There’s going to be some kind of football game played this weekend, and American Atheists are sending a message to the pregame parties.
An Atheist civil rights group announced today that it will be flying an airplane banner on Super Bowl Sunday around Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The banner will read “Football beats church anytime – atheists.org.” The banner is scheduled to be in the air from 9:30-11:30 AM local time.
That’s nice. I’m going to be working on a lecture on signal transduction in cancer. Cancer beats football beats church!
I just committed an American heresy, didn’t I?
“Catholics dress up for Mass and listen to Gregorian chants.
Atheists just take a pass, watch football in their underpants.”
I don’t know…football bores the crap out of me. I think I’d rather go to church and take notes on what the Christians are up to these days, if those were the only two choices available.
I look forward to your cancer banner flying over the festivities.
Okay, not really. Actually, since the game is in a domed stadium, I doubt TV viewers will see any banners.
Football is one of the reasons my family quit going to church in 1969. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the game.
The trick is to avoid everything except the game itself. And the gambling. There will be lots of gambling, which I understand used to be a sin.
Your winning Super Bowl Bingo card is here.
Football IS a religion with my cow-orkers! And most of them are cat-lickers . . . .
Yep, definitely the thing about football is to avoid everything associated with it and just enjoy the game… and gambling, if you’re into that. Stats, team moves, players, none of that matters. Just pick a team for whatever reason (hometown/state, like the colors, like the mascot, think the quarterback has a hot ass, whatever), and hope they do well.
High school football, while often associated with lots of macho jock bullshit, is actually rather fun to see – if you’re in band, at least. We get to go to a game, then play as loud as we damn well please, complete with marching drumline equipment (which we then promptly march onto the field with and perform our show).
pooder @ # 4 – Do they try to get you to ork cows with them?
I’m not an American but I can get behind the general thrust of that statement as a Canadian. I don’t find hockey particularly interesting.
And yeah, football’s pretty boring too. I’ve honestly had more fun sorting shards of glass by colour and type for hours on end (the joys of archaeology!)
My favorite super bowl Sunday ritual was to go skiing/snowboarding that day. Much shorter lift lines.
When I was a kid, I used to think we were lucky to be Seventh-Day Adventists and do all the church-holy-no-television garbage on Saturdays.
That said, I’ll be spending the Super Bowl (and several hours before and after) at my favorite sports bar with a platter of wings and a couple hundred cheering strangers.
I cheer for tied games and overtime. I miiiight get beer poured on me. ~;>
I haven’t seen the term “cow orkers” for sooo long.
Here is my article on this which includes some great quotes from Silverman not in the press release: http://t.co/Gb4TzUCh
My daughters will watch the big game with me for the commercials and the comradery and the snacks. They would cheer if they saw the sky banner, but the media is sure not to show it.
Off topic sorry but there’s a poll here :
http://ninemsn.com.au/?ocid=iefvrt
VOTE Do you support same-sex marriage?
That needs Pharyngulating badly.
They are reputed to be slightly less likely to kill you than Bull Orcas.
Well, if you have cancer ya, it pretty much beats everything, doesn’t it?
Poll polled StevoR #13.
Football doesn’t exactly float my boat – so in my view the banner would be the best thing there!
(FWIW, Cricket or motor-racing would be my fave sports.In fact I listed ‘cricket’ along with Jedi as my religions on the last census form!)
@2. dianne :
If those were the only two choices then I’d somehow go find a third one even if that was just staying in bed and going back to sleep!
Yes, if you like football you’re stupid and bad. If you don’t like football you’re smart and good and better than everyone else.
StevoR’s poll is 41% in favor of gay marriage at this time.
Erm, no.
*Learning about cancer* beats football and religion any day. I’ll take football over any type of cancer, and even some types of religion over some types of cancer.
Putting on the Foil @#8: Ramen to that! Every year my ski team voted to have practices on Sunday so both the fundies and the football fans were outta the way. Super Bowl would occasionally find a couple of the team blokes in the pub at the lodge, but usually we had awesome practices on Sunday mornings.
Getoveryourselves @#17: Whaaaaa? Methinks the party doth protest too much. We’re definitely a ‘to each hir own’ crowd around here, provided that your own doesn’t come equipped with plans to infiltrate all levels if the government and education.
Best thing to do on Super Bowl Sunday? Go to Six Flags. NO LINES!
Football is Church to Americans.
To be fair, some religions do know how to Party. Vodun comes to mind.
Beating cancer beats cancer beats football beats church, with free bonus tautology!
I find American football boring. Having grown up in Venezuela, I like soccer a whole lot more. But I would rather watch American football than go to mass, which is in my opinion the most boring activiy ever conceived by humanity.
