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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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He doesn't give a dang whether you or anyone believes in Him or not.
All He wants is put as many impediments as possible to filter out traits that will discourage the human race from evolving into increasingly advanced levels.
He induced wars, so that those who are able to resolve them will survive.
He encouraged diseases, so that those who are able to work together to find the cures will survive.
He allowed religions, so that those who place priority over the survival of the human race over beliefs in god/gods will survive.
He allowed murderous regimes, so that there will be compassionate people racking and exercising their brains to rescue those in distress without exacerbating warfare.
He allowed hurricanes and catastrophes to draw out those smart enough to cooperate to use science and technology to overcome will survive.
He is the master architect of Evolutionary survival of the species. He is ingenious.
Then die off and go to your dictator! Tonight!
HE is Allah!!
Rejoice or die! (or something like that...)
So I went to the AIG Facebook page, criticizing them for wasting money on this instead of feeding the hungry and was banned.
Actually , we Christians are only ones that send any money to feed others. How much have you given lately?
That is false and you know it.
You might want to get off your high horse and actually check some facts, because the Jewish, hands down, make the highest per-capita donations to the needy.
Heck, some of the most devoutly Christian people in this country are actually AGAINST welfare for those who need it. Pretty Christ-like, eh?
well they attack us personally, I don't know why we can't do the same. But, you can't be a Christian doing that so we take the high road and do not attack them personally. But, I do think it is time for all Christians to stand up and be counted. Jesus said he would knock at the door, not knock it down.
stating your opinion is not attacking anyone or any group. Christians, always thinking they are under attack, cry me a river.
I don't have a problem with Christians that believe and just keep it to themselves. Look at the Amish people. They believe and they just keep to themselves and don't care what others believe in. The problem with these creationist morons is they want their unsubstantiated beliefs taught to children. Teaching children that the universe is only 6,000 years old is like teaching them that 2+2=13 or that a circle has 4 corners. It is nonsense and America is falling behind in scientific literacy because of belief in bronze age myths. Do people honestly think that the majority of biologists, geologists and paleontologists are wrong but a bunch of bronze age goat herders got it right. People that don't trust science do not deserve to enjoy the luxuries that science has given us. They should have their cars, computers, cell phones, etc stripped from them and then they can go live like the Amish. No vaccines or antibiotics either. When they get a super virus or infection let them pray to their imaginary sky genius for help.
There is a commandment in the bible where you are told to spread the gospel. No one that is a Christian is going to harm you because you don't but we are commanded to tell people. Most people if you tell them you don't want to talk to them about it will stop.
"Talking about it" is not the issue. The issue is pretending to have superiority in morality and law because of your invisible and undetectable (may as well be imaginary) friend you claim to have an invisible and undetectable (maybe imaginary) relationship with.
"As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy themb ?”
But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village."
(Luke 9)
Yep. Sometimes you just have to walk away.
Whoa. You do realize that the Atheist religion believes in nothing that resembles true Science. They believe that a magic rock appeared out of nothing and the mystical rain from nowhere came down and viola! Life! Out of all the religions, it is the Atheist one that is the most ridiculous. Atheism is intellectual suicide.
That takes a lot of faith.
Believed a rock came out of the sky? You are delusional. Scientists are putting out a theory. That isn't belief troll.
Atheism is NOT a religion but absence thereof – we choose NOT to believe. Second, the solar system (and, thereby, the Earth) did not just "magically" appear from nothing, unlike the creation hypothesis, but the results of a nearby super nova. Why do I say that? Anything heavier than iron can only be created by the massive pressures and temperatures of a super nova. And life did not just magically appear, with or without your misnamed "magic rock" but organic compounds HAVE been found in comet tails so the possibility DOES exist. The scientific theory does a far better job of describing the POSSIBILITY of such a timeline far better than Christianity, which, incidently, does speak of the universe just magically being created from nothingness. Get your stories straight ...
