But when you think about what other combinations of words atheists could use on their billboards (perhaps like "We're Atheists. Join us", and throw in a photo of Sam Harris or Bill Maher or Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens)to invite outsiders, one can't help but start thinking that atheists are a disagreeable bunch and just not really the type of people one would want to be around. To be sure, there are atheists who are amiable and good and moral and civic minded citizens, but these billboards and bus ads don't project that.
Christians should allow atheists their billboard extravagances. We may not agree with their messages but our free society welcomes free speech and dissent. And vandalism,- I don't think the Fonz would think it's cool but more importantly it's against the law.
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