i just had this crazy idea: why dont we all stop putting up these damn billboards, atheists and christians alike?

>> ^hpqp:

What's sadder is that many who do still prefer to cling to the american pipedream of one day being in that top 1%. It's a nationwide pyramid scheme.
>> ^Drachen_Jager:
What's sad is that most Americans don't already know all this.



Interesting idea. Work hard and you'll get everything you deserve......you hear people say that a lot. But when you look closely, the people who have money don't work very hard at all in comparison to people who are likely just as intelligent if not more so than they. There's no value in producing anymore.

Had a guy in the area who owns a lot of land, and while not hugely wealthy is probably wealthy enough for himself and his kids to live off of his holdings with employees taking care of it. He told my dad that he's never going to make money digging ditches (my dad doesn't dig ditches, but it was his way of saying manual labor), and that he should lift his head from his work and do what the wealthy people do.

Can you tell what the wealthy people do? I only see them swinging political opinion in their favor and telling people to work harder for them (by proxy of course).

There's no value in producing. Even though you know there should be immense value in producing, there just isn't as much as there should be....they value the container, billboards, markup percentages than the actual item they are selling to people. The "perception" of the product is more important than the product.

So if the perception is valuable, then people who can sell nothing succeed. That's my take on it at least.......and it seems backwards to me. People who produce nothing, but hold wealth control the system. While people who produce and hold little or no wealth are trapped in the spider web the wealthy have spun. The harder you work, the more stuck you become until they come along and cocoon you up and drain you dry.

My emotional response to nearly everything said within this video is most aptly conveyed by this clip.

But upvote for civility. I wish they had gone more into the separation of church and state because that's what the real issue that the billboard (and those who would demand it be taken down) raises.

LOL!

For the record, I don't want to outlaw either's ability to put up their divisive billboards. I get offended by anyone jamming their religious/atheist beliefs down my throat, so I just ignore them.

>> ^hpqp:

for those who might be offended:
<div id="widget_720898750"><script src="http://videosift.com/widget.js?video=181913&width=500&comments=15&minimized=1" type="text/javascript"></script></div>

I'm offended by his billboard and Christian billboards.

With that said, I have enough brains to ignore ALL of them.

lol +1 for the non attacking attacker. personally i find atheists twice as tedious as christians. At least christans are getting wound up by their own delusions.

>> ^VoodooV:

Guy really should have attacked the "eyewitness" evidence that one so-called "doctor" gave about the existence of jesus's resurrection.
There are three things I would attack if I were trying to de-bunk Christianity and it wouldn't involve stupid billboards
1. This so-called Christian science. No such thing. People need to be educated (or re-educated) on what science is. I'm not talking about what the people in the labcoats do, I'm talking about the basics of scientific thought. Making observations and performing experiments and peer review and how/why it works and show that Christian science couldn't be further from that.
2. The so-called monopoly Christians have on morality. We hear that all the time, if you're not christian, then obviously you're not moral. There needs to be a concerted effort to show what morality is and isn't and that morality often derives from reason, not faith.
3. Show that Atheists really aren't on the attack like the Christians would like you to believe. Christianity is always pretending that it's being victimized and oppressed and it simply isn't true. That needs to be exposed.
He did a great job not losing his cool during all that.

Guy really should have attacked the "eyewitness" evidence that one so-called "doctor" gave about the existence of jesus's resurrection.

There are three things I would attack if I were trying to de-bunk Christianity and it wouldn't involve stupid billboards

1. This so-called Christian science. No such thing. People need to be educated (or re-educated) on what science is. I'm not talking about what the people in the labcoats do, I'm talking about the basics of scientific thought. Making observations and performing experiments and peer review and how/why it works and show that Christian science couldn't be further from that.

2. The so-called monopoly Christians have on morality. We hear that all the time, if you're not christian, then obviously you're not moral. There needs to be a concerted effort to show what morality is and isn't and that morality often derives from reason, not faith.

3. Show that Atheists really aren't on the attack like the Christians would like you to believe. Christianity is always pretending that it's being victimized and oppressed and it simply isn't true. That needs to be exposed.

