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October 9th, 2013
02:27 PM ET
Creationists taunt atheists in latest billboard warBy Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN)– A new video billboard in New York's Times Square has a message from creationists, "To all of our atheist friends: Thank God you're wrong." The video advertisement at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan is one of several billboards going up this week in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, paid for by Answers in Genesis. Answers in Genesis is best known as the multimillion-dollar Christian ministry behind the Creation Museum outside Cincinnati. The museum presents the case for Young Earth creationism, following what it says is a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis, which says the Earth was created by God in six days less than 10,000 years ago. Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, said the idea for the advertisements came from an atheist billboard in Times Square at Christmas. During the holidays, the American Atheists put up a billboard with images of Santa Claus and Jesus that read: "Keep the Merry, dump the myth." “The Bible says to contend for the faith,” Ham said. “We thought we should come up with something that would make a statement in the culture, a bold statement, and direct them to our website. "We're not against them personally. We're not trying to attack them personally, but we do believe they're wrong," he said. "From an atheist's perspective, they believe when they die, they cease to exist. And we say 'no, you're not going to cease to exist; you're going to spend eternity with God or without God. And if you're an atheist, you're going to be spending it without God.' " Dave Silverman, president of the American Atheists, said he felt sad for creationists when he saw the billboards. "They refuse to look at the real world. They refuse to look at the evidence we have, and they offer none," Silverman said. "They might as well be saying, 'Thank Zeus you're wrong' or 'Thank Thor you're wrong.' " Silverman said he welcomed another competitor to marketplace, noting that after atheists bought a billboard two years ago in Times Square that read "You KNOW it's a myth," the Catholic League purchased competing space at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel for a sign that read "You KNOW it's true." "I would suggest, if they're actually trying to attract atheists, they should talk about proof and reason to believe in their god, not just some pithy play on words," Silverman said. Ham says part of the goal of the campaign is to draw people to the website for Answers in Genesis, where he offers a lengthy post on his beliefs for the proof of God. Ham insists that this campaign is in keeping with their overall mission. "We're a biblical authority ministry. We're really on about the Bible and the Gospel. Now, we do have a specialty in the area of the creation account and Genesis because that's where we say God's word has come under attack." Ham said Answers in Genesis made the decision to split its marketing budget for the ministry between a regional campaign for the museum and this billboard campaign, rather than a national campaign. IRS filings for the ministry in recent years have shown a yearly operating budget of more than $25 million. Ham said the marketing budget is about 2% of that, about $500,000 a year. Though they are waiting for all the bills to come due for this campaign, he said he expected it to cost between $150,000 and $200,000. Silverman noted that his billboards were not video and cost approximately $25,000 last year. He said another campaign was in the works for this year. "They're throwing down the gauntlet, and we're picking it up," Silverman said, adding that his group would "slap them in the face" with it. Ham said that despite criticism from other Christians for being negative and the usual criticisms from secularists he received on his social media accounts, the advertisements have been a success. "We wanted people talking about them, and we wanted discussion about this. We wanted people thinking about God," Ham said. The Creation Museum and the theory of Young Earth creationism are widely reviled by the broader science community. In a YouTube video posted last year titled "Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children," Bill Nye the Science Guy slammed creationism, imploring parents not to teach it to their children. "We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future," he said. "We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems." The museum responded with its own video. For the past 30 years, Gallup Inc. has been tracking American opinions about creationism. In June 2012, Gallup's latest findings showed that 46% of Americans believed in creationism, 32% believed in evolution guided by God, and 15% believed in atheistic evolution. For as long as Gallup has conducted the survey, creationism has remained far and away the most popular answer, with 40% to 47% of Americans surveyed saying they believed that God created humans in their present form at one point within the past 10,000 years. The Creation Museum said it recently welcomed its 2 millionth visitor since its opening in 2007. soundoff (8,748 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 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 Next »
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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 urinate better logic than the bible
Like a robot, I don't understand art or see the need to listen to music. I can only make logical decisions. I am not human. Not I'm not. I I I robot.
Ok. So, if I say that Gliffle created man in his present form, etc. what does that tell us about Gliffle? What is it? Where did it come from? Is it animal, vegetable or mineral or energy? How do we measure Gliffle, or can we measure it at all? Can we know anything about it, or does it have to be relegated to the great unknown?
