Atheist group targets Muslims, Jews with ‘myth’ billboards in Arabic and Hebrew[views:23606][posts:104]_____________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 12:48pm - Josh_Martin ""] [img] (CNN) – The billboard wars between atheists and believers have raged for years now, especially around New York City, and a national atheist group is poised to take the battle a step further with billboards in Muslim and Jewish enclaves bearing messages in Arabic and Hebrew. American Atheists, a national organization, will unveil the billboards Monday on Broadway in heavily Muslim Paterson, New Jersey and in a heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood, immediately after the Williamsburg Bridge. “You know it’s a myth … and you have a choice,” the billboards say. The Patterson version is in English and Arabic, and the Brooklyn one in English and Hebrew. To the right of the text on the Arabic sign is the word for God, Allah. To the right of the text on the Hebrew sign is the word for God, Yahweh. Dave Silverman, the president of American Atheists, said the signs are intended to reach atheists in the Muslim and Jewish enclaves who may feel isolated because they are surrounded by believers. “Those communities are designed to keep atheists in the ranks,” he says. “If there are atheists in those communities, we are reaching out to them. We are letting them know that we see them, we acknowledge them and they don't have to live that way if they don’t want to.” Silverman says the signs advertise the American Atheists’ upcoming convention and an atheist rally, called the Reason Rally, in Washington next month. Atheists have long pointed to surveys that suggest atheists and agnostics make up between 3% and 4% of the U.S. population. That number increases when Americans unaffiliated with any religion are included. The Pew Center’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey found that 16% are unaffiliated, though only a fraction of those are avowed atheists and agnostics. Silverman acknowledges that the pair of new billboards will likely cause a stir. “People are going to be upset,” he says. “That is not our concern.” “We are not trying to inflame anything,” he continued. “We are trying to advertise our existence to atheist in those communities. The objective is not to inflame but rather to advertise the atheist movement in the Muslim and Jewish community.” The billboards will be up for one month and cost American Atheists, based in New Jersey, less than $15,000 each, according to Silverman. Mohamed Elfilali, executive director of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, laughed when he learned the Arabic billboard would go up in the same town as his office. He says he’s surprised that someone is spending money on such a sign. “It is not the first and won’t be the last time people have said things about God or religion,” Elfilali says. “I respect people’s opinion about God; obviously they are entitled to it. I don’t think God is a myth, but that doesn’t exclude people to have a different opinion.” But Elfilali bemoaned the billboards as another example of a hyper-polarized world. “Sadly, there is a need to polarize society as opposed to build bridges,” he says. “That is the century that we live in. It is very polarized, very politicized.” Rabbi Serge Lippe of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue had a similar response. “The great thing about America is we are marketplace for ideas,” he says. “People put up awful, inappropriate billboards expressing their ideas and that is embraced.” But Lippe acknowledged that there are a lot of agnostic and atheist Jews. A recent Gallup survey found 53% of Jews identified as nonreligious. Among American Jews, 17% identified as very religious and 30% identified as moderately religious. “When you have two Jews in the room, you have three opinions,” joked Lippe. American Atheists have used the word “myth” to describe religion and God on billboards before. Last November, the organization went up with a billboard immediately before the New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln tunnel that showed the three wise men heading to Bethlehem and stated “You KNOW it’s a Myth. This Season, Celebrate Reason.” At the time, the American Atheists said the billboard was to encourage Atheists to come out of the closet with their beliefs and to dispel the myth that Christianity owns the solstice season. The Christmas billboard led to a “counter punch” by the Catholic League, a New York-based Catholic advocacy group. The Catholic League put up a competing billboard that said, “You Know It's Real: This Season Celebrate Jesus." Silverman says his group’s billboard campaigns will continue long into the future. “There will be more billboards,” Silverman says. “We are not going to be limiting to Muslims and Jews, we are going to be putting up multiple billboards in multiple communities in order to get atheists to come out of the closet.” |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 12:50pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] AWESOME. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 12:52pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] There's this fucking billboard on my way to school every morning, for like the last year it's been this "Abortion Stops a Beating Heart" bullshit (and/or similar nonsense). Looks like they're having funding problems, 'cause a few weeks back, it suddenly changed to a "KEEP RELIGION OUT OF POLITICS" bb, paid for by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. [img] |
