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 A billboard criticizing Christianity is going up in Charlotte, North Carolina, host city of the upcoming Democratic National Convention.
August 13th, 2012
10:03 AM ET
First on CNN: Atheist group targets presidential candidates' faith with billboardsBy Dan Merica, CNN Washington (CNN) - A prominent atheist group is using next month's Democratic National Convention to take aim at the presidential candidates' religion, putting up billboards targeting Mormonism and Christianity in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Our political system is rife with religion and it depends too much on religion and not enough on substance," said David Silverman, president of American Atheists, sponsor of the ads. "Religion is silly and religion has components that are inherently divisive. … There is no place for any of that in the political system,” he said. The billboards go up Monday in Charlotte and will stay up for a month at a cost of roughly $15,000. The Democratic convention runs September 3-6. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories The billboard targeting Christianity features an image of Jesus Christ on toast and this description of the faith: "Sadistic God; Useless Savior, 30,000+ Versions of ‘Truth,’ Promotes Hates, Calls it ‘Love.’ ”
The billboard targeting Mormonism lambastes - and, Mormons would say, distorts - specific Mormon doctrines: "God is a Space Alien, Baptizes Dead People, Big Money, Big Bigotry.” The Mormon billboard features a man in white underwear, a reference to special Mormon garments. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter Both billboards feature the line "Atheism: Simply Reasonable." American Atheists had wanted to put the anti-Mormon billboard in Tampa, Florida, to coincide with the Republican National Convention there later this month. Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney is a Mormon. When no billboard company in the city would lease the group space for such a sign, Silverman said the organization decided to focus solely on the Democrats in Charlotte. “Presidential conventions are for ideas, not ideology - platforms, not platitudes," Silverman said. "If a person believes stupid things, we have every right to question his or her judgment, and that directly impacts how the nonreligious voter votes.” CNN Belief Blog: Atheist leader hopes to mobilize closeted nonbelievers Some religious leaders said the billboards showed a misunderstanding of how faith works. "That billboard makes the most common high-school error when it comes to atheism," wrote the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author, in an e-mail to CNN. "It's not arguing against the existence of God, but against religion. The American Atheists need to go back to school on this one." Martin also questioned the language used on the billboard: "And as for 'promoting hate' they're doing a bang-up job themselves with that billboard." Terryl Givens, a Mormon professor at the University of Richmond, called American Atheists "petty and vindictive." “If this example of adolescent silliness is what atheists mean by being reasonable, then neither Mormons nor other Christians have much to worry about," he said of the billboards. "When atheists organize to serve the poor and needy of the world, they will be taken more seriously." CNN Belief Blog: Unbelieving preachers 'come out' as atheists It's not the first time the American Atheists group has released in-your-face billboards. Earlier this year, the group put up two billboards in heavily Muslim and Jewish enclaves in New Jersey and New York bearing messages in Arabic and Hebrew. “You know it’s a myth … and you have a choice,” the billboards said. At the time, Silverman said the signs were intended to reach atheists in Muslim and Jewish areas who may feel isolated because they are surrounded by believers. In addition to the billboards, Silverman said his group plans to stage protests at both conventions. |
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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I may not agree with atheists, but they are some funny people.
"National Socialism neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious, but on the contrary it stands on the ground of a real Christianity . . . For their interests cannot fail to coincide with ours alike in our fight against the symptoms of degeneracy in the world of today, in our fight against a Bolshevist culture, against atheistic movement, against criminality, and in our struggle for a consciousness of a community in our national life . . . These are not anti-Christian, these are Christian principles!" – Adolf Hitler
Don't forget, Hitler stamped a Maltese Cross – a Christian symbol – on every war machine he had. That should tell you something.
The maltese cross predates and transcends Christian imagery
Nope, The Maltese cross, also known as the Amalfi cross, is identified as the symbol of an order of Christian warriors known as the Knights Hospitaller or Knights of Malta. They started using it around the First Crusade. Learn2history, Bill Deacon!
This is a perfect example of ineffective persuasion. You don't get people to question the beliefs they were raised with ridicule. Mocking them for wanting the emotional comfort religion provides just makes you a jerk.
For people to abandon the emotional crutch of mythologies and magical thinking, they have to see how they can live without it, and nobody learns that from a billboard.
Baby steps!
The bilboard doesn't mock people's beliefs, it summarizes them
i agree with you. the billboards should simply point out that people with religious doubts have an alternative.
todd. why do atheists have the needs to do this?
is it because they want to get rid of them all and unify the world (which is ridicule) or is it because they are a bunch of insecure people?