Kevin... I am sorry that your response drips with hatred. Apparently, you're ok with beliefs that anyone has as long as they keep it to themselves, including not sharing it with their own children. And if they don't, then they should be stripped of common privileges and die. Please tell me: does this apply to your beliefs too? You need to understand that molecules-to-man evolution and spontaneous generation have no basis in observational science; they are beliefs which require faith... no different from religion.
Creationists don't teach that the universe is only 6000 years old. That's false. They teach that according to Biblical genealogies, there's good precedent for a young universe. But they acknowledge that that is a belief, not a fact. The Bible doesn't give the age of the Earth, and they acknowledge that it could be much older. But their consistency is their belief in a literal interpretation of the 6 days of Creation. If you have a problem with "unsubstantiated claims", then you have a problem with 'billions of years'. That is a constantly evolving claim with no factual basis. But your main problem is the inerrancy of Scripture, which has proven itself true over and over again and contains 0 errors.
One day you will hopefully learn that majority doesn't make right. Facts are facts, logic is logic and laws are laws regardless of how many people believe in them. Just because a majority of scientists "believe" in evolution, that doesn't mean they are correct. Many of them do not voice their true feelings for fear of being ostracized or black-listed out of their respective fields, as has already happened to many.
"People that don’t trust science do not deserve to enjoy the luxuries that science has given us. They should have their cars, computers, cell phones, etc stripped from them and then they can go live like the Amish. No vaccines or antibiotics either." Careful what you wish for... the reverse could be said. Those who don't believe in a Creator do not deserve air, water, energy, gravity, intelligence, emotion, creativity or life.
"If you have a problem with "unsubstantiated claims", then you have a problem with 'billions of years'. That is a constantly evolving claim with no factual basis. But your main problem is the inerrancy of Scripture, which has proven itself true over and over again and contains 0 errors."
Please cite the peer-reviewed studies which substantially confound the accepted age of the earth, i.e. ~4.5 billion yrs old. Regarding biblical errors, we could point to the erroneous calculation of pi (1 Kings 7:23) and the mechanisms of heredity in livestock (Gen 30:41-42) among many, many others. I'm aware of the apologist responses, so while you're free to post them in response, clever hermeneutics simply doesn't overcome the errors. That an apologist need spend any time at all to contrive a viable solution for these and other errors is sufficient to illustrate the inherent discrepancies. One would think a divinely inspired text claiming to be the literal word of a deity would not require such semantic and logical gymnastics in the first place . . .
"Many of them do not voice their true feelings for fear of being ostracized or black-listed out of their respective fields, as has already happened to many."
This is false. There are plenty of evolution deniers who maintain prominent positions in academia, including bioscience research departments. Michael Behe and Scott Minnich come to mind. However, when evolution deniers in any field attempt to proselytize in the classroom, they are rightly dismissed. Additionally, because ID/creationism is not a scientific proposition, those who abandon actual research to pursue apologetics frequently fail to maintain productive research programs, lose funding and again, are invited to leave.
The notion that science seeks to maintain a status quo betrays a fundamental miscomprehension of how science works. There is nothing interesting in a journal article which confirms what we already know. Every scientist and every academic journal is constantly seeking the experiments which will radically change our understanding. The problem for ID/creationism is that its proponents consistently fail to produce any supporting physical evidence.
So many atheists who talk smack about Christians seem to forget they are insulting their own parents and grandparents. So many Christians who talk smack about atheists seem to forget they are insulting their own sons and daughters. What's the matter with all of you?
I insult no person; I demonstrate the fallacy of incorrect logic when it is presented to me.
He means religion has been around a long time, probably your family has believed at one time or another.
It makes perfect sense if your goal is to stop a conversation that not too long wasn't held by polite people.
My family knows that I am an atheist. I don't "talk smack" about them because they don't "talk smack" about me. But in the anonymous environment of the internet, the discussion is wide open. If anyone is offended, they can simply leave the site. See how that works?
