I think that’s what this ad means, but really, I have no access to whatever passes for coherent message to these guys. (I suppose it could be a parody by a non-Christian group, but I’m still baffled.)
double post; see below
God won’t shoot you. People who believe in God will shoot you.
It’s an extremely crude, if somewhat arresting, argument against humanism. “If you don’t matter to (ie: believe in) God, you don’t matter to anyone (who does believe in God, because God’s people will not value or respect your Godless existence).”
I would interpret it to be saying something like this:
Your only value is the value you have to God, which you get by following (whatever teachings they happen to be espousing) and by worshipping God (in the right way).
In other words, if you don’t believe in God, you’re worthless and might just as well be a victim of mindless violence as not. If you don’t believe in God, nobody would care if you were shot by a random stranger.
It’s not clear whether they are implying that being “of value” to God would protect you from this fate, which would be laughable.
The whole thing is laughable, of course. I have been a deliberate atheist since I was about 13, and I think there might be one or two people who would be rather upset if I were gunned down, even including my god-bothering sister.
Anyway, this is just another flavor of religion based on fear of dire consequences. This is just a little more blatant and silly than a lot of others I’ve seen.
Roddy
I can’t make this fit into the Christianity I know. The sponsoring group is http://www.answersingenesis.org/ or someone who’s stolen their logo.
I thought wifebeaters were V-necked, and the tshirt the boy had on was just a tank. Is the term interchangeable?
The ad is not dissimilar to the image shown here.
The image is a rip-off of this WWII poster.
They also founded the Creation Museum.
Bah even if one were to accept their ludicrous proposal that atheism is incompatibly with morality; it still isn’t an argument for Christianity. It’s an argument for which ever religion would cause the least amount of hurt. My personal guess would be Buddhism.
I’ve guessed Shintoism in the past but have not been able to find many cites for it. There’s been a lot of divisions within Buddhism.
Yes.
I don’t get the connection. If you don’t matter to God, it’s ok to kill you? Everyone matters to God (or so they say) whether you believe or not, supposedly.
I want nothing to do with this angelic looking boy’s version of God–he’s not a god of love, that’s for sure. Nasty ad and nasty group of people. I feel sorry for the blonde kid, but I have to wonder if they would have done this ad with a black boy or another minority–what would happen then? (a side issue, I know, but it was the second thing I thought of). I don’t see it as a ripoff or homage to that WW2 poster at all. To me it’s got more reference to Dirty Harry than anything else. You feeling lucky, punk?
What would Jesus do?
Pop a cap in your face, apparently.
Dunno if Answers In Genesis actually produced this video. They have done a lot of videos, but they mostly seem to have titles like “The Bible Explains Dinosaurs”, “Our Created Moon” and suchlike.
That’s kind of a whole different style of crazy-assness. Not that they couldn’t have branched out lately, but one wonders if someone is, um, taking AIG*'s name in vain, so to speak.
*snicker
I think the point was probably supposed to be that if people don’t believe in God they’ll probably become amoral nihilists who’ll shoot strangers for kicks, like the dead-eyed kid in the video.
But the voiceover doesn’t make that clear. “If you don’t matter to God, you don’t matter to anyone,” seems to imply that if God doesn’t care about you, then it’s open season. But that doesn’t make sense from an orthodox Christian viewpoint, since God is supposed to care about everyone, even the people He casts into eternal hellfire.
Hmmm… Answers In God. A.I.G. This must be some veiled reference to the stimulus package and bailout money.
He’s shooting the other cheek?
I’d be interested to know if more violent crimes, proportionally, are committed by nominal Christians in this country or other groups? My money would be on the Christians.
I don’t think, given it’s history and ties to extreme nationalism and right wing factions, you could count Shintoism as one of the religions that caused least harm.
Then Wicca, perhaps?
Yeah, any religion that has spells for getting a good parking space is OK with me. 
V-necked? 
I’ve never seen a wife-beater with a v-neck. Got any pictures?
That’s perfect. It achieves maximum irony.