No, I think the mockery is important. If other people believe your are ridiculous, that may provide the objectivity needed to deeply examine your beliefs. If you could simply reason with religious people, there wouldn't be any religious people.
Catholic Hitler thought those with blond hair and blue eyes were the supreme race, yet he didn't.
Christian KKK hated blacks, yet their jesus was black.
The pope who wears ruby red shoes, a ruby red hat and a dress, says being gay is wrong.
There you have it, christians
Hitler was born and raised Catholic, but denounced his Catholicism as a young man. He was an athiest (but that doesn't mean all athieists are Nazis, folks).
you are dead wrong on that statement. There are live recordings of him praising god while destroying human life < - fact. Also, the pope protected hitlers prized possessions and helped many nazi's escape when they were ready to be caught. The vatican sure didn't help the jews. As the catholic church hated jews, so did hitler. Nice catholic upbringing, huh?
No Jim Brody
Hitler never renounced his catholicism. Nor was he ever excommunicated.
And his viewpoints were not that far off many christians who followed him. Including the viewpoint that jews killed Christ – which comes directly from Martin Luther and his writings.
Partial list of those credited with helping Jews during the Nazi regime:
Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Zakynthos,[48] who, when ordered by the Axis occupying forces to submit a list of all Jews on the island, submitted a docoment bearing just two names: his own and the Mayor's. Consequently all 275 Zante Jews were saved.
Archbishop Damaskinos – Archbishop of Athens during the German occupation. He formally protested the deportation of Jews and quietly ordered churches under his jurisdiction to issue fake Christian baptismal certificates to Jews fleeing the Nazis. Thousands of Greek Jews in and around Athens were thus able to claim that they were Christian and were thus saved.
Archbishop Johannes de Jong, later Cardinal, of Utrecht, Netherlands, who drew up together with Tiitus Brandsma O.Carm. († Dachau, 1942) a letter in which he called for all Catholics to assist persecuted Jews, and in which he openly condemned the Nazi German "deportation of our Jewish fellow citizens" (From: Herderlijk Schrijven, read from all pulpits on Sunday 26 January 1942).
Alfred Delp S.J., a Jesuit priest who helped Jews escape to Switzerland while rector of St. Georg Church in suburban Munich; also involved with the Kreisau Circle. Executed February 2, 1945 in Berlin.
Rufino Niccacci, a Franciscan friar and priest who sheltered Jewish refugees in Assisi, Italy, from September 1943 through June 1944.
Maximilian Kolbe – Polish Conventual Franciscan friar. During the Second World War, in the friary, Kolbe provided shelter to people from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews. He was also active as a radio amateur, vilifying Nazi activities through his reports.
Bernhard Lichtenberg – German Catholic priest at Berlin's Cathedral. Sent to Dachau because he prayed for Jews at Evening Prayer.
Hugh O'Flaherty – an Irish Catholic priest who saved about 4,000 Allied soldiers and Jews; known as the "Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican". Retold in the film The Scarlet and the Black.
Sára Salkaházi – a Hungarian Roman Catholic nun who sheltered approximately 100 Jews in Budapest.
Andrey Sheptytsky – Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, harbored hundreds of Jews in his residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries. He also issued the pastoral letter, "Thou Shalt Not Kill", to protest Nazi atrocities.
The Sisters of Social Service, nuns who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews; included Sister Sara Salkahazi, recognized by Yad Vashem as well as beatified.
Archbishop Stefan of Sofia – Bishop of Sofia and Exarch of Bulgaria.
André and Magda Trocmé – A French pastor and his wife who led the Le Chambon-sur-Lignon village movement that saved 3,000-5,000 Jews.
Omelyan Kovch – Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest who was deported to Treblinka camp for helping thousands of Jews. He was canonized by pope John Paul II[49]
Religion has no place in Politics and we need to stop passing laws based on one religion or another. All religious groups/cults should also pay Taxes.
You are what you believe.
Romney and Ryan are who they are, and do what they do, and makes their decisions, based on what they believe.
You do the same things based on what you believe (which might be atheism).
You cannot take religion out of political decisions unless you exclude anyone of faith from running for political office.
you tell me on what foundations the NDAA is based on?
I wonder how many Christians thank God every day for the secular laws which protect them from being stoned to death for breaking so many of God's laws?
agreed
"stoned to death" .... Well Christians do not stone folks because before the laws of America or England , the testament stated that Jesus addressed capital punishment. Especially dealing with stoning.
we are thankful for living in a free country, but then again, that's exactly the reason we founded this nation to begin with.
Mark, actually, Jesus said that he was not here to end the laws of the Old Testament and that every word of them would remain in place until the very end. Good try, though.
