"God is an Imaginary Friend" Athiest Billboards in Denver-

Originally posted by kingofmd
Really? Chairman Mao killed more people than all the years of the crusades combined plus the Christians murdered by the Catholic inquisition (which is conservatively estimated at 60 million). Add Stalin, Pol Pot, and Idi Amin in the mix, it's not looking good for athiesm. WW2, WW1, Vietnam, Korea, Civil, Revolutionary, 1812, Spanish American, French Indian wars all had nothing to do with religion. It's time to retire that mantra.

most religious wars were back when earths human population was much lower and now we have many more ways to kill each other more effectivly.so there wouldnt be as much deaths as these more modern examples.

religious wars have done far worse, wiping people and cultures off the face off the earth leaving no record of these people.

even if your examples are more destructive it's no excuse for killing in the name of god to be continuing in our day.

i dont hate religion and blame them for all the worlds woes but fighting in the name of religion is pure evil and unfortunatley a very effective recruiting tool.

Originally posted by gabby2011
don't be surprised when God's patience runs out..

Oh Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, You're our only hope!!!!! -- woops wrong religion.

If your god has a limit to his patience, then let him take it out on all the people using his name to start and perpetuate wars.

But if you think he's going to go "Oh those pesky unbelieving humans, I'll fix them once and for all I will!!!" then... collectively the world will laugh.

So much for all forgiving and all loving... "Why if you keep it up, God will lose his patience with you heathens, and then boy howdy, you'd better watch out!!!" - (book of Mainidh, 24-01-2012)

reply to post by AllUrChips


I certainly believe these men have the right to put up these bill boards, just the same as religious organisations have the right to put up their own billboards. Equality and freedom of expression are not a one way street......

reply to post by AllUrChips



I object to the word friend!

reply to post by Fractured.Facade


well it appears you did not get right with god. He whisked you off this Ethernet coil!

How does once get right with god anyway. Carry on being a sinner right up till the last second, then repent and accept jesus! That's the ticket. I know, I asked a christian once.

Oh you can be the most caring, honest, morally upstanding, generous and beautiful individual, who spends tim with sick children and donates blood etc.etc.. But if you don't accept jesus, it's off to hell for you.

Rather silly if you ask me.

Trying to disprove or prove God with our narrow knowledge of physics is like being given only a hammer to build a house. Every problem looks like a nail. I just love how humans know everything about anything its so cash.

reply to post by AllUrChips

Originally posted by AllUrChips
So do these men have the right to put these billboards up, IMO they do.

Of course they do. Free speech and all. I see a HUGE JESUS! billboard every morning. Been there for 10 years or more...

It's my choice whether or not I get offended. And I choose freedom!

If atheists want to spread a message, I'm all for it!

In answer to your original question OP, Yes the men do have a right to place these advertisements. I live smack dab in the bible belt and pass 13 different Christian churches on my way to work each morning. Each one of these institutions has a differnet compelling pro-religious message plastered on a well lit sign. Most of the advertisments are benign in nature but a few proclaim to offer unproven promises to believers and sinners alike. Are they harmful? Not in my opinion. None of the advertisments have caused me to rethink my own belief in religion. Are they annoying? To some degree they used to be when I was younger and less tolerant. I do believe that as we grow older, our skin gets a little thicker and things tend to bother us less.

It is all well and fine for adults to view these billboards that contain religious messages but what about the children who are already being conditioned?
Where does the madness end...perhaps they should also be required to contain a health warning.

Originally posted by midicon
It is all well and fine for adults to view these billboards that contain religious messages but what about the children who are already being conditioned?

"What about the children"? is a battle cry from those who don't support freedom of religion. If the children are being conditioned into religion, they see a different perspective on these billboards, probably ask their parents about it and their parents will give whatever answer they give. The children will be fine...

Where does the madness end...

The madness of personal expression? Excuse me? That's not madness, that's our right...

perhaps they should also be required to contain a health warning.

Yes, let's bring big government in to put restrictions and requirements on religious expression. GREAT idea! /sarcasm

Why should THESE billboards contain warnings if all the pro-religious ones don't?

