Atheists Roll Out New Advertising Campaign

Campaign Slogan – In The Beginning Man Created God

This provocative twist on the Bible’s opening line was plastered on the side of 25 Chicago buses this week as part of an advertising crusade by the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign.

The ads have been cruising between downtown and the city’s North and South sides, including the No. 56 Milwaukee route, since the beginning of the week and will run through June.

“The intent of the campaign is to stimulate discussion of religion and its place in our society,” said Charlie Sitzes, a spokesman for the Indiana group who with help from the American Humanist Association has collected more than $10,000 in private donations to buy the ad space in Indiana and Illinois.

The group brought its message to Chicago after a similar campaign in Indiana – to post the slogan “You can be good without God” – was rejected by transit authorities in Bloomington and stalled by officials in South Bend, who didn’t want the ads posted in time for President Barack Obama’s speech at Notre Dame.

Indiana’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has sued the Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation on the atheist group’s behalf. Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan has denounced his own transit system, saying he does not condone government censorship.

“It would appear that where there is more opposition to the message that maybe that would be the place where we needed dialogue more,” Sitzes said, maintaining that the slogan is a simple fact.

“All non-believers believe God is a creation of man,” he said. “We used to have thousands of gods. Now we’re down to one. We’re getting closer to the true number.”

Among the guidelines for determining if an advertisement can run on the CTA is a requirement that the ad be truthful and is “not directed at inciting imminent lawless action.”

via Atheists roll out ad campaign | The Seeker.

Americans Shopping For A Different Religion

William Lobdell has followed four different religions. Now he’s an atheist.

Raised Episcopalian, the 48-year-old Orange County, Calif. man switched to a non-denominational parish and then a Presbyterian one. After going through a year of Catholic conversion classes he eventually realized that he is “a reluctant atheist.”

“I wish I believed,” said the former Los Angeles Times reporter and author of the memoir “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America – And Found Unexpected Peace.” “I’d like to believe that someone is watching over me and protecting me, but I just don’t believe that.”

He may be an extreme example, but approximately half of Americans change religions at least once in their lives, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The forum recently released a report, “The U.S. Religious Landscape: Exploring Religion in America,” based on surveys of 35,000 people.

Pew found that Catholicism has seen the sharpest decrease in membership among all religions in the U.S. About 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics, according to the survey. The Archdiocese of Chicago declined to interview for this article.

via Americans ’shopping for religion’.

Following Atheist Trend, Britons Seek De-baptism

More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded “certificates of de-baptism” from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.

The initiative launched by a group called the National Secular Society (NSS) follows atheist campaigns here and elsewhere, including a London bus poster which triggered protests by proclaiming “There’s probably no God.”

“We now produce a certificate on parchment and we have sold 1,500 units at three pounds (4.35 dollars, 3.20 euros) a pop,” said NSS president Terry Sanderson, 58.

Following atheist trend, Britons seek ‘de-baptism’

Top Christian Author Says Vatican Believes Darwin Over Jesus

The current No. 1 best-selling Christian author in the nation says the Vatican is believing Charles Darwin over Jesus in accepting evolution.

In challenging a report by Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, saying Darwin’s theory is compatible with Christianity, Ray Comfort, author of the hottest Christian book on Amazon, “You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence But You Can’t Make Him Think,” points out Jesus himself backed up the Genesis account of Creation when he said, “In the beginning God created them male and female.”

“But the Vatican has chosen to officially believe Darwin rather than Jesus,” added Comfort. “That belief reveals a shallow understanding of the claims of atheistic evolution. God gave us six senses, and the sixth one is common sense. That one doesn’t get used when it comes to Darwin’s theory. And that’s the problem – its devoted believers don’t think too deeply. That’s why I wrote the book. It shows that Darwin’s theory is a fantasy – a ridiculous and unscientific fairy tale for grownups.”