He did a great job not losing his cool during all that.

Look, nobody really thinks Weiner has to lose his job over this.

Republicans see this as an opportunity to quash an opposing voice and Democrats feel compelled to feign outrage to appear non-partisan. It's the same ends-justify-the-means tribal bullshit that ruins everything in politics.

I'm not particularly a fan of Weiner (or weiner, for that matter), but there's just no reason he should lose his job over this. He didn't break any laws; he didn't violate any rules of the position. I could plaster my junk on a billboard and I wouldn't lose my job, so why should he?

If his constituents feel this is such a problem then he won't be reelected. All the idiots complaining that this is such a distraction; it wouldn't be if you'd shut up and get back to work. Or are we to believe that you're kept up at night thinking about Weiner's bulging undies?

@Opus_Moderandi Agreed. I think one thing that needs to be considered is that the Boston Tea Party happened after all other legal recourse had been taken to try to get Britain to not only repeal the tea tax but also get representation in Parliament for the colonies. In other words, they had exhausted all other possible options. Civil disobedience is great for when you've exhausted all other possible options.

What options did these people exhaust? Did they petition to get the law changed? Did they write their representatives in government to demand it be changed? Did they try to raise awareness (through leaflet distribution, billboards, commercials, web campaigns, etc.) of the problem? Did they offer to run for election themselves to try to get the law changed?

No. They said "F*ck all that, it sounds like too much work. I'll just take a few hours to inconvenience everyone who wants to reflect quietly at the memorial and pretend I'm a hero fighting for justice."

@dystopianfuturetoday Slacktivism. Never heard that word until today, but it is the most awesome and apt description of what is happening here.

When civil disobedience is your first choice for reforming laws you disagree with, you've lost all perspective of how democracy and freedom work. When you think your rights or freedom are being violated because you cannot dance everywhere and anywhere, other people be damned, you've lost all perspective on what the words "rights" and "freedom" mean.

EDIT: Spelled dystopianfuturetoday's name wrong

EDIT 2: For a great read about the philosophy of civil disobedience (including a rationale for why civil disobedience should be a means of last resort) see http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/civil-disobedience/

One other rational act that I think atheists should concentrate on, rather than berating the truly faithful.... (other than the supremely rational fight to keep religion out of the schools and out of the laws.)

Speaking up that being an atheist is a moral choice. Putting up billboards, especially in the Bible Belt, announcing that there ARE atheists out in the world and giving hope to all the atheists in the closet who feel pressured to go to church to "fit in".

An It Gets Better Project for Teen and Adult Atheists.

That is rational.

Fighting thousands of years of human evolution and people's personal choices? You look like idiots and no better than the worst fundamental Christian railing at the heathens.

http://listverse.com/2008/09/18/top-10-failed-apocalyptic-predictions/

As the man said, there have been thousands. It's really not news. Well, maybe the billboards make it news.

>> ^RadHazG:

Wow. and here I thought I would have to wait until the end of 2012 to laugh in the faces of idiots like this.


O no, people are always claiming "IT'S COMING!!!" One of my first girlfriends in college, as a matter of fact, brought me, grudgingly, to church with her. Once there I was surprised to learn that her pastor was feeding these kids some garbage about the world coming to an end in roughly one week. (true story)

I broke it off with her after a fight about how idiotic it all was; but looking back I should have used it as an excuse to fuck like mad until fake doomsday. Damn.

Punt Road, St Kilda is just the place for that billboard.

>> ^legacy0100:

Fake, but I am still curious as to what country this was filmed in.
i think based on the watch billboard toward the end it looks like Greek alphabet...so i guess Greece?

By the way, Kasinator, I felt the same way about her name. Then I heard the story about how she started using it when she was unknown and unpaid. It was ironic, and maybe a little hopeful. After that (and my roommate playing her music in her car) I gave the album a listen. It's got some crap, but also so very fun and edgy stuff. Don't let the name turn you off.

http://www.billboard.com/news#/features/breaking-entering-ke-ha-1004048466.story