@Getoveryourselves #17
If you think that’s bad, wait till you hear we think is worse than football.
Dianne:
If those were the only choices available, I’d stay in bed. Fortunately, there’s most always many choices available.
Brunch!
feralboy12, Lucas Oil Stadium has a retractable roof last time I checked.
Two heresies, PZ. Football is better than everything and church is better than everything, and hating [insert something here] is better than everything, and yet there are not three things better than everything, but one thing better than everything.
Yes, people can believe any damnfool thing.
What? There’s some kind of game this weekend? I was vaguely aware of that. But there are lots of games lots of the time. Don’t care. I’ve never watched a football game on TV and my record is in no danger.
The only sporting event I follow–and that not very closely–is the America’s Cup races. has the advantage of not happening very often. Next year, it’ll be *in* San Francisco Bay.
–W. H. Heydt
Old Used Programmer
I like football.
and I don’t believe in witch-doctors.
I also like learning about things.
StevoR : Cricket. . . I refer you to what Douglas Adams said about Cricket.
From personal experience I can say…
Studying cancer beats football beats church!
Football beats church beats having cancer!
Almost anything beats having cancer!
Well, as an Australian I’ll take a small non-malignant skin cancer over most churches. Depending on if you’re talking a single service or a regular commitment.
Really Alethea? Its so much harder (and way less fun) to throw off a skin cancer simply by asking for evidence
David Mitchell sums football up nicely. It’s soccer rather than American football, but you could substitute any team sport really!
This absurd pretence that two groups of heavily padded and helmeted numpties colliding with and beating the crap out of each other is football, just has to stop: FFS you’re allowed to pick the misshapen thing up and run with it. Mind you, even proper football is almost as tedious as church.
I’ll be at Disneyland on Sunday, while the rest of you have your butts parked on the couch. Thunder Mountain, here I come!
In this particular case, I don’t think I agree…Both are bore-fests and both probably have an equal amount of references to god, but at least church is over with quicker.
Also, I’m a cultural Catholic and I live 5 minutes away from a major cathedral, which means that at least we would get nice architecture and art to admire while the child molester up front is babbling about his invisible friend. Plus, the cathedral’s choir beats any Super Bowl halftime show by miles.
If you don’t get goosebumps when they perform some Gregorio Allegri, something is wrong with you…I do actually go to church once or twice a year on special occasions because I love to hear their choir.
What is this footbull of which you speaks and what has it to do with cow orking and crustacean or zodiacs and how can it be unreal? So many not sense. This a confusing little world.
I prefer to see on-pitch violence done properly.
1. Nothing is better than heaven.
2. Watching the Super Bowl is better than nothing.
=> Watching the Super Bowl is better than heaven.
Unfortunately, “you can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.”
[OT]
SQB:
How do you know that?
PS
→ nothing is worse than watching the Super Bowl.
Yup, Aliasalpha. Really. By my age, half my friends have had skin cancers removed. My partner’s had 3 off already. I’d rather have a short outpatient operation that go to church every week for the rest of my life and have all those stupid restrictions. So yeah, one church service would beat a very minor surgery, but that would beat multiple church services and a commitment to a religion.
And wear sunscreen.
Yet more wasteful science spending. You will never succeed in using tumors for broadcasting. Too little bandwidth.
Also, the NFL is a disgustingly right-wing organization that blackmails taxpayers of desperate cities into paying hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds to build stadiums for millionaries and billionaires so those millionaires and billionaires can charge the same taxpayers who paid for the stadium over a week’s pay to get their families inside to watch a game.
The NFL can die in a fucking fire.
– Former Buffalo Bills fan.
Theres only one thing more interesting than football and thats everything else!
Interesting paper on bigotry and intelligence
Sorry interesting paper on bigotry and intelligence here
In high school, we used to have anti-Super Bowl parties, where we’d invite our theatre geek friends over and watch foreign & independent movies. We watched things like 8 1/2, the Seventh Seal, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and ate foods that would be typical of a football party. Sadly, we no longer do that.
I haven’t watched any sporting event (or any other television except streaming Netflix) for well over a year, and don’t plan to break that streak by watching that gawdawful display of tacky excess known as the Super Bowl.
I’m with PZ, I somewhat enjoy football, but I’ll always choose my lab or a cancer lecture first!
Football is quite like religion in that one has to plow through endless mobs of loudmouth know-it-alls and ostentatious displays of irrelevancy to get at what little substance there might be.
