advertising atheism on the sides of buses...good idea?

[Eilonnwy]

One problem with atheism is that it's a minority that is easily bashed and looked over because we don't have a voice. These bus ads are creating a voice. The point is to be visible, to let people know they can't trample on our rights just because they think we are too small to do anything about it.

In America there is a seperation of church and state that is demolished every day we have "In god we trust" on our money, "under god" in our pledge and many other blatant violations. This has been allowed to be permitted because we weren't vocal enough. You can't do anything against the Jewish people without Anti-Defamation League striking against you. I'm sure there are a lot of people that don't like Jews, think they're going to hell, they should just shut up, they're annoying, they don't have standing in a 'Christian' nation (I'm not one of them) but you would never hear them say it without serious retribution. Whenever someone says "Judeo-Christian" they really mean Christian they're just giving a nod to the Jews. And the Jews have a much smaller demographic than the atheists, but they make sure they are represented and their rights aren't trampled on.

Atheists don't have that, we're easy fodder because we sit down and take it. The bus ads are just one of the many steps we need to take in being more visible, more vocal. It's not about getting people to like us, it's about getting people to realize they can't trample over our rights, that their notions of a "Christian" nation is false. The FFRF has been starting many lawsuits to challenge these notions in many ways, most recently the new Newdow lawsuit concerning the Inauguration. While I may not agree with some of their actions completely, I realize the sentiment behind it and I support that.

A year or two ago there was a CNN segment on "Why atheists are hated so much" and they didn't even have the courtesy to invite an atheist to the discussion. We need to let people know that shit doesn't fly, that we need to be brought to the discussion table and not have our rights and the constitution trampled on just because the majority of people believe some ancient guy rose from the dead to forgive sins.

While I agree the bus campaign isn't going to change everyone's mind, the goal is the media attention whether negative or positive. It makes atheism more visible. No, don't get me wrong, I 100% support promoting positive atheism. I think there's a worthy goal in trying to help people understand we're not some evil and immoral people, that we support you're right to believe we just don't agree. But when people are actively trying to demolish the scientific method, force schools to poison our mind with religion, make people feel unpatriotic unamerican because they don't show reverence to their god, take away a woman's right to choose, prevent the gay community from enjoying the same rights as the straight, then you know what? Sometimes you do have to get down and dirty and hurt peoples feelings. The fact that we even exist is an anathema to the religious. We stomp on their beliefs and say they are fairy tales, and we can try to say it in the nicest way possibly, we are still insulting to their entire belief system. We can't keep trying to dance around with kids gloves just because some people may be offended and take a negative view of us, that's going to happen no matter what!