'Every year, atheists get blamed for having a war on Christmas, even if we don't do anything,' he said. 'This year, we decided to give the religious right a taste of what war on Christmas looks like.'
Strangely enough claiming that you are making war on Christmas in response to people who irrationally believe you've always been making war on Christmas does not help!!!
The OP is absolutely right to call out the fatwa envy from Daled Amos. And it looks like Mary Elizabeth Williams from Salon.com is also annoyed that American Atheists aren't targeting minority religious groups instead of focussing on the over-priveleged one. Awww diddums!
Oooh and "it's gonna backfire" really is quite a daft one too, isn't it?: "Ironically, in his desire to out Christians who are just going through seasonal retail motions, [Silverman's] billboard may serve to remind believing Christians of the real reason for the season." So the real reason for the season is to celebrate daft myths? Why didn't you say so before? :P
Another comment seems to completely miss the point. They call this out for being confrontational, but they seem to forget that simply advertising atheist groups is also viewed as confrontational: I've found that confrontational atheism isn't productive, just as aggressive proselytizing on the part of religious groups isn't a good way to endear the religion to the populace in the modern era. Religious proselytisation and saying "hello I'm an atheist" are the same thing. Blah blah blah yawn. Whatever! Many of the holidays that are celebrated around this time of the year are religious in nature, and part of existing as a decent person in this world is letting people go about their daily lives in peace. Apparently when American Atheists were helping people with cases against large public crosses and loud ringing bells that was them being annoying, but having one poster advertsising their group is "oh so awful".
Why is it that I come to these things groaning at how counter-productive they are and then find myself supporting them when I hear the over-the-top reactionary BS?
The thing is, people don't like being told "no". This poster says "no" loudly and clearly. I'm not sure the way it goes about it is terribly productive, but the saying "no" side of things I can approve of. I'd just rather it was saying "no, we're going to do this our way" rather than "no, you suck".
Well, a big "outlaw Christianity" billboard would be "war on Christmas" in a sense worth talking about. "Reason rulez, X-ianity droolz" isn't quite the same thing.
I really think Morning Gloria makes some good points. She writes: "Why not just focus on celebrating your own beliefs rather than pissing people off by putting theirs down?" The billboard even appears to do this, if you look only at the words.
If you're going to put something down, it should be something worth putting down, like the doctrine of eternal damnation, rather than going after people's most sentimental associations. Put up a picture of people writhing in agony in a pit of lava, with devils prodding them with pitchforks, and put the words "You know it's a myth" above that -- you're making a worthwhile point, and even some Christians will respond sympathetically.
(But they might just say that Jesus is the *solution* to that, not the problem itself... even though he sort of introduced the ghastly concept to the Bible in the first place... Whoops.)
For a while there was a snarky 'Haha God says the darndest things' billboard here, but someone kept 'defacing' it with lines that diluted the message somewhat. For instance, under the third bit they put up (the line about 'think it's hot here?'), someone painted in, "I've been in Bermuda this week!"
After a few unsuccessful attempts at catching their vandal, the ad was replaced with some cell phone company.
I wish I'd gotten pictures; it was almost as good as when the 'Are you Gay?' shame-ads were up and just below them was the bill for Rent.
Strangely enough claiming that you are making war on Christmas in response to people who irrationally believe you've always been making war on Christmas does not help!!!
The OP is absolutely right to call out the fatwa envy from Daled Amos. And it looks like Mary Elizabeth Williams from Salon.com is also annoyed that American Atheists aren't targeting minority religious groups instead of focussing on the over-priveleged one. Awww diddums!
Oooh and "it's gonna backfire" really is quite a daft one too, isn't it?:
"Ironically, in his desire to out Christians who are just going through seasonal retail motions, [Silverman's] billboard may serve to remind believing Christians of the real reason for the season."
So the real reason for the season is to celebrate daft myths? Why didn't you say so before? :P
Another comment seems to completely miss the point. They call this out for being confrontational, but they seem to forget that simply advertising atheist groups is also viewed as confrontational:
I've found that confrontational atheism isn't productive, just as aggressive proselytizing on the part of religious groups isn't a good way to endear the religion to the populace in the modern era.
Religious proselytisation and saying "hello I'm an atheist" are the same thing. Blah blah blah yawn. Whatever!
Many of the holidays that are celebrated around this time of the year are religious in nature, and part of existing as a decent person in this world is letting people go about their daily lives in peace.
Apparently when American Atheists were helping people with cases against large public crosses and loud ringing bells that was them being annoying, but having one poster advertsising their group is "oh so awful".
Why is it that I come to these things groaning at how counter-productive they are and then find myself supporting them when I hear the over-the-top reactionary BS?
The thing is, people don't like being told "no". This poster says "no" loudly and clearly. I'm not sure the way it goes about it is terribly productive, but the saying "no" side of things I can approve of. I'd just rather it was saying "no, we're going to do this our way" rather than "no, you suck".
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If you're going to put something down, it should be something worth putting down, like the doctrine of eternal damnation, rather than going after people's most sentimental associations. Put up a picture of people writhing in agony in a pit of lava, with devils prodding them with pitchforks, and put the words "You know it's a myth" above that -- you're making a worthwhile point, and even some Christians will respond sympathetically.
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(But they might just say that Jesus is the *solution* to that, not the problem itself... even though he sort of introduced the ghastly concept to the Bible in the first place... Whoops.)
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After a few unsuccessful attempts at catching their vandal, the ad was replaced with some cell phone company.
I wish I'd gotten pictures; it was almost as good as when the 'Are you Gay?' shame-ads were up and just below them was the bill for Rent.
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