Catholic League Puts Up Billboard to Counter Atheists

I can actually see why this board would be offensive or “assault the sensibilities” of some.
To the believer reading it, it sounds like you are saying “you know you’re just living a lie. Admit it.”

It’s not far from no atheists in fox holes. The insult isn’t that there are no atheists in the military, but that you are deep down being dishonest with yourself.

I know it wasn’t intended that way, and assault isn’t exactly a good word for it, but to a believer, the “you” does make it negative.

(not that I’d change it one bit by the way)

Of course believers have the right Bridget, but it’s not as if Christians need a billboard advocating for their cause. Most Americans are already Christians. People are not sitting around saying to themselves: What is all this Christmas stuff people keep talking about?

Atheists, however, are not always aware that there are other atheists out there to commune with.

The Catholic sign is a direct retort to the atheist billboard (it mimmicks the wording). That makes it rather combative, and turns the atheist cause (letting other atheists know they are not alone) into a battle between Christians and atheists. The only reason the Catholic billboard exists is to highlight some sort of animosity. Is that what Jesus would do?

As a True Christian, I am pleased to see that Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin are correctly depicted as having the pure white skin of the Master Race. Those divisive historical revisionists with their talk of brown-skinned people in the Middle East always make me feel icky, and you know how I hate to feel icky at Christmastime.

Bill Donohue disagrees with the teaching of the same man he wants us to celebrate in his billboard, Jesus:

“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” – Matthew 5:39 KJV

@Hamilton Jacobi: yes, that’s the first thought that went through my mind as well.

@WMDKitty: if HJ’s tongue gets any more firmly in his cheek he’s going to need medical attention.

Out of curiosity, what is the general consensus from Jews on Jesus? Do they think he never existed at all, or do they just not think he was the Messiah?

I am also pleased to see that the producers of this excellent billboard had the discretion to cover Our Lord’s nether regions with a blanket. As we all know, He has the Biggest Tallywhacker in the History of the Universe (yes, even as a baby — for who else could possibly be greater than the Lord?), but it would not do to frighten the youngsters by exposing them to this Truth too early.

WMDKitty, I am not a supporter of Mr. Poe. His writings are far from Christian, to say the least, and his drunkenness did not set a good example for the children. However, I cannot deny that he was gifted with a keen insight into the true nature of basement cats.

Theirs is negative, and is designed to sow division. It’s what they do.

Oh yeah. This said by Bill Donohue, world famous for uniting people. Renowned for being inclusive, embracing and welcoming.

…as long as you spend all your time kissing Catholic ass, especially his, and never, ever question the knowledge, wisdom, or morals of any Catholic cleric from Father O’Irishcliche to Il Papa Infallibile.

There’s so much irony my monitor is rusting.

Ha, even their advert, advertised the AA billboard. Brilliant.

I like it. It makes me scoff and go “*cough*bulllshit*cough*” yuou know, just a little!

@MIhangel: there are two completely different biblical nativity stories. Matthew places the birth at the time of Herod, who died in 4 B.C. Luke has it at the time of the census of Quirinius, which was in 6 A.D. Matthew and Luke independently invented nativity stories to deal with the problem that Mark had said Jesus came from Galilee, but the Jews were expecting a Messiah to be born in Bethlehem in Judea. See John chapter 7.

Whatever else may or may not be true in the New Testament, the nativity stories are definitely myths.

I’d like to point out the new billboard says “It’s Real” and failed to take a further counter stance saying “It’s TRUE”. I wonder if even they are starting to falter in their claims to it NOT being a myth.
What a sandbox response though.
“IS NOT!”?
Is this the best they can come up with? We’ve been duped. First by their claims of truth, and now by their claims they have some sort of defense of their claims.

I read:

“You know it’s real. All non-Christians will burn in hell.”

Real positive…

I’m just having fun imagining a billboard flame war. The third billboard could be “But we can ALL agree THIS is TRUE” and the image is a priest using a bible to shove a young boy’s face into his crotch.

He’s right on the atheist billboard being negative. It is, because it doesn’t say what you like about your own position, but what you don’t like about the other’s position. Whether or not the billboard is convenient or effective is another story we can talk about.

