How dare the Northeast Florida CoR put up such an evil sign!
I am totally unsurprised that half the people so far find it offensive. We wouldn't want unbelievers to be anything but alone, after all.
Are you offended by the message in this atheist billboard?
Yes (54.1%)
No (45.9%)
Hmm. Those numbers might change soon. Look quick!
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Gives me an error message...
Gave me an error as well, but I tried again right away and it worked.
Gave me an error message too, but the second try also worked form me, like Standard curve.
Yes: 49.4%
No: 50.6%
Didn't take long to start swinging the other way.
It's a trap!
I also got a server error message at first, but it seems like the server has now gotten over its offense at my lack of offense.
46.3 yes
53.7 no
Funny, that.
It's working for me now. That's better:
Yes (44.6%)
No (55.4%)
Arg, nothing about those signs should be offensive. It does not say anything bad about anyone. I am not naive, I certainly know that some people will be offended by anything that even acknowledges the existence of atheists in public but I am at a loss to understand it.
I got it to just under 57%! Wow, the power of the vote.
"Are you offended ...? One takes offense - i.e., it's voluntary. One can be insulted - that's beyond one's control. Either way, the responses might be interesting gauge of current attitudes IFF the polling was done under controlled conditions, unlike any stupid poll one might just stumble across.
I'm curious as to whether anyone would dare call this billboard (which has to be the most innocuous of a fairly mild lot) "militant."
Yes (36.8%)
No (63.2%)
This is fun. It's like I'm rooting for god to lose!
Screechy_Monkey, oh yes, people would call it militant. As you can see, a great many theists cannot stand the mere notion that someone may actually not believe in their god; the militant part is having the nerve to bring it out in the open and reach out to others. It's scandalous, oh my!
Ah, got back from dinner, and a nice poll. Good way to start the evening...
Just voted and had the same server error issue, but after reloading it worked:
Yes (31.6%)
No (68.4%)
As Caine said, there are goddists who are insulted that we even exist. The strictest accomodationists, like the Colgate Twins, want us back in the closet. Letting certain goddists know of our presence is greatly upsetting to both the goddists and the accomodationists.
Approaching 70% No as of this moment!
Travis @ 8:
Given how quickly this poll has changed, there weren't many people voting. It's now 70 - 30 in favor of "no". I don't take any more from this poll than that 70 percent of the people who showed up at the site with Javascript enabled decided to hit the "no" button.
The capacity of people to be 'offended' by the truth (in this case, there is more than one atheist in the world) when it somehow could be seen to invalidate their Truth, astounds me.
Yes (28.7%)
No (71.3%)
yes 28.6%
no 71.4%
It took me four tries to get beyond the server error. Now 70-30. Yes!!
That's right, all you atheists are offensive for expressing an opinion...well, it's not an opinion, so you are offensive for saying you exist. Why do you have to be so militant?
yes 25.7%
no 74.3%
(this is fun)
Yes 25.3%
No 74.7%
I enjoyed this.
Now
Yes (23.5%)
No (76.5%)
We had a version of that sign right up the street from my house in Houston, believe it or not.
I like this sign, don't know where it's from:
http://images.oddlyspecific.com/oddlyspecific/2010/03/12913830954884276…
This kind of nonsense should answer the question as to why the 'new atheists' are as confrontational and uncompromising as they are - i.e. if the religious consider something as neutral as the basic expression of the existence of atheism to be offensive, what's the point of even trying to 'play nice'?
In other words, fuck that shit.
Don't look now, but we are being mocked by theists!
So, "a God" as opposed to "God"? (In fact, I suspect the news editor capitalized that one erroneously and that the pastor actually meant "a god" with a lowercase "g".)
Methodist Pastor Cornball adroitly sticks his foot in his illogical mouth.
"An error occured trying to communicate with the server". Are they blocking Aussie votes or is it that someone up there spotted a certain trend?
Victor Stenger, American particle physicist and author of "God: The Failed Hypothesis" amongst other books.
@#30
I was just able to vote from Melbourne, Moshe, but it took a few seconds and a second try.
Yes (21.9%)
No (78.1%)
Can we start a poll "Are you offended by this poll about being offended by a billboard sign?" More absurd then offensive in my opinion though...
