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.
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.
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