Alluding to statistics that show nearly one in four professors in U.S. colleges and universities is either atheistic or agnostic, Comfort said, “They are turning out atheists like there’s no tomorrow. Most young people don’t know that they are just embracing the theory of a man with an over-ripe imagination, who had lost his faith in God. It’s no wonder that so many young people are losing their own faith in God and turning to atheism.”

Top Christian author challenges Vatican

Atheists Seek Restraining Order Against God For The Inauguration

America’s most irritating atheist is at again. That tiresome Michael Newdow and a bunch of other anti-God types have filed suit to bar prayer and references to God at President-elect Barack Obama’s swearing-in on Jan. 20. Newdow also filed lawsuits to remove prayer from President George W. Bush’s inauguration ceremonies in 2001 and 2005, and you may also remember him as the crank who tried to get the phrase “under God” eliminated from the pledge of allegiance.

At least when he went after the pledge of allegiance in 2005 he could halfway make an argument that there is an expectation, particularly for school children, that it be recited regardless of a child’s beliefs. But the oath of office? That’s one person’s vow to make. Millions of people are not being asked to say it too (and in fact should politely keep quiet while he does it).

Named in the suit filed by Newdow, 17 other individuals and 10 groups, according to the Washington Post, are Chief Justice John Roberts, who will administer the oath; Saddleback church Pastor Rick Warren, who will give the invocation; and Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, who will give the benediction. Wow, this inaugural is shaping up to be one big religious hurly-burly. Liberals who support gay marriage are upset because of Warren will have a prominent place at the ceremony. Conservatives are upset because Obama will have a prominent place at the ceremony. And now atheists are upset that God will have a prominent place there, too. Obama wasn’t kidding when he said he’d bring everyone together.

But back to Newdow et al. If you don’t believe God exists, then why doesn’t it follow that phrases like “so help me God” have no meaning? And if that’s the case, then why does something meaningless matter? I have news for Newdow — even if he managed to bar all religious references from public life it wouldn’t matter. The Soviet Union tried that; all it did was send religious fervor underground until communism ended and it came roaring back.

Besides, what would Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts be expected to do if Obama were to defy a ruling in Newdow’s favor, snatch away the Lincoln Bible and swat him on the hand? Scott Walter, the executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, hit the nail on the head when he said in a statement:

via  Los Angeles Times.

London Advertising Campaign Says There Is No God

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Atheists ‘Evangelize’ on College Campuses

At least one Christian club or group can be found on most public college and university campuses today.

One prominent Christian campus ministry, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, has staff working on 580 U.S. college campuses alone. InterVarsity President Alec Hill calls the college campus “the strategic point where you can impact the world by connecting with students, because of who the students will become.”

It seems now that militant atheists are catching on. Atheists can now be found nearby Christians on college campuses “evangelizing” new adherents.

This new generation of atheists – typically more aggressive and outspoken than their predecessors – includes bestselling authors Richard Dawkins and also ex-Christians.

Just over the weekend, John Loftus, a former Church of Christ preacher, took his crusade to debunk evangelical Christianity to Indiana State University, where he promoted his new book, Why I Became an Atheist.

Loftus, who once taught apologetics to students at Christian universities, on Saturday appealed to the crowd to see Christianity as a false system.

He said that Christians should realize their faith is just one of many, and he cited evidence based on geography, history, philosophy and scripture to make his case that the existence of a Christian God is impossible, the Indiana Daily Student reported.

“I want them to get away from relying on inspired texts,” said Loftus, according to the paper, “and come up with their own conclusions adopted by themselves based on their own reasons and evidence.”

Loftus runs a Web site called “Debunking Christianity” which has a stated purpose of debunking Evangelical Christianity. On the blog, Loftus profiles himself as majoring under William Lane Craig, a well-known apologist, and holding a Th.M. degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

During his address at ISU, Loftus documented that his crisis of faith started after a failed love affair led to him be outcast from his Christian community, according to the student newspaper. He said that during the next 14 years he shed his faith and eventually adopted atheism.

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