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 The American Atheists' president acknowledges that the pair of new billboards will likely cause a stir.
March 1st, 2012
05:00 AM ET
Atheist group targets Muslims, Jews with ‘myth’ billboards in Arabic and HebrewBy Dan Merica, CNN (CNN) – The billboard wars between atheists and believers have raged for years now, especially around New York City, and a national atheist group is poised to take the battle a step further with billboards in Muslim and Jewish enclaves bearing messages in Arabic and Hebrew. American Atheists, a national organization, will unveil the billboards Monday on Broadway in heavily Muslim Paterson, New Jersey and in a heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood, immediately after the Williamsburg Bridge. “You know it’s a myth … and you have a choice,” the billboards say. The Patterson version is in English and Arabic, and the Brooklyn one in English and Hebrew. To the right of the text on the Arabic sign is the word for God, Allah. To the right of the text on the Hebrew sign is the word for God, Yahweh. Dave Silverman, the president of American Atheists, said the signs are intended to reach atheists in the Muslim and Jewish enclaves who may feel isolated because they are surrounded by believers. “Those communities are designed to keep atheists in the ranks,” he says. “If there are atheists in those communities, we are reaching out to them. We are letting them know that we see them, we acknowledge them and they don't have to live that way if they don’t want to.” CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories Silverman says the signs advertise the American Atheists’ upcoming convention and an atheist rally, called the Reason Rally, in Washington next month. Atheists have long pointed to surveys that suggest atheists and agnostics make up between 3% and 4% of the U.S. population. That number increases when Americans unaffiliated with any religion are included. The Pew Center’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey found that 16% are unaffiliated, though only a fraction of those are avowed atheists and agnostics. Silverman acknowledges that the pair of new billboards will likely cause a stir. “People are going to be upset,” he says. “That is not our concern.” “We are not trying to inflame anything,” he continued. “We are trying to advertise our existence to atheist in those communities. The objective is not to inflame but rather to advertise the atheist movement in the Muslim and Jewish community.” The billboards will be up for one month and cost American Atheists, based in New Jersey, less than $15,000 each, according to Silverman. Mohamed Elfilali, executive director of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, laughed when he learned the Arabic billboard would go up in the same town as his office. He says he’s surprised that someone is spending money on such a sign. “It is not the first and won’t be the last time people have said things about God or religion,” Elfilali says. “I respect people’s opinion about God; obviously they are entitled to it. I don’t think God is a myth, but that doesn’t exclude people to have a different opinion.” But Elfilali bemoaned the billboards as another example of a hyper-polarized world. “Sadly, there is a need to polarize society as opposed to build bridges,” he says. “That is the century that we live in. It is very polarized, very politicized.” The Brooklyn billboard is likely to raise eyebrows among Jews, in part because Orthodox Jews don't write out the name of God, as the billboard does. “It is an emotional word, there will be an emotional response," said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, dean of Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future. "People will look at it in a bizarre way. People won’t understand why someone needed to write that out.” To get around the prohibition, Jews usually use only one Hebrew letter in place of the word. In the Torah scroll, though, the word is found and it is pronounced Adonai, which means “my master.” Rabbi Serge Lippe of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue was more dismissive than outraged about the billboards. “The great thing about America is we are marketplace for ideas,” he says. “People put up awful, inappropriate billboards expressing their ideas and that is embraced.” But Lippe acknowledged that there are a lot of agnostic and atheist Jews. A recent Gallup survey found 53% of Jews identified as nonreligious. Among American Jews, 17% identified as very religious and 30% identified as moderately religious. “When you have two Jews in the room, you have three opinions,” joked Lippe. American Atheists have used the word “myth” to describe religion and God on billboards before. Last November, the organization went up with a billboard immediately before the New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln tunnel that showed the three wise men heading to Bethlehem and stated “You KNOW it’s a Myth. This Season, Celebrate Reason.” At the time, the American Atheists said the billboard was to encourage Atheists to come out of the closet with their beliefs and to dispel the myth that Christianity owns the solstice season. The Christmas billboard led to a “counter punch” by the Catholic League, a New York-based Catholic advocacy group. The Catholic League put up a competing billboard that said, “You Know It's Real: This Season Celebrate Jesus." Silverman says his group’s billboard campaigns will continue long into the future. “There will be more billboards,” Silverman says. “We are not going to be limiting to Muslims and Jews, we are going to be putting up multiple billboards in multiple communities in order to get atheists to come out of the closet.” soundoff (5,946 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 Next »
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Oh my God.... Do atheists really excist? Aren't you guys scared of death and going to hell? Seriously I would NEVER EVER be non-Christian. Jesus died for our sins. SHAME ON YOU!
Um...thanks?
This is the type of post that shows why these billboards are necessary.
Aren't you worried that you will die and go to hell because Allah is the one true god?
Sigh. Is that really why you believe? Because you fear your 'loving' god?
Some people are hopeless.
You believe bullsh!t. I'm not afraid of your god, a zombie jesus or to die. The thought of believer a.s.s.holes led by the likes of Rick Santorum getting control of the USA worries me greatly!
Believers: Ignore the bigot idiots, let them waste their time and money and just smile and make fun of them 🙂 A few good tips! At the end they will just stop until they get heart attack sooner or later. They will get punished, I promise. However, it's still not too late to go to church and pray away their big sin and ask for forgiveness (That's what I did – used to be an Atheist).
If you want to take his advice, be smart about it: go to many churches, study all the faiths that you can get your hands on. Learn the tenants of older and newer belief systems and decide for yourself what makes sense.
You have a mind and a body of experience to start with. Don't take my word for it, or P-man's. Trust in yourself.
Why do Christian religions have hospitals? If they truly believe in God, let God cure all their illness and not some doctor with their crazy science and medicine.
Jason,
Yes, either that or they can just die already and get off of this ever-lovin' planet asap!
Philly man:
Making fun of them is mocking and mocking is not a favorable behavior in the Bible. Read Proverbs regarding Mockers. Yes they mock, but that is their stock in trade.
Gotta luv Evangelical Fundie Atheists!!!!
Don't forget to forgive us, too. Your commanded to. You'd be shocked at how some of your fellow believers act, here. They spout arrogant claims they can't prove in hateful rhetoric, and then they threaten and use profanity. I'm sure it's glorifying to god somehow, but it sure looks stupid to us silly ole atheists!
Everyday I see atheists on this board say "Those christians shouldn't be in my face with those tracts" or "How about the next time a Christian hands me a tract I punch him in the face"!!.. that was just yesterday.
Free exchange of ideas? forget about it!
It is my belief that the anger of the atheists stems from their desire to hide their own sin from their own awareness. But these pesky Christians keep popping up at inopportune moments and reminding them that they ARE sinners.
"Excuse me, sir, but can't you see I am trying to forget that all of these things I am doing are evil? Can't you see we are trying to establish an new world order here? But you keep bringing up sin and spoiling our ignorant bliss!!"
momoya:
I certainly can and will decide not to take and venegence on those who hurt me, but unfortunately I am not God, and therefore have no authority to forgive any penalty God may have for you regarding your treatment of His dearly beloved children..
When I say "I forgive you" that simply means I will not take any temporal human action to "Balance the scale" . I have no eternal power. Seek forgiveness from God, He is the only one who can grant it completely.
Anyway, I don't think this billboard requires forgiveness anyway, it is simply another group of Americans, pooling their money together to spread an idea. "Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain"
They are wasting their own time.
Oh it's all good, Bob's F. There's no magical diseases like sin, so no worries.
momoya:
It is true that we are "Commanded to Forgive" But commanding a Christian to forgive is like putting a bowl of ice cream in front of a 3 year old.. you don't have to write a law that says "THOU SHALT EAT THAT ICE CREAM!!!!"
No, when you (yes YOU) become Born Again, God will "Remove your heart of stone, and give you a heart of Flesh" Your Love for God AND your fellow humans will bloom like a flower, and forgiving people will come as naturally as... as eating icream. This is the source of the "Self Witness" I don't need God in a test tube, because I witnessed His miracle in my heart, the day I was Born Again.
momoya:
Now I know you enough to know that you are not claiming to be perfect...If there is one thing that is evident from the History of mankind, it IS that mankind is indeed evil.
Every succeeding century is an ever-increasing record of proof of the fact.
Humans have much capacity for good and evil–especially since we invented those philosophical concepts!
But no human has the capacity for perfect good, i.e. sinlessness in thought word and deed...you would agree.
Most atheists don't agree even though it is the obvious truth, since they understand where the argument goes, they cannot. But then on the other hand, you still have to moralize.
How do atheists comfort themselves when someone dies and/or something bad happens?
That proves how idiotic nonbelievers are.
Are you saying that the more comfortable a belief makes dying, the closer it is to godly truth?
Right because lying to yourself and others that all the bad/good things were part of the magic plan is both intellectually honest and rational.
Can't speak for others, but my comfort comes from knowing that I have an amazing gift to be cognizant of my own existence and to appreciate the amazing spectacle of the universe in my brief lifetime.
you can't believe in things just because they are comforting or they sound nice. atheists view death as their atoms returning to the cosmos from which they were forged (fact). Knowing its both accurate and poetic is far more satisfying than placing all your hope in a man who hasn't returned to earth for 2000 years....
if more people based their beliefs on truth and evidence instead of rhetoric, ideology and mythology there would be much less suffering in the world.
Are you calling us courageous, Swede? It sure sounds like it.
95% of these comments are posted by closet atheists. One day they will realize their big mistake and face their creator.
LIFE IS SHORT.... remember the day will come
Your god would condemn it's creation on earth for utilizing the rational brain that it gave to us?
95% ??? How can you possibly be in possession of such a fact? Or are you stramaning to appear clever?
Hey Granny – You are wrong – fuck off!
Sorry to break it to you Granny, but you are just as much in danger as atheists considering you are an atheist as far as the hundreds of other religions are concerned. Thor will not be happy with your denial of him and you will suffer his wrath.
@ OG no gods, ghosts or goblins
Wow that's mature. How old are you? Thirteen?
Old enough to know that what I wrote was at least as mature as a believer wishing someone gets brain cancer. I'll be watching for you chastisement of that a.s.s.hole.
The day will come soon enough when you and everyone else will enter the vast empty void forever Grandma, so take your own advice and live life while you still can. Because after that last heartbeat its all over and you will take a good long dirt nap for all eternity. I'm cool with that. Your problem is that you unrealistically expect something more. Hate to break it to you, but you only get one ride. Enjoy it while it lasts and stop wasting time kidding yourself about an Act Two that's never going to come. Remember, "You know it's a myth...and you have a choice." Those billboards are aimed at you.
Atheism is the worst religion. YES IT IS A RELIGION!
Are you saying that "bald" is a hair color?
He is saying "bald" is a head option.
Nope, he is just saying atheists wear colored wigs to hide the bald.
Religion has more than one defintion. Yes, atheism is a religion. Im sorry but its in the dictionary. Especially when large groups of people spend large amounts of money to put up billboards to talk about god.. Which is what athiests do
They hide word definitions in these mysterious books, called........Dictionaries. Atheism is an ontological position. It's not a religion. Claiming it is, is well....dumb.
Crad, are you saying that a person who denies any belief in any higher power and denies any religion is somehow religious? Because I think you are, and that's pretty dumb.
To borrow Crad's comment:
Insanity has more than one defintion. Yes, belief in a supernatural being is a mental disorder. Im sorry but its in the dictionary.
"BALD IS A HEAD OPTION" !!!!!! Funniest comment!~!
ROTFLMBO
I am so grateful I live in faith. If it's a myth, I choose to believe in a power greater than me. My religion is called Love!
It's a great psych tool for dealing with life, but that doesn't make it true. Religion is good for the individual, bad for society (again, how much pain and death has been caused in the world due to religious differences?)