| ________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 12:56pm - Burnsy ""] That is pretty great. I wonder though what atheists are "in the closet." Mosr people I meet who identify themselves as atheists aren't soft spoken about it. |
| ________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 12:57pm - Mark_R ""] Good, I hope this continues. |
| ______________________________ [Mar 1,2012 12:58pm - Yeti ""] good. i actually took it upon myself to read the Bible, i suggest anyone who is against it should do the same. i just finished Deuteronomy and i don't know how much more i can take. |
| _________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 12:58pm - RustyPS ""] I find atheists to be just as pushy as the zealots who try to be modern day missionaries. I'll happily not care about any of it, thank you very much. |
| _____________________________ [Mar 1,2012 1:01pm - Yeti ""] yeah, there are some aspects of atheism that bother me, the word itself bothers me, but i think that pushing back and being borderline obnoxious about it are necessary. they have been doing it for thousands of years, and we are now in an era where the atheist views are thriving, so i say fight fire with fire. |
| _______________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 1:07pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] I'm not even necessarily one, but I support them and all their works. We either have a government and a society that attempts to subscribe to some sort of objective reality, or one that doesn't - which will then, by default, be Christian, same as a store is, by default, Wal-Mart. |
| ___________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 1:08pm - arilliusbm ""] Atheism is as much of a myth as the Abrahamic God. |
| __________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 1:12pm - FuckIsMySignature ""] I only believe strongly in the fact that I have no fucking idea about what is real concerning higher powers. Until I am presented with definitive evidence to sway me otherwise... I will continue this belief. As should any other rational thinking person IMHO. |
| ___________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 1:14pm - Alx_Casket ""] This is an excellent use of freedom of speech and trolling. DestroyYouAlot said: [img] |
| ____________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 2:05pm - Josh_Martin ""] RustyPS said:I find atheists to be just as pushy as the zealots who try to be modern day missionaries. I'll happily not care about any of it, thank you very much. I love when people go out of their way to tell you how much they dont care about something. |
| ____________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 2:06pm - Josh_Martin ""] Burnsy said:That is pretty great. I wonder though what atheists are "in the closet." Mosr people I meet who identify themselves as atheists aren't soft spoken about it. I doubt you meet many people who live in exclusively jewish or muslim neighborhoods. Try saying you're an atheist when you're surrounded by people who will kill you for it. |
| __________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 2:07pm - FuckIsMySignature ""] I love when people tell other people how much they love hearing about how they dont care about something. [img] |
| ____________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 2:08pm - Josh_Martin ""] BUT I CAAAARE, MAAAN |
| _______________________________ [Mar 1,2012 2:57pm - Burnsy ""] Josh_Martin said: I doubt you meet many people who live in exclusively jewish or muslim neighborhoods. Try saying you're an atheist when you're surrounded by people who will kill you for it. You're right about exclusively muslim neighborhoods but I actually have a couple family members that live in Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn. They're not religious. They survive. ::shrug:: |
| ________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 3:08pm - RustyPS ""] Josh_Martin said: RustyPS said:I find atheists to be just as pushy as the zealots who try to be modern day missionaries. I'll happily not care about any of it, thank you very much. I love when people go out of their way to tell you how much they dont care about something. I don't know how making a 2 sentence post on a message board is "going out of my way," but whatever you say. |
| ___________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 3:21pm - Alx_Casket ""] I grew up right next to Paterson, NJ. This won't piss them off, they'll just perceive it as advertising spam and keep on trucking. But cool PR move, atheists. Convert the heathens into nothingness! |
| ______________________________ [Mar 1,2012 4:03pm - eddie ""] Yeti said:good. i actually took it upon myself to read the Bible, i suggest anyone who is against it should do the same. i just finished Deuteronomy and i don't know how much more i can take. really? i enjoyed it (as lit). Leviticus is hilarious, as far as anti -pc nonsense goes. Read it as different books, not chapters. keep in mind the books were written by different people, and that's why there are so many contradictions between books. Maybe get a bible guide, will put in perspective parts that you would otherwise not have any idea about. (some books are just a collection of unrelated poems, others are letters written to some random person, no way you'd know that.) if you're reading it just to hate it, i think you have too much time on your hands. Its the most alluded to collection of books for a reason. You don't have to agree with it to appreciated it. The historical books are the shit. for example 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles + more I read the books of Moses in college, so i didn't like it by default. I didn't like any of the books of wisdom, i couldn't get through them all. I didn't read the new testament. |
