Tomorrow new atheist billboards will go up in neighborhoods that are strongholds of Islam and Judaism, Paterson, NJ and Brooklyn, NY respectively. So Muslims and Jews can now join up with Christians in getting into a lather about atheist billboards, proving once again that atheists are uniters not dividers.
The billboards are being put up by American Atheists, partly to also advertise the Reason Rally on Saturday, March 24 and the American Atheists National Convention on March 25&26, both in Washington DC.
Gawker has covered the story.
Each billboard has the Hebrew and Arabic word for Yahweh/Allah on the left side and this is likely to be the trigger for outrage.
I wonder how long it will take before the billboards are vandalized? Or have these religions reached a level of maturity where they can shrug such things off? Stay tuned!
Level of maturity? You’re expecting maturity from the Orthodox Jewish men who demand all women (not just Jewish ones) move to the back of public buses because Orthodox Jewish men are not mature enough to cope with the fact that women exist without turning into lust-enraged rape monsters. You’re expecting maturity from a group that’s texting misspelled death threats to a 23-year-old woman who grew up in the faith, left, and wrote a book about her life.
“Or have these religions reached a level of maturity where they can shrug such things off?”
Rhetorical question, correct?
Mano:
Blogger, scientist, and comedian ladies and gentlemen! Religious maturity…hah!
I wonder how long before someone whines about religious discrimination, or complains about their beliefs being insulted…
My guess -- no evidence to back it up -- is that the uproar will be minimal. Both groups are minorities in terms of numbers, and unlikely to react the way christians have.
The muslims in Europe go into conniption fits because they know people are too willing to bend over backwards and be PC, as well as their ridiculous laws protecting religious extremism. That won’t happen in New York. And since a lot of jews consider themselves “cultural jews”, I doubt many other than AIPAC or the hasidic nutbags will respond.
If there is any vandalism, it will be with crowbars, not bombs. The only shots fired at them will be from paintball guns, not AK-47s.
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I know some Jews who write “G-d” because even euphemisms for “Th- L-rd” lack the appropriate respect if fully spelled out. So I suspect the Hasidim will be outraged at the sign with Yahweh in Hebrew.
I read the Gawker article, which pointed to a Daily News bit, where I found this quote:
“Mohamed Elfilali, executive director of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, was not particularly troubled by news of the billboards. “It is not the first and won’t be the last time people have said things about God or religion,” he told CNN. “I respect people’s opinion about God; obviously they are entitled to it. I don’t think God is a myth, but that doesn’t exclude people to have a different opinion.””
Wow -- I really didn’t expect that reaction. It was, actually, reasonable and measured!
The Orthodox Jews will be very careful about vandalising the signs because it is a sin to delete the divine name. I suspect their primary concern will be with how the signs are to be disposed of afterwards.
I bet the muslims will vandalize it first. Savagery is part of their phony ideology.
Well, we will see. Actions speak louder than words. Muslims have that thing called ‘taqia’, which allows them to lie if it benefits islam.
Islam ha no merit. Why should it? Its phony “prophet” murdered, raped, tortured, abused, enslaved, lied etc. So as far as I am concerned, they should put a dozen atheist billboards right in front of that mosque. Encouraging muslims to leave their messed up cult is a good deed.