Some of these signs have been vandalized or destroyed.
In California, someone painted over one.
Wonder how long this one will last, Florida being Florida?
How is that sign offensive at all? It's not even like it says "there is probably no God", it's just acknowledging the existence of other people. How thin-skinned can the religious possibly be?
Is this that sophisticated xian theology we keep hearing about?
The vandal couldn't have been a xian. Xianity is the basis of all morality or so they claim. Must have been an atheist who did it.
Shala:
Oh, much more thin-skinned. Much, much more. This is nothin'. One of these signs, in Iowa (I think) on the side of a bus prompted a huge fuss. One of the bus drivers refused to work due to being so offended, which in turn caused another huge fuss.
Usual reaction by petulant, thin-skinned beliers..
I'm more curious what the deal is with the school that's firing its entire staff to avoid being taken over by the state.
@30 you can only vote yes now.
Pharyngulated!!!
Yes (18.5%)
No (81.5%)
Godless win again!!
More than you can imagine. A few hundred years ago, being an atheist could get you killed by xians.
Some of these people would probably be offended by a sign that says "Not white? You're not alone." Or "¿Habla Español? You're not alone."
Woohoo!
These always make me think of that scene from the end of Braveheart, where the burly bearded bloke (coincidence?) hurls the claymore towards the opposition, who are calmly and confidently waited to have their arses kissed, and then the whole army surges forward to hand out a kicking.*
Here I go!
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Click.
Yes 18.5%
No 81.5%
-----
* Taking the analogy further is not required, I'm aware of the long term result. I just like that scene :)
@rickymjam: We win. We always win. Is there no one on this planet to even challenge us?
Shala #34 wrote:
They're not thin-skinned; they're sensitive and thoughtful, with the ability to foresee distressing consequences.
Imagine, if you will, a small little girl, of three or four or so, who has just lost her puppy in a horrible accident, one that took place right in front of her, perhaps, and she has had her tears wiped away and soothed by her mommy's reassurance that Puddles will be with her again one day, in heaven with her and God, and she's toddling past that sign, sniffing and managing to recover her normal optimism and good cheer, when a passerby looks up and reads it out loud --- and, all of a sudden, her world comes crashing down, and she sobs MOMMY MOMMY IS NO GOD TO LOVE MY PUPPY PUDDLES TILL I COME SEE HIM? and what the hell is that mother going to say to her dimpled darling, as the tears once again begin to splash down her face, ruining the simple little flowered frock she had been so pleased to don that morn, in happier times before the cruel death -- and even crueler disillusionment -- ruined that poor child's trust and comfort possibly FOREVER!!!
We're brutes.
Well, I voted in their silly poll. Seems these things always start off on the side of the religious and then suddenly swing to the godless hordes. Puzzling.
Muahahaha!
Who know? perhaps some lonely atheist in Florida will spot the poll (and/or the sign) and feel a bit better. :-)
Er, can atheists get a sign from above? They can now in Florida, lol.
@Bunny. The Pharyngula phenomena will one day make the media noms realise there's just no point trying to do Net surveys about atheists. Oh well. We can just continue to pwn them. Love it!
Yes (17.2%)
No (82.8%)
I tried voting No and got a server error. Then tried Yes, and it worked straight off. Poll script written by Diebold? :?
In spite of that, it looks like the poll now tends toward non-offendedness by 83%, which is somewhat relieving.
(I'm still shaken by the revelation that 24% of Republicans believe Obama to be the Antichrist. That number gives me nightmares.)
83.3 and rising :-)
@rickymjam: As long as we're pumping up their page rank, they'll be getting exactly what they want with these polls.
@bunny. True. Advertising revenue. Problem is, if we ignore it. Then Glen Beck and Hannity, et al will see the poll and use it for more godless bashing. At least this way, they can say we are a force that needs to be combated, and we have the battle out in the open. Militant atheist is a vocal atheist.
I just voted and the 'no' vote is now over 84%.
15%
85%
Wow, it's getting up there now.
I don't take any more from this poll than that 70 percent of the people who showed up at the site with Javascript enabled decided to hit the "no" button.
congratulations! you have learned the first rule of online polling:
it's meaningless.