Mine too! I mean, sometimes it is called atheism, but I call it LOVE!
And where are the billboards against the Christians? And the Hindus? Mythologies are not for any one religion, the wholre religious beliefs are based upon mythology. There were no 3 Magi (wise men) frfom the east who showed up with gifts when Jesus was born. Te Yamuna river did not just emptied out when Krishna was born or Ram was no conceived when his mothe ate a fruit (prasad) and Moses receiving the tablet is no less fiction than Joseph Smith finding some 200 years ago or muslims believing that abraham lived in Meccaah and that Mohammed is the last prophet.
This is the first billboard that target non-Christians..... Google and see!
Paul, you have swayed me into believing what you say about CNN.
At least I am religious and I will be saved if there is God. You atheists deny God in this short-lived life without knowing for sure God does not excist. I'll rather be on safer side.
Good to have a Muslim on the board. Thanks for the comment.
Pascal's wager has been long debunked. Google: Pascal's Wager Refuted You'll get a few hits.
Yet another ignoramus clutching at Pascal's Wager. How do you know you are groveling to the right god and not pissing off the rest in the mean time?
If one pretends to believe something so that he will go to heaven...well wouldn't god see through that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuc2aWJnmQ8
I love you too.
Prayer changes things .
hmm....I think the hundreds of millions who have been killed or injured due to religious conflicts would disagree with you.
Prayer changes things
Proven
Rational thought changes things...prayer just make people feel good.
Prayer is communication with God,
@jason - Is that vs the 100 plus millionmurdered by Atheists wihtin the last 100 years or so? Whoops
So I guess Wisdom is really taking the high road here. Must be for Jaysus!
@Phil ~~~~ Control Freak, much.....ass wipe.
@ Bob ~~~~ that's not what the football team said, bro. I heard you wear a size 4 shoe....poor thing.
Good for American Atheists to reach out to people in communities who might otherwise feel alone and vulnerable .
If evolution is real, how come there are no crociducks? (typical creationist's damning 'thoughts' on evolution)
Folks, don't bother trying to persuade the 'devout follower' of their blindness. They don't have the willingness (or ability?) to think for themselves.
Wow. I'm glad some really great atheists didn't feel that way about me while I was yet a believer.
momoya, I obviously overstated that. I've just found that most devout followers can't be convinced with facts or reason, and I've given up trying. Maybe I'm just not a very convincing atheist 😉
The thing that I cant figure out is that why do we have thousands and thousands of invertebrates fossils, and thousands and thousands of fish fossils, but we have no fossils of organisms between the two?
Weird, huh?
Think of all the species that would have had to have been present to span that gap, all those millions of years and millions of animals.. and yet, somehow, they all escaped fossilization, when species before and after got fossilized just fine..
weird huh? And the weirdest thing, is that that gap corresponds exactly to what the bible says (fish being created by God).
Yeah send those muslim back to africa!
"They will not believe, even if one should rise from the dead" (Luke)
Well, perhaps if the resurrection could be reproduced on demand... But then, that would only lead to belief in resurrection.
yup, still the same after all these years.
"I can still feel the good in you, father." (Luke)
I love Fiction!
Four interesting facts:
1. Jesus was buried in a tomb
2. On the third day the tomb was found to be empty
3. Many people (followers and enemies) reported meeting a resurrected Jesus
4. The people who reported meeting a resurrected Jesus went from discouraged and demoralized deniers of Christ, to enthusiastic proclaimers of a risen Christ willing to go to their death for the truth of that statement.
Chad, you are a liar. None of those are facts. They're merely myths with no factual, independent, verifiable or objective proof.
"Four interesting facts:
1. Jesus was buried in a tomb
2. On the third day the tomb was found to be empty
3. Many people (followers and enemies) reported meeting a resurrected Jesus
4. The people who reported meeting a resurrected Jesus went from discouraged and demoralized deniers of Christ, to enthusiastic proclaimers of a risen Christ willing to go to their death for the truth of that statement."
Who let William Lane Craig on the board?!?
Nogod. Actually, there was quite a bit of evidence for the tomb and other things mentioned. If you dont believe jesus was god thats fine, but why do you guys try to rewrite history just because youre angry? Other athiests laughing at the idea jesus even existed. With the record keeping from 2000 years ago we have enough to say these things did happen. Whether he was resurrected or son of god is in dispute. But he did exist and he was crucified and on and on. You cant rewrite history just because religion is involved..
I'm not the least bit angry and atheists are not the ones trying to create a false history. Even if points 1 and 2 are correct (and there's no solid evidence they are) there is nothing to support 3 or 4. To present these myths as fact is a lie.
I dont think athiests are doing it on purpose, but when i hear countless athiests actually saying that the existence of jesus is a myth, simply because he is tied to a religious movement, is very scary. It shows that people are not using logic or reason. Thats like saying in 2000 years from now that george bush didnt exist, just because he believed in god. (most times i wish he didnt exist because hes bordeline satan).. But you get my point. Athiests are supposed to be logical, level headed people. And here they are going on about jesus never existed, wasting 15 grand on billboards talking about god, when thats the very thing they shouldnt be doing. Its totally confusing
Please show this logical atheist factual, verifiable, objective and independent evidence that jesus exited.
That "...jesus exited..."???? Okie Dokie Jokie!!!
@0G-No gods, ghosts or goblins "Please show this logical atheist factual, verifiable, objective and independent evidence that jesus exited."
By far, the most plausible explanation for these four historical facts is that the God of Abraham physically raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead.
1. Jesus was buried in a tomb
2. On the third day the tomb was found to be empty
3. Many people (followers and enemies) reported meeting a resurrected Jesus
4. The people who reported meeting a resurrected Jesus went from discouraged and demoralized deniers of Christ, to enthusiastic proclaimers of a risen Christ willing to go to their death for the truth of that statement.
Chad, you have made 4 claims and speculated what the best explanation might be. You have not provided one shred of objective, verifiable, indepenent or factual evidence. You simply keep repeaing claims from your tribal myths. You lose!
1. Jesus was buried in a tomb
–a. multiple independent attestations ranging from 10 years to 50 years after resurrection (All 4 gospels and pauls letters)
–b. Jesus burial is nearly universally agreed upon as factual, for instance from infidels.org (a site dedicated to the destruction of Christian belief: "I believe that the specific evidence in Mark for Jesus' burial in a tomb is sufficient to overcome the intrinsic improbability of a crucifixion victim being buried. Like Craig, I think it is much easier to accept the historicity of Jesus' burial by Joseph of Arimathea than it is to explain away the burial story as pure legend."
2. On the third day the tomb was found to be empty
–a. Again, multiple early attestations of any empty tomb
–b. To think that early claims of a physically resurrected Christ could survive when faced with the reality of a corpse right there, is irrational.
–c. Jewish leaders claimed that the body had been stolen
–d. empty tomb found by women
3. Many people (followers and enemies) reported meeting a resurrected Jesus
–a. Again, multiple early attestations to follower and persecutors alike.
–b. That early followers reported this, and that the event was immensely transformative is universally acknowledged by all historians.
4. The people who reported meeting a resurrected Jesus went from discouraged and demoralized deniers of Christ, to enthusiastic proclaimers of a risen Christ willing to go to their death for the truth of that statement.
–a. Again, multiple early attestations
–b. and again, the truth of that statement is universally acknowledged by historians.
Bob
The foul language in your posts is simply disgusting. ~~~~ Hey, Ph u ck You, Bob!!
Is that how you go about demonstrating love?!?!
That does sound like a special kind of 'LOVE' wisdom has going for Bob.
Hope you feel better now that you have come out.Sorry, ain't your kind bro. look elsewhere to share that love of yours!
EXACTAMUNDO, to all you clowns. Better be glad I'm not God! lol
You can just say fūck. You don't have to spell it weird.