Many Many Links, Without Comment (Except For The Comment)

I don't know how some of the bigger bloggers manage to publish so often.  I'm terrible about bookmarking more things to share than I can find the time to write about.  I've decided to start sharing them as a group on Saturday mornings.  Sometimes they'll be timely news stories (give or take a week).  Other times they'll be random, older bits I've come across & just want to share.

But first I'm gonna drop a bunch of things I had bookmarked to share that still seem worth sharing.  And, even with sharing this much crap on Thursday evening, I've got some stuff already on the post for Saturday.  This should be an interesting experiment.

Teen Denied Communion After Marriage Equality Facebook Post

I'm sure many people have posted this, but Wayne LaPierre, meet your good pal Archie Bunker.youtu.be/-lDb0Dn8OXE
— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) December 30, 2012

Kids Without God

Christian Group Says Demon Sex Makes You Gay

Salvation Army comes under fire for alleged anti-gay stance huff.to/TgCPMq
— HuffPost Religion (@HuffPostRelig) November 26, 2012

CHECK IT OUT: International Directory of Freethought Groups from Atheist Alliance International: ow.ly/fEGOO
— AJ Johnson (@HappiestAtheist) November 28, 2012

Exposing Protestant Clergy Sex Abusers fb.me/P2wYWw3Z
— Teresa Macbain (@Teresamacbain) November 27, 2012

How and when did Jesus become white huff.to/10XuMtW
— HuffPost Religion (@HuffPostRelig) November 30, 2012

Atheist group called "terrorists" for criticizing holiday displays huff.to/Wxd6QD
— HuffPost Religion (@HuffPostRelig) November 29, 2012

Loudoun County Official Apologizes for Calling Atheists ‘Terrorists’… and Then Calls Atheists ‘Terrorists’ Again bit.ly/11lFgmb
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) November 29, 2012

What makes religious texts sacred? huff.to/11thaWp
— HuffPost Religion (@HuffPostRelig) December 1, 2012

Atheist Census

Why the image going around of Jesus sitting in a classroom is pretty damn insensitive and offensive: therearethornstoo.blogspot.com/2012/12/monday…
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) December 18, 2012

Vatican declares that same-sex couples live in a "different reality" huff.to/UNcPsd
— HuffPost Religion (@HuffPostRelig) December 19, 2012

Oliver Sacks, the popular author and professor of neuroscience at NYU, claims that the brain alone is sufficient... fb.me/1NEP5UaZN
— Omaha CoR (@OmahaCoR) December 20, 2012

Seth Andrews: Deconverted fb.me/1RtyoqLNP
— Teresa Macbain (@Teresamacbain) December 25, 2012

And Some Stuff About Billboard Vandalism:

Inoffensive Atheist Sign Gets Vandalized in Virginia; It Was Spraypainted and Burned bit.ly/VkPuyC
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) December 28, 2012

#Atheist group based here has been having trouble with one its signs. Not sure about the billboard in Times Square. -CS cranford.patch.com/articles/cranf…
— Cranford Patch / Cam (@cranfordpatch) December 27, 2012

A Second Atheist Billboard Vandalized Near Roanoke, Virginia bit.ly/VIDR3s
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) December 28, 2012

Within 48 hours of its placement, vandals had already marred the display: ow.ly/gawqi
— KC Atheist Coalition (@KCAtheists) December 18, 2012

First read this: patheos.com/blogs/friendly…. Then: Atheist Banner Destroyed After Councilman Says He'd ‘Look the Other Way’ bit.ly/VsmJ1K
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) December 25, 2012

A Thought Experiment With Double Standards

I've previously written about this billboard and how there was a complete lack of controversy surrounding it being up.  But what if there had been controversy?

What if atheists were so enraged by this billboard being up that they sent threats to Lamar and Ken Ham and his group, Answers in Genesis.  I think we all know how Fox News would report on this.  News networks would report it extensively, painting atheists in general in a bad light.  Prominent atheists and atheist groups would be compelled to publicly denounce the threats.  It would forever be used by Christian apologists as the prime example of how violent they think atheists are.  

In short, we would all be blamed for it and we would never live it down.

Christians can compare us to murderers publicly and barely raise an eyebrow.

Then there's the real situation of American Atheists' billboards in Charlotte.   When they went up, there were plenty of stories about them.  When Tampa refused to even put one up, crickets.  

American Atheists reported on the billboards coming down, of course.   The Thinking Atheist posted about it on Facebook.  A freethought blog in Arizona wrote about it.  Fox News reported it, but downplayed it in their headline by saying it was "complaints" and not threats.  The Charlotte Observer's headline, called the threats "outcry".  American Atheists is not known for backing down to complaints, they expected complaints.

David Silverman, president of American Atheists, said the controversy is exactly what he expected.

This leaves Fox News as the only major coverage of threats so bad, they got the self described "Marines of Freethought" to back down.  I'll just leave it there and give that a chance to sink in.

Uncontroversial Billboard is Controversial

This is the first atheism related billboard Nebraska has ever had.  It is meant to let atheists in town know they are not alone.  It is intentionally non-confrontational, although, it is intentionally timed to also promote our upcoming conference.

The response has been interesting.  Local radio host, Scott Voorhees posted about it, calling us militant & disgusting.  He apparently even went through the trouble of contacting UNO, where our conference is being held, to complain.  His complaint was shot down, but that didn't stop him from attacking us on the air the next morning.

We also got coverage on the local Fox & CBS stations, and in the local newspaper.  Someone at KMTV is particularly interested in us, as they just ran another story on it just a moment ago and they've already posted on their Facebook about it twice (nearly 900 comments since Monday & over 200 comments since noon today).

Guess what kind of attention this one got when it went up months ago in the same town.

A billboard denying, and directly attacking, established scientific facts goes up and no one notices.  A billboard goes up telling atheists they're not alone, with no attack toward anyone, and a media frenzy ensues.

For atheists, simply existing anywhere but the shadows means putting up with a lot of crap.  It should not be like that, and this is why I make a point of being open & vocal about my atheism.  The rest of the country needs to get used to us being here.  We've always been here.  This should be a non-issue.