I’ve seen a lot of positive atheist billboards lately, like the “you’re not alone” ones or the ones with atheists saying what they do in Sunday morning. I like these better. Sure these have also been received with contempt and outrage but that doesn’t mean anything: a given approach is positive or negative regardless of its effect on people.

Catholics are so bad at these “counterpunch” billboards. When the Coalition of Reason put up the “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone” billboard here in Philly, some rich Catholic put up one with a picture of White JC with the Sacred Flaming Heart of Doom that just said “Say one Hail Mary.” Ooooh, snap!

The first thing I noticed is how plastic the holy family looks. And this:

We decided to counterpunch

Counterpunch? That says a lot. Dan points out that Jesus said to turn the other cheek. Bill Donohue wants to punch us. Not just that, he has such a persecution complex that he thinks we were punching him.

The Catholic League’s billboard message is the nicest thing that Bill Donohue’s said in our general direction.

It looks like an ad for Campbell’s Soup, almost.

We really should send Bill a lot of thank yous, for all the free publicity. A Christian loudmouth hasn’t given us this much free publicity since William J. Murray took out full page ads in the newspapers in the towns American Atheists had its conventions in. His ads were aimed directly at conventioneers, and it always added to the size of our conventions. He alerted Atheists about the conventions. Then he stopped. Maybe he wised up…lol

@Hamilton Jacobi — “Nevermore.”

Why yes, “The Raven” is one of my favorite poems…

Isn’t the catholic league fairly (read: filthy stinking) rich?(I’m not American). Shouldn’t they be able to afford a graphic designer?

Seriously, their sign stinks.

@Heidi: “Out of curiosity, what is the general consensus from Jews on Jesus? Do they think he never existed at all, or do they just not think he was the Messiah?”

It depends. In general Jews do not think Jesus was the Messiah. I’ve read some sites which innumerate the things which The Messiah was supposed to fulfill, but Jesus failed to do.
— The Christian ‘Excuse’ seems to be he will at the Second Coming.

Generally that seems to be the basis for rejecting the ‘Jews For Jesus’ movement. — Most see them as Evangelical Christians.

Google Search “jews can’t be for jesus” for details.

this is not directed at all those who commented here, just those that claim the atheist sign is not offensive but the Catholic one is

For those folks who profess that they are here just representing the “truth” your self deception is amazing.

To claim that the atheist billboard is not offensive nor is it meant to be is just silly. When you make a claim to millions of people that what they believe and hold dear is a myth, that claim is designed to offend and its obvious as such. It is arrogant and condescending.

Then to dodge that offense and try and claim that the real message was directed at closet atheists is ridiculous. That could have easily been done with a sign that didn’t attack those that believe.

Then you follow that up with comments about the Catholic sign being offensive when it says the same message from a believers view point.

If you are holding yourselves out to be the torchbearers of the truth at least be honest with yourselves and consistent.

To those of you that find both signs either offensive or not offensive, I applaud you on your equal treatment and consistency.

@Robert W.: “When you make a claim to millions of people that what they believe and hold dear is a myth, that claim is designed to offend and its obvious as such. It is arrogant and condescending.”

I have to say, I’ve seen a lot of ‘Bad Interviews’ lately, and I think Dave Silverman blew it in his, (on NECN). As you point out, to claim ‘We Know God is a Myth’ can be just as offensive to a believer, as ‘We know Jesus is the only true path’ is to a non-Christian. At the very least specify the Biblical God. Compare Jehovah and Santa, not equate them.

I seriously wish these official spokespeople would look up the difference between ‘believe’ and ‘know.’ They are not the same words, nor are they interchangeable. As an educated man, Silverman could have spoke to so much:

– Differing accounts of the
Nativity/Birth Story
– The timing of Jesus’s Birth
– The similarity to Pagan myths,
Saturnalia,Mithra etc.

Instead he comes off as “I’m right, your wrong” and implies your beliefs are silly. — Yes Bill Donahue goes further in his idiocy, by belittling showing a complete ignorance of cosmology, and physical anthropology, and repeats the same insulting tripe “We don’t believe in anything”, “We stand for nothing” etc. But Donohue’s ignorance doesn’t excuse Silverman’s bad interview skills.

