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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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You Americans are such idiots. There are atheists all over the world but only in your country do you see this.
Huh? You really think that?? Funny.
what difference does it make? oh, yeah. you wouldn't be able to spout your geographical prejudice or exert your intellectual superiority if it weren't for us idiots americans. you need stupid people to make yourself feel smarter. we're serving a purpose here pal – more than we can say for you, no?? =)
Come back when your country moves up for the 3rd-rate.
We are the most religious first world country, which means the billboards are more bold here.
IN HELL THERE ARE ONLY FORMER ATHEISTS
Fail.
Hell doesn't exist.
Thank God for that. Can you just imagine spending eternity with a bunch of religious nut jobs.
So only atheists go there? Murderers and rapists and child molesters all go to heaven? Mmmmk.
PROOF YOUR GOD IS A PR.ICK
Hell, Michigan?
I'd just like to note that I'm a Christian and I find this incredibly offensive and wrong. Sheesh, man.
No, judging from their postings and behavior I’d say Christians would be the majority group in hell. Too bad it doesn’t exist
Very true! Just like all of Santa's elves (slave laborers) were once unbelieving children. Santa is loving and merciful, but he must exact justice according to His Will. Just believe and you'll be richly rewarded, but deny the truth of Santa and you must suffer for eternity. See, it's all about free will. Nevertheless, it's just so simple! When will atheists and unbelieving children finally realize that nothing less than their eternal futures are at stake?
Don't forget Jews:
“And the founder of Christianity made no secret indeed of his estimation of the Jewish people. When He found it necessary, He drove those enemies of the human race out of the Temple of God.” – Adolf Hitler
America is a fascinating place to live, all at once so religious and still so independent. I wonder what political affiliation Jesus would align with? It think he would be an insufferable Christian socialist and get like 8 votes if he ran for office.
Christian Democrat
Every single innocent child that dies in this world is proof enough for me that there is no God. Why? Because if god doesn't save them or allows them to die, is either because it can't or it won't. If it can't; then it is no dod at all. If it wont't; I refuse to believe that a "loving" god would behave that way.
Someitmes you have to sacrifice a pawn for a king to survive. Chess 101
Perhaps you're right, but that's a pretty narrow assumption you're making. There are fates worse than death, and there are chain reactions acting in this world the likes of which no super-computer will ever predict. Perhaps letting that innocent die is sparing them from a lifetime of torment, and perhaps their brief time on this Earth or even their death plays an important role in a much bigger picture. We have no idea how many innocent lives might be saved by each one innocent life that is lost. Of course, there could also be tons of evil lives spared by the chain reactions stemming from the death of that one innocent. My point is that we have no idea.
Why would an atheist care about politics unless they had an opinion of right and wrong? Which if there is no God there is no right and wrong, but simply survival of the fittest. Something being right or wrong only comes about when the human conditions are compared with a standard outside of humanity.
Genetics does not confer rights, otherwise discrimination would be okay.
Mother nature does not confer rights. I have never heard a zebra complain about its rights being violated by a lion as it is being eaten.
Society doesn't confer rights otherwise society would not have reformers and reformation movements like the Martin Luther, the Magna Carta, and civil rights.
strawman much?
WOW! If you need a book to tell you what is right and wrong then you (and the rest of your fairy tale believers) are more screwed up than I originally thought.
I don't need a book or god to tell me it is wrong to abuse a child (I guess the Vatican doesn't teach that right?). I know it in my heart it is wrong. I don't need god or a book to tell me it is wrong to let millions die because of lack of healthcare coverage (oops..I guess evangelicals didn't learn that either).
Society does confer both morality and rights. These concepts change over time with or without any form of religion (which also changes too). 150 years ago hanging was seen as an acceptable form of execution. It was also acceptable to treat such an event as a festival. Today that would be quite frowned upon. Christianity was around then as now, but what changed? Society did. Sometimes it takes a great person to push society forward, like Lincoln with slavery... imagine, that used to be ok 200 years ago, even to christians. Today that would again be morally reprehensible but back then it was common.