My contention is that the phoneme "God" has no meaning. There is absolutely nothing there to be described, nor is it a concept at all. It is so completely meaningless that it becomes an impossibility to discuss it or believe in it.
Bill board # 1 and # 8 featured in this article are classy! 🙂
Pictures in between are crass! 😦
I thought number 6 was pretty crass too.
Christians are always CLASSY!
I don't believe in atheism.
I don't believe in isms.
I bet you also own a t-shirt that says "god doesn't believe in atheists".
Yes Chilliwack, Zeus was real. So was/is Cronus. and Tiamat. And Ganesha. and....oh Hell, where is that list.....rifle rifle.....here you go, but its only a few, Colin isn't very thorough when he's challenged...
Azura Mazda, Angus, Belenos, Brigid, Dana, Lugh, Dagda, Epona, Allah Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Atehna, Demeter, Dionysus, Eris, Eos, Gaia, God, Hades, Hekate, Helios, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Hestia, Pan, Poseidon, Selene, Uranus, Zeus, Mathilde, Elves, Eostre, Frigg, Ganesh, Hretha, Saxnot, Shef, Shiva Thuno, Tir, Vishnu, Weyland, Woden, Yahweh, Alfar, Balder, Beyla, Bil, Bragi, Byggvir, Dagr, Disir, Eir, Forseti, Freya, Freyr, Frigga, Heimdall, Hel, Hoenir, Idunn, Jord, Lofn, Loki, Mon, Njord, Norns, Nott, Odin, Ran, Saga, Sif, Siofn, Skadi, Snotra, Sol, Syn, Ull, Thor, Tyr, Var, Vali, Vidar, Vor, Herne, Holda, Nehalennia, Nerthus, Endovelicus, Ataegina, Runesocesius, Apollo, Bacchus, Ceres, Cupid, Diana, Janus, Juno, Jupiter, Maia, Mars, Mercury, Minerva, Neptune, Pluto, Plutus, Proserpina, Venus, Vesta, Vulcan, Attis, Cybele, El-Gabal, Isis, Mithras, Sol Invictus, Endovelicus, Anubis, Aten, Atum, Bast, Bes, Geb, Hapi, Hathor, Heget, Horus, Imhotep, Isis, Khepry, Khnum, Maahes, Ma’at, Menhit, Mont, Naunet, Neith, Nephthys, Nut, Osiris, Ptah, Ra, Sekhmnet, Sobek, Set, Tefnut, Thoth, An, Anshar, Anu, Apsu, Ashur, Damkina, Ea, Enki, Enlil, Ereshkigal, Nunurta, Hadad, Inanna, Ishtar, Kingu, Kishar, Marduk, Mummu, Nabu, Nammu, Nanna, Nergal, Ninhursag, Ninlil, Nintu, Shamash, Sin, Tiamat, Utu, Mitra, Amaterasu, Susanoo, Tsukiyomi, Inari, Tengu, Izanami, Izanagi, Daikoku, Ebisu, Benzaiten, Bishamonten, Fukurokuju, Jurojin, Hotei, Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, Inti, Kon, Mama Cocha, Mama Quilla, Manco Capac, Pachacamac and Zaramama
LOL. Answers in Genesis. Has there ever been a more ridiculous site on the internet, built largely on ignorance and mental gymnastics? These people are goofy, even to Christians.
Take a look at the Time Cube website if you want to see something worse. Other than that, I can't think of anything more ridiculous than Answers in Genesis.
Looks like I stand corrected. At least the folks at AIG can write a sentence that actually makes sense, in the grammatical sense of course.
"""Take a look at the Time Cube website"""
Outstanding!!!
Loved this one...
"""All humans are created and exist between the opposites
of male and female values. Add the opposites together
and humans cease to exist."""
Oh oh oh! What a gold mine...
Here's another one...
"""My mother is a teacher, and she said it was "nutty" and "stupid." But guess what – I cornered her, literally, in the living room one evening, and forced her to admit it. IN ORDER TO GET HER TEACHING CERTIFICATE, SHE HAD TO SIGN AN AFFIDAVIT STATING THAT SHE WOULD UPHOLD THE GREENWICH MYTH UNTIL DEATH. I sh it you not. It has been revealed. American teachers are sworn to fight against the truth of Time Cube."""
His poor mom must be scared to death of this child.