Sorry PDX... know when you are beaten. I never said he re-wrote or re-defined the laws of Moses. He just made a judgment on who can carry it out. Did you hear/read where i said he re-wrote the law?
The one thing a billboard like that will do is let people with doubts know it is okay to question religion. A lot of people grow up in religious communities, attend religious schools, and would be outcasts if they openly questioned the existance of god.
BTW, I believe that if there were one all powerful god, there would be one religion.
Let's clear this up once and for all. Atheism is not a religion.
Sure it is a forming more and more like a religion. If it is not one already. But, the Catholic church folks declare and define things about them all of the time.
I do like that you feel your post was what folks were waiting for the clear things up once and for all 🙂
Let's also clear this up: denial is not just a river in Egypt.
@Mark from Middle River
Once again it is the religious picking and choosing to suit their agenda. Lets call atheism a religion, alright, that makes sense. A whole lot of morons with no clue.
yes it is. you belief you're your own God.
and yes I can't spell for **** today 😛
Vocal Are you asserting that atheist don't pick and choose from scripture to suit their points? This is a serious question being that I continually see people deliberately misconstruing scripture to make a point about how Christianity makes no sense. So my question is this; Do you deliberately pick and choose to misconstrue or do you honestly not understand scripture?
Vocal, it is becoming more and more of a Religion and like the Faiths it is at the extremes where they are echoing word for word the statements and actions of the Faithful extremist.
Athiests are very desperate people.
You're good at making baseless generalizations. Ok, your turn!
Desperate of what?
On the contrary. We're doing a lot better than folks who need to look to the sky for guidance and morality.
In a certain context, you're right – we're desperate to get religion out of politics and law and from interfering in other peoples' rights.
All atheist please route your responses through Americanatheist.org so that they may be processed by the liturgical committee. This will allow for a cohesive message without variance from approved atheist dogma.
Tell why are they recruiting AMERICAN ATHEIST... Seems to me that they shouldn't be exclusive on this one... Is there something different about the cultural belief in manner an American Doesn't believe in GOD or the way an Asian might now believe in God??? I think it must be a sad life to limit your thoughts and expressions to this life and world... Seems only rational that as far reaching is space itself that mankind is born to be limitless.
I think your idea of rational is irrational.
billboards in america would naturally be aimed at americans. if you want to recruit the asian crowd, put up a billboard somewhere in asia.
LOL, you have discerned the reasoning behind religion: Mankind's limitless ego. To think that anything as perfect and wonderful as man could be finite is simply unthinkable to you people!
the billboard is in reference to Religion in American politics. We are supposed to have a secular system, and it just not anymore. Religion is, in most cases, outrageous, dogmatic, and contradictory and has no place in politics.
Because the organization is called 'American Atheists' - which you'd know if you'd checked the website posted on the billboard.
simple research fail.
These days are filled with hate. This is the underlying feeling of the billboards. Unfortunately the atheists feel threatened by the hate they receive from some pastors and some media. Christians of the heart know and expect they will be questioned, ridiculed and persecuted. As one of those Christians, I pray that hate will evaporate, people will live peacefully, and that my life will bring happiness to the Lord and my neighbor. I cannot change you, but I can live a life without hate.
Religious self-righteousness at its finest.
Disagreeing with a belief is not hate.
I think it is more that some of the most recent presidential candidates for the Republican party have had a firm view that the separation of church and state should be abolished or made one way. Religion has been brought into this election more than any other I can remember.
I"m certain that all the people that burn witches and bash gays consider themselves, "Christians of the Heart" as well. I think I'll stick to being a Human of the Mind.
1) disagreeing with you is not hate.
2) claiming persecution while being the majority is just.... pretty strange. Trying to use the words written down when christianity was but a small sect of judaism, looked down upon by judaism and considered wrong by the contemporary authorities who believed in polytheism and trying to ascribe it to present day when none of those social issues exist.... is deranged. If it HELPS you to feel put upon... you need a shrink.
3) threatened by pastors.... no. threatened by people trying to push their religious viewpoints as secular law on everyone, yes.
it won't matter,, the earth will one day shed off its humans. No more humans, earth will be like mars.
*yawn* Atheists being pushy jerks, mocking others beliefs, all in the name of 'tolerance' and 'reason'.
What else is new.
religion is no different than little boys with tree house rules.
The fun part is that it is so easy to mock these religions. So much B S full of holes.
Observe all the Christians that come out to mock cults when they make news, when theirs is no different.
I think 2,00 years of tolerance is enough.
*yawn* another delusional person who places far too much faith in the indoctrination they were raised to believe.
Some things deserve to be mocked....'yawn'...