Societies are comprised of agreements on what is right and wrong. Ethics come form empathy and reciprocity, examples of which are evident in other animals as well as humans. A lack of absolute right and wrong does not mean we can't agree on what we think is right and wrong. The Magna Carta, US Consti.tution, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are codified agreements, which would not be necessary if everyone inherently "knew" what was right and wrong.
You could try responding, instead of pretending you're good at pointing out fallacies (yes, this is ad hominem and no, I don't care)
Thank you for demonstrating ignorance. Right and wrong has NOTHING to do with religion. It has to do with a moral compass which has benefited us evolutionary and continues to do today. If we didn't have a moral compass, there would be chaos and we would all be killing each other. In fact, religion increases divisiveness and hence "immorality" as one than can easily identify the "outsiders" and "kill them off" in the name of their deity/religion. As the great American physicist and Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg has said, "With or without religion, you would have good people doing goof things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
ummmm....if right and wrong are reflections of society (in a local or global sense) then that can very well be a base for "morality", it has been strongly argued by many prominent philosophers, scientists, etc. Too much evidence for this to be argued against really, even religious-based "morals" have changed over time (slavery, equal rights for women, etc)...it's the reason we have laws and a court system versus taking it up with the local pastor/etc. Not really sure how you could argue against this fact. Not that it's impossible to learn some morality from religion, or any story for that matter, but it is your personal belief and it should NEVER be forced on anybody, especially not children (off topic a bit).
As for atheists not being against God, but religion...ummmm...the definition of atheism is the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. It's OK to be against either...heck Thomas Jefferson didn't believe in religion, but took the story as one that had many merits that could benefit society at that time in history (and so he wrote the Thomas Jefferson bible). He never believed that it was a perfect book,or one that defined morals...just one that had some good sounding ideas that we should discuss as a society and decide whether they could be beneficial or not.
In the end, you can believe whatever you want, but you're subject to laws that are not representative of all your beliefs. That is because laws are made to reflect society and to better it, to direct it to a more sustainable state that promotes the well being of it's members. Beliefs are things you have no evidence to say whether they are objectively correct or not without assuming the existence of God(s)...hence, they are useless to define morality or anything for that matter. Sometimes religious beliefs overlap, at least for a bit, with societies laws. *All religions*, but that says nothing of them being "right" or "wrong", just an timely coincidence.
Thank you for making my point. How do you "know" something is right or wrong? Did some one teach Martin Luther King that discrimination was wrong and if so how did that person know discrimination was wrong? Where did the idea that discrimination is wrong come from? Forget about God for a moment and examine where does the idea of right an wrong start. Evolution certainly doesn't teach this and there have been plenty of societies that didn't teach aspects of it. It only comes about when you examine another person as yourself.
HMMMM. Do under to others as you would have them do unto you. There are 9 different religions which have some variation of the golden rule. I believe it is fundamental to us all and evil (wrong) comes about when we ignore it.
So if something is so fundamental to humans, where did it come from? If you don't believe in God then why would evolution produce it?
I see – so those Catholic priests are doing nothing wrong if the Bible does not specifically condemn their molestation of children?
BP- no that is not what I am saying. I am saying that we have inside of us an inherit knowing of right and wrong. That means those priests which molested those kids are without excuse.
"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". But atheists also say there is no room for religion in politics. This seems contradictory to me. If an athiest were to run for office, would believers be allowed (in the opinion of an athiest) to "question his or her judgement" based on their lack of religion?
If there were no religion there would still be ...something...anything... to differentiate us and that difference would be used in their decision making. So no matter what someone will always make a decision based on their belief even if it is something as goofy as believing people with freckles are smarter than those without. Just the way it is.
Maybe I can put those phrases in a better perspective. If I told you that I believed that if I live a morally upstanding life praising the King of the Bears, that he was going to take me into the ocean and teach me how to make sandwiches out of stardust on my 80th birthday, you would think I was loony unfit to lead. This is the same as those of us who thinks that those who believe in these mythologies and their figures as factual people, or occurences. Crazy is crazy in my book.
@aces I understand you. I am curious though if athiests would find it wrong if Christians were to do the same to them (and many would, no dout) if running for political office? Perhaps I'm not being articulate enough, but I see your perspective.
@geek Excellent point.
Despite evidence to the contrary, I can spell doubt and atheist.