I’ve never understood all that craziness over sports. To me they are all equally tedious to watch or practice. We win, fine and good, we lose, well, shrug, it’s not the end of the world. It’s not as if important world-changing issues were hanging on our victory. How people can riot and kill each other over sports is quite puzzling. Give all of them a damn ball or puck already so this stupid and pointless squabbling stops.
My mom, dad and I as a child were banned by my sister from watching her play soccer because we all burst out laughing once when she missed a save. She felt quite hurt that none of us cared if her team won or lost. I guess this total disinterest runs in my family.
SuperBowl, World Cup or Stanley Cup, meh. LAN party, now we’re talking. And it’s just as good a reason to indulge in junk food.
I’d watch the Superbowl for the halftime show, but Comcast has decreed that my TV is an outdated piece of junk. Aside from public TV, no more channels for me. Ah well, anything I do want to watch I can always catch online.
I find both football and church to be uninteresting. For the latter, occasionally the music can be nice, but overall, I’d rather sleep late.
If those were the only choices available, I’d stay in bed.
Staying in bed is not an available option. It must be football or church. Napping would be preferable to either.
Dianne:
Eh, I’d have to be an open, noisy heretic then. I’d grab my gear and take off for a photowalk or photojourney. No football, no church.
I thought the hierarchy went like this:
church < cancer < football < paper < scissors < rock < lizard < Spock
I live in Tyler Sash's hometown. Apparently I'm supposed to back the Giants. Since I'm a fan of the 'fins, I might so do.
I have never had any interest in sports, and luckily, I married a man who has as much interest in team sports as I do – none. He is very physically fit – loves to run, bike and swim – but does not get the appeal of watching or participating in team sports at all.
The super bowl has been on our TV exactly once. A friend and his daughter missed their flight and were stuck at our house over the weekend of the game. We bought them a pizza, bought him a six-pack of beer, and promptly retired to another room in the house while they watched the game.
I think that I will cut coupons out of the Sunday paper and go grocery shopping tomorrow – the store shouldn’t be very crowded.
I’m sure that hubby will be busy working on his research.
I just committed an American heresy, didn’t I?
That’s NOTHING.
When the Rugby World cup started here in NZ last year, I was asked by some workmates if I was excited about the cup being in NZ.
I said, “Meh, rugby’s OK, I can take it or leave it.”
Immediate.
Social.
Pariah.
If you ever visit NZ, and you don’t want to be the object of averted eyes, never mention that you’re even NEUTRAL about rugby, let alone actively dislike it. If you actually don’t like rugby, I suggest some sort of diversionary tactic like: “ooh, would ya look at the time! gottaruncyabye….”
:P
My working tactic so far for dealing with football lovers has been just to say, deadpan: ‘Well, y’know… guys in tight pants. Can’t argue with that.’
Yeah, I know. Not real original. But me, I think it’s all about context and delivery. And for context: I’m six feet tall. I appear more or less male… depending, maybe, a bit, on how I do my hair… Anyway, and the voice I say that in, I can get pretty bassy, on a good day.
Now yes, I know, this, it’s just not tactically flawless. There are, I’m sure, people in the world for whom that’s probably one hell of a conversation starter, actually… And, actually, I’m not trying to be a bastard by leadin’ ’em on or nothin’…
But I can also honestly report it’s worked so far. So far, they’ve just changed the subject. So it’ll do for my selfish purposes for now.
Oh. And I haven’t really got a line like that for hockey fans yet. And as I live in Canada, I could kinda use one. Suggestions?
No, I don’t hate team sports. I just get weirdly annoyed at people assuming I like them because I’m large and male and maybe because I occasionally do otherwise sporty things… And I’m getting a little tired of repeating the standard ‘Sorry… I don’t really follow [reference Sport/League X]…’ that then becomes necessary.
I know… I know… They’re just making conversation. It’s supposed to be a nice thing. You’re one of us, right… Allow me to invite you to show us how you are, now…
But listen, people, I really just can’t work with you, here. I just don’t have the capacity, never really did. My tired brain, it’s busy on all this other shit–and right now, especially–and tracking whothefuck lost/won/shot up the bus of their opponents last season and are currently on the run from the combined internal security forces of both Angola and Togo, well, dammit…
Dammit, just leave me alone, y’know? I don’t care. There. I said it. I really fucking don’t. And while on a good day I might even kinda pretend to kinda care to make you less uncomfortable, this just isn’t going to be one of those days. You run along, you do your thing. Go join a nice soccer riot or whatever. And have fun, I’m sure. Really. I absolutely wish you well.
Quick comment:
It’s refreshing and encouraging to see there are many of us that haven’t been indoctrinated into the societal sports meme, and are into so many other more interesting, educational and enriching activities. Ahh,… I’m among friends. :p