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Atheists hope (don't pray) to bring ads to Toronto (G&M)

do you support this ad?

  • i SUPPORT this secular/atheist/agnostic ad campaign

    Votes: 48 73.8%

  • i DO NOT support this secular/atheist/agnostic ad campaign

    Votes: 17 26.2%
  • Total voters
    65
Prometheus The Supremo said:
1) i'm not trying to convert anyone to any faith.
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But like many of my atheist friends you do try to actively disparage their faith....that's simply a different degree on the continuum.


Prometheus The Supremo said:
2) i'm not recruiting anyone to join anything.

3) i'm not asking anyone to join a cause.
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BS. You've spent the better part of this thread attacking all religions to disprove their foundation. Given that your 'religion' is the absence of other religions, by default the destruction of another individual's faith would revert him to your religious status. Ergo, you are attempting to win converts. If you were really non-chalant about it, you'd let it go. I don't spend hours talking about my faith to other people, but every atheist I know brings up religion sooner or later in every conversation. Just because you don't have what you think of as a 'religion' does not mean that you are not proselytizing. And right now sir, you are just as annoying as any Jehovah's Witness on a saturday morning.
 
kEiThZ said:
But like many of my atheist friends you do try to actively disparage their faith....that's simply a different degree on the continuum.




BS. You've spent the better part of this thread attacking all religions to disprove their foundation. Given that your 'religion' is the absence of other religions, by default the destruction of another individual's faith would revert him to your religious status. Ergo, you are attempting to win converts. If you were really non-chalant about it, you'd let it go. I don't spend hours talking about my faith to other people, but every atheist I know brings up religion sooner or later in every conversation. Just because you don't have what you think of as a 'religion' does not mean that you are not proselytizing. And right now sir, you are just as annoying as any Jehovah's Witness on a saturday morning.
Click to expand...

i don't go out and actively disparage peoples faith in order to "revert people to my religious status". you can believe what you want. i don't attempt to "convert" people.

this thread is about an initiative a bunch of freethinkers (who probably happen to be atheists) started. this thread evolved in explanation to what religious groups can get away with and and others aren't allowed. i didn't exactly knock on peoples front doors and hand out flyers. there are many websites and threads on the net that disparage free thought/atheism/rationalism/agnosticism/secularism, etc. and i don't go there busting their chops and try to convert them. but, when religious people want to control what people should and shouldn't see on the side of the bus in accordance to their belief, while at the same time wanting to get away with what ever they want in the name of their belief, you better believe i will defend the right to display a sign that is logically true and i will criticize the validity of the belief in the process.

everyone can have what ever beliefs they want. and that's my point, what "they" want, not what they are forced to.
 
kEiThZ said:
Just because you don't have what you think of as a 'religion' does not mean that you are not proselytizing. And right now sir, you are just as annoying as any Jehovah's Witness on a saturday morning.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was getting at.

Back to the bus ads, I wonder if many people would actually even notice them? I'd be curious if anyone here could provide some sort of analysis as to supposed "viewership" for bus advertisements? I really don't notice them unless a bus happens to be right in front of me. As an adverstising medium are they effective in terms of reach? Can that be quantified?
 
learn what the word "proselytizing" means before you say or agree that i'm doing it.

if your gonna call me something "a proselytizer" based on what i've typed in this thread, you might as well call me a meteorologist because i say the rain feels cold on my skin in november. :)
 
I think the ad is pretty humorous and engaging. If one side can be displayed no reason why this shouldn't, it's respectful.

On the whole religious aspect, I'm an atheist, my parents are atheist but both sets of grandparents as well as most extended family were strict Catholics.
I find the entire idea of God and religion to be the biggest testament to human arrogance ever. We are all so freaking special that the world was made just for us. We are so special that dogs die and we get to live forever in paradise. We are all here for some special reason, not just filling time like every other organism on earth. We are no different than other mammals, animals, reptiles, insects, slugs or algae, we simply exist and then die.
 
paraone said:
We are no different than other mammals,
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i beg to differ. we are semi-intelligent primates with automatic weapons and baseball caps.

yes, i stole that from carlin. :D
 
Wait, paraone is alive? Maybe I haven't been paying attention to forumers that come and go... Dang. Of course my name is different from what I used in the past so people can get confused all around.

Sometimes atheists are too rational, you have to express your opinion and market it to others in any environment. Without expressing an opinion then no one will listen.

There is validity to airing an advertisement like this, it gets the non-believer voices heard in the context of all the religious stuff we have to put up with. People still ultimately make their own minds up, but without getting an atheist voice out there, it most certainly won't be heard at all.
 
paraone said:
I find the entire idea of God and religion to be the biggest testament to human arrogance ever. We are all so freaking special that the world was made just for us. We are so special that dogs die and we get to live forever in paradise. We are all here for some special reason, not just filling time like every other organism on earth. We are no different than other mammals, animals, reptiles, insects, slugs or algae, we simply exist and then die.
Click to expand...

I think that's a little unfair. You're imposing your views on the arrogance of Christianity on to all of the world's religions. Not all religions teach that the world was made specially for us, and certainly not all of them teach that other organisms don't have souls or some other kind of spiritual value. Religion, or maybe I should say spirituality, is such a powerful thing - it can bring out the best and the worst in people. It can humble us, or it can make us arrogant and preachy. If you look for the worst in religions, you will find it. I try to look at the best parts and learn from those. In the end though, I think at least, anyone who claims to know God or know the Truth (scientists included in that bunch) exposes their own ignorance. Everything is theoretical in the end and there is always a possibility that you're wrong even if everything points to you being right.
 
I'd encourage other religious groups to respond to this ad with their own.

"THERE IS A GOD: BE AFRAID"
"GO TO CHURCH...OR GO TO HELL"
"MIGHT AS WELL BELIEVE IN GOD - PASCAL SAID TO AND HE'S SMARTER THAN YOU"

...or something like that :)
 
scarberiankhatru said:
I'd encourage other religious groups to respond to this ad with their own.

"THERE IS A GOD: BE AFRAID"
"GO TO CHURCH...OR GO TO HELL"
"MIGHT AS WELL BELIEVE IN GOD - PASCAL SAID TO AND HE'S SMARTER THAN YOU"

...or something like that :)
Click to expand...


the original atheist bus ad campaign was in response to those very types of adverts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist_bus
 
The "probably" in the sentence probably means that they're agnostics. I'm an atheist turned agnostic. As a humble human being who never traveled more than 14,000 km from his house, disputing or confirming the presence of a Universal Creator seems a little beyond my abilities.
 
Personally I have a marked dislike for anyone who takes their beliefs too seriously/strongly (be it religious or atheist). I find devout atheists as bad as devout Catholics/Muslims whatever. Just don't think about it. That's what I try to do. In my opinion thinking about it too much just invites one to off oneself like Dualla.
 
I would say that outside of the Internet atheists are the least likely to randomly attempt to argue, proselytize or otherwise encourage you to join their faith. And let's face it, anyone can be offensive on the Internet.

I don't rightly recall the last time I saw anything atheism-related in public (as opposed to religious signage, evangelists, nutbars shouting at the corner of Yonge/Dundas, etc.) so its not exactly an even playing field out there. These ads are aimed at belief in general rather than Christianity in particular and don't pledge support to any particular atheist organization so they seem more thoughtful (whether one agrees with the message) than political. They aren't even unequivocal in their message with that "probably" added in--less offensive for the Canadian Crowd.

I believe any message that encourages people to think--regardless of whether or not it changes their mind--is a good thing.
 
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