"Imagine No Religion" Billboard Causes Controversy

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the largest national association of atheists and agnostics, is taking its national billboard campaign to Texas for the first time, posting its colorful "Imagine No Religion" billboard on I-37.

The Foundation launched a national billboard campaign a year ago, taking its religion-free messages state-by-state. Foundation billboard messages also say "Beware of Dogma," "Reason's Greetings," and "Keep Religion OUT of Politics."

I heard of the campaign in late November after the General Outdoor sign company in Rancho Cucamonga, California, tore down and destroyed the Foundation's "Imagine No Religion" billboard.  Speaking to the Associated Press, the foundation's co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, said the billboard is meant to encourage a debate about religion by evoking lyrics from a John Lennon song.

Personally, I think the campaign is quite strong.  By evoking one of the best songs ever written, the foundation reminds us of Lennon's conviction that the world would be better place if we all treated each other with respect and kindness instead of constantly defending our religious beliefs against the other. 

BEHAVING as if there were no religion is not the same as GIVING UP our religious beliefs.

Comments

[pennyjane]

i'm with you ko. isn't that exactly what we christians are saying when we extole the second coming? imagine that world, the world where the pursuit of God (religion) is fullfilled. isn't that exactly where we are right now as we experience our religious observance of advent...the longing, the anticipation of just that event? the world fullfilled, without those things.

that part of the campaign is good. the other parts, the parts that demean the pursuit, while it still exists, is as simple minded and malicious as the worst of the religious misteps. tearing down beliefs of others is not, in the long run, a very satisfying means of celebrating one's own beliefs.

"reason's greetings"...now there's a conversational non-starter if i ever heard one. might as well just shout out..."hey, stupid, come here i want to tell you about how stupid you are point by point."...i just walked off in the other direction. God does not tear evil down, He builds on it, lifts it up, weaves it into His goodness, converts it into the beautiful concert that is His domain...it isn't destroyed, it is evolved, transformed. God is a destroyer of nothing, He is the creator of all.

i guess some athiests don't aspire to the golden rule either...the part about treating others as we feel we should be treated...with respect and even sometimes a little awe...

God bless with much love and hope, pj

[fricker]

I too long for the loving equality brought about by the Russian revolution as they, well, as they, I guess they up and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of folks in the name of "no religion."
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Well, then, the bright spot of hope comes from the third reich, as they came out strongly for abortion (for non-aryans) and strong gun laws (even taking them away to make it safer for everyone) and they had a bright new day brought about by the philosophies of Marx and the scientific philosophies of Darwin and they ... they... Oh, damn! Another one!
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Well, surely if we look to South and Central America, and their current efforts of love and unity to escape the bloodthirsty attacks of Catholicism... Oh dang it all!
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Africa?? Whoa! Nevermind!
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China! Now, there is an enlightened nation! No god to be found except for the state sanctioned, politically correct variety. Finally a state that... What? How many died? Dang! That many? Jeez, these non religious utopian revolutions seem to have killed many more thousands of folks just in the last century then all of history combined! Who would have seen that coming?
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Why is it every time I try to find a non religious utopia, it ends in bloodshed!
Surely it isn't because Christianity teaches love and forgiveness, and not blowing yourself up?? Too simple, plus it doesn't lend itself well to tying Islamic fascism (recently called fundamentalism) to Christian folks who believe the creation story (original fundamentalist).
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As far as John Lennon goes, never trust a man who fondles his mothers "tit" as he called it and wanted to shag her. I know, ad hominem, but so is his song Imagine! TIT for tat, if you will.

[pennyjane]

christians are the "original fundamentalists" gracious we sure do attract some whacky, ok, insane thinkers here...or...is it that we don't attract very many actual thinkers?

"i too long for the loving equality brought about by the russian revolution"...hey, flicker...even sarcasm needs to have some basis in reality....otherwise...it's just stupid.

john lennon was a bit taken by infantile eroticism....wow! how original is that? of course we should never trust people who have wierd sexual fetishes...gracious! that alone renders them unacceptabe in polite society, surely we wouldn't run across any strange fetishes there!

that lennon was a brilliant artist, a great thinker, a loving, kind, generous and compassionate man is of no relevance to his overall character...heck...he had a strange sexual fetish. not to be trusted!

would we all be so honest, so endowed with such a rational and fair sense of self, what an awful world it would be. people running around doing their own thinking, sharing their real thoughts as well as their fantasies. giving freely of all they have and all they are...pronouncing openly and proudly that "all you need is love." gentle people who dare to dream of and hope for such a world, not a world never having had religion but a world where all religion is fullfilled. a world where all you really do need is love.

much love and hope, pj

[Sam]

A person who sang about sleeping with his mother makes a poor idol. Having quasi-erotic thoughts about your mother when you are a kid is one thing. Feeling proud of such feelings, glorifying them and airing them in public is downright disgusting. Atheism is hiding behind facades like science, rational thinking and liberalism etc. Scratch the surface and you will find the hatred for God and Jesus.