You Won’t Like This ‘God Is a Myth’ Billboard

Just because you’re an atheist doesn’t mean you’re rational.

Good to know we have the Raelians to make that point for us with their new Las Vegas billboard:

You almost want to agree with them… until you notice the UFO in the sign and read the press release:

… there is no God or Devil. There’s no need to live in fear. We should enjoy our precious lives to the fullest while of course giving love all around us. Surely that’s a message even Christians recognize as one that Jesus taught. But, whether the source is the Bible, the Koran, or Greek or Roman mythology, all gods are myths, just as there’s no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny etc. What there are, however, are human beings who were advanced scientists who created all forms of life, known as the Elohim. You can read about them in the oldest versions of the Bible, and the oldest versions are always the less polluted versions.”

That look on your face is the one you get when you go from nodding in agreement to thinking What. The. Fuck. Just. Happened.

The Raelians believe the Elohim — a species of extraterrestrials — created life on earth.

They believe this because… well… they’re crazy. (Scientology almost seems respectable in comparison.)

This is the same group, if you recall, that claimed to have cloned a human being in 2002.

Here. You know you want to learn more about them:

God, I really hope nobody mistakes their billboards for one of ours…

(via Pharyngula)

"This picture almost makes me believe in demon possession. They look so fucking creepy."

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Robin

These cats watched “Flight of the Navigator” FAR to many times…. Great movie, but I am 99.99999999999999% sure it was not a “message.”
Robin

Crap, if you highlight their URL and post it on Facebook to share, they are labeling themselves as “Intelligent Design for Atheists.” I am sooo deeply offended I could cry right now. http://www.rael.org/home
Danielle

Wow, those guys are NUTS.

Seriously, why is that life can evolve on other planets but it can’t here and we have to be “brought here” by others? Rhetorical question.

Humanity is so stupid sometimes. D:
BrianE

This has to be a joke, right? How do you dismiss all gods as myths, and in the same breath speak about another mythical entity? That’s like Hitler criticizing the KKK for being intolerant.
AJ

Subscribing to the theory that life on earth came from other planets just postpones the god question, it doesn’t answer it. Let’s ask the Raelians who/what created their advanced extraterrestrials.
miller

I won’t like it? But it’s so amusing! I’m very interested to see how people react to it. Will people give Raelians the same BS as they give atheists, or something different? Or will they ignore it completely?
elricthemad

There is a bit about them in the deleted scenes of Bill Maher’s film, Religulous. That was my first exposure to this group. If the local school board ever wanted to teach creationism or I.D. in schools i might advocate the Raelian view should be taught also as well every other crazed theory.
JohnJay

I thought it was the Vorlons and the Shadows, not the Raelians.
Anonymous

Raelians’ approach to the flirty fishing technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRmlMrs-AV8
Digitus Impudicus

I think they are nuts, but it makes slightly more sense than most religions. Aliens might exist. 🙂
Larry Meredith

well if they cloned a human being, it’s got to be true.
Richard Wade

This is why whenever you are explaining atheism to someone, it’s very important to always begin by carefully explaining skepticism, the need for acceptable evidence before belief in any claim. Whether you’re building a structure, an argument, or a lesson, always begin with the foundation.
Michelle

It seems the French can start some really wacky stuff too.
Kristi

There is a lot of lore pertaining to the Sumerian civilization and their encounter with the Annunaki, however I believe these guys are taking that lore way too serious. And to use the atheist label is just outright insulting.
Alex

Wow – all that technology and they still can’t bridge the uncanny valley.
Sea-Bear

Calling them crazy gives people with mental disorders a bad name (but that’s a discussion for another blog). They’re just incredibly gullible fools who can’t see that they’re just replacing one woo for another. They might be atheists, but they’re far from being skeptics.
JB Tait

We are a middle school Science Fair project someone forgot to flush.
JD

No, Scientologists are worse, Raelians are are benign compared to the hostility of Scientologists.

They had a press release and PR session several years back having claimed to have the birth of the first human clone. The PR rep claimed that they’ll be presented in due time, and offer opportunities to perform DNA tests. I haven’t heard from them until seeing this billboard.
clementw

I have a hard time calling them “Atheist” when all it looks like they did was search/replace GOD with Space-alien.
Michael D

@AJ To if you go to their site like i just did they believe in an unbroken chain of aliens seeding and creating life apparently….
Scott

Unfortunately, this is the future of atheism.

