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March 3rd, 2013
05:00 AM ET
First on CNN: Atheists ratchet up rhetoric, use billboards to attack Republican politiciansBy Dan Merica, CNN Washington (CNN) - An atheist organization known for being provocative plans to take that reputation to the next level this week by putting up seven billboards that call out prominent politicians and religious leaders. American Atheists plans to target three Republican politicians: former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, former House Speak Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. The seven signs will go up around Dallas and Austin, Texas. In one billboard, a picture of Palin is featured on the left, with a quote attributed to her. "We should create law based on the God of the Bible," the quote reads. Underneath the graphic is a tag line "GO GODLESS INSTEAD." The billboard, however, misquotes Palin. In an interview with Fox News’ Bill O'Reilly, Palin addressed the growth in American secularism by saying America's founding fathers "would create law based on the God of the Bible and the Ten Commandments," not "should." Each of the billboards has a similar format and includes a pitch for the group’s 50th anniversary convention in Austin. Santorum is condemned for when he told an Iowa crowd last November that, "our civil laws have to comport with a higher law: God's law," while Gingrich is criticized for a remark he made at a CNN debate on October 18, 2011, in Las Vegas. "How can I trust you with power if you don't pray," Gingrich posited. Virginia Davis, spokeswoman for Santorum, thanked American Atheists for the publicity. "At a time when many are trying to remove God from the public square, the senator is appreciative of someone helping him very publicly express his strong belief that we are one nation under God," Davis wrote in an e-mail to CNN. American Atheists President David Silverman, however, sees the billboards as a way to shame the targets. "We at American Atheists are shaming these leaders for their bigoted and backwards remarks and attitudes, and conveying a message to today's atheists that we need not take it anymore," Silverman wrote in an e-mail to CNN. Two religious leaders, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor at the First Baptist Dallas, and Benedict XVI, now the pope emeritus, also are featured on billboards. Jeffress' billboard includes a quote the pastor said during a 2008 sermon titled, "Gay Is Not OK." "What they [homosexuals] do is filthy," reads the billboard. Under the quote is the phrase "Go Godless Instead" and a rainbow flag, a symbol of gay rights. This will be the only ad placed in Dallas, featured in a busy stretch of Interstate 30 and only a few miles from Jeffress' large church. The First Baptist Church of Dallas is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. Jeffress, who has been in its pulpit since 2007, is no stranger to controversy, including comments about Judiasm and Catholicism. After introducing Texas Gov. Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit in Washington in October 2011, Jeffress told reporters he believed Mormonism was a cult, expressing a personal position and one held by his denomination. The move was seen as a particular slight to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a lifelong Mormon. The billboard featuring Benedict XVI, who stepped down Thursday, cites a New York Times article entitled, "Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys." "The Church Protected Priests Who Abused Children," reads the billboard. Silverman says the group plans to spend $25,000 on the billboards, which will go up on Monday and remain up for the rest of March. "Everyone should be allowed to profess their faith, of course, but that does not shield them from criticism," Silverman wrote. "Everyone has the responsibility to lead moral lives, and 'It's my religion' is not an excuse for bigotry or immorality." Silverman continued: "Some Americans seem to think that bigotry in the name of religion is somehow permissible. It is not. We hope that the believers of Austin place anti-atheist bigotry in the same category as anti-Semitism or racism - a relic of the past that needs to be jettisoned for all the right reasons." Six of the billboards will be dispersed around the Austin area, with four placed on high traffic freeways. This is not the first time American Atheists has used billboards to get its message out. Last March, the group targeted Muslims and Jews with billboards that called God a "myth" in both Arabic and Hebrew. In November 2010, the same group posted a billboard around the holiday season that read, "You KNOW it's a Myth. This Season, Celebrate REASON." Silverman, who has been criticized for this in-your-face atheism, has long defended the tactic, saying that the confrontation is meant to "grow the cause and benefit the country." "That's why companies buy billboards - to get attention," Silverman wrote. |
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When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked him to forgive me.
An old joke, but still, very funny.
And now you have the bicycle you prayed for. The Lord works in mysterious ways indeed!
my friend, stealing was not your own idea, it was planted by God in your head, in response to your prayers. God works in a mysterious way !!!
