This Atheist Billboard *Might* Be Offensive March 6, 2011

This Atheist Billboard *Might* Be Offensive

By Guest Contributor
March 6, 2011

After hearing that some of the British billboards urging people to mark “no religion” on the Census were censored, Crispian Jago came up with his own ad mockup that might actually warrant that treatment…

Catchy slogan, though!

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  • Jim

    Anyone know who that quote is from?

  • Beck

    I want this on a t-shirt!

  • Potco

    I agree with Beck.

  • Okay

    Isn’t the final statement a straw man though?

  • Michelle

    See, submit this one first then the other ones.

  • captsam

    the truth often offends someone.

  • Kevin S.

    Chances somebody erases the disclaimer at the bottom and then circulates it to show how “they” are trying to attack religion?

  • Stuart

    @Jim The quote is from Baron d’Holbach

  • Jane Smith

    Since we’re talking about posters, I thought some of you might be interested in a poster that offended me this weekend.

    I went to Hobby-X in Johannesburg (I live in South Africa), which covers everything from Meccano to embroidery to cooking to model trains. Among the many attendees were Muslim groups, with the women fully veiled, and I noticed that one of the food kiosks specifically said “Halal”. Fair enough, but then I spotted a big notice that said “Prayer Room”. I asked one of the organisers why and was told that the exhibition began on Thursday for traders, and then was open to the public from Friday until Sunday, and the room was put aside for “Muslims attending the show”.

    Well, while we’re at it, why not have a room prominently marked “church”? (After all, a lot of people were there on a Sunday, and I’ll bet a number of them were practising Christians.)

    I’m sick and tired of the adherents of Islam shouting their piety at me – perhaps it’s time for me to order an atheist t-shirt and, in effect, shout back.

  • Claudia

    Given the issue on the previous thread I’m going to go ahead and write the description ahead of time.

    A sign based on the previous model for the census shows a portrait of Baron D’Holbach on the right. He is facing a paraphrased quote of his that reads:

    If we go back to the beginning, we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them and that custom, respect, tyranny and badly wordes census questions support them in order to make the blindness of men serve their own interests.

    Under that in much larger letters with the color and font of the usual atheist ads (pink orange and red) it says:

    Magic Sky Fairy
    MY ARSE

    Under that is says census-campaign.org.uk and at the very bottom it says in smaller letters:

    This is NOT a BHA approved Census Campaign Poster

  • He he. I may have to print this out and put it in my window at home.

  • mkb

    Jane Smith, Why does the prayer room offend you? They don’t have it to shout their piety at you, they do it so that they can live in accordance with their beliefs. I think that it is nice that the Hobby-X was able to accomodate them. I hope that your needs are also met with kindness by strangers. It’s not a zero sum world.

  • Jane Smith

    mkb:

    I shall be contacting Hobby-X’s organisers and putting in my complaint.

    I shall point out that the prayer room was located inside a secular location that non-Muslims had paid to enter so my entrance fee helped to subsidise somebody else’s set of beliefs. (Never mind, for the moment, the anti-feminist content of those beliefs.)

    If you’re still inclined to continue with the little pep talk on needy strangers, I suggest you go to Richard Dawkins’s site and find out what’s happening on Britain’s university campuses in the first part of the 21st century.

    It’s not pretty, and should be a salutory warning to all of us.

  • Thanks for sharing Hemant, always appreciated.

    Crispian