November 22, 2009 – ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – Messages questioning religion are popping up across the city of Albuquerque just weeks before the biggest religious holidays in the world. The Freedom from Religion group sponsoring the billboards said they are paid through next month. Even if some find them controversial, the group said they arent about to take the billboards down. Many times religion is a crutch that doesn’t do as much good as people think it does, Freedom of Religion member Ron Herman said. We paid for the space, just like people paid for their space in newspapers advertising their services.” The colorful messages are on 10 billboards around Albuquerque. One billboard reads Imagine No Religion and Keep Religion out of Government. via atheistmedia.com –
The University of Notre Dames Tocqueville Program held its inaugural two-day conference Feb. 4-5, 2009: Freedom for, Freedom from, or Freedom of Religion: The Meanings of Religious Freedom in America. Day one of the event, Feb. 4, began with a debate between Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Fellow of Berkeley College at Yale University; Mark Lilla, Professor of Humanities, Columbia University; and Bill Galston, Senior Fellow & Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution. The following day, Feb. 5, a panel of Notre Dame faculty responded to points made during the debate. The panel included David Campbell, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science; Rick Garnett, Professor, Notre Dame Law School; John McGreevy, IA O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters; and Mark Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History. At America’s founding three different and sometimes competing visions of religion in American political life were planted in American soil:freedom of religion, for religion, and from religion. These three distinct conceptions converged at the time of the American founding in the form of the religion clauses of the First Amendment, as well as the many parallel provisions in the state constitutions. Yet Americans do not always agree on the role religion should play in American public life. Should it be excluded from the public sphere or restrictions placed upon its use in …
Video Rating: 0 / 5
50zcarsman
January 20, 2011 at 5:53 am
The end of religion’s tyranny over the minds of mankind can’t come soon enough.
normandyeurope
January 20, 2011 at 6:13 am
@Keysteeze How is this even close to destructive? You are running on perceptions.
Keysteeze
January 20, 2011 at 6:35 am
Many religious people oppose theocracy, as they should. Separating govt and religion is a wise choice. However Anti-religious sentiment, to the point of working toward it’s destruction, is just as bigoted as the censorship religious authorities imposed in the past.
EvolutionAFact
January 20, 2011 at 6:46 am
As a Server in a Family restaurant I dread going to work for the Sunday morning shift as I have to wait on people who gather in a big building together to compare clothing and have mass hallucinations. So whenever I’m running their food out to the table and they start to pray I make sure to be as intrusive upon their pointless ritual as possible calling out peoples food while they pray and slapping their food on the table 😛
urtomodachi
January 20, 2011 at 7:20 am
Wow Finally a good news, religion is poison
Karmaotic
January 20, 2011 at 7:54 am
FINALLY! wow… 269 likes and 1 disslike? nice…. VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!
Karmaotic
January 20, 2011 at 8:10 am
FINALLY!
party489
January 20, 2011 at 9:08 am
Pass this on if you agree. Mark the word gOD off of every bill that passes through your hands. Take a god bill and fold it almost in half so the crease is on the o of god then rip a tiny hole where the word god should of never been placed to begin with. Hell Sharpie it out. Sometime when I am smoking I will put the lit cig over the word god and burn it out. it makes a nice impression and if enough people deface it in this way who knows it may get taken off. THUMBS UP IF YOU AGREE PASS THIS ON!
califoniania
January 20, 2011 at 9:55 am
@elliotbonsall- Most people don’t know the Constitution aside from what their politicians bring up just like most Christians haven’t actually read the Bible. And it’s those who argue from a position of ignorance that are quickest and loudest with their opinions.
LikeALeadZeppelin
January 20, 2011 at 10:19 am
@zubestr Agreed.
JaguarEscarlata
January 20, 2011 at 10:26 am
@MisterHughes That’s what Epicurus said.
zubestr
January 20, 2011 at 10:30 am
that “praise darwin” billboard is shit its making a huge stereotype and misunderstanding about atheists, making it seem as though darwin is our god. It wasnt a very good idea to put that one up
17CTopher
January 20, 2011 at 11:12 am
“Religion is bullshit” – George Carlin.
happysplodie
January 20, 2011 at 11:15 am
@HermitintheRain I will never tell anyone, because god said so. I will resort to any number of real explanations before that becomes the case. Because it’s the right thing, because it’s what you would want done to you. Because it’s for the greater good. Because even though it hurts, you know it’s right. If I’m ever in a position where I need to say ‘god’ I haven’t done a very good job.