If I wanted the best possible evidence for evolution, where would I look for this? I would go and speak to a professor, researcher, visit an evolutionary website, etc
If I wanted the best possible evidence for creationism, and the defense of it, where would I look for this? Would I continually demand this of an average post commentator on some blog or article? Would this suffice as validating information for me? Of course not!
The main purpose of the ad was not to make one believe in God, but to present a link directing one to where he/she might go to further investigate the Creation/Young Earth claim.
If you seriously are interested in finding out what their claims are, what evidences they present, and why do they feel so confident in their beliefs, I would suggest to you to check out the website that was provided and stop all of this nonsense bickering back and forth on this section.
I'lll even provide the link.
http://www.answersingenesis.org
Going to their site doesn't make their claims any more credible. It is all still bunk science, full of arrogant ignorance at best, deceitful and deliberate lies at worst.
BTW, comparing Ken Ham to a professor or researcher is borderline offensive.
Really?! I know plenty of Ph.D's that spin a lot of data to match their personal views. Furthermore, plenty of research is suspect since it is commonly paid for and directed to "find" certain things. As a Christian, I think Ham is kinda out there – but to think that being religious somehow makes you ignorant is seriously flawed. My cousin, who is a minister, has his doctorate in Marine Biology. Is his Ph.D worth less since he believes in God? No one has yet cornered the market on intelligence.
Wow, you sure put a lot of words in my mouth. I don't recall saying any of that. What I implied was that Ken Ham is no researcher or professor. He is a willfully ignorant business man, preying on rubes. I know that there are very intelligent believers, but I'm willing to bet your cousin doesn't believe the earth is 6,000 years old either.
There is nothing borderline about it. It is straight up offensive.
Just went there. Here is their conclusion about Alaskan dinosaur tracks found recently...
"These layers of rock in the fossil record, when stripped of the worldview-based millions-of-years dates conventionally attached to them, correspond not to millions of years of evolving ecosystems but to burial of dinosaurs at somewhat different times during the early part of the global Flood that drastically changed the earth’s surface over the course of just a year."
Need I say more...
I don't think any geochemist would say that the ages attached to rocks were conveniently attached to them ! Way too funny.
I believe in evolution and God. I do not see it happening by chance. Evolution in theory and Natural Selection depend on "existing" life forms. If God chose to evolve the animals of the planet or the body of the human, fine with me. Dirt turning into living matter is not "evolving," it is fundamentally different on every level. How did the first cell with life originate? The first functional genetic material? There is so much in the most basic bacterium (most simple form of life), that it seems impossible for it to form by chance (Cell wall, ribosomes, pili, flagellum, cytoplasm, DNA, plasmid, mesosomes. granules, capsule) Even at the level of the bacterium, the processes of life are complex and amazing. None of these things have ever been demonstrated to assemble on their own, not even a little bit. Scientists can't do it either. Seems like it requires greater faith to believe a meteor hit a mud puddle and life spontaneously formed than to have faith that God created it.
Is it possible you could be wrong about your position?
sure. what about you?
Absolutely. All I need is proof and I'll convert tomorrow.
I think humility is best
Do you have scientific proof that your wife really loves you? Have you had DNA testing to verify that your parents are indeed your parents. How can you believe these things without definitive scientific proofI You will never have definitive scientific proof that God exits or doesn't. I believe man can come to a certain knowledge of God, that God exists and created the world. This is Flew's position and Aristotle's position. To believe in Jesus or Muhammad requires faith.
@Trucker – You're engaging in a false equivalence fallacy. The "faith" in an invisible supernatural deity is not analogous to a "faith" that our family loves us or that we are the children of our parents. In the latter case, we can directly observe behaviors and we could compare DNA if we desired; however, in the former, there is no empirical physical evidence to support the belief. In other words, the difference is in the availability of empirical physical evidence to justify the "faith" claim.
"None of these things have ever been demonstrated to assemble on their own, not even a little bit."
Actually they *have*. Learn to science, sir, before trolling an entire news organization.
Have you read former atheist Anthony Flew? He was like Dawkins before changing his beliefs. He was no dummy and what led him to believe in God are some of the very things that I have just iterated.
If you suppose an even more complex god crated life, then you MUST consider what created that god. You can't claim special exemption for god. The problem just got worse.
I think a non-supernatural answer is out there. It is just very difficult to find 4 billion years after it happened.