I'm an atheist, but.... this is a bit much. I tend to think that reason, proof, and the wonders that science are opening up to us will – over time – shape our children and future generations towards a more rationall way of seeing the world. Throwing up in your face billboards just pust people on the defensive, and makes them more entrenched in their beliefs. This was not well thought out.
What happened to your kind? We need more of this type of atheist. Reason and proof (not to mention ability to engage in intelligent debate) are in short supply among this new generation of atheists.
also, at least science corrects itself. and consider this: our observation of the universe improves through time, therefore our models keep getting better. flat earth is perfectly fine for extremely local observation, and we found that out pretty fast (300BCE), and don't forget who pushed for geocentricism when an overwhelming amount of evidence were presented
The main problem with religion is that it corrupts the education of children leaving them ill prepared for employment in our scientifically and technologically advanced society. Unless you are grooming proles for use in the service industries that is.
how does religion corrupt education? Please enlighten me.
It allows them to think it is normal to believe things for poor reasons...
Since Atheists cannot prove that objective moral values exist, you are free to do with them whatever you wish without guilt. Just don't get caught. Tthey are powerless to suggest you did something "wrong".
You mean like these Christians.
1 List of evangelical Christians involved in scandals
1.1 Aimee Semple McPherson, 1920s–40s
1.2 Lonnie Frisbee, 1970s–1980s
1.3 Marjoe Gortner, early 1970s
1.4 Billy James Hargis, early 1970s
1.5 Neville Johnson, 1983
1.6 Jimmy Swaggart, Marvin Gorman, Jim and Tammy Bakker, 1986 and 1991
1.7 Peter Popoff, 1987
1.8 Morris Cerullo, 1990s
1.9 Mike Warnke, 1991
1.10 Robert Tilton, 1991
1.11 Melissa Scott, 1992
1.12 Jim Williams, 1994
1.13 W. V. Grant, 1996 and 2003
1.14 Bob Moorehead, 1998
1.15 Ian Bilby,1998
1.16 Roy Clements, 1999
1.17 John Paulk, 2000
1.18 Frank Houston, 2000
1.19 Roberts Liardon, 2001
1.20 Pat Mesiti, 2001
1.21 Paul Crouch, 2004
1.22 Douglas Goodman, 2004
1.23 Paul Cain, 2005
1.24 Wayne Hughes, 2005
1.25 Kent Hovind, 2006
1.26 Ted Haggard, 2006
1.27 Paul Barnes, 2006
1.28 Lonnie Latham, 2006
1.29 Gilbert Deya, 2006
1.30 Earl Paulk, 2007
1.31 Coy Privette, 2007
1.32 Thomas Wesley Weeks, III, 2007
1.33 Ira Parmenter, 2007
1.34 Michael Reid, 2008
1.35 Joe Barron, 2008
1.36 Todd Bentley, 2008
1.37 Michael Guglielmucci, 2008
1.38 Ergun Caner, 2010
1.39 George Alan Rekers, 2010
1.40 Eddie L. Long, 2010
1.41 Marcus Lamb, 2010
1.42 Vaughn Reeves, 2010
1.43 Stephen Green, 2011
1.44 Albert Odulele, 2011
1.45 Allan Cundick, 2011
1.46 Jason Russell, 2012
1.47 Kong Hee, 2012
1.48 Jack Schaap, 2012
Your point?
Atheist logic: Christians sin. Christianity is worthless because its adherents are not perfect. Genius.
Wallace you can't prove objective morality nor that morality originates from a god.
Of course not. Why would we try? We take some things as matters of faith. The Atheist cannot do this...not if he is logically consistant in his beliefs. You have to prove your moral values scientifically, or they do not exist.
Here are some quotes by a good Christian who knew the difference between right and wrong:
“My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter."
“I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord’s work.”
– Adolf Hitler, baptized Roman Catholic
The point isn't that "Christians sin" but that MANY of their leaders are two-faced and KNOWINGLY do unethical and immoral things, only using religion to rake in the money... and the followers keep shoveling it in because those leaders are telling them what they want to hear.