HermitintheRain
January 20, 2011 at 11:30 am
@happysplodie even with the worst of parents, there have been, as there will continue to be, those children, who despite their upbringing will prove to be upstanding citizens in their community and to the world. i do hope you indoctrinate your children with wisdom, truth, compassion, good manners and a hard working spirit, even when the only answer you have to give them is: because i said so, and even if, despite your own beliefs, because God said so.
HermitintheRain
January 20, 2011 at 11:33 am
@happysplodie every good parent will do everything in their power, by example and by word, to teach and prepare their children for life as an adult..yet even the best of parents, who have been excellent at doing exactly this, can ever guarantee that their child will turn out the way they hope..history is full of those who turned out completely in stark contrast to their upbringing..
HermitintheRain
January 20, 2011 at 11:52 am
those who would say that religion is for the weak and simple minded and the uneducated have only revealed that those without much education can be atheists: for they reveal their lack of knowledge of the great minds in the past and the present, who are anything but weak and uneducated..and in my line of work, i see plenty of atheists who are always looking for help in the form of goverment assistance and other welfare programs..ignorance is not biased to only those of faith.
HermitintheRain
January 20, 2011 at 11:54 am
@HermitintheRain does atheism allow room for people of faith? where nations have made atheism the state view (i.e., china and USSR and cuba), people of faith have suffered..where religion has been the state rule (i.e., iran and saudi arabia)..people outside that particular faith have suffered..i have lived on both sides of this issue..hypocrisy and intolerance is to be found on both sides.
HermitintheRain
January 20, 2011 at 11:56 am
@HermitintheRain the true test of freedom of speech is not in giving room for such speech as is agreeable; but is rather proven by giving room to that speach objectionable..for neither atheist nor christian will be safe where freedom of speech is curbed..as soon as it is curbed against one view, it can be certainly expected that the speech that is currently tolerated will, in any given whim or generation, be outlawed in it.
HermitintheRain
January 20, 2011 at 12:31 pm
@HermitintheRain everybody wants their freedom to believe what they believe. the true test of the freedom of speech, as found in each person, is whether they give respect to others the right to express speech that represents their beliefs, philosophies, worldviews and idealogies, no matter how offensive it may be. i find among christians and atheists hypocrites on both sides that want to silence the other when what one preaches and teaches is counted offensive by the other.
HermitintheRain
January 20, 2011 at 12:49 pm
man has tried, and continues to try to legislate what a person can believe or not believe. no law written by any government, no matter how oppressive it may be in acting upon that law to enforce it is able to make a person to believe or not believe. i find immoral people among those who believe in God and those who don’t. every evil that is done under the sun is done by people of all creeds, cultures and worldviews.
avaxtakaka
January 20, 2011 at 1:35 pm
@happysplodie Religion = Brainwashing. I had religion shoved
down my throat as a child, and I hated every second of it. When I
became old enough, I stood-up and said, “No more!”. When I
became an athiest, I felt as if I’d been let out of prison. My life
skyrocketed almost immediately thereafter.
avaxtakaka
January 20, 2011 at 1:45 pm
@PaineLover RIGHT ON!!!! Every day, we’re bombarded by all types of
shit regarding “God”, “Jesus”, etc. To me, this is VERY OFFENSIVE! If
the Christians are offended by an athiestic billboard, tough shit! Go cry
to Jesus about it!
avaxtakaka
January 20, 2011 at 2:35 pm
@Skidonti Point well taken! In this so-called “heaven”, we’d spend
all day, morning until nightfall, praising God. No thanks! Being an
athiest, I’d prefer to go to a place where I can watch ice hockey
all day long, and praise nobody (except Anna Kournikova).
avaxtakaka
January 20, 2011 at 2:48 pm
@PaineLover To me, religious people (especially Christians) are
BULLIES! I’ve often been told, “Look what Jesus has done for you!”.
Huh? WHAT has this imaginary guy done “for” me? I’m indebted
to some guy who (supposedly) existed thousands of years ago?
What bullshit!