You know, I think the mocking is important. If someone tells you something absurd, they should be mocked. The more mockery, the more introspection.
one thing is certain with the myriad of deities, religions and doctrines today and throughout human history. man is very adept at creating god.
Or, Satan is very adept at getting man confused about who and what God really is. Perhaps his best 'victory' is getting man to stop believing in God altogether or to think that man is smarter than God.
Oh john,
This whole "the devil is doing it" is such a convenient argument, one that needs no proof, just your gut feeling. I guess the Devil is more prominent in Africa and Asia since they all believe in different religions. There's no way that your religion is based upon where you grew up and who your parents are, though, right?
Or maybe the best trick Zeus ever played was getting people to believe in Jesus.
Hey faithful – while you are all on your knees, I've got a job for you. . . might as well do something worthwhile.
THAT IS FUNNAY..
I'm sure you have calluses on your knees...
Someone posted to ask, very reasonably, where in the New Testament does Jesus preach hatred. Here is your answer:
If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26)
Do not think that I came to bring peace on Earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his household. (Matthew 10:34–39)
There are other New Testament quotes that are horrific as well. It's nice to keep things topical, but if you would like to hear more, just ask.
Hey, you cant use their own book to counter their own argument. You're taking it out of context, it's a parable, you just dont understand because you arent a believer.....
Did I miss any?
The New Testament was written 90 years after Jesus's death. How distorted do you think the stories would be after 90 years of ancient civilization talk?
jesus had mental issues, that is quite apparent. Self destructive behavior.
OK, but you're using them a bit out of context there ... He's not saying to actually hate your father, but to hate them in comparison to loving Him. And as far as setting family members against each other, that just happens when you choose God. Your atheist family members will call you names and persecute you.
Also, the Bible was written 90 years after His death. The last books were written around 90 AD. Big difference there.
That makes it so much better, Topher, 'in context'. lol
I think it does, in context. Do you understand what the Gospel says? That we all deserve Hell and none of us can earn our way into Heaven, and because of this God took the punishment we deserve so that we can be seen as clean and can go to Heaven. Nothing else in history has been this kind to anyone. So of course we should love Him more than anything else.
Topher said
"And as far as setting family members against each other, that just happens when you choose God. Your atheist family members will call you names and persecute you.
Whoa... did Topher just say that non christians in the 100 years after Christ were atheists?
hate to break it to you Topher, but they were not. In that area of the world, many were Polythests, Hellenic or Roman. Some were Jews. Probably some followed Mithraism, or Zoastrianism. Very few were atheists.
You do realize that Christianity is not the 'first' religion. That there were many other religions. Many with thousands of years of history behind them. Priesthoods, Priestesses. Temples and places of worship.
Christianity, controlled by Constantine, started the destruction of the the other religions and their places of worship, and put Christianity, which he could control, in it's place.
You need to stop and study history.
Wrenn_NYC
"Whoa... did Topher just say that non christians in the 100 years after Christ were atheists?"
I don't see how I said that at all.
"hate to break it to you Topher, but they were not. In that area of the world, many were Polythests, Hellenic or Roman. Some were Jews. Probably some followed Mithraism, or Zoastrianism. Very few were atheists."
Of course there were others. Christianity came out of one of them.
I guess I don't see your point.
Pearls before swine Topher. God Bless you for trying.
Bill Deacon
Thanks. I realize I'm probably not getting anywhere with most of these atheists. They continue to spew their hatred without actually knowing what the Bible says. But I'm hoping someone whose heart isn't hardened will read the conversation and repent and trust the Savior.
Please tell me how Jesus's origins differs from mythology?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_Pattern#The_Hero
Atheists are angry with the world. Most of them are nerds who can't pull chicks and so disbelieve in God. News flash: absence of god is not why you can't get laid. It is absence of s.ex appeal.
You make so little sense that I pitty you.
Isn't it the Religious people that can't get laid unless they are married?
Bob, I find it odd that you would espouse such beliefs, what with your religion stating that you only get one marriage and any intercourse with a person other than your 1st wife is either out of wedlock sinning or just plain adultery, both of which are offenses punishable by stoning to death. I'm guessing you break God's laws on a daily basis and thank God that secular law protects you from his stated punishment.
Chicks can be nerds too....
I'm an atheist and get laid every night...
Where are we supposed to pull these 'chicks'?
You really don't know any atheists...at least not any who openly tell you they are.
You don't know David Silverman either. He's one of the happiest people I know. Today is his birthday.
Beware the teabagger that wears a turban. That's where he hides the ammo he just bought at Walmart.
I wish they had included Islam as well with Islamic Prophet Mohammad and his 9 year old bride Aisha's image on that billboard.