Irreducible complexity is not an argument that holds water. For every "perfectly designed" mechanism, there are a thousand that are rather "incompetently built." Listen, I would have believed all this bible stuff if god had spoken more about the fact that the Earth went around the Sun and that the stars were suns far away. He just spent more time talking about angels, the corners of the earth and stuff. Sounds like he has no idea what he did, or what the heck he was talking about.
I'll take that as a no. You haven't read Flew.
When it comes to matters of evolution and geology: Scientists>Philosophers.
Every material thing has a beginning. Call it the Big Bang or whatever. How do you measure time; through the motion of material things. God is not material and does not exist in time. He exists in a different dimension. He doesn't have to be created. Mathematically, there can be 4 universes. Are you aware of this? Doesn't mean these other potential universes have the same physics as ours. Why not believe in a different dimension with different laws governing it.
I'll start believing all that stuff when the evidence leads that way and a consensus of the scientific community agrees. Until then, why assign your "belief" to something with absolutely nothing backing it up? Now if you changed the word "belief" to "hopee", well that's a different kettle of fish.
ooo, just saying math says it's possible to have 4 different universes. Where's the worm hole?
"God is not material and does not exist in time. He exists in a different dimension. He doesn't have to be created."
You have ZERO PROOF, as usual. Prove that non-material elements don't have to have a creator.
Just science fiction or wishful thinking.
Observer, do you demand scientific proof for all beliefs? Do you have DNA testing verifying that your parents are who they say they are? No? How can you live knowing that they may not be who they say they are?
Trucker
"Observer, do you demand scientific proof for all beliefs? Do you have DNA testing verifying that your parents are who they say they are? No? How can you live knowing that they may not be who they say they are?"
My parents actually were there so I knew they existed. They didn't just leave a book and intentionally hide from view. They disciplined me as I grew up rather than stay silent and say "you're gonna pay someday".
trucker: it appears as if you believe creator and God are synonymous. is that the case? if so, why?
do you discount the possibility that some being may have created the cosmos and "walked away"?
if so,why?
Fools and their money are soon parted.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289608000238
Anyone read this before?
“Consider that you can see less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum and hear less than 1% of the acoustic spectrum. As you read this, you are traveling at 220 km/sec across the galaxy. 90% of the cells in your body carry their own microbial DNA and are not “you.” The atoms in your body are 99.9999999999999999% empty space and none of them are the ones you were born with, but they all originated in the belly of a star. Human beings have 46 chromosomes, 2 less than the common potato.
The existence of the rainbow depends on the conical photoreceptors in your eyes; to animals without cones, the rainbow does not exist. So you don’t just look at a rainbow, you create it. This is pretty amazing, especially considering that all the beautiful colors you see represent less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum.”
"The existence of the rainbow depends on the conical photoreceptors in your eyes; to animals without cones, the rainbow does not exist. So you don’t just look at a rainbow, you create it. This is pretty amazing, especially considering that all the beautiful colors you see represent less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum.”
–And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. -
Perhaps our eyes hadn't evolved to see rainbows yet?
Who is your God?
I am a follower of Jesus Christ.
Earlier AE you said, I do want to know how the world was created. I don't presuppose some god did when I don't know how it was done. I do not choose a 2,000 year old book written by unknown desert dwellers over more recently acquired, and openly peer-reviews and tested, scientific knowledge." Sounds like you are confused if you are a follower of Christ
What did I respond to when I said that? Was I being facetious?
I asked you if you were Catholic and read Fides et Ratio. It's a short good read
Right. I was trying to demonstrate I wouldn't phrase it the way HotAirAce does. I have a different perspective than him about God, science and human life.
Science is amazing and so interesting how it doesn't conflict with a person having faith.
I belong to the same church as Philip Hefner, Ph.D. who says:
"Traditional religious creation stories and evolution are complementary. Science and religion together can weave a rich tapestry of new meaning for our age."
I agree!
Mental gymnastics.
Hogwash. Science slaps religion, any religion, down within sentences. Every religion is based on Human-made metaphysical suppositions created when our species had only primitive tools to study the Universe. Souls, gods, life after death, all hogwash, Humans scared of the lights going out, in need of a Father figure. YOUNG SPECIES.