Today, atheists tend to be skeptical thinkers — from the right end of the bell curve, as it were. As atheism becomes more mainstream, humans in general don’t get any smarter — we’ll be dipping deeper and deeper into that huge pool of people who consider Oprah a deep thinker.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that those of us who’ve chosen to focus on religion as a major source of irrationality will have won, and we’ll either choose to rest on our laurels or to change our efforts to focus on other sorts of nonsense.
Richard P.

I think you all are being way to judgmental about this. It is important to teach the controversy.

I think they deserve as much respect as the christians and should be allowed equal time.

They got a book, you know, and “the extraordinary Message” that comes from beyond the stars.

Who can beat that?
Richard P.

Oh and they have happiness academies. Christians don’t have them. They have pictures. You go in fat and grumpy, come out skinny and smiling. It’s amazing, you wouldn’t know they were the same people.

Mock all you like, but they have happiness academies.
Jeff P

That alien looked an awful lot like Michael Jackson.
cat

I love how the Elohim dude in the video looks like a front man of a 90s rock band.

Though perhaps someone should inform them that stargate is a work of fiction…
Richard P.

inform them that stargate is a work of fiction…

stargate fiction.. Are you sure?
Ham Nox

That Eloha looks like Jesus 🙂

This is certainly an interesting spin on the Intelligent Design argument, I’ll grant them that. I could totally see ~US~ doing something like this in the distant future, and that lends the idea some great intuitive appeal.

But just because it is a conceivable course of events doesn’t mean that’s what happened in our particular instance. Conjunction fallacy and representativeness heuristic make it look a lot more probable than it really is–the combined probability of ALL these events happening as specified, especially when taking into account all the poor design out there, is lower than those subjective feelings that come from the story being coherent and followable.

And the great thing is that with this theory, we actually KNOW that it is poor design: a completely alien-minded creator might have a totally different way of determining good designs from bad ones, but if we are based off of the Elohim then our ideas of good design would be just about the same and we should easily notice the same types of super-obvious deficiencies. (Like that wacky nerve that doubles back through a Giraffe’s neck, for instance. I can’t know what the dudes were thinking.. or drinking maybe. Drunk Designing sure sounds like something one of the Greek Gods would do, and there’s a surprisingly popular following for that theory right now. (Yes, I know it’s a satire. But Poe’s Law is in full force, and sometimes it’s hard to tell who is serious about being serious about being serious and who is only pretending to be serious about being serious about being serious @_@)

Edit: Just noticed the comment about Michael Jackson. I’d say he’s about halfway between MJ and Jesus, and ALL creepy.
Justin Miyundees

Finally! Something that makes SENSE!!

Well – it makes as much sense……
Dan W

Well, their beliefs involving aliens are wacky, but other than that they seem pretty harmless. From reading the Wikipedia article, they seem to hold pretty intelligent views on everything but the aliens stuff. This group just shows that not all atheists are skeptics.
cbc

I just have to say that I laughed out loud because you *exactly* pegged the look on my face while reading. Fantastic writing as always, Hemant.
Non-Litigious Atheist

Unfortunately, this is the future of atheism.

As atheism becomes more mainstream, humans in general don’t get any smarter — we’ll be dipping deeper and deeper into that huge pool of people who consider Oprah a deep thinker.

Bingo! This is exactly why mass marketing atheism with superficial sound bite slogans is utterly pointless. If you aim for the lowest common denominator, that’s exactly what you end up with. Garbage in, garbage out.

Come to think of it: I wonder if any Raelians have attended regional atheist organizations due to the popular coalition of reason billboards.

Only those capable of thinking about why they believe what they believe – what reasons they have to believe – are worth trying to reach. The rest are already unreachable.
Ryan

I feel proud of myself for making it through the whole video without laughing out loud. The ideas are funny on their own, but to me they completely destroy any scraps of potential credibility with the video production style.
Justin

Isn’t Elohim the word for God in the Hebrew Bible? L0L
denz

damn, jesus + mj combined = et that created us…genius, just genius

hmmm..wonder why only mj looked like mj?….LOL
denz

why wouldn’t the alien just broadcast the message themselves?..why should they still need a certain person?..If they have the technology, wouldn’t it be easier to just show themselves to public and say, “Here we are, your creators. Worship us.” or something?…and most importantly why would anyone believe this crap?….why?..why?..why?!!