It's a phenomenon that began last year in Britain on 800 buses across the country. They've since appeared on trams and buses in cities in Spain, Canada, Italy, Australia, the United States and elsewhere. They have appeared on billboards all over the US; in Philadelphia, PA, Bloomington, IN, Tampa, FL, etc., and now they will be appearing in New York city subway stations. What are they? They're atheist advertisements. 12 subway stations will feature a poster that reads, "A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?" as well as the web address of the Big Apple Coalition of Reason, an umbrella organization for a number of New York freethinker groups. The campaign is being paid for with $25,000 from an anonymous donor.The figure of a million New Yorkers is derived from the recent American Religious Identification Survey, which showed that religious "nones" (those who identify with no religion) have risen from 8% of the American population in 1990, to 15% as of 2008. Using that figure of 15% to calculate with, that means that well over a million of NYC's population of 8.3 million would be "nones".
The twelve subway stations where the ads will appear are 14th Street-Sixth Avenue, 14th Street-Seventh Avenue, 14th Street-Eighth Avenue, 23rd Street-Eighth Avenue, Pennsylvania Station (3 ads), 86th Street-Lexington Avenue, 96th Street-Lexington Avenue, 46th Street-Sixth Avenue/Bryant Park, 66th Street-Broadway/Lincoln Center, 72nd Street-Central Park West, 86th Street-Central Park West and West Fourth Street.
Photo Credit:
1) Poster courtesy of Big Apple Coalition of Reason
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Comments
We need to pray for these people.
Youre right Jim. Unfortunately, we live in a world that finds it acceptable to allow ads like this under the guise of free speach, although reject the theories of free speach when it comes to mentioning GOD. Really sad.
I pray daily for the conversion of unbelievers; God can work miracles; with Him, anything is possible. How sad to not have Jesus and Mary in their lives. . .they think $$ and fame are the keys to good life.
Lord have mercy Christ have mercy Lord have mercy
I have a question for atheists...so we humans are just animals? No soul, no afterlife...just 'dead'? What a boring life....absolutely boring. No magic, no everlasting love, no awe of this beautiful earth, no knowing that there is a God who loves us very dearly, who blessed us with the two things that seperate us from the animals; intellect and free will. I will pray for these empty souless people.
Ellen, I will let Richard Dawkins, author of many books on biology, evolution and atheism, comment on your question. This is from one called "Unweaving the Rainbow."
"After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn't it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked -as I am surprisingly often- why I bother to get up in the mornings. To put it the other way round, isn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be a part of it."
Does he sound bored, empty or souless?
For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world...
Every one needs God in their LIFE without Him we are nothing. Everyone knows nothing is not good. Yes lets all pray for these people that they may see to light of the Lord!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually these atheist ads have generally have been much more polite in their content than Christian ads over the years. www.dangeroustalk.net/billboard-wars.html
And we don't reject free speech when it comes to mentioning your god, but the First Amendment of the Constitution is meant to keep the government out of the business of religion, and to ensure that, religion is supposed to keep out of the business of government.
I feel a tremble in my spirit to know that a million souls are lost to the world and the things of the world -- how their parents must suffer as their Father in heaven suffers -- yet we know that many will never make it back home and the only damned are those who reject God. Yes, all we can do is pray that the number does not increase and for those who claimed to be atheist because they were never taught about the Jesus who suffer and died for them. Well, even now these souls can be saved if only they just open their hearts just a little and let the Lord in for God mercy is never ending.
I agree with all my fellow Christians who have posted that life would be meaningless without God. There is no way to be good without God. Period. If there was no God above, always watching me and going to judge me some day, there is no way that I would resist my daily urges to steal, rape, and do nasty unspeakable things with children. My faith in Our Lord helps minimize the number of times that I fall of the wagon. Because He keeps watching me, always watching me. I can pray more for strength. Atheists would have noone to pray to.
I know that those damn Atheists will point out the statistics which, I admit, clearly show that the percentage of nonbelievers who end up being convicted criminals in the USA is way lower than the percentage of Christians who end up as convicted criminals. But those are violations of man-made laws. What counts most are God's laws. No matter what sins we do to others on Earth, if we accept Jesus as our personal savior in the end, then Heaven is ours.
So much for atheism being nothing more than absence of belief. It's getting organised much like a religion.
Though I support free speech, I think whoever is behind this --"the anonymous donor"-- is really just another kind of minister/fraud. This makes atheism a religion, and worse, a proselytizing one, something that genuine freethinkers do not do. So it makes atheism repulsive, just another group that wants allegiance in some great culture war against others...
@Newton Tang: Why is it that anytime nonbelievers publicly express their beliefs they get accused of being a religion, being militant (not a term you used, but many often do), etc?
Whether we like it or not, there is indeed a culture war: reason/intellect vs. superstitions/dogma/religion.
Religious believers often see nothing wrong with having their view be extremely well organized/funded/promoted (e.g., Mormons/Christians supporting anti-gay discrimination re: Proposition 8 in California). But if freethinkers/nonbelievers express their alternate views, then they get accused of being too much like a religion (subtext: "get back in the closet you atheists").
Interestingly, these attacks against free self-expression by freethinkers/nonbelievers come from not only religious believers, but sometimes also from fellow freethinkers/nonbelievers (subtext: "I'm still in the closet about my nonbelief, so you should be too").
Personally, I applaud the donor for the positive public m
So what some of you commenters are saying is that Christians can be as rude as you want in your ads, but us atheist shouldn't be allowed to say anything at all? Well I'm certainly glad that our founding fathers had more foresight than the lot of you, to allow ALL of us the right to speak our minds no matter what we believe or don't.
You guys are certainly displaying your "Christian kindness and tolerance", that is none at all!
Hugh,
Judging from the comments I see here, it seems you have "made their day" for many readers of your post about ads on busses. They can now exercise their religious beliefs by praying for all us nonbelievers. I'm confident this will provide them much satisfaction.
I have no quarrel with satisfaction, so long as It does not interfere with my life.
Being a life-long atheist, and having enjoyed life for well over 75 years, I am happy to see the current resurgence of assertive atheism.
Sports figures looking up to the sky to give praise. What about the losing team, Ha! God only likes winners, hilarious!
You can pray all you want if that gives you satisfaction but the truth is shit happens and no amount of prayer can change that.Case in point,the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
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