What is really astounding is that it took many many centuries after the Christ mythos began to acquire even rudimentary understanding of Universal existence. Think Galileo, Einstein, Oppenheimer, etc. But now at 2013, just within the last 25 years we are using all of that technology to continue learning at an exponential pace. Solar panels may soon be painted on any surface. Batteries may soon be possible in the size of capacitors. We found dark energy and dark matter. The Periodic Table of the Elements was just updated with multiple new atomic mass numbers because Humans just recently created a better scale using new different elements. So much information will now come in the next century as to render all of these commonplace religions as mythology where they rightly belong. I Just hope one of the radicalized monotheists doesn't blow up a bomb first just to get their fictional soul to their fictional next life and be with their fictional god.
Yet some of the greatest scientific minds we've had were and are Christian.
And none of it is evidence of a god.
At least creationists don't become doctors...you kind of need to believe in evolution to understand biology. Their idea of a cure for a disease is a bleeding to get your humors in balance.
You would be surprised how many evangelical doctors practice. Don't assume.
May I introduce you to the scary Paul Broun MD (R, GA) and also serves on the House SCIENCE! Committee.
He believes the following:
"All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, the Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. And it's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior."
I don't believe that the Earth's but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That's what the Bible says.
"There's a lot of scientific data that I found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth."
Not only is he a doctor, but he is on the House Science Committee. The rabbit hole goes pretty deep with these people.
Prepare to be inundated with a detailed list of biologists refuting your claim. But can believers provide so much as a single reference to a scholarly article published in a reputable scientific journal (which leaves out the crap published by The Discovery Inst!tute) successfully debunking evolution and concluding with "some god did it"? Nope!
You speak as though evolution is a proven fact and not an unprovable theory. Exactly like creationism.
Instead of "some god did it" he just says "evolution did it".
He doesn't even look for any answers after that. Sad.
You have no idea what the word theory means.
No, I'm not saying evolution is the most perfect theory ever proposed. But when it comes to actual science, evidence and use of the scientific method, it has a lot more going for it than creationism or intelligent design. All the proponents of creationism and intelligent design have to do is present their theories and evidence with the same degree of rigor, according to the scientific method, that evolutionists have.
Complete idiocy by a complete idiot! To deny truth is just to stick your head in the sand. All believers have to do is show a shred of proof.
Nothing to prove, faith is personal – why would you expect physical proof of a spiritual world. Illogical.
Yeah, ghosts are real! Why would you want proof?!
you have no soul? where did this understanding of soul came from?
A common response from those who have no proof.
You're just mad because your parents named you 'Galen'. If I were you, I don't think I would believe in God either.
Really childish response Kevin. If you're not nine years old you should be ashamed.
Why must faith and reason be separate? The Bible says, "Seek knowledge" time and time again but people act like Christians hate science and reason.
There are some on both sides that hate reason.
This is all too easy! Taunting a creationist or an atheist is not hard and can be fun but its being a better person not to do it.
It is a matter of intent. It is easy to be an internet troll and start by making a deliberately absurd assertion.
Glad to see that both sides can stoop to the same sad levels.
I'm an atheist and I DESPISE the American Atheists org anization.
Glad to see that and I am ashamed of anyone who claims to be a Christian and them seems to be an expert in practicing hate.
Problem here is that athiests are using ridicule to shock and awake. Creationists are pretending to be scientists. You can chose to be a believer or not, but you can't make up facts and pretend that evidence that refutes your claims doesn't exist.
Someone should give Ken Ham a copy of Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason".
... and make sure it is read...
Glad to see that both sides can stoop to the same sad levels.
I'm an atheist and I DESPISE the American Atheists organization.
I suspect most of us do – or at least the antics of David Silverman if not the organization itself.
I disagree with their tactics, I don't despise them though.
I don't imagine more than 1% or so of all US atheists have even considered joining this organization, let alone are members, yet the media love to drag them out as some sort of representative group. It's like using the Westboro Baptist Church to talk about "Christians".
The short answer is that we should be grateful for and not afraid of diversity in humanity. Every camp has it's zealots who feel that every one should be like them or not exist (does Hitler ring a bell). I disagree with any group that attempts to force others to accept their beliefs. It's destructive beyond description and has caused incalculable human suffering. Please help yourself to your own beliefs and allow me mine. One thing we can all share for sure is LOVE.
I agree with that 100%.. and this applies to both religious as well as atheist folk who like to jump down the throats of the others.. Both seem to forget their original arguments about love and morality as soon as the other says something.
Thank Nature, You're Wrong.
Where do you read that?
The Bible.
And you believed it?
Yah, they can’t put anything in the Bible that isn’t true.
Where did you read that?
The Bible.