| __________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 4:07pm - FuckIsMySignature ""] [img] |
| ___________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 4:08pm - Alx_Casket ""] Only Alx's bible class is real. |
| _____________________________ [Mar 1,2012 5:22pm - Yeti ""] eddie said: Yeti said:good. i actually took it upon myself to read the Bible, i suggest anyone who is against it should do the same. i just finished Deuteronomy and i don't know how much more i can take. really? i enjoyed it (as lit). Leviticus is hilarious, as far as anti -pc nonsense goes. Read it as different books, not chapters. keep in mind the books were written by different people, and that's why there are so many contradictions between books. Maybe get a bible guide, will put in perspective parts that you would otherwise not have any idea about. (some books are just a collection of unrelated poems, others are letters written to some random person, no way you'd know that.) if you're reading it just to hate it, i think you have too much time on your hands. Its the most alluded to collection of books for a reason. You don't have to agree with it to appreciated it. The historical books are the shit. for example 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles + more I read the books of Moses in college, so i didn't like it by default. I didn't like any of the books of wisdom, i couldn't get through them all. I didn't read the new testament. i'm actually not reading it just to hate it, but reading it is making me hate it even more. the reason i chose to read it is because if i want to oppose it, i want to know the nature of it. so far the most prominent points are that God really loves circumcision and really hates unleavened bread. |
| ______________________________ [Mar 1,2012 6:03pm - eddie ""] guess you missed the part where god acts like a child the entire time, then starts to grow up. its kind of like an episode of step by step. |
| ______________________________ [Mar 1,2012 6:05pm - eddie ""] how do you oppose fiction anyways? |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 6:36pm - Headbanging_Man ""] [img] |
| _______________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 8:36pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] FuckIsMySignature said:I only believe strongly in the fact that I have no fucking idea about what is real concerning higher powers. Until I am presented with definitive evidence to sway me otherwise... I will continue this belief. As should any other rational thinking person IMHO. This is, as it happens, the definition of atheism. It's the absence of belief. Soooo... congrats. |
| __________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 9:06pm - FuckIsMySignature ""] DestroyYouAlot said: FuckIsMySignature said:I only believe strongly in the fact that I have no fucking idea about what is real concerning higher powers. Until I am presented with definitive evidence to sway me otherwise... I will continue this belief. As should any other rational thinking person IMHO. This is, as it happens, the definition of atheism. It's the absence of belief. Soooo... congrats. Not quite. "Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism I do not reject the notion of some sort of Deity or higher power. I simply just do not know for sure that one does or does not exist. Because of that, I cannot willingly or rationally subject myself to any religion's rules or condemnations. So whatever the word for that is... that's what I am. |
| ___________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 9:13pm - Chernobyl ""] I believe trolling can be spritual and religous. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:02pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] FuckIsMySignature said: DestroyYouAlot said: FuckIsMySignature said:I only believe strongly in the fact that I have no fucking idea about what is real concerning higher powers. Until I am presented with definitive evidence to sway me otherwise... I will continue this belief. As should any other rational thinking person IMHO. This is, as it happens, the definition of atheism. It's the absence of belief. Soooo... congrats. Not quite. "Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism I do not reject the notion of some sort of Deity or higher power. I simply just do not know for sure that one does or does not exist. Because of that, I cannot willingly or rationally subject myself to any religion's rules or condemnations. So whatever the word for that is... that's what I am. That's not actually correct, though. It's Wiki-correct, I'll grant you that. Atheism is the absence of belief in a higher power. "The absence of theism." If you do not possess a belief in God, you are an atheist. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:03pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] This definition is, of course, contested by those who do not wish statistics to show a significant portion of atheists in the US, to the point where many people who fit under its definition are not, in fact, aware that they are atheists. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:06pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] The definition you're quoting hinges on the idea that belief in invisible men in the sky is the default assumption, and that one need profess to reject this belief in order to not possess it. It's politically useful to an awful lot of people... and it's a bunch of silly horseshit. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:08pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] Put simply: FuckIsMySignature said:I simply just do not know for sure that one does or does not exist. Because of that, I cannot willingly or rationally subject myself to any religion's rules or condemnations. So whatever the word for that is... that's what I am. Yup... there is. It's "atheist." |