Originally posted by twinsoulz23
The billboards to me make perfect sense.
Man likes to blame all of their problems on evil and 'the devil', because people need something to project their shortcomings and their problems on to. Not realizing that the only devil that exists is the one that resides within us, this is the Ego. Why do you think ego rhymes with evil? The same concept applies to God, but vica versa. All it is, is the blame game on a worldwide scale. We are our own worst enemies. The only one that can save you from your ego is yourSELF. You! We see all the problems of the world and we blame it Governments and secret societies, like the Illuminati, then we begin to feel sorry for ourSELF's. Then some of us begin to act self-righteous, and claim we are enlightened, like we have been doing something right and everybody else is doing it wrong. Then we began to polarize our world, and start giving ppl labels, like sheeple, and the unenlightened, in order to furthur polarize and mark others as different. And then, We have the audacity to act like we are angry because the so called 'powers that be' are supposedly making our lives miserable, and don't care about us, when in fact, we don't give damn about ourselves and the world we find ourselves in! We are the ones manifesting our fear and our problems, and way too many of us are forgetting to look within our own 'closets' for the reasons why our lives are in the state of confusion and chaos we like to blame others for bringing. Its self-delusion. We all act as though the Universe owes us something, we all want this and that. But it is us who is holding ourselves back from our true potentials. Honestly, I believe many of us want tptb and Illuminati to do the bad things they supposedly do, because it saves us from looking in mirror and facing THAT monster, it saves us from having to examine our own negative conscious. On ATS, I see a lot of "the sheeple need to wake up" when in fact it is the "enlightened" that need to smell the coffee. There is no God because we are the Creators of our reality, both on an individual and collective scale. I AM for one sick of my own personal nonsense. I AM sick of feeling sorry for myself. I AM sick of waiting in vain for aliens or a Messiah to come and rescue me, because I AM to afraid to help myself to rise above and conquer the challenges that I find myself facing everyday. I AM the one creating the obstacles in my reality. I AM the only one that is holding myself back from my true potential. I AM my own devil and my own worst enemy, and quite frankly, I AM tired of being SICK and TIRED. I AM tired of hating and fearing mySELF, and as a consequence, hating and fearing the world, which is a reflection of the SELF. WE are the ones who need to rise above the nonsense, and turn our lives around for the better. Aren't you tired as well?

---1Love

Beautiful. I am sick and tired and i'm not going to take it anymore!

the bigger picture exposed. You must remember you can only save yourself from yourself. Others simplicity or distraction in mind and heart limits them to the miniscule scale of life lived.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Perhaps I put that badly, the health warning I suggested was meant for the pro-religious advertisements.
And anyway...regards freedom of religious expression...look at the state of the planet. We are force feeding our children with all sorts of religious guff...where does it end? And what does it say about us as a species that we allow this?

Originally posted by AllUrChips
reply to post by wlord

 

Just remember: More wars have been fought, and more blood has been shed from religion, than atheism. That tells me religion will most certainly be the downfall for human kind. I dont mind if or what people believe in, but to quote the late, great John Lennon, "if your talkin bout destruction, dont you know that you can count me out?"

edit on 23-1-2012 by AllUrChips because: (no reason given)

I have heard this soooo many times. It COULD be true, however I would go so far to say that Religion was created to use people and it is a crutch.

In my opinion a Believer in God would not even think of war.

DO NOT confuse religion with a belief in "God".

The belief in God should not hold to a Religion....that is a "human thing". A controlling mechanism and for some it works well. There are a lot of evil people in the world and I thank God they have turned to a "religion" instead of war. Religion soothes some and it is enough for them. They enjoy being controlled and not thinking for themselves and maybe for a lot of people...it keeps them "in line" and out of trouble. So be it.

To rely on human instincts/senses is also in my opinion limiting yourself. This is why we as humans have ALWAYS relied on a God or Gods. WE ARE LIMITED to our senses and dimensions....this is fact as we know it today.

Praying has been proven to be powerful. We hold a lot of limited power and to say we should not pray or we should rely on humans is a road we don't want to be on.

Sadly, Atheism is now viewed as another Religion....like we needed another.

Atheism is a religion which became popular following the publication of its bible "Origin of Species" in 1859. Atheism teaches that the Biblical God, an intelligent, eternal, creator, does not exist and that life developed through the unguided, natural process of evolution. Many recent advancements in science have seriously undermined the atheist faith. How long can they turn a blind eye to reason and evidence and continue to cling to their old, Victorian era myths? Atheists rejected an eternal God and therefore were forced to assume that the universe has existed eternally. This has recently been proven to be false - the universe in fact was created about 13 billion years ago. If there is no God, where did it come from? Recent research has demonstrated that the universe is fine tuned to make life possible. If there is no God, who fine tuned it? If there is no God, how did life appear on earth and appear so suddenly? If life evolved through small, gradual, trial and error changes, not divine creation, then why do the fossils indicate sudden dramatic changes? If life developed through genetic mutations and natural selection, how could flatworms develop into humans in only 500 million years, while only one organism in countless trillions is born with a beneficial de novo genetic mutation? Atheists may try to devise various tortured and complicated arguments to justify their beliefs. Some have desperately suggested that space aliens have created the universe and created life. But surely atheists, especially the younger generation who are more open minded and less dogmatic than their traditional parents, will eventually have to throw their hands up in despair and admit "God did it!"

jewishphilosopher.blogspot.com...


