Actually since Jesus says “My Kingdom is not of this world” a lot of believers are against imposing laws that force Christianity on people. About as far as most believers here get is maybe banning abortion and gay marriage and then there are some who remain aloof like the Amish.
While I don’t find it more interfering or condescending than many other religious billboards, I’d like to think that, using REASON, it’s a given that you aren’t going to change anyone’s mind with any billboard. Following that line of REASON, the billboard is just bullying and pointless. So…I don’t care for it. It makes atheists look…unreasonable.
For the record, I’m probably atheist.
If there IS any kind of superpower out there, I’m pissed that s/he/it isn’t doing it right, and we need to have a TALK. :dubious: I’ll stick to believing in nothing rather than what I’ve seen brought up as possibilities so far.
Ha! I suspect that’s confirmation bias. We’ll just have to agree to disagree; in my experience, being a dick knows no creed. I’ve run across dicks who were agnostic, pagan, and everything in between.
And the people who put up Christian billboards aren’t?
Yeah, but. Yeah, but. Doesn’t playing tit-for-tat make one side look as obnoxious as the other?
Question: Do the people in this thread view this billboard as “awesome”?
The two billboards are fundamentally the same in that they are direct attacks on a religion.
Neither bothers me particularly. People can put up whatever billboards they want. It’s their money.
I’m not a fan of “attack ads” that belittle other people’s lifestyles or beliefs.
I don’t like this billboard, and I also wouldn’t like anti-Jew, anti-gay, anti-black, anti-Wicca, anti-Islam, anti-scientist, or anti-Canadian billboards.
They aren’t the same. One is pointing out that religion is a myth, the other is telling you to fear a rival religion. There’s also the fact that the facts and logic supports atheism, while there’s no evidence based reason to consider any religion more plausible than the other.
Yeah, suuuure they do. Christianity didn’t get to where it is today because its followers bought that.
Banning abortion and gay marriage alone are enough to brand them as evil. Both are acts of malice.
Nor do the Christians and other believers remotely constrain themselves to that anyway.
Der Tris, do you hate Islam with the same fervor you hate Christianity?
I think some of the responses to this thread is bizarre. Obnoxious dicks? Bullying? Tit for tat? Nobody is guaranteed the right to pass through this world without seeing anything that might annoy, irritate, or trouble them. Maybe somebody should put up a billboard with a pair of glasses that says “Get Some Fucking Perspective.”
Not quite, since they aren’t in my face every day. It’s not Islamic people who are pushing their beliefs into American law - or for that matter usually the ones pushing their dogma on the SDMB. It’s Christians. If I lived in a Muslim dominated country I expect I’d complain more of Islam; if I lived in India I expect I’d be more prone to complain of the evils of Hinduism than of either.
Besides, Islam gets plenty of hate here in America; it is Christianity that gets treated as if it was a good thing. So i don’t need to make the effort. I notice I get occasional flack here on the SDMB for “supporting” Islam when I all i do is point out that Christianity isn’t any better than Islam.
Atheist here. I think it’s tacky and stupid. There is no point to going out of one’s way to tweak the nose of the 76% of the population that has a religious faith.
I think the Roman Empire’s banning of all other religions than Christianity was immoral and so do most Protestants. If I was Constantine I would not have made Christianity a state religion. Plus Christianity thrived in Rome when it was intermittently persecuted and it also thrives in China to-day again despite persecutions.
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Banning abortion and gay marriage alone are enough to brand them as evil. Both are acts of malice.
Nor do the Christians and other believers remotely constrain themselves to that anyway.
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I wish you’d stop your generalization. Just because some Christians advocate that doesn’t mean every Christian or even most Christians do.
Are you against all religions, denominations, sects, etc. with equal fervour? Or do you make a difference between say the Amish and the Branch Davidians?
Atheist here.
In a vacuum, I’d say the billboard was needless and doesn’t do anything to assist in whatever they feel their cause is; quite the opposite actually.
That said, we’re not in a vacuum, and I pass two Christian billboards facing northbound traffic on the NJ Turnpike, between exits 8 and 10, every day on the way to work that I find offensive.
I’m not saying that two wrongs make a right, but I see no need to make a stink about an atheist billboard as long as Christian billboards are allowed to propagate.
‘They did it too’ is supposed to end as a rationalisation around age 4.
Christmas is one of the fun times of year for most people making it one of the sillier targets to attack, it comes off looking like its an association of funless killjoys.
Otara
Of course not, they’d have wanted the Empire to make their particular sect the state religion and kill everyone who disagreed, not early Catholicism.
Enough believe it to pass laws enforcing it.
Ideally, all religion would be eliminated. For practical reasons the more openly violent sects are a priority, but all religion is destructive by nature.
Atheist.
I think it is pointless and antagonistic just like religious signs proclaiming Jesus is Lord.
A line that always makes me picture Jesus as “Lord Garth” from the original Star Trek Series.
While Constantine may have made Christianity the state religion, he most certainly did NOT persecute other religions, nor make a law against them. That would have been the Emperor Justinian.