I think both billboards are fine. I don’t mind a competing group issuing a “rebuttal” of this nature. It sure beats the usual vandalism or censorship.

From an atheist perspective, it seems like a win-win for us. We get additional publicity, and it makes the Catholic League look insecure. We know we got under their skin if they felt so threatened they shelled out a lot of money to respond with a billboard of their own.

Anyone else think of the Wendy’s jingle when they saw the Catholic billboard?

@jose

Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about.

You almost see the drool.

It has been so thoroughly debunked that I doubt even Donohue could believe the traditional xmas story is literally true. That’s probably why he’s pissed about our billboard – it makes him look at himself as the dishonest bastard he is.

Hey! New billboards in Nashville, ripping off the AA’s design! Apparently the Rapture is imminent.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101201/NEWS06/12010350/Nashville%2Bbillboards%2Bclaim%2BJesus%2Bwill%2Breturn%2BMay%2B21%2B%2B2011

“Fans of Family Radio Inc., a nationwide Christian network, paid for the billboards. Family Radio’s founder, Harold Camping, predicted the May date for the Rapture.”

“The Rapture is going to be a great day for God’s people but awful for everyone else,” said Allison Warden, 29, who orchestrated Nashville’s billboard campaign.”

Bill Donahue and his Catholic League have screwed up with their nativity scene caption: “You Know It’s Real: This Season Celebrate Jesus.”

It would be like a magician who kept saying “I really really DID make that elephant disappear, I really really did. You know I really really did it, right?” The more the magician or conman (Donahue) wastes his breath saying how REAL something is, the more and more people stop and question its validity.

If they (C.L.) have allowed the debate to focus on whether the Christ story is REAL or not, they are bumbling (at the moment). Religion is mostly built upon NOT thinking too hard about whether it is real. Great that the Catholic League spends THEIR money on billboards focusing on whether Christ is REAL!

Heartfelt THANK YOU to American Atheists for doing a GREAT job.

Many, many people KNOW these are myths but don’t know they can really admit it, even to themselves (I was that way for decades).

@Robert W
I don’t think a lot of atheist will be offended by the catholic add. It has a high entertainment value.

Then to dodge that offense and try and claim that the real message was directed at closet atheists is ridiculous. That could have easily been done with a sign that didn’t attack those that believe.

Untill now ALL atheists signs were reason for some theist to feel offended. Even the most neutral once have been vandalized.
Would you consider the possibility that a lot of theists might be a little bit to eager to FEEL offended?

I would say that characteristic is more prevalent among atheists such as those that get “offended” by the pledge, slogans on money, nativity scenes, banners in schools, moments of silence etc. all because they are personally “offended” by what they perceive to be violations of church and state

I consider pushing the mention of a god into the pledge and on the money a lot more aggressive than putting up an add. Just switch god for allah, than you know what I mean.

Nativity scenes where everybody has the same right to display, I don’t see anyone complaining but the chistians.

Banners in schools.. if everybody gets the same rights, it’s the christians that feel their rights are being taken away. Just switch a christian banner for a hindu banner, then you know what I mean.

Moments of silence.. again, no atheist feels offended. Or do you mean ‘Moments of prayer’? Just switch a christian prayer for a satanic prayer, then you know what I mean.

The problem is that the concept of equal rights seems so offensive to theists. Where for an atheist it is only natural.

@Robert W
Offended like in ‘fighting for equal rights’?
Or offended like in ‘fighting for privileges’?

Robert W
You mean, “offended to see government time and tax money being misused to favour one religion.”
And to you that is equal to “offended that atheist put up adds”?

Heironymous,

I get it.

The government isn’t supposed to advocate a religion. That’s what ACLU lawsuits to keep prayer out of school, to get God out of the pledge of allegiance and to keep the ten commandments off public courtyards are all about.

Don’t disagree with that , however the lawsuits all start with an atheist who was offended and thus they claim standing to being the suit.

Merry Christ Christmas Christ! 🙂