For those saying we are a Christian nation and we have a Christian heritage based solely on the fact that the words "IN GOD WE TRUST" are on our currency and our pledge of allegiance has the words "under God" in it, let me ask you something:
If you go to a New York deli, run entirely by Jewish people, and the guy who makes your sandwich is Jewish, does your stomach become Jewish just eating that sandwich? Are you no longer allowed to eat bacon ever again in your lifetime after eating that sandwich?
This is not a Christian nation. Nor is it a Jewish nation, a Buddhist nation, a Muslim nation, a Catholic nation, a Rastafarian nation, a Sikh nation, a Hindu nation, or a atheist nation. This is a Unitarian nation. All faiths and non-faiths are welcome to worship or not worship, because our Founding Fathers made sure we had no official religion, as so not to alienate outsiders. That's the way they made it, and that's the way it should be.
"In god we trust" was added to the currency in 1954 by President Kennedy to distinguish the United States from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Having this on the money violates separation of church and state and is illegal.
@Melissa, Kennedy wasn't President in 1954, Eisenhower was. And it wasn't printed on paper money until 1957. It has been appearing on coins since 1864. Kennedy only made a speech about "In God We Trust".
the term "In god we trust is a flat out lie...proof:
In god we trust...the same we as we the people, as in the all inclusive "we"
I am one of we, a born patriot and veteran.
I do not trust in any gods, neither do many.
Therefore, in god we trust is a lie.
The national motto was "e pluribus unem" then they altered things , unconst!tutuionally to put that lie on everyones money.
I have seen it in court rooms, and when I have had to testify, make them cover it up. I would prefer that religious opinion be completely removed from all government buildings, but that is a battle for another day.
Oy, so I got a date wrong. Who cares. I'm at work, and I get busy and distracted. Oh the world is ending. It's still the truth.
Melissa,
You didn't get the date wrong - you got the president wrong.
Maybe you might want to wait for a less-distracted time to post?
Please take a moment to give thanks with me to the CNN gods for *finally* featuring a couple of stories that ARE NOT ABOUT THE FREAKING POPE.
Carry on.
they are all four looser, desperate for come back, in their own party.
Remove brain. Insert dogma.
GOP/Christian right = ignorance
Describe Christian right.
GOP + Christians = made for each other.
Math major at a community college somewhere?
Ones that believe in the talking snake !
In all the more secularized western countires there was a radical atheist wing which helped bring about the new moderate secularism. This is just our turn, and we have to suffer the extreme wing to get where we need to go.
The United States is a secular nation. Unsure what your point is.
Teabaggers will gladly crawl a mile over broken glass just to smell the tire tracks of the truck that took Sarah Palin's underwear to the laundry.
Eat feces and die!
Wow CNN correcting atheists over what Palin said! Once again you can see the deception and poor logic atheists use in arguments; Nature proofs God, but atheists, humanism and evolution try to discredit this fact. Evolution is unproven, has flaws, demeans humans and takes more faith than does Christianity.
For $199, you can find out if you are part Neaderthal- not kidding:
As per National Geographic's Genographic project:
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/
" DNA studies suggest that all humans today descend from a group of African ancestors who about 60,000 years ago began a remarkable journey. Follow the journey from them to you as written in your genes”.
"Adam" is the common male ancestor of every living man. He lived in Africa some 60,000 years ago, which means that all humans lived in Africa at least at that time.
Unlike his Biblical namesake, this Adam was not the only man alive in his era. Rather, he is unique because his descendents are the only ones to survive.
It is important to note that Adam does not literally represent the first human. He is the coalescence point of all the genetic diversity."
For your $199 and a DNA swab:
"Included in the markers we will test for is a subset that scientists have recently determined to be from our hominin cousins, Neanderthals and the newly discovered Denisovans, who split from our lineage around 500,000 years ago. As modern humans were first migrating out of Africa more than 60,000 years ago, Neanderthals and Denisovans were still alive and well in Eurasia. It seems that our ancestors met, leaving a small genetic trace of these ancient relatives in our DNA. With Geno 2.0, you will learn if you have any Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA in your genome."