| ________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:19pm - Burnsy ""] DestroyYouAlot said:This definition is, of course, contested by those who do not wish statistics to show a significant portion of atheists in the US, to the point where many people who fit under its definition are not, in fact, aware that they are atheists. No. Agnosticism exists. Not taking a stand and outright denial are different concepts. Your position seems to be one that says agnosticism is a branch of atheism but for me, it's the difference between yes, no and maybe. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:22pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] Burnsy said: Your position seems to be one that says agnosticism is a branch of atheism but for me, it's the difference between yes, no and maybe. Ok, for you it can be different, but from an objective standpoint, that actually is the case. It's not so much "my position" as "the actual literal definition of the word". Agnostic basically means "I am an atheist, but prefer not to make waves by proclaiming myself such." |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:24pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] disbelief =/= denial |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:25pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] This is clouded by the Richard Dawkins and Bill Donohues of the world, unfortunately. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:27pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] Denial certainly emcompasses disbelief, so those that deny God ARE atheists, as well. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:29pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] Since we're quoting random crowdsourced internet articles on the subject: http://atheism.about.com/od/definitionofatheism/a/DisbeliefDenial.htm [img] |
| ________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:29pm - Burnsy ""] Saying what it basically means is your interpretation of a definition, not an objective standpoint. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:33pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] No, actually, words have definitions, and this is one of'em. It's not the popular understanding of the term, but that's because Christfags run the world and most people are idiots. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:36pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] Something akin to "America is a democracy." Common knowledge, also not true. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 10:37pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] [img] |
| ________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 11:02pm - Burnsy ""] Silly me starting a debate like that when i'm about to break up with a girl. Anyways, i'm not down for extensive reading but please post your definitions. I get the crux of your argument but not regarding definitions. Skepticism and denial don't mean the same thing. |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 11:08pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] Burnsy said:Silly me starting a debate like that when i'm about to break up with a girl. Anyways, i'm not down for extensive reading but please post your definitions. I get the crux of your argument but not regarding definitions. Skepticism and denial don't mean the same thing. I'm just firing from the hip here, nothing personal. Honestly, read the article I posted - it draws the logical A to B in a lot more paragraphs then I'm going to bother typing. Long story short, if you look up in the sky and fail to believe there is a God (or gods) up there, you are an atheist. It's an inclusive (not exclusive) term. |
| ________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 11:10pm - Burnsy ""] Didn't take it personal, man. was just a shitty time for me to engage in a conversation regarding a topic of such magnitude. I'll check it out later. Cheers. You're incorrect though. ;-) |
| ________________________________________ [Mar 1,2012 11:11pm - DestroyYouAlot ""] [img] :D |
| __________________________________________ [Mar 2,2012 1:04am - FuckIsMySignature ""] DestroyYouAlot said:Put simply: FuckIsMySignature said:I simply just do not know for sure that one does or does not exist. Because of that, I cannot willingly or rationally subject myself to any religion's rules or condemnations. So whatever the word for that is... that's what I am. Yup... there is. It's "atheist." i feel like there's a difference. but then again i dont really care. |
| _____________________________ [Mar 2,2012 7:31am - Yeti ""] your stance is what Bill Maher has dubbed "apatheist". you don't care either way whether there is a god. despite not wanting to be labeled as an atheist, my stance is exactly atheism. the idea of a supreme creator is so absurd that i feel like i am gnostic about the whole premise of God, but to proclaim absolute certainty is equally as absurd. if God itself reached down from the sky and poked me in the eye, i still wouldn't want anything to do with it. so i can't claim agnostic either, since i'd just assume i was losing my mind. so in turn it cycles back to atheism. good argument, though the heat above is based simply on semantics. |
| _____________________________ [Mar 2,2012 7:57am - Yeti ""] relevant [img] |