Thank god there is no such thing... actually, I'm God now, you will call me god and you will all kiss my ass
And where are my answers?
From: Wally Johnson, Editor in Chief
Religion for Idiots
To: Joe Maroon
Answers in Genesis
Dear Mr Maroon,
We have reached a decision, after very brief consideration, regarding your request to have the Answers in Genesis organization reference in our book relocated from the "Cults" section to another category.
Your request has been unanimously denied.
Yours truly,
Wally Johnson, Editor in Chief
Religion for Idiots
So the dinosaurs walked the Earth just 3,000 years ago? Odd the Egyptians and Chinese didn't notice them.
There you have it. Proof positive for creation taking place just 10,000 years ago. A collection of 3,000 year old myths and legends trumps rational thought every time.
Aw, that's just so darned CUTE. Means nothing, of course... nothing except that a group of Christians spent thousands of dollars that they COULD have used to feed starving people or inoculate thousands of endangered children. Jesus would be SO proud of his followers.
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.
WHO ARE YOU?!! I'M GOING TO HAVE CNN GET YOUR IP!!!
I think there is just one Topher. His crazy believer thoughts have finally caused a psychotic break and we're now seeing both sides of him.
Sorry Topher, he's been at it all day. I'm particularly sorry to tell you that CNN is not particularly well prepared to go after people like that. Best bet is to get your own WordPress account. People who use them have the blue handles you've probably noticed. Those are unique.
Very well said. Heartily agree.
I must admit, against all better judgement, I like this new Topher.
There is an outside chance that this person is also called Topher and is unaware that there is another person who uses the same name. I doubt it, but it's possible.
Wait did Brown just state that Dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark? I think he has loved the Jurassic Park movies way to much.
the Dutch are set to disprove this one too (like we need proof)
Imagine how many people could have been fed for the price of these ridiculous campaigns that will change no one's mind...
As it says, the evidence is in the Bible , historical and scientific, You don't have to believe it if you don't want to. But it doesn't change the fact that it is true. The fact that you go out of your way to attack a God you don't believe in shows that you know he is real and are offended by it. It must be hard to convince yourself each day God doesn't exist, especially if you did any research on evolution.
Of course, when you say "true" what you mean is your personal opinion. There isn't a single shred of evidence to support the existence of any god and indeed, there is an entire world full of evidence that says the christian god is just another myth, like Zeus or Odin.
Back in my old neighborhood, the older kids use to tease the younger ones every years during the holidays about how there was no such thing as Santa Claus.
This story reminds of how the younger kids used to cry and holler back, "Nuh-UH!!! Santa's REAL, and if you don't believe you ain't gettin' nothing for Christmas. I saw him at K-Mart so I KNOW he's real! Plus, my mom and dad met with him so they could tell him how good I've been. Waaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"
Same thing.
Why do I have to keep changing my IP address?
Really. Here's my real email address. What's up. Eric Marrapodi? Daniel?
Fun, but you prove the point that your supposed god is impotent if you need to speak for him.
Agree – God spoke with many people in the Old Testament, yet has not spoken to a soul since. Even took a stroll with one fellow!
That's not entirely true. According to New Testament scripture, he spoke when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
The phone rang out in the midnight silence, and when King lifted the receiver, a drawl released a torrent of obscene words and then the death threat: "Listen, n____ we've taken all we want from you; before next week you'll be sorry you ever came to Montgomery."
King hung up without comment, as had become his custom. Threatening phone calls had become a daily routine in the weeks of the protests, and King had tried to brush them off at first. In recent days, however, the threatening phone calls had started to take a toll, increasing in number to thirty or forty a day and growing in their menacing intent.
Unwelcome thoughts prey on the mind in the late hours, and King was overcome with fear. "I got out of bed and began to walk the floor. I had heard these things before, but for some reason that night it got to me.
