August 22, 2011
Lots of feedback on the many sites which allow comments from the billboard we placed in Santa Ana, CA last week. The ‘Patch’ in Mission Viejo, the Friendly Atheist’s blog and of course several sites from the OC Register. Hundreds of comment were posted. I’m very glad to see the discussion of atheism and how it can be viewed as more philanthropic than other belief systems. we’ll be placing two more billboards on Sept 11th. The billboard company has rejected any add that has to do with 9/11 (sad) so you won’t be seeing any twin towers pictures.
Why do I need to believe in a fictional space creature to be a good person? I know the difference between good and bad, what hurts someone and what doesn’t without some fictional book written by a group of power hungry men telling me what to do and not do. I think the recently exposed activities of the religious leaders of the world (which isn’t new activity, by the way) shows how meaningful and effective the “holy” teachings are.
And, watching the Republican candidates pander to the evangelicals is scary for those who know what a theological government really is – a church dictatorship without freedom and self direction – scary indeed. Keep your god out of my government!
Actually being a minority in this instance makes me feel pretty superior to all the dullards out there. Our #’s grow, yours dwindle, just like Christiany grew while Zeus and his gang dwindled.
To answer why an Atheist would be philanthropic: Why wouldn’t we be? Religion has little (nothing) to do with morality (read: history). We have even more reason to be, as our reward is in this life, we want this world to be the best it can be (i.e not fly planes into buildings, kill gays, harass 16 year old girls who get a religious banner removed from a public tax-payer funded school and threaten her and her family with harm etc. etc.) and yes, these are extreme, that’s the point, that’s the group you’re so proud to claim allegience too. You might be less zealous than suicide bombers, but you all share the same mass delusion which leads to crap like that. I’m so so proud to have given up being one of you all long ago, even if i put myself in a minority. Go read a book.
It must be a frustrating existence to be the minority in the world when it comes to belief in God and faith, and torturous one at best when not being able to express your thankfulness of good in your life .
I wanted to stop in and say shame on all of you for putting up a lies in your billboard. There is no excuse for misquoting one of the founding fathers without doing basic research that a child could do. Next time you decide to toss around quotes to further your religious beliefs, how about you make sure the quote actually exists.
Well, well. What have we here, Back Yard Skeptics? Hummmm?!?!
As revealed in this Chistian Post article, it would appear that in the instance of your “Thomas Jefferson says” billboard, the corpus of your vaunted, self-ascribed intellectual rigor and honesty has just been ripped a new rectum:
http://global.christianpost.com/news/atheists-billboard-falsely-attributes-anti-christian-quote-to-thomas-jefferson-59712/
I agree that atheists can be good and philanthropic, I just don’t see any reason why they should want to be. Truly, if there is no God, then what does it matter how you live? if there is no after life, what does it matter if you waste your life? how can it even be wasted? when you are gone, you are gone, and there is nothing to be sad about because you won’t exist anyway. If there is no God, there is no objective standard by which to judge anything, so how do you call anything good or bad? Isn’t it all just relative and then we are back to “so what does it matter how I live?” I applaud you all for wanting to live a good moral life but I really don’t see any reason why you would want to.
Atheists feel a responsibility towards our fellow man rather than to any unseen deity. If there is no afterlife then that makes our time among the living all the more important and precious. We want to make the world a better place because this life is all we have. Whether morality is subjective or objective we can all agree that living a life without harming others and hopefully helping others is a rather effective and efficient way to live. I don’t need a god to cherish life.
Fellow man? Aren’t we all overgrown germs? The way I see it according to your faith is that we’re a mere accident so there really isn’t much difference between you and gnat. So why do people get up in arms when someone is wronged or harmed? Who cares? “It’s because we ought to do good by our fellow man and society” According to who? To you? To the government? You’re no different than me and if I say laws don’t exist and you’er nothing more than a super-developed bacteria then I should be able to treat you like one. But we all know is not like that. We know there are consequences to breaking the laws. Whether the laws of physics or the laws on our books. What should matter most is our awareness to breaking the laws of a holy God. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” The Bible
Hi Stephanie…well, everyone has their own motives for wanting to be a good person. Most people who don’t have a belief in God live life and do good for the simple reason of helping another life be a little more pleasant. Imagine if we all spent all of the energy used to serve God, serving our own species and helping one another be better people for humanity’s sake. Living your life to serve something that is not real seems like a waste of time to me.
Morality has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with preservation of a species. Religious belief is more or less a tool to help you feel good about yourself and keeping order based on fear. We don’t live our lives and do good out of fear. We do it because we feel it is the right thing to do period. There does not need to be any other reason.