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reply to post by MamaJ


Just so people know, over 94 million people have died from communist regimes, which is decidedly atheist.

65 million people in China
20 million in the Soviet Union
2 million in Cambodia
2 million in North Korea
1.7 million people in Africa
1.5 million people in Afghanistan
1 million people in Eastern Europe
150,000 in Latin America

Of course, if you still think Atheism is a more sane approach to religion, you should check out the book called "Tortured for Christ" by Richard Wurmbrand. In it, he let's people know all the fun things communists did to his people in Romania during the 1950's and 60's (He was a prisoner for running an underground church in Romania).

Also, if anyone brings up the Crusades, or the Spanish Inquisition, just know that the majority of the people that were killed by the Catholic Church were actually people that were reading the Bible. You see, the Church didn't want people to read the bible back in the day, so they tried to make the copies of the book only in Latin so they could control the masses. When people translated the book and found out what it actually said, the Catholic Church wanted them to be put to death because it would have been the end of Catholicism.

Sources: The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression
Some Christians killed by the Catholic Church www.scionofzion.com...

I don't understand outspoken atheists. We get it, you don't believe in God. Outspoken atheists sound just as ignorant as outspoken Christians. And that's a problem.
You can argue that many wars have been fought over religion. You can argue that religion is holding back the scientific evolution of mankind. You can argue that religion doesn't make sense. And You can argue that politicians use it to win over the sheep.
But there have been many good things religion has done for people, and there have been many religious people that have helped a lot of people. Stuff I'm not going to bother listing, because I'm lazy.
On the whole is it really anyones business what they believe?
Especially since a billboard to advertise a church makes more sense than a billboard that says don't go to church.

If they want to help the human race, they should go spend that money on charity, feeding the poor, or something else that's actually productive.

reply to post by AllUrChips

I agree they have the right to express their religious views just as others can and do, but I draw the line at protesting a nativity scene. Personally, instead of removing that, I'd rather see some of the other religions celebrated equally, as was intended in the founding documents of the USA.

I'm not religious at all, and in some cases agree that for some, god is an imaginary friend, but for those people, it's a good thing, and I have no right to belittle them or question their faith, I just don't feel the need to believe it myself.

but I draw the line at restricting religious freedoms, and a nativity scene, while on "public or government" property could be viewed as unconstitutional, I believe that's merely a distortion of the idea set in place that the government shall make no laws restricting religion, or favoring one over the other.

Either no scene at all, or all religions should be celebrated equally.

But I do have to ask, if you are a religious person, why do you even care if those people aren't? does it affect your faith? Because it really shouldn't, if others views of your faith impact on your faith, your faith is entirely misplaced.

Originally posted by midicon
We are force feeding our children with all sorts of religious guff...where does it end? And what does it say about us as a species that we allow this?

Sorry for the earlier misunderstanding.

I agree with you. And it ends when people decide to stop doing it. People can teach their children to be open minded, and then when the kids reach the age of reason, they can figure their personal beliefs out for themselves. But the religious are MUCH to frightened to do that. So, it's up to the non-religious to drop the religious fairy tales and raise their children to think for themselves.

We MUST allow people to raise their children as they see fit (with certain legal restrictions, of course) But morally, people should be free to teach their children, even if that means they're going to indoctrinate them. It happened to me and I turned out OK.

Originally posted by openeyeswideshut

Originally posted by Sorgmodig

Originally posted by SkyMuerte
When Atheists start posting up billboards they come to the very edge of becoming what they hate; a religion.....

Yeah. Posting up billboards is the very definition of a religion. In fact, i think coca cocola is probably a religion. I've seen their billboards.

No but in the sense that they are promoting their ideas, which is in itself a religion(kinda funny when you think about it), and now in a religious manner of "throw up a sign and see if you can get the whole neighbourhood there.
'Nuff to hit my funnybone.

please explain how atheism is a religion

and for everyone moaning and crying over a billboard,i dont see atheist moaning and crying about all of the cable channels the gawd fearing preachers,pastors or bishops stay on,relentlessly pumping their "good news" over the air.
i see christian commercials,christian themed t.v. shows,it's everywhere.... but one billboard... and all hell breaks lose...grow up.

And atheism is merely an assumption based on scientific dogma..

Originally posted by phishyblankwaters
reply to post by AllUrChips

 

I'd rather see some of the other religions celebrated equally, as was intended in the founding documents of the USA.

Me, too, phishy. But I support the people's right to protest, even if I don't agree with them.

Either no scene at all, or all religions should be celebrated equally.

And the same goes for schools.