Stirred into wakefulness, King made a pot of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. "I felt myself faltering," he said. It was as though the violent undercurrents of the protest rushed in upon him with heightened force, and he surveyed the turbulent waters for a way of escape, searching for an exit point between courage and convenience-"a way to move out of the picture without appearing a coward"-and he found none. "I was ready to give up," he said.
King thought of baby Yoki sleeping in her crib, of her "little gentle smile," and of Coretta, who had sacrificed her music career, according to the milieu of the Baptist pastor's wife, to follow her husband south. For the first time, he grasped the seriousness of his situation and with it the inescapable fact that his family could be taken away from him any minute, or more likely he from them. He felt himself reeling within, as the Psalmist had said, his soul "melted because of trouble, at wit's end." "I felt myself . . . growing in fear," said King.
Sitting at his kitchen table sipping the coffee, King's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden notion that at once intensified his desperation and clarified his options. "Something said to me, 'You can't call on Daddy now, you can't call on Mama. You've got to call on that something in that person that your daddy used to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no way.'" With his head now buried in his hands, King bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. He said:
Lord, I'm down here trying to do what's right. I still think I'm right. I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But Lord, I must confess that I'm weak now, I'm faltering. I'm losing my courage. Now, I am afraid. And I can't let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone.
As he prayed alone in the silent kitchen, King heard a voice saying, "Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you. Even until the end of the world." Then King heard the voice of Jesus. "I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. No never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone."
And as the voice washed over the stains of the wretched caller, King reached a spiritual shore beyond fear and apprehension. "I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before," he said. "Almost at once my fears began to go," King said of the midnight flash of illumination and resolve. "My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything."
http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2005/01/Receiving-The-Call.aspx?p=2
King heard the voice of Jesus.
Allegedly heard.
Or he imagined that he did. Maybe it was just a modern-day parable, like the ones that Jesus used to teach with. It's not like anyone thought that he was relating actual events with those stories, right?
I forgot, the number 1 rule is not to test God – that explains a lot!
"""you prove the point that your supposed god is impotent if you need to speak for him"""
I agree. That appears to imply a lack of faith.
God could not have created the world through evolution . Evolution is a process of living things dying . It was Adams sin that brought death into the world ( thus the need for Christs sacrifice on the cross.... He was the " last Adam ") So how could there have been death before sin ? There have been cancerous tumours found in dinosaur fossils .Did God create cancer and call it " very good " ?
It sounds to me as though you are a Christian. How can you, as a Christian, begin a sentence with "God could not have"...? Who are you to decide what God could and could not have done?
Wait,
Every Christian judges God and decides what they will agree with (like maybe discrimination against gays) and what they won't agree with (like maybe support for slavery).
In reply to your rambling nonsense: DEATH is the process of living things dying. Evolution is the natural process in which living organisms develop and diversify from earlier forms.
That is called "moving the goal post" William.
Why does imaginary god require a billboard?
He doesn't. Those billboards are in poor taste, just like the atheist ones.
Correct. He doesn't!
Honestly I have no idea why anyone feels the need to advertise their world view like a credit card commercial. That goes for atheists and theists alike.
Believe whatever you believe..That's fine...but do you honestly expect those billboards to convince anyone of anything? It looks like arrogance on plywood to me.
I agree. Those things aren't cheap! We could all put that money to better use.
When science is challenge, it's every thinking person's responsibility to speak out.
Yes Adam and Eve walked hand in hand with T Rex in the garden. Maybe if you're an atheist you'll get to go with the virgins. Yes Jesus was rich and he wants you to be rich as well, except it's easier to thread a camel through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Looks like this group of rich folks may not be spending time in the hereafter with god after all. In the evolution of the church the christians keep adapting to go where the money is. Back in the fifties we were all going to hell because of rock and roll. Now all the churches have their own grunge band. They keep adapting the teachings of the bible to fit their needs. They no longer depend on god to provide. And they really should get Jesus off the campaign trail and give him a vacation.
You are right – their answers have continuously evolved (and as we can see, evolved poorly) in response to science.