A bit rude:
"A new advertisement in Alabama by a national atheist group is reportedly declaring religions to be "scams."
The Huntsville ad -- produced by the American Atheists -- displays the message "You know they're all scams" alongside pictures of religious symbols, such as Islam's crescent moon and star, the cross and the Jewish star, according to the Christian Post.
The billboard also claims that the national group has been "telling the truth since 1963."
The American Atheists define "scam" as a fraudulent business scheme or ploy to intentionally mislead a person, usually with the goal of financial gains, the Post reports.
According to the group, "all religions make lots of promises about an afterlife that doesn't exist."
Source
The politics of insult again. Or the politics of arrogance. And lumping all religions together is pretty thick. Are Quakers and Muslims the same?
They sound pretty evangelical. I suspect that they are mainly trying to convince themselves. I am the most utter atheist you would ever find but I don't need to prop up my views by attacking the beliefs of others.
I do seriously wonder about how militant atheists get that way. There must be some unhappiness in their lives to make them like that. My own religious background is as a Bible-bashing Protestant fundamentalist but, far from repudiating or attacking that, I have the warmest memories of that time in my life (in my teens) and an abiding instinctive sympathy for others who are still of that persuasion. I suspect that militant atheists just have some deficit of feeling.
Anyway, I am the winner. The great Protestant hymns ("How great thou art", "To be a pilgrim" etc.) still bring tears to my eyes. I suspect that militant atheists can never share that.
Update: The fact that I still understand the emotions of Protestant fundamentalism might seem to clash with my statement: "I am the most utter atheist you would ever find", so let me clarify how "utter" my atheism is: I don't even believe that the word "God" is meaningful. Can you get more "utter" than that?
But I don't try to persuade anyone else of that view. Rudolf Carnap does a much better job of that than I would, anyway.
22 comments:
As noted by a recent study, those who are doubters tend to be the most evangelical about trying to convert others tho their beliefs.
So what this advertisement is really saying is that the people who ordered it aren't certain about what they're saying.
Follow up to my previous comment...
That same study also explains why people like Osama Bin Ladin who came to the U.S. and lived a pretty decadent life here (gambling, strip clubs etc) could leave and then become such strident promoters of a religion which condemns the lifestyle they chose to live when they had a true choice.
It should be remembered that the September 11 hijackers also lived decadent lives here, their pathetic weak faith lead them to "prove" themselves in such a dramatic and ultimately evil action.
The point of Christianity is to encourage men and women to live what we believe are better lives - be nice to each other, play fair, and try to be at peace with as many people as possible.
That men and women corrupt it and turn it into a "scam" doesn't mean much - men and women corrupt everything they touch.
"Are Quakers and Muslims the same?"
You betcha!
O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
I think you have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by that hymn
re: Jon's comments
Amen!
JJR: AINO (atheist in name only)
It seems the anti-religion, (atheists) are becoming a religion unto themselves. Only a fool would trust someone who knocks what you believe in, simply to get you to believe in what they're selling.
How long now till this group launches The Atheist TV Hour, complete with polyester suits and a secular choir?
10 ... 9 ... 8 ... 7 ...
We are pro-reason.
Anon 8:32,
"Unreasonable" men of the past, such as Newton, Gandhi, and Einstein, came to a conclusion completely different from yours, but they probably never saw the ads on the sides of buses telling them them what to think, poor souls, and thus did they toil in the darkness. If only they had known how to work with logic, instead!
Stinkfoot, so, you are anti-reason?
Stinkfoot, so, you are anti-reason?
No, it's just that the word "reason" need not be a cover for egotism. For example, how would a reasonable person disprove the existence of God? Genuine reason confirms that one cannot prove a negative, so only an unreasonable person would make such an assertion in the first place. And where did the matter of the Universe come from, anyway, pre big bang?
Sounds more like, as religious belief in general has declined, the proselytizers have merely changed uniforms but continued to play the same game as before, psychologically splitting the world into the good who agree with them vs the bad who don't, and in each era using the prevailing shibboleth, be it "faith" or "reason," respectively, as a club, and little else.
One has to serious wonder what they expect to achieve with such an ad. It is unlikely to change the mind of any believer. It probably won't even have an effect on the average non-churchgoer who might be thinking of visiting a church. It is merely preaching to the anti-choir.
They would be better off running subtle ads which sow the seeds of doubt, not arguing by insult.
So where is the Muslim outrage at this? A group just blatantly slammed Islam. Hello? We're waiting.
-sig
There is this idea, promoted by scientists in many fields, that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. It's why real scientists don't fall for Bigfoot hoaxes for example. Bring some real evidence or go back to whining on the internet about how nobody takes you seriously.
Theists claim that their all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present invisible friend spent the entire course of early mans history blatantly ignoring the basic facts that physics, geology, chemistry, biology, and a host of other fields have discovered, tested, and proven to be true. That claim sounds extraordinary...
Waiting for the extraordinary proof. Not that I'm gonna hold my breath.
jjr,
don't even believe that the word "God" is meaningful
When you say "meaningful," I wonder if perhaps "definable" would be a more accurate word.
Otherwise, I pretty much agree with you, excepting that I am unconvinced of the lack of God ... call me a fence-sitter ...only that it's unlikely that He/She/They behaved as historically described; for example, by specifically appointing select individuals as prophets etc.
Regardless, the drive-by condescension of the self-anointed atheists is, as was the pt of your post, the mark of small minds.
You guys have tens of thousands of churches et al. We have a few blogs and billboards. It seems that even with armies of believers you feel threatened by atheism.
According to the group, "all religions make lots of promises about an afterlife that doesn't exist."
You would have to be dead to know if there is an afterlife. I guess this proves atheists are already dead.
"I guess this proves atheists are already dead."
I guess this proves that Anon12:17PM has a dead brain.
When you are dead, you are DEAD! Provide scientific proof that there is an afterlife.
More poppycock from these atheists wackos in the same mold as that self-centred nit-wit atheists jerk MICHEAL NEWDOW who needs his arrogant pride knocked down a new notches
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