And speaking of morality, how about a "righteous" man giving his daughters away to a group of rapists, as Lot does in the book of Genesis? How about treating women like property in general, and human slavery, which is endorsed by both the old AND new testament?
Well Wallace you are more than welcome to try; however, you know those things we have in place called "laws" they don't care what religion you are once you break them.... I really question the judgement to let Theists use computer without floaties.
Faith is an excuse to believe things you don't know....it is not a virtue.
So basically you claim there objective morals, and deride others for not thinking so, but think it would be absurd to have to prove it. Now that is inconsistent.
And your religion's morality is subjective too...
Got news for ya – Christians claim to be morally superior to all others. However, while they claim a higher standard they refuse to be held to it when inconvenient.
No, I am pointing out your hypocrisy. You start the ball rolling by being an empiricist, you have to follow it through or you are nothing but a hypocrite. Prove that objective moral values exist.
bp, Hitler was a Jew. So much for your argument.
I see where you're coming from:
“The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others.” – Adolf Hitler
"Prove that objective moral values exist."
I never claimed they did, you made the claim, you prove it.
Pete,
That you not only repeat, but actually seem to believe that old wive's talk about Hitler's Jewish heritage only shows how gullible people like you truly are. Do you believe that he only had one testicle also? Someone said it, so it must be true!
pete – I understand your delusion about Hitler being Jewish. Clearly is someone is raised as a Christian but does awful things, he clearly must have Jewish ancestry. How convenient for your to believe such.
“I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so” – Adolf Hitler
Here's a classic example of a smug, I-know-I-am-morally-superior-to-you-because-I-am-Christian-and-you-are-not, bigot who claims divine approval for his bigotry.
You have a great perception of Atheists. I am kidding.
all religion does is create war and misery.
Religion is the scourge of mankind ,it's so silly and dangerous
Mankind is the scourge of mankind, religion or no. If there were no religion, humanity would still have committed numberless atrocities for other reasons.
I'll be eating my Jesus toast in my magic underwear all while praying 5 times a day to the television God.
In the end, religious people simply aren't as intelligent as non-religous people.
There have only been a handful of religious scientists over the past 100 years
Nice choice of terms. Very few historically prominent scientists were Athesist. Not Plnck, Not Einstein, not even Carl Sagan. Not even Bertrand Russell even called himself an Atheist.
Do you not suppose there is more than one way to measure intelligence and we just happen to value one type of intelligence over another type? Honest question.
Almost every great thinker in history believed in some for of Deity. The ones that did not are a very, very rare exception.
None of these people believed in Yahweh, only a fool would worship that monster.
@W. Wallace:”Almost every great thinker in history believed in some for of Deity”
That’s because until quite recently not believing in the correct deity would get you burned at the stake
OMG atheists are totally irrelevant. They make up, what, 4% of the population?
And 95% of scientists
15-25% actually. Significant considering most America's evangelism, no?
Atheists make up 6-10% of the US population and NOT 95 % of scientists.
>90% of scientists at the National Science Foundation claim no religious affiliation
That does not make them Atheists, bright boy.
I would've believed in some all around ruler, but theres just sooo many versions its hard to keep up
'Non-belief has a basis, that being the inability for the positive claim to meet the burden of proof'
non-belief does not have a basis. why you ask? because there was never a burden of proof to begin with. there can be no burden of proof when talking about a concept that is unprovable. you are basing a non-belief on something that cannot be proven which makes your non-belief baseless. you assume the negative in the very same way the religious assume the positive.
Have fun with your vampires and unicorns.
k – have fun in your black and white world where if it's not one, than it must be the other. no thrid options where you come from?
This is why Oswald Chambers said "A person who calls himself an Atheist would be more intellectually honest if he called himself an agnostic instead". " You're not really being intellectually honest if you refuse a certian way to finding the truth".
ah militant atheists, when atheism becomes religion
Did YOUR god tell you to say that?
Well, being called "petty and vindictive" is quite a bit better than being killed, so the lot of us atheists has definitely improved.
Amen to that (Pun intended)
Give religion a little more time being senselessly poked at. I'm afraid we'll be back in religion suppression soon enough thanks to a few guys shouting "GOD DOESN'T EXIST" online and on bill boards.