•
The point of the billboards is not to promote evolution, but to point out that these politicians want to codify their religious beliefs into law in a secular nation.
o More details from National Geographic's Genographic project: https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/
"Our spe-cies is an African one: Africa is where we first ev-olved, and where we have spent the majority of our time on Earth. The earliest fos-sils of recognizably modern Ho-mo sapiens appear in the fossil record at Omo Kibish in Ethiopia, around 200,000 years ago. Although earlier fossils may be found over the coming years, this is our best understanding of when and approximately where we originated.
According to the genetic and paleontological record, we only started to leave Africa between 60,000 and 70,000 years ago. What set this in motion is uncertain, but we think it has something to do with major climatic shifts that were happening around that time—a sudden cooling in the Earth’s climate driven by the onset of one of the worst parts of the last Ice Age. This cold snap would have made life difficult for our African ancestors, and the genetic evidence points to a sharp reduction in population size around this time. In fact, the human population likely dropped to fewer than 10,000. We were holding on by a thread.
Once the climate started to improve, after 70,000 years ago, we came back from this near-extinction event. The population expanded, and some intrepid explorers ventured beyond Africa. The earliest people to colonize the Eurasian landma-ss likely did so across the Bab-al-Mandab Strait separating present-day Yemen from Djibouti. These early beachcombers expanded rapidly along the coast to India, and reached Southeast Asia and Australia by 50,000 years ago. The first great foray of our species beyond Africa had led us all the way across the globe."
You lost all credibility and appearance of intelligence the second you wrote that "Nature 'proofs' god"
If you don't understand the basic concepts of the English language, how are we supposed to take you seriously?
edwards35, criticize, demonize, discredit, are your weapons of choice, if you re a religious person, you were supposed to be kinder, gentler, forgiving; stop acting like a little Chihuahua of Jesus.
Athiests using the same in your face tactics as evangelicals. As with evangelicals, all is black and white. Tolerance, nuance, spirituality, and love for the "Other" all go out the window in the face of singular and uncompromising belief that they alone have a final, grasp of absolute reality. Athiests and evengelicals share the common flaw of hubris, that despite being puny humans in the face of the entire universe, they alone have ascertained the mind of God (or there lack thereof).
The important thing is that you found a way to feel superior to both.
True. Leave people alone and let us believe or not beleive what we want.
@DanielMax I disagree with both Evangelicals and athiests, and I would greatly resent either imposing its views on me in either the public or private spheres. But why do you automatically view that as feeling "superior". Could that be a flaw in your thinking? Is accusing someone of being "elitist" or feeling "superior" allowing you to avoid thinking or responding on a substantive level? We all try to make sense out of the world as best we can. Name calling isn't making sense out of the world. It is cheap shot to avoid the exercise and confirm pre-existing prejudices.
Zealots, groups on the extreme are rarely nice and the problem is they are the ones get noticed.
Well, I'd like to say I am not one that agrees with them and find them not noteworthy at all!
Won't it be great if they had warning sign on them "danger when mouth is moving". But alas they have just much a right to free speech in this country.
They should take it a step futher and have their comments and pictures next to Taliban figures saying essentially the same thing but just to a different god.
Somewhat true!
"Last March, the group targeted Muslims and Jews with billboards that called God a “myth” in both Arabic and Hebrew."
ED4 – that's a good idea. Every time some Rebublican nut says a whacked out "Christian state" thing ads should run showing a politician in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran saying the same thing.
We atheists are equal opportunity opponents of mixing religion with government. We support religious folk's right to wear their knees out groveling before whatever god(s) they choose, but we oppose having them drag we believers in science and reason down there with them!
hmmm, unless the athiest go after the other side of the coin: Nation of Islam, etc... I'll just say they are cowards. Let's see just how "outspoken" you are against those that threatene to behead you
Did you not read the article? They have.
More proof religion makes people stupid. Atheists because all religions are false, but they are going after Christians with these billboards because Christianity is the only religion that wields any influence in American politics.
They are going after politicians in this country so I'm not sure what your point is.
"Go after" the Nation of Islam? Watch out for the Fruit. The Fruit of Islam, that is.
It's a whole new language.
The greatest nation on earth was established by the Pilgrims who had "in God we trust" embroidered on their ship sails when they sailed to America. It just burns atheists up the the US has a Christian heritage. The only think we have ever seen from atheist nations is mass murder and denial of basic human rights.
