Controversial billboards along I-25

[cleanhippie]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — There were new billboards up along Interstate 25 that caught the eyes of drivers Monday.

The billboards were put up by the American Atheists.

They say, “Go ahead and skip church! Just be good for goodness sake. Happy holidays!”

The message caused a stir for some.

“I think it’s a little offensive. When I first saw it I thought ‘what did they mean by that?'” said Alexis Esselman.

The American Atheists insist the signs aren’t an attack on Christmas.

“We’re trying to be inclusive of everyone in Christmas and saying that anyone can celebrate it. It shouldn’t be viewed strictly as a Christian holiday,” said American Atheists spokesman Randy Gotovich.

They realize there is a religious aspect to the holiday.

“People celebrate the birth of Christ and that’s perfectly fine. The other side of it is inherently secular: spending time with family, swapping gifts, having a meal together. That’s not inherently religious,” said Gotovich.

http://fox21news.com/2015/12/07/controversial-billboards-along-i-25

Why is it not controversial when a religious group puts up a billboard touting their religion, but is it controversial to put up a sign saying it's unnecessary?

Makes me think of a meme I recently saw that said

When you're used to privilege, equality seems like oppression.

[Yorktown]

1. Go ahead and skip church!

Why is it I feel like following their advice?

[justhanginon]

2. Easy for me. I've had about 60 years of practice.

Went with friends to a Southern Baptist Church once years ago and came out depressed because I was going to hell. Tried again with friends, went to a Christmas service at a Catholic Church and the priest came down the aisle swinging a smudge pot. I have asthma and that didn't work out well needless to say. Actually in retrospect it was a funny Christmas eve what with the wheezing and all. Kind of figured that between what they stood for and what they were preaching church was no longer for me.
I was raised Lutheran, Missouri Synod and had suspicions about the teachings even as a teenager.

[Yorktown]

3. had suspicions about the teachings even as a teenager?

What took you so long to become suspicious?

[justhanginon]

4. Slow learner!

Amazingly to some, it seems to have turned out well since I can honestly regard myself as a pretty decent person despite my lack of sunday morning "guidance".

[Buzz Clik]

5. "Why is it not controversial when a religious group puts up a billboard touting their religion" ????

You've got to be kidding. Every public religious display brings the atheists out in force.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. Um, no. Religious displays on PUBLIC (taxpayer) PROPERTY do, yes.

But a private billboard in a public space? No. No not really, no.

Very different thing. A billboard is a private advertising space even if it's publicly visible. No correlation whatsoever to a nativity scene in a courthouse or legislature building, or state capital/etc.

[Buzz Clik]

8. Maybe for you, but not all.

If you're being honest, you'll admit that atheists here at DU and some in the news have total heart attacks over very private conversations, displays, greetings, etc.

On a thread in the religion group, one such clown is disrupting a thread about Christian music. It's not every atheist, but it exists.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. Prove it.

I sat there and listened to some lady vent about her life, and plans to 'get right with god' at lunch yesterday, and I just listened and nodded/paid attention, because it clearly made her feel better to have someone to talk to.

I don't see a lot of, or ANY atheist outrage over religious billboards on private advertising space. Surely you can find AT LEAST ONE to back up your claim.

"atheist outrage over religious billboard" returns 910,000 hits, but none of them appear to be what you're claiming.

[Buzz Clik]

16. ..

This took less than a second to find:

https://tauriqmoosa.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/offended-atheist-gets-stupid-christian-billboard-taken-down/

We're done.

[trotsky]

22. Hooray, you found one isolated incident. In South Africa.

If you need the reminder, your initial claim was:

"Every public religious display brings the atheists out in force."

You're done, alright.

[AtheistCrusader]

25. Seriously, you had to go to another COUNTRY to find that example?

Wow, you really got me. Pat yourself on the back for me, you're super-awesome.

[Mariana]

30. Aren't you impressed?

I guess that's what "the atheists out in force" looks like. One guy wrote a letter.

[Warpy]

29. That was a little different, a full-on attack against a minority.

The equivalent for Christians might be "Christians are people who never outgrew fairy tales." Think of the reaction to that one, and they'd be right.

None of us cares all that much about those "God is Awesome!" billboards, or the ones selling a church.

Get it yet? Positive messages are fine. Attacking people is not fine.

[Buzz Clik]

32. I do get!

That's why you find Richard Dawkins so repellent.

No?

[Warpy]

40. I don't find Dawkins much of anything

so perhaps you need to drop the second person entirely. You might also pick better examples to "prove" atheists are just as mean spirited as entitled Christians who complain about even positive atheist messages.

