An Atheist's Billboard

I came across a very inreresting article entitled "For the Holidays, and Atheism Billboard," featured in the New York Times. It struck me as interesting, because of course, one does not always associate the holidays with Atheism. Broadly, Atheism is "the belief that dieties do not exist," and therefore are not recognized. According to Wikipedia, about 2.3% of the world's population consider themselves as Atheists, while 11.9% claim they are non-religious. This belief has delivered a considerable blow to the believers in our nation. The billboard that David Silverman, the president of American Atheists, and the person who created the sign described it as standing up to "a reactionary assault on atheists driven mainly by the religious right (Slotnik)." The sign's message to the drivers going into the Lincoln Tunnel reads: “You know it’s a myth. This season, celebrate reason!” Personally, I think the sign is interesting and provactive and takes a leap that many are timid to do. Christmas itself is a Catholic holiday that most people in the U.S. celebrate; the music, the gifts, the whole religious aspect is thrown in our faces every year. So why is it so crazy that another side wants to proclaim their opinion? Silverman's final thought was, "Every year, atheists get blamed for having a war on Christmas, even if we don’t do anything,” he said. “This year, we decided to give the religious right a taste of what war on Christmas looks like (Slotnik).” It will be interesting to see if the sign is taken down before the holiday season truly kicks off.


By Sarah Fulton

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/for-the-holidays-an-atheism-billboard/?ref=nyregion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism