Defacing a church or synagogue is considered a hate crime. Should this be?
A billboard near Sacramento promoting atheism was vandalized by someone depicting atheists as lost, one of the billboard’s sponsor said.
The billboard — one of several posted in the Sacramento area — originally read: “Are you good without God? Millions are.” Someone spray-painted the words “also lost?” beneath “millions are,” CBS13 reported Tuesday.
Rachael Harrington of the Sacramento Area Coalition of Reason — which paid to have the billboards put up — said the ads are intended to let atheists and agnostics know they are not alone, the TV station said.
“This shows loud and clear just how necessary our message is, because prejudice against people who don’t believe in a god remains very real in America,” Harrington said.
#93 bac, I think you must have missed my earlier Santa Claus experiment, which had nothing to do with the word “realization.” In my #72 comment, I challenged bobbo to “make the choice to believe in Santa Claus,” the point of which is to show how silly the assertion is that an authentic heartfelt belief can be a choice, as so many Christians claim. And Christians are virtually forced to make that claim, because otherwise they would be worshiping a god who punishes people for conditions beyond their conscious control. Somehow, that just seems so inherently evil that they usually claim that belief in their god is a choice that can be freely made.
#94–Gary==Yea, but: the opposite is not so dogmatic.
Many people feel “the choice” when they are raised religious but over time they come to disbelieve for a variety and mix of reasons.
At some point, they do make a choice: going with the “easy,” expected, family friendly choice OR thinking for one’s self. Then one makes their choice and then tries to live it the consequences of the choice being easier to live with as time goes by until “faking it” is no longer in the matrix of previous choices made.
Words are tricky. How deep does a decision/choice “not to look at contrary facts” go before the argument is lost right up front?
I think god loses all the arguments to all those he has chosen to be denied his active presence. Shocking that he does this in the age of twitter.
Shocking indeed, bobbo. I see no reason that the gospel can’t be cut into Twitter-sized chunks of 140 characters. Where there’s an omnipotent deity’s will, there’s a way 😉
I pray that my atheist brethren would just turn the other cheek and forgive those who know not what they do!
#73 bobbo
Life has a lot of things and themes, all of which seem to have one central meaning for all – learning. I’m not talking school, I’m talking life. We owe it to our ancestors, who suffered greatly their ignorance. We owe it to ourselves, there’s no improving ones lot without it. We owe it to our descendants for they will suffer the consequences of that which we do not learn. Now what people choose to learn, that’s a matter of conditioning and preference. My suggestion, learn to love, and learn to take personal responsibility for your feelings, sounds simple? Only if you haven’t tried.
Or screw all that and go see Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life.
But seriously, I never said I knew the meaning, just bothered by the absolute mediocrity in the search for meaning. I prefer an idiot zealot, than just a plain idiot, the zealot puts a lot more effort into being an idiot.
“Hate crimes” are simply a tool to control political thought and discourse at it’s simplest at it’s most evil it’s an attempt to control the human soul.
Even with that though, hate crimes are committed against races or faiths, if atheism is a faith, ie. a religion then fine. But assuming we treat atheism as a religion, because it has to be believed in through faith without any proof, then it needs to be subjected to that same restrictions we place on religion.
Then where does it leave those that believe in science as their creed and faith, it’s subjectively atheism without any belief in a God that orders all the universe. Science first came about due to people that believe that a purposeful and omnipotent God would have an ordered and directed universe.
Whatever………………………………
Traaxx
#99
There is so much FAIL in your logic/reasoning going on here, I haven’t got the time or inclination to attempt to take it apart. My time is way to valuable for that.
If I vandalized one of the thousands of Church of Christ, or LDS billboards — what would that be?
I think it is a hate crime, but as usual, religious hate crimes are targetted at education. It doesn’t even make sense. Whoever tagged it walked away thinking “that will show them”…but really…really…also lost?…WTF…I would be pissed if it made sense…
“get em young, keep em dumb”
#98–amodedoma==very well said. I’ll add to it by saying “learning how to become a better person” is about the highest activity that we all can engage in. Sad the number of people we meet who have become stuck in whatever rut they have built for themselves.
I recall waking up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water and usually finding my father up reading a book on the kitchen counter. I still marvel at “all that knowledge” gone to waste at his death. What did it all mean?
And now, my child finds me up all night at the computer. All that knowledge. What will it mean when I die? Not a thing. Can anything so transitory be “meaningful” in a meaningful way? I don’t think so, and that is all we have other than a fantasy for something more. Is the fantasy meaningful? I don’t think so.
You may think otherwise, and what will that mean after you die?
He, he. Well, at least we thought it for awhile.
Its OK people, GOD told them to do it!
Just like he told that guy to kill the abortion doctor… Oh wait a group of religious people sentenced him to life in prison? Don’t you BELIEVE HIM THAT GOD INSTRUCTED HIM TO KILL?
Oh that’s right, its only OK in war to ask for gods help to kill. Psh you god lovers always throwing your own kind in jail for listening to those fictitious voices in your heads.
Religion is a sickness. Like any other form of mental illness.
#26 – Thomas,
Thanks. My gut said yes. I couldn’t define why. Since I’m late to the party, I decided to read a bunch of opinions and see if any made sense to me.
Yours is concise, well thought out, and goes straight to the heart of the matter, or the heart of the perpetrator where it logically belongs.
Well said.
#39 – Mikey Twit,
Yes. As long as we continue to have hate crime laws on the books, this makes sense. Questioning the validity of the concept of hate crime does not answer whether this should be considered as such under existing laws.
Someone call the Waaambulance.
My thing about defacing the sign is that it does little to convince people that they need Christ.
#106 – Benjamin,
They don’t.
Just as we don’t need the great pumpkin, we truly don’t need gods.
But, if it were a better sales pitch for your particular sub-sect of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religion, you’d be fine with this??!!?
If someone successfully advertised for a 2,000 year old Jewish corpse by creating a fresh corpse, would you be fine with that too? Which crimes in the name of Christ would be acceptable to you and which would not?
>> HeeHee said, on February 20th, 2010 at 10:56 am
>> No one can hate as fiercely as a true believer in some organized religion. Don’t believe me? Read history.
I’ve read the history of atheist-controlled countries like Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China and Pol Pot’s Cambodia.
Until you atheist supremacists take ownership of the horrific dark side of your own history, you remain a danger to civilised society.
Why do atheists need a billboard?
If it is a christian behind this i would not consider it to be motivated by hate, they could of done it in a better way though.
As a christian we do not tell people they are lost and not good people because we hate them, we tell them because we love them.
#111
So, why couldn’t atheists want to tell people their message out of love and concern? As an atheist, I want people to assess what they are told with a critical eye not because of hate but because of concern that following without questioning can lead to significant pain for the person and those around them.
#110 – HMeyers,
Why do atheists need a billboard?
For the same reason the LBGT community needs a flag. Atheists are now the most hated minority in the U.S. We need to come out of the closet and follow the wonderful example set by the LBGT community to attempt to get respect.
#111 – aussieem,
As a christian we do not tell people they are lost and not good people because we hate them, we tell them because we love them.
You tell people you love that they are not good people because they don’t believe your mythology??!!?
Thanks!! We don’t need that kind of love. Peddle that crap elsewhere please.
If your mythology requires you to look down on people who don’t agree with you as being bad people, no thanks. I don’t need that shit. Try some real love and acceptance instead of that judgmental bullshit.
Silly christians, how can they achieve salvation without worshipping the monkey god?