PHOENIX (AP) — Billboards touting freedom from religion and separation of church and state are going up around the downtown Phoenix area.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., paid advertising company CBS Outdoor to put up five signs around Phoenix that read Imagine No Religion. Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of Freedom From Religion, said the billboards will be in place for a month.
The group of atheists or agnostics promotes free thought and the separation of church and state. They have sponsored similar billboard campaigns in other U.S. cities and so far, Gaylor said, there has been little opposition. She doesn't anticipate any protest in Phoenix.
Religious leaders say they are seeing an increase in atheist activism.
"I don't have a problem with people expressing their points of view in public," said the Rev. Bob Mitchell, senior pastor at Central United Methodist Church of Phoenix.
"I would prefer that there was serious tolerant dialogue that might emerge from this publicity campaign because it is much needed."
State Sen. Linda Gray, a Glendale Republican, said the signs will offend those who believe in God.
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"...So Atheism, like all other false religions is a crutch. It is an opiate to calm the fear of judgment and shut the mouth of a guilty conscience. It is a lie desperately clung to by sinful minds in order to escape reality...."
Do Atheists Exist?
http://polemos.net/Do%20Atheists%20Exist.html
I may live in upper SC but I'm a Golden Gopher fan. It's the best named team in the college league. After all, most of the time they set foot on the field they get run in the ground!!!
DP, and probably a lot of them are smarting after the beating the Crimson Tide put on them last weekend, but don't feel bad since even the real Orange got upset by UCLA in overtime. Oh well it's still early in the season! :)
"nobody dared question the pope for fear of being called a heretic"
Sounds like what happened to that doctor in CA who didn't want to perform that service for those lesbians and ended up getting fined in court. DON'T QUESTION THE RIGHTS OF GAYS! YOU'LL BE BRANDED A SOCIAL HERITIC!!!
A clear and present danger to the rights of ALL Americans.
"watch football on sundays as some form of religion, but then that sort of definition is quite useless."
Maybe you don't know some of the football fans I do!!! Talk about fanatics....
vacuum-
1. a space entirely devoid of matter.
2. an enclosed space from which matter, esp. air, has been partially removed so that the matter or gas remaining in the space exerts less pressure than the atmosphere (opposed to plenum).
3. the state or degree of exhaustion in such an enclosed space.
4. a space not filled or occupied; emptiness; void: The loss left a vacuum in his heart.
Both atmosphere and vacuum are a state of physical atmospheric condition. In the same sense, athiesm is the absence of religion. Both are a state of beliefs concerning God.
Athiesm is void of God in the same sense of vacuum is void of matter. A belief concerning the existance of God which is void of God is still a religion none the less.
mike,
My point exactly. People were following a Pope, not God. Look at the atrocities committed by governments themselves...WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Korea....I see the government does no better than a pope. What we need is God.
to prophet
during the middle ages, the pope though he was doing god's work. result millions of people dead. and nobody dared question the pope for fear of being called a heretic - result inquisition. that is why church & state should be separate. and you can find that in the book of daniel
christians, televangelist & pastors are saying that there should be prayer in schools & the 10 commandments should be posted in gov't buildings, & christian judges should be elected in the supreme court. that is church uniting with the state.
mathetes,
Yes but this techincally only revolves around 1st amendment rights, and the case was on the premise of if inmates should be able to form a group of non-believers, just as groups already form for believers.
To equate it as a true religion would mean they also believe in all the things normally associate with religions: the supernatural, afterlife, sacred shines and the like. and this is something no belivers don't take into account for their view, it simply isn't part of it. All the main things that make regligion religious are absent, so a strict 1=1 equation isn't correct.
The court is saying inmates can form groups for such a reason, utter belief in the supernatural shouldn't be pre-requisite. and why shouldn't they be protected for the formation of a group, regardless if they believe, don't believe, or are followers of something else, like say football?
The idea behind the 1st ammendment here is that they should't be barred from forming a group, and this was denied of them, so of course its not correct.
agent,
Al talks a good game and I can see where he is coming from. If I were talking to someone over a cup of coffee, I would go with it. When we get technical, which is where this most often leads, then we have to look at the legal definition. As shown before on these forums, the courts have ruled consistently over the last 20 years: atheism is considered a religion.
Perhaps someone should make a video response and post it to Al's video.
Greetings DP,
Non believers (atheist, agnostics) isn't really adequately described as being a religion, for the simple reasons that its followers don't prescribe to many of the things that make religion what they really are. It would be like calling a group of peple who watch football on sundays as some form of religion, but then that sort of definition is quite useless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e18O7fML1Yg
"UNION of church & state is wrong & it is biblical! "
I went back quite a ways and I can't find the post your are responding to. Please elaberate. :)
I noticed in the Old Testament that things started going wrong for Israel when they insisted that they wanted a human king, instead of making God their King. I think there's something to learn from that.
UNION of church & state is wrong & it is biblical!
I agree with Prophet and Daniel Paul
John 14:6 Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
MEANWHILE, have American atheists manage to see their cousins the Chinese atheists behave during recent sporting events towards freedom of expression, and free thought from missionaries and protesters ?
Nothing but atheistic hypocrisy and atheistic dishonesty