Why is it atheists seem to almost always focus their attacks solely on Christianity? Why is the God of the Bible and His Son Jesus Christ so worthy of such attention? I find this point VERY interesting since there are a TON of other religions; Bhuddist, Hindu, Islam, etc. to slam. It just amazes me how someone who supposedly does not exists has just as much of an effect on atheist as it does Christians (pure effect not positive or negative).
As for atheism, I can't get past the conservation of matter; that matter cannot be created or destroyed (so where did it come from) and the whole proof thing. If you haven't proven it how can it be true which is the same argument used against religions. Case in point it wasn't long ago we thought the world was the center of the solar system and later on it was proven that actually the sun is. The former was taken as fact until proven wrong, so my question is, how many other things has science gotten wrong and we just don't know it, but take the error as fact?
I just never had an atheist sit down with me and share their beliefs. I've always been insulted and told that I'm silly for believing in "God", called religious bigot, etc. when I didn't even do anything but say I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
simple, there a lot of christians in this country. especially the crazy ones.
Well, considering the group most actively working to marginalize atheists and other people in America is the "christians", it wouldn't make much sense to take a primary stance against the "buddhists"
No other reason than that Christianity has been the most militant and hate-filled religion in the history of Western Civilization. No one will be calling you Sherlock anytime soon.
they have to foucs it oun Christianity. They are unknowling pawns of Satan and deny the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray for them, that they may someday open their eyes and see their wrong.
Because Christianity is the majority religion in this country and, like the Taliban, some of them are attempting to force it down everyone's throat. And if you do not blindly support them, you are anti-christian which is the biggest hypocrisy.
Most atheists are cool. A few attack any religion with things like spaghetti monster and fairy tale references and other ignorant remarks. Christians are just the majority so they are an easy mark but in no way exclusive to any remarks.
By the way...the only reason science ever embraced the non-heliocentric model, is because the church would murder anybody who stated any different.
Maybe little charmers like these below from Christians had something to do with it?
"It is necessary for salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." – Pope Boniface VII
"And if you do not blindly support them, you are anti-christian which is the biggest hypocrisy." – I've read that on the internets so it must be true but of all the Christians I have met in my life not one has asked me to blindly support them. Weird.
"We have lobbed verses of Scripture, like hand grenades, into the camps of others, convinced we only have truth." – Rev. George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, 1997:
Could it be because of the number of churches in this country? Could it be because Christians are always pushing their region on others? Could it be because Christians are always trying to force their religion into laws?
"A man who is convinced of the truth of his religion is indeed never tolerant. At the least, he is to feel pity for the adherent of another religion but usually it does not stop there. The faithful adherent of a religion will try first of all to convince those that believe in another religion and usually he goes on to hatred if he is not successful. However, hatred then leads to persecution when the might of the majority is behind it." – Albert Einstein
Hi Pasigiri, I am an atheist man married to a Muslim woman... Without getting in to too much detail into my background I just want to lead with that to give you hope that there are atheists who don't spend all their waking hours offending non-atheists. As to your question about getting an honest answer from an atheist about why one lacks belief, I guess the simple answer for me is that I don't know why anything exists at all, but for me, I feel that religion is too eager to give an answer to the mystery. So eager that I feel it just jumped ahead to give an answer leaving many people in its wake. I felt growing up that I was being asked to save all my compassion and empathy for Christ and to internalize the very specifics of his struggle and death that it crowded out any empathy I could experience for anyone else's struggle. And now going to a mosque occasionally I feel something similar from a new angle. At the mosque you hear so much about the first three generations that walked with the Prophet and of modern struggles of muslims in the world today that I feel the message comes almost at the expense of other messages. To me I feel the only tribe I want to belong to is that tribe that we all belong to whether want to or not; whether we know it or not; whether we believe it or not. For me, the only way I felt connected to everyone and everything was to give up my need to know the answer and to simply accept being a human being; nothing more and nothing less. And what was left by de facto was what other may call atheism or agnosticism or secular-humanism or apathism orscience-is-awesomeism.
“Why is it atheists seem to almost always focus their attacks solely on Christianity?”
That’s because in America it is Christians that cause the vast majority of problems, not other religions.