Christianity was the prime reason for the end of slavery and has brought many blessings to the world. Atheism has resulted in nothing but destruction and death.
Baloney. If you have to lie to make a point, you have no point.
Embroidered on their ship sails? Where did you hear that little gem? Source, please?
http://www.alliance4lifemin.org/articles.php?id=24
[quote]
The decision was made to go to North America, which had been claimed by the British for over a generation. It was determined they would go in two ships – the Mayflower and the Speedwell. Their ruling elder, William Brewster, headed the first group, while Robinson was to govern the second. Before they set sail, their governor, William Bradford, described their motives for coming. He said they had ". . . a great hope and inward zeal . . .of laying some good foundation . . . for the propagating and advancing of the Gospel of the Kingdom." Inside the rotunda of our nations capitol is a painting of the Pilgrims about to embark from Holland. The ship chaplain, Brewster, has the Bible laying open on his lap. Very clear are the words, "The New Testament according to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." On the sail is the motto of the Pilgrims, "In God We Trust. God With Us."
[/quote]
You obviously have no real knowledge of history.
Nazi Germany was a Christian nation.
Google is your friend. Try doing a little research rather than taking by faith what Dawkins says by faith.
"Alliance for Life"?
What an idiot. Either cite a neutral, widely accepted source, or admit you have no proof of your claims at all.
Hitler's SS officers had "God Is With Us" on their belt buckles, too.
Wow, you are way off. The Pilgrims did not establish America, that happened almost two hundred years later by lawyers that were mostly deist. Not even close if you think about how much can change in just ten years. Plus, American law is rooted in British law from the time, and is not even that much different (they even had a bill of rights). Much of the rhetoric used refers to god as Nature's God, which is how deists saw a being; this is similar to today's Unitarian beliefs.
You are a brain-washed, weak-minded buffoon.
What bothers atheists is the idea that belief in a God for which you have no proof at all should be the basis for vilifying those who don't embrace your particular God narrative (which includes atheists as well as members of most non-Christian religions) and imposing your religious values on everyone in our society.
Based on a painting, but is the painting based on fact?
http://www.alliance4lifemin.org/articles.php?id=24
http://providencefoundation.com/?page_id=1962
The Pilgrims left England to escape religious persecution. The same battle still wages today.
Robert,
I think you need to do some reading about those Puritan pilgrims... and what they believed, and who they persecuted. We should be so glad that wiser heads prevailed in establishing the laws of this country!
"Their isolation in the New World, their introversion, the harshness and dangers of their new existence, their sense that they were a new Chosen People of God destined to found a New Jerusalem – a New City of God in the midst of the wilderness – insured that American Puritanism would remain more severe (and, frequently, more intellectually subtle and rigorous) than that which they had left behind. The American Puritan tended to interpret the Bible, which had supreme literary value because it was the perfect word of God, even more literally than did his British counterparts. Though many of the original American Puritans – many of whom were both preachers and authors – had attended English Universities, they tended to form religious oligarchies and sought to establish a purified church – which meant the frequently harsh imposition of religious uniformity upon an unwilling populace.
It was to escape Puritan religious persecution that Roger Williams, a minister from Salem, established his colony in Rhode Island in 1636. The overt remnants of Puritanism did not die out in New England until well into the nineteenth century, and it echoes in American society today. In coming to the New World in the first place, Puritans altered the course of history, for better or for worse. There were approximately 4,000,000 English- speaking people in the entire world in 1603: less than four centuries later there are over seventy-five times that number." http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/puritan2.html
The Puritans believed Quakers were heretics. In fact, anyone who was not an Anglican was a heretic, including Catholics, Lutherans, Anabaptists, Antinomians, Quakers, Ranters… in short, anyone who was not Anglican. When Quakers showed up in Boston in the 1650s, it’s no surprise they were persecuted. Puritan Congregationalism was the official—and only—religion of New England. Like every other state they knew of in Europe, the Puritans enforced a state religion that it was treason to oppose. http://thehistoricpresent.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/why-the-puritans-persecuted-quakers/
@ Robert – You are full of it. If you are a good christian, you should know better than spread lies.
