Why are Christians threatened by us?
Okay, last week we discussed the blatant defacing of the billboard in Idaho. And now the Cincinnati Coalition of Reason has had to move their sign. It says “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.” But after just two days in place, it is being moved because the landowner (which leased sign space to the sign company) had received several threats
What is wrong with these people? WHY are they so threatened by atheists? Why do they feel threatened by the fact that other people don’t believe the way they do, and we are no longer willing to remain silent about it? Why does that bother religious people?
Shawn Jeffers, co-coordinator for Cin CoR, the Cincinnati Coalition of Reason, which is the local organization the billboard advertises, sees this controversy as evidence of the billboard’s importance.
“Everything that has happened shows just how vital our message is,” Jeffers said. “It proves our point, that bigotry against people who don’t believe in a god is still very real in America. Only when we atheists, agnostics and humanists come together and go public about our views will people have a chance to learn that we too are part of the community and deserve respect.”
This sort of behavior does absolutely NOTHING to promote Christianity (or any other religion).
And whoever is making these threats isn’t addressing them to Cincinnati Coalition of Reason (which paid for the sign), or to Lamar (the sign company that leased the space for the billboard), but they’re going after the landowner who had NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SIGN OR ITS CONTENTS. What kind of messed up thinking would track down a landowner and threaten him for something he had no control over?
Certainly both Lamar and CinCoR are trying to look out for the landowner and remove him from the issue, because he shouldn’t be involved at all. Shame on the people making threats. That’s a good thing.
if it had been a religious sign, or people complaining about it to the wrong people, the religious advertisers would cry foul and plead “free speech” and blah blah blah to insist on their “right” (??) to impose an unwelcome message. But when a perfectly innocent, non-threatening yet non-theistic message is posted, fearful religious people start making threats. How stupid is that?
The real question is “why are atheists so scared of a God who they don’t believe in?”
November 13th, 2009 at 12:13 pmNow, Steve, that’s a ridiculous question. We’re highly annoyed by the underhanded tactics of believers who try to silence, demonize, and marginalize those who disagree with them. We don’t go around defacing religious billboards or creating havoc where religious people meet. Considering non-believers are a clear minority, it is amazing that the religious get soooo incredibly bent out of shape when we put up a sign. Nonbelievers are no threat to the religious folks, except in their own perverted mind.
November 13th, 2009 at 1:34 pm1. Agreed - defacing billboards and other public OR personal property is not acceptable, especially by Christians, along with silencing, demonizing and marginalizing. our job is to give (not CRAM) the Gospel. Period. Behaviour is crucial. Scripture says so.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:24 pm2. “Non-believers are a clear minority?” Don’t see it. Yes, millions of church-goers, but most are non-believers thinking they’re believers and in church simply due to status, both political and social, which, again, Scripture says is wrong.
@Steve #3:
your #2… bull! That the “No true Scotsman” fallacy. Among self-identifying religious, those who say they are Christian are Christian. They might not be your kind of Christian, but if they say they are Christian (or Jew, or Hindu, or whatever), that’s how they are counted. They may be cultural Christians, just like there are cultural Jews, or cultural Muslims, but if their identity is Christian/Jew/Muslim, that’s what they are.
As for your assertion that professed believers are actually non-believers, that’s only your opinion, not valid in any real sense and definitely not in this context. (It also smacks of arrogance and self-righteousness) For the purposes of this discussion, self-identified non-believers/non-theists are most definitely and quite clearly a minority in this country, and not in any way a threat to believers as a group, whether cultural or otherwise, and definitely not a threat to any real religious freedom anyone might have.
November 13th, 2009 at 3:22 pm[...] The other day, Steve tried to invoke a version of the “No True Scotsman” argument, i.e., challenging the fact that atheists/non-theists are a clear minority by claiming Yes, millions of church-goers, but most are non-believers thinking they’re believers and in church simply due to status, both political and social, which, again, Scripture says is wrong. [...]
November 13th, 2009 at 8:21 pm