[Buzz Clik]

41. You are ambivalent about Dawkinsin light of your original complaint:

"Positive messages are fine. Attacking people is not fine."

My goodness! Dawkins is relentless in his attacks.

[LiberalAndProud]

43. Repellent, maybe.

But his saltwater tank is remarkable.

[trotsky]

12. "It's not every atheist, but it exists."

So much for your original claim.

[Buzz Clik]

17. I never made a claim that every atheist behaved in any given manner.

But, I am truly sorry that you are so victimized for your .... not believing in ... whatever. My sorrow knows no bounds.




(have the last word ... for now)

[trotsky]

20. LOL

Slink away if you must. I would too, getting embarrassed like that. But maybe you need the last word after all.

[AtheistCrusader]

26. Well, at least you've established that it brings out the atheist in drove, in south africa.

Note the singular use.

[cleanhippie]

7. Atheist Crusader summed it up nicely.

I wonder if you'll be able to see the point.

[Mariana]

11. There are thousands and thousands and thousands

of religious billboards out there, so you should easily be able to find a link to some evidence that atheists have come "out in force" to protest even one of them.

[trotsky]

13. Don't hold your breath. n/t

[Buzz Clik]

18. ooops

[Buzz Clik]

19. For the record ...

... on a day when I'm feeling particularly religious, I might rise to the level of agnostic. Usually, it's flat-line atheist.

However, I do despise the obnoxious behavior displayed by a lot of DU atheists. It comes real close to hate.

[AtheistCrusader]

27. Maybe you shouldn't sling that crap you posted up thread.

Might be a correlation between your behavior, and your perception of others and how they react to you.

[trotsky]

28. Perhaps people are only obnoxious to him...

because he posts obnoxious stuff.

[Buzz Clik]

31. Well, it happens every time. You'd think I'd learn.

One of you guys posts some sad-drenched story of how Christians are bullying you -- a tale that, without fail, has some aspect of pure bullshit. I call the bullshit, and the bees come swarming.

Bravado and bluster are poor substitutes for rhetorical discourse, but I'll find myself surround by angry atheists who don't take kindly to people disagreeing with them.

And here we are.

I know! Let's have this one end happily: You are absolutely correct! Atheists have it oh-so-bad because those mean Christians are always picking on you. Bad Christians! Leave these poor folks alone.

How's that?

[AtheistCrusader]

33. You know what provides a poor substitute for 'rhetorical discourse'? A lack of facts.

Your claim upthread was total fabricated "bullshit", and you had to reach into a country on the other side of the planet that doesn't even have the same court findings of free speech, to support a singular claim, when you indicated 'droves', and other "bullshit".

Drop the "bullshit" and make a claim you can actually support and we'll discuss. It's not actually that hard.

Theatrics don't impress. Your claim was untrue. Make a true claim, if you can.

[Buzz Clik]

34. Meh. I gave you proof you didn't like. It took one second.

Let's go beat up some Christians, ok?

[AtheistCrusader]

37. It's not proof. You missed the mark by 7 thousand miles, and failed to provide more than one instanc

e. That's not proof of your claim at all.

[trotsky]

35. "Bravado and bluster are poor substitutes for rhetorical discourse"

As you have so wonderfully demonstrated yourself. Thank you!

[Buzz Clik]

38. The old "I know you are, but what am I?" tactic.

Well played, sir, well played!

[trotsky]

39. Well, I do tend to argue to the level of the opposition. n/t

[cleanhippie]

36. Obnoxious behavior?

Somewhere there's a mirror crying.

[Mariana]

21. Not really an "ooops".

You found an example of a single atheist who wrote a letter and got a billboard taken down in South Africa. Nothing there about any religious billboards "bringing atheists out in force" which is what I asked for.

[trotsky]

24. I'm sure he's frantically googling.

However his initial claim was so absurd, I think even he knows he can't support it.

[trotsky]

23. One dude in South Africa got a billboard taken down.

That's his support for "Every public religious display brings the atheists out in force."

Here's a pretty good writeup explaining that particular situation:
http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2012/01/south-african-church-billboard-banned.html

[Lordquinton]

10. I like the quote you have at the end there

Rally sums up discussions of privilege we tend to have around here.

[trotsky]

14. "I think it’s a little offensive."

Yes folks, that's the heart of the issue right there. To some, the mere existence of atheists is offensive. So naturally, when one dares to open his or her mouth and perhaps even question religion, we can begin to understand why that person is attacked as a "bigot."

[Mariana]

15. They'll be vandalized soon enough, most likely.

Nothing to fret about.

[LiberalAndProud]

42. You know how JWs and Scientologists stay off the internet to avoid the bad press?

It's like that. The offense taken is involuntary, I think.