"For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible."
Twice in the last week I have heard about atheists. First, in a USA Today article ( http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-10-19-atheism-belief_N.htm ) and then in a WESH TV News report about an atheist billboard that has gone up in Lakeland .
( http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/02/021442/atheist-group-takes-message-lakeland-billboard/news-breaking/ )
The interesting thing is that apparently, recent attempts by atheists to claim that people who believe in God are just plain nuts, hasn’t done much to increase their numbers. I guess no one likes an arrogant, hard-nosed God hater. Instead, Atheists are taking a new track, pushed in part by author Bruce Sheiman. It’s a tactic meant to put a happier face on the non-God crowd. What they are telling their folks is not to criticize those who believe in God, but they want everyone to just get along. Isn’t that nice? I guess the new atheists have found that people don’t respond well when their religious beliefs are attacked as phony. Gone are the days when public religious expressions are mocked by the anti-God people — they now will speak of what unifies people of all faiths (you need a strong faith to believe that everything was created from sheer dumb luck).
Yes, it is a public relations move. Should be interesting…
well the God hater is still out there, seeing some of these polls on the net, (do you believe in God), some of the responses people give are flat out ugly and untrue.
ReplyDeleteHere is a new one that I heard just recently. People who believe in a higher power may have a genetic defect that makes them predestined to believe in a higher power. So now it seems we are to be pitied as well. I believe that God calls us first, before we call out to him, so I am not offended too much. The word defect tends to grind a little. What hurts worse is listening to Christians argue for God, while name calling and insulting and sounding just as hateful.
ReplyDeleteIf we "don't respond well when [our] religious beliefs are attacked as phony" then we should be careful with our attitude towards non-believers. Too often we are guilty of the same tactics.
ReplyDelete"No one likes an arrogant, hard-nosed God hater." Well, no one likes arrogant, hard-nosed God pushers either.
While it didn't anger me to see the Atheist billboard, I did feel sad at the level of intensity that this group is "raising" themselves and their message to. Call me over-dramatic, but I hear their cry of desperation rising up to the heavens - "Where are you God!!!"
ReplyDeleteWE have the responsibility to show the world the tangible, real love of God and to give them power encounters with Him to show them that He is alive and cares about every facet of their lives. We are not here to tear them down or to compromise to "keep the peace", but to lift them up in prayer and encourage them into Truth - the Life that He has always desired for them.
The world doesn't see Him yet, but they will. In us, they will.
Church... we have so much work to do.
...I...have so much work to do.
The billboard is visible from the street, not from the heavens. If there is a call (and there is), then it is not to an invisible sky daddy, but simply to other atheists.
ReplyDeleteShowing some consideration for other people is not "a strategy," nor should it be. It's merely being a good neighbor.
By the way, not believing in any gods is no more "anti-God" than not believing in leprechauns is "anti-Lucky the Leprechaun." Pastor Greg take note.
ReplyDeleteTo continue...
ReplyDelete"Nonreligious community increasingly split by provocative tactics"
Even as the visibility of the nonreligious has risen dramatically in the past several years, what's also becoming more visible is the debate within the community about whether such aggressive tactics and hard-line anti-religion stances are the most effective.
Some go so far as to say, that religion has its good points.
Atheist, Greg Epstein, has written a new book, "Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe,” acknowledges that "religion provides humans with good things: congregation, community, an organized way to pursue that which is meaningful in life."
Phil Zuckerman, associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., said people are beginning to see that the nonreligious community is just as diverse as the religious community. Both the moderate and hard-line voices are "being more vocal and out," he says. He also thinks religion can serve some good.
And he's not a fan of an increasingly prevalent tactic used by atheists groups to get their viewpoint across.
For instance, some among the nonreligious "find billboards are wonderful tools to change minds," Zuckerman said. "Others are ashamed of them."
The debate over tactics played out recently among Seattle Atheists, But this time around, most members wanted a stronger, more strident message, said president Paul Case.
Hence their newer ads will feature such quotes as: "Religions are all alike founded upon fables and mythologies."
Gaylor says her foundation's members are for the strong stance taken by the group.
"Our members don't think religion is a good thing overall it's more bad than good," she said. "And they feel they shouldn't be stifled in saying that. ... We need to be everywhere, just like religion, (or else) we let religion win by default."
(c) 2009, The Seattle Times.
Visit The Seattle Times Extra on the World Wide Web at http://www.seattletimes.com/
I'm not sure how someone can say on one hand they do not believe in something, and at the same time say they are not "anti-God?" Sounds like they want to keep their options open, just in case! Noted.
ReplyDeleteGreat article, check it out!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html
"Showing some consideration for other people is not "a strategy," nor should it be. It's merely being a good neighbor."
ReplyDeleteI couldn't have said it any better, Rob! Thank you.
I think many Christians have placed so much emphasis on getting the message of Christ out to people instead of being the message of Christ, if that makes sense? Please don't misunderstand, as a Christian, it is one of my core beliefs to go out and preach the gospel to all. (That's the duty or obligation part - kind of like my part of the contract in being a believer of Christ.) And, if I believe that Jesus is God and the only way to my SkyDaddy (You are too funny! He and I laughed about that one!) then I wouldn't really love others if I didn't share Him and try to lead others to Him. (That's the caring, loving part -my response to the love that was shown to me.) But that's not what I was referring to in my previous post. The work that I was referring to was not so much an outer plan to take over the world, but an encouragement to Christians to allow God to sort of hijack us so that His character and power could be seen through us. I was talking of hypocrisy in the church - trying to push a message that we are not ourselves living. Specifically, I was talking of the need for love to be seen from us in all that we do.