:)
LOL!!
Yes (14.9%)
No (85.1%)
@rickymjam: Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not being a scold. I don't care if we drive up traffic to a site. I sometimes find it interesting to see which sites actually care about the results of the poll; those tend to be the ones that lock the poll or purge votes right after it's been Pharyngulated. (I always cut and past the links to avoid leaving referrer headers.)
I don't take internet polls seriously, but it can be fun to tweak those who do.
@bunny. Yes it's just for sh*ts and giggles.
I'm thinking of a billboard bearing this message:
In a lower corner, in modestly sized print, would be the name and contact information of an atheist organization. That's it. No mention of anything remotely related to Discorporate Invisible Supernatural Spooks. Just the name of the organization that ponied up the bucks.
I'll lay even odds that something so obviously noncommittal and nonspecific would be sufficient to cause more than a few of our fellow citizens to froth at the mouth and fall to their knees in supplication, seeking guidance confirmation of their biases. Why, a series of full blown conspiracy theories seems to be merely a mortified, "Well, I never!" away.
They are the same people who say stupid shit like "I don't mind gays, but why do they have to be so in your face about it?" You mean someone actually had the nerve to be gay and not be ashamed? How dare he!
Oh, much more thin-skinned. Much, much more. This is nothin'. One of these signs, in Iowa (I think) on the side of a bus prompted a huge fuss. One of the bus drivers refused to work due to being so offended, which in turn caused another huge fuss.
I want someone who can put up billboards to try putting up a billboard sometime just saying:
Atheists breathe the air
And make bets on how long it takes for some religious person to whine about it. You know there would be!
Sastra, thanks for that. Brightens up my evening. :)
87/13
YES 12.9%
NO 87.1%
@29
I'm reading the comments and can you believe Rimbe's 7:47(4th post from the top)!?!
It isn't true (or at least, the poll doesn't establish it). See here. It's about as valid as... this poll we just crashed. (Link via Coturnix, by way of Ed Brayton.)
Got the same error message maybe 8 times... I wonder if all of our clicks (even those that return the error) are being counted? HAH!
Yes 12.0
No 88.0
I think it's composed of superdense clichetronium.
We either broke it, or we won:
Yes (0.0%)
No (100.0%)
It's 100% no
Zip to theotards
Question is now 'Should Jacksonville reform employee pensions to make up for budget shortfalls?'
I guess we won.
They're no fun. They fell right over.
That poll is closed but now there's a nice picture of three very hot Victoria's Secret models on the site, who made me forget all about the billboard.
Re someone a few messages back: a t-shirt at a local gay pride parade had "I don't mind if they're straight as long as they act gay in public" for a slogan.
Vegemite!
They've already removed the poll.
That billboard could have more than one meaning. If you know what I mean.
#34
Y'all probably haven't even seen the article about it that was in the Florida Times-Union (local newspaper) - it was below the fold of the second section, so luckily the big picture posted won't offend anyone when seen through the glass door of a newspaper dispenser. It's probably on the website somewhere (jacksonville.com)
But one of the quotes taken from a head pastor at an Assemblies of God church explained exactly why they're offended - they don't want people who are "insecure in their faith" to see these billboards. Of course, they're of the opinion that being an atheist is a surefire way to go to hell (and the article ends with another pastor saying that he intends to pray for the souls of all the atheists and people who become atheist because of the signs) - but they also don't want to lose the tithing revenue, I'm sure.
I've lived my entire life in this town, third generation, and I'm the first (that I know of) to break away from religion. I'm really happy that we have the signs up, though it looks like they're both going to be in some of the outskirtiest bits of town, so fewer people will even be aware of them. We need more visible atheism here. I'm terrified of saying anything that would label me as an atheist, not so much because of violence, but because of shunning or overbearing in-my-face prayer. It's weird, to me at least, that when I accidentally admit to my atheism, the response is usually more negative than when I come out to the same people as a lesbian. (I also have Asperger's, which means shunning of in-my-face prayer is just piling on the social difficulties I already have.)
