Not even 24 hours ago, Hemant posted a story about the Iowa Atheists & Freethinkers succeeding in getting this ad on buses in Des Moines:
Aaaaannndddd now they’ve been taken down.
“When she met with us on May 27, we showed her the ads and asked if this could be controversial and she said she didn’t think so,” said the group’s president, Randy Henderson. “She thought it was a nice ad, a safe ad.”
The ads that went up on Saturday read, “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.”
DART said it immediately started to receive complaints.”
Drivers said people weren’t getting on buses or getting off the buses because of it,” said advertising director Kirstin Baer-Harding. “So with all the calls, it wasn’t something we wanted.”
The signs came down on Aug. 4. Baer-Harding said they never should have gone up.”The ads mistakenly got put on buses,” she said.
She said DART has the final say on any advertisements and its board decided at the last minute that it didn’t like the content. She said the mistake slipped in amid last week’s chaos with the DART-pedestrian crash and the release of its first hybrid bus.
jk lol!!!!1!!eleven!!!
…
Ok, in a warped and twisted way, I can understand the controversy behind “You can be good without God.” There are religious people out there who sincerely believe that you can’t be good without God, and that suggesting so is corrupting the innocent souls of their children. That’s obviously a load of bull crap, but I can understand the public reaction.
But this?
How dare someone suggest there’s more than one atheist out there! How dare they put a serene cloud background on their ad! Don’t they know serene cloud backgrounds imply God, since he’s up in the sky?! They mocked us! They hate Christians! Dey tuk ar jerbs!
This, my friends, is why we need to have these ads. Not only to find each other, but to let theists know we exist. Only with repeated exposure, over many many years, will they start to realize the atheist next door isn’t such a horrible person after all.
Veritas says
Wait….did the ads actually come down?
Veritas says
Wait….did the ads actually come down?
Jen says
Whoops, kind of have to remember to make the hyperlink to the actual article. Yes, the ads came down. Link is now there.
Jen says
Whoops, kind of have to remember to make the hyperlink to the actual article. Yes, the ads came down. Link is now there.
Veritas says
Okay. I was starting to wonder. And that is lame. Email the shit out of DART time?
Veritas says
Okay. I was starting to wonder. And that is lame. Email the shit out of DART time?
Jen says
Be nice if you do.
And just out of vague curiosity, are you subscribed to comments or something? You reply awful fast.
Jen says
Be nice if you do.And just out of vague curiosity, are you subscribed to comments or something? You reply awful fast.
Veritas says
No, it's 2:30 in the morning…erm. 3 AM in the morning here, I have nothing better to do since I'm off tomorrow, and….well…I wanted an answer.
Veritas says
No, it’s 2:30 in the morning…erm. 3 AM in the morning here, I have nothing better to do since I’m off tomorrow, and….well…I wanted an answer.
Joé McKen says
I'd say put the ads on the buses just to piss the Christofascist buggers off and let 'em know: "yeah, we're here, and we ain't gonna be shooed away just 'cuz you don't like us".
Though of course, they'd see it as "they're trying to crush Christianity!!!". *Sigh*
Joé McKen says
I’d say put the ads on the buses just to piss the Christofascist buggers off and let ’em know: “yeah, we’re here, and we ain’t gonna be shooed away just ‘cuz you don’t like us”.Though of course, they’d see it as “they’re trying to crush Christianity!!!”. *Sigh*
¡revulo! says
To be honest, I didn't care too much about the ads on the buses and billboards before. But that's just ridiculous and I'm pretty mad about it. There isn't anything inflammatory about this ad at all. I mean, you see "Come to our church!" ads on TV all the time, this is just about the same thing (only awesome). Grr.
¡revulo! says
To be honest, I didn’t care too much about the ads on the buses and billboards before. But that’s just ridiculous and I’m pretty mad about it. There isn’t anything inflammatory about this ad at all. I mean, you see “Come to our church!” ads on TV all the time, this is just about the same thing (only awesome). Grr.
BeamStalk says
Hopefully by November, the same ad will be a billboard in Tulsa, Ok. I can't wait to see the shit storm that will cause. Mind you there is a billboard on the highway in Oklahoma that says Abortion is Murder to God, with abortion written in big bloody (literally) letters.
BeamStalk says
Hopefully by November, the same ad will be a billboard in Tulsa, Ok. I can’t wait to see the shit storm that will cause. Mind you there is a billboard on the highway in Oklahoma that says Abortion is Murder to God, with abortion written in big bloody (literally) letters.
Ruby Leigh says
Perhaps the question should be asked…
"What type of atheist ad will christians not be offended by?"
At this point – It's discrimination, plain and simple.
Ruby Leigh says
Perhaps the question should be asked… “What type of atheist ad will christians not be offended by?” At this point – It’s discrimination, plain and simple.
Veritas says
There, I emailed the guys. My letter is up on me blag (shameless plug) if people want to go read it. I think I covered a lot of bases, but yeah.
Veritas says
There, I emailed the guys. My letter is up on me blag (shameless plug) if people want to go read it. I think I covered a lot of bases, but yeah.
nykeyoung says
The ads went back up recently. I think they saw the writing on the wall.
nykeyoung says
The ads went back up recently. I think they saw the writing on the wall.
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