I despise arrogant and lying christian.
They used BIBLE to justify slavery because bible justified slavery.
I highly doubt you read your bible.
Also first pilgrim did not have "in go we trust" on their ship.
Religious nuts pressured to be added on US currency in 1956.
Religious Christians are not any different from Taliban/Al Qaeda trying to control people in the name of god.
The Pilgrims did not establish our nation–that was done much later. And they came here to escape religious persecution from their fellow Christians.
Actually, slavery was defended with the Bible, but nice try. The Bible actually expects you to have slaves, but not to beat them too harshly.
Jesus if he existed, was just a man. A Jewish man who was anti-establishment in his views. Who wouldn't be under the severe oppression of the Roman? If he is God and the creator of the universe then every other human who has ever lived is God also. You have to appreciate the historical realities of the times. You also have to understand that as a Christian or any other religion, you are programmed from birth by these beliefs by the people whom you love and trust the most, your parents. Its understandable because they where programmed likewise. The hardest thing that you may ever have to do is except this reality and stop perpetuating these myths to you children. Set their minds free so they don't lead a life of fear of death as most other Chistians do. Critical thinking skills will be your greatest gift to them.
Your assumption are simply not true. There are many Christians (and people of other faiths) who were not indoctrinated from birth. Many of us came to faith later in life. Do I believe the Bible should be taken literally? No. The whole Bible is replete with symbolism, nuance, parables, etc., but that doesn't make it myth. You perceive it as a life of fear and death. I perceive it just the opposite. My faith gives me wisdom, patience, strength and courage to deal with the hard things of life. It gives me a long term perspective and a greater empathy and love for people. It both humbles me and strengthens my moral convictions. There are people as you describe and I feel sorry for them. They have a superficial faith at best, just as your understanding and characterization is superficial.
Julie that was excellent. And very true.
Hey, there's a big dude floating in the sky who loves you, but we're busy spreading hate and misery and, if you don't think like we do and join up, you're going to hell, albeit a mythical place based on 6 misinterpretations of Ancient Jewish texts. Join us!
You can personally express your views to Jesus during your appointment with Jesus, that has already been set, before you were born.
littlespeaks, there is no appointment.
@little
So what the hell does it matter what you do then? If it's all been laid out beforehand then I can not be held responsible for my actions. I swear you morons are more in line with the whole 'do whatever you want' crap that you say atheists are wanting.
And my big dude up in the sky looks like me, not like you. So I win and you don't.
Damocles: A major flaw in your thinking is the belief that fear of eternal damnation is not the only thing that can motivate people to behave responsibly and ethically. It is not. Other animals form social groups with order and rules their members must follow. Atheists maybe godless, but that is not the same as having no moral compass, no compassion, no respect for others, and so on.
@skytag
My point was that believers tend to think atheists are running around doing whatever they want because they don't believe in a deity. Littlepeaks was saying that it's all been laid out, pre-planned. If this were true, then anything I do is not my responsibility because it has all been laid out according to some deific plan.
Atheists have every right to express their point of view as does anyone who may be religious. The plain fact is that the religious right has been demonizing those who don't agree with them or who question their authority in making comments about issues we face. Apparently, now that the non-religious sector of our society is fighting back, the religious right doesn't like it. Whatever happened to "turn the other cheek"?
Hey! I'm part of the religious right...I guess(I am right-handed)...I don"t "demonize" anyone except, maybe the chief demon, Satan. Of course if "disagreeing" with someone or being against something is "demonizing," then I guess I'm "demonizing" Although, I just thought I was disagreeing. Are blonde jokes demonizing?
Mike: Religious believers have a long history of demonizing those who don't share their beliefs and using that to justify persecuting them. Many Americans demonize Muslims, Jews have been persecuted throughout much of history, Christians have been persecuted and in fact Christians have persecuted other Christians. Mormons were persecuted in this country. The Catholic church tortured people for not being good enough Catholics in the Spanish Inquisition. People have come to this country since its beginning to escape religious persecution.
The heated tone of dialogue reemphasizes the wisdom of separation of church and state. A free democratic society must guard against the tyranny of absolute power based on the belief in any particular religion or ideology.