That's exactly like FAUX "news" to remove a poll if it doesn't go their way. I made the mistake of posting a reply on a climate change article there. I refuted a couple of GW deniers with some back and forth comments (without even being crude etc.) and the moderator deleted all my posts. The only thing they left on there was a bunch of moronic dribble that agreed with their article. Fair and Balanced!!!!
FWIW, I was under the impression that News4Jax polls change daily, to match whatever headlines are getting covered by the TV reporters that day.
Yet another pointless poll to paryngulate! Yay!
So we can be thankful that it got reproduced on that news website for the poll - it will have reached so many more people that way!
Greg @ 72 - Yep! And with all of your Pharyngula buddies you don't have to worry about being alone! :)
w00t! i'm a member of the nofl cor. glad we finally got our billboard. sad it took until the month i'm leaving florida :(
That same 24% wouldn't happen to be the same moronic religio-zombies that made the GOP into the political cesspool it has become?
Poll has changed but I have to say, what a disgusting mess of a web page!
I'd be interested to find out what % of non believers would find the opposite message offensive:
Do you believe in God? You are not alone.
My guess is that it'd be very small, much smaller than the 50% or so of those who answered the original poll before it got pharyngulated (which I assume were a majority of believers).
That's the message to all those accomodationists: a majority of believers find the mere existence of non believers offensive.
One twit commented on that news story:
Damn! They've figured us out!
*reads the comment*... Oh My Bog Monster! That is a serious case of Teh Stoopeeeed!
I think I just gained some respect for Christians after reading that—Christians who do not act like God is their iBFF (imaginary BFF).
Poll has disappeared. I get "Firefox has stopped 7 popup windows from opening'. Phew...
Billboards as a class of objects are more likely to be offensive than not, regardless of content.
(My Firefox didn't complain about the site, but the poll had been changed to a more localized question.)
The capital g does offend me!
They capitalized the 'G' in God because it is a proper name. Even the names of imaginary beings are capitalized. I capitalize the name of Puff the Magic Dragon, because it is a proper name. The idea of God offends me much more than the capital letter.
I always have loved the salutation "No gods", though.
And with No True ChristianTM, I got Bingo!
You must be new to the internet. Even that claim is too broad. 70% of the posts to the server were for no. There's no way to claim number of individuals because of bots and multiple votes.
The signs in Sacramento said:
"Are you good without God? Millions are."
(Same background, God is spelled with an uppercase "G", gives SacramentoCoR.org as a web address.)
Some incredibly erudite and intelligent vandal spray-painted, "Also lost?" under the "Millions are" part.
It was so clever that tens of thousands of local atheists, pagans, Buddhists, vegans and homosexuals flocked to local fundy churches to get saved the very next day.
Okay, that might be an exaggeration.
MikeM
I am offended by the preponderance of atheist ads with that background. We can be more creative than that.
Unoriginal? Maybe, but I think it's more like a very basic (possibly even subconscious, in some cases) attempt at branding. If the fluffy-clouds-blue-sky background becomes associated with atheist billboards, the visual messages are that much more effective. Think of it like the fact that so many Indian corner grocery stores in America call themselves some variant on "India Sweets and Spices" -- maybe it's a viral branding movement.
I can imagine a typical fundie response even now...
Yes, that seems about right. Rambling, incoherent babble. Check. Complete inability to structure a paragraph. Check. Endless stream of unsubstantiated accusations. Check.
Something is still missing though, I know it. Damn, I forgot the ALL CAPS.
Was also unable to cast my "NO" I really don't believe in that sort of thing vote. Creepy sign... agreed?
Of course, us atheists have no right to keep God out of schools, that's oppressing free speech, but buying billboards? DISGUSTING! OFFENSIVE! WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN! (Especially since it's totally tangential to worry about children's reactions to this billboard and will scapegoat you filthy atheists.)
I thought it was just a way of saying "it's just the sky; no gods here." What about a barren mountain peak?
I dont know if this was already mentioned or not(as I dont feel like reading 100 previous posts) but this exact same sign was actually removed from a downtown Cincinnati, OH billboard because the landowner of the site was getting numerous death threats. It was a big deal and all over the news for a bit.
http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/Godless-Billboard-Moved-After-Thre…