When I spend time with some of my Atheist or Agnostic friends, we have talked at length about pushy, hypocritical Christians, Atheists, and Agnostics. We are in agreement about this - we don't really enjoy their company and find that we are extremely put off by their message. We also have come to agreement on this - Jesus Christ, proven through historical documents, did exist and was (and I'll add - is) the real deal. He was love. Wherever He went, whoever wanted to engage in His presence , He demonstrated love. Out of His core being of love - He was, and then He did - love. We agree that Christians are supposed to BE Christ-like, that is to speak, act and be like Jesus, who was the ultimate Good Neighbor. (Hey Greg, remember that talk that you gave us years ago about "be"... :))
Which brings me back to my previous post, where I was encouraging Christians to not deny who we really are in Christ Jesus. Love. To encourage others to love as He did. It should look powerful in display. The world has had enough of the message in mere words.
The message of the Kingdom of God without love = strategy. But real Love cannot be refuted.
Now if you really want to speak of strategy, Rob, I've got to tell you, you're thinking... is kind of small.
ReplyDelete(The billboard is visible from the street, not from the heavens. If there is a call (and there is), then it is not to an invisible sky daddy, but simply to other atheists.)
If I were going to spend a couple of Gs a month to reach my target audience, I would certainly want to have my message visible from the heavens:
(It is well known that aircraft passengers represent a lucrative market and the provision of advertising to aircraft passengers in aircraft terminals is a well established business which enjoys a large turnover. Normally such display advertising takes the form of large vertical billboards positioned on the walls of the interior of the airport terminal. However, this advertising is restricted to the land-side. As a consequence, this advertising is only able to be seen by the aircraft passengers prior to embarkation and after disembarkation and is unable to be seen during flight.
US Patent No. 5,815,966 (Vestevich ) discloses a portable rooftop sign to be disposed in a horizontal position on the roof of a multi-story building. It is stated in this citation that the building is preferably within five miles of an airport. In this way, passengers on aircraft approaching or departing from an airport about five miles away can view the rooftop sign.)
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP1325488.html
Well, that's a start, but lets think even bigger for more people. For that, we need to get creative.
I work at a company where we build 3-D computer model cities, contracted from people all over the world. We use images from airplanes (Pictometry http://www.pictometry.com/home/home.shtml) and our own software to construct 3-D buildings (something like Google Earth) but when the images from the pictures are applied, the buildings look very much like the real thing. When we see billboards in our images, we also model those in 3-D and the billboard messages are displayed on them as well. Our models have been used in television programs and the internet for various projects. So who knows how many other people might see your message now. That would be extra advertising without charge to you. Can't get any better than that!
Or how about this?
Many of the world's top thinkers are using satellite technology to spy (...umm carefully observe) all kinds of activities going on in other countries. How many could you reach through your billboard image? Who knows. But even if only one of them catches a glimpse of your billboard and feels less lonely in this great big world, you've done your part, right. Again, bonus advertising!
Speaking of creative technology, this was a cool idea:
ReplyDelete(Then, the two men bowing to him, Mr. Smith passes into the next hall, an enormous gallery upward of 3200 feet long, devoted to atmospheric advertising. Everyone has noticed those enormous advertisements reflected from the clouds, so large they may be seen by the populations of whole cities or even entire countries. This, too, is one of Mr. Fritz Napoleon Smith's ideas, and in the Earth Chronicle building a thousand projectors are constantly engaged in displaying on the clouds these mammoth advertisements. From In the Year 2889, by Jules Verne.
Published by Unknown in 1889) http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=755
Jules was definitely ahead of his time.
("Objects placed in orbit, if large enough, could be seen by people around the world for long periods of time," the FAA said in a regulatory filing.)
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=392
You're too late though. The new law prohibits big ol billboards from floating in space. Darn!
("In 1993, faced with the Space Billboard project, U.S. Congressman Ed Markey introduced a bill that banned all U.S. advertising in space. This was amended by Section 70102 of title 49 of the United States Code to only cover obtrusive advertising, thus allowing sponsorship deals where the logo is placed on the rocket or an astronaut's clothing.[10] Since May 2005 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been in charge of enforcing this law.[11])" ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_advertising)
But that's not going to stop us. Oh no. We have a strategy! Lets use our brains....
(Pizza Hut marketers initially considered using lasers to burn a billboard into the surface of the Moon, but were advised by astronomers and physicists that the image would have to be the size of Texas to be visible from Earth.[8] )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_advertising
Didn't I hear that we were going to take a trip back to the moon soon? Something to think about, huh?
Out of my highest respect to my Atheist and Agnostic friends, the ones who believe in the existence of aliens - this one's for you. :) It is widely accepted that aliens have far superior knowledge and technological capabilities than we do. (I'm sure they have better grammar too!) So it would be reasonable to conclude that if we had a large enough billboard to attract the attention of other life forms, but not too huge that we get fined from the FAA or sued by Environmentalists for cluttering the landscape that we could reach the masses in other galaxies as well...
Now that Rob, is a plan. You just needed to expand your vision. Think big, my friend. Think big.
(Just so you know, Rob, I'm just goofing around. Sometimes it's hard to "read" people in print and I don't want you to think that I was attacking you or anything. I don't know if I've already met you or not... but I'm sure I'd like you. :) )