Complaints Cause Atheist-Funded Billboards in North Carolina to Come Down

From Fox News.

Atheist billboard.

American Atheists and Adams Outdoor Advertising are reportedly removing two Charlotte billboards blasting Christianity and Mormonism following an outpouring of complaints and threats.

Read it all.

Three observations about this.

First, I disagree with the decision to take this billboard down based on complaints, and while I can understand why folks get angry, there is no room for threats here, especially if any of them are coming from folks who call themselves Christians. Atheists have a right to their opinion, foolish and myopic as that opinion is.

Second, I continue to be astounded at the amount of energy and vitriol these folks put into railing against a being whom they claim does not exist. Does not compute.

Third, I note the disingenuity of the actual ad. It is anything but “simply rational.” It distorts legitimate theories of substitutionary atonement and caricatures God as “sadistic.”

Of course, if the Christian claim that Jesus is the embodiment of God is true, then it is God himself who ultimately suffers and bears the punishment for our sins. That’s hardly “sadistic.” No sane human being would deny the need for evil to be punished and here we have God himself in Jesus bearing our just punishment. I’d say that’s pretty awesome and gracious on God’s part.

And I have no idea on what they are basing their claim of 30K+ versions of the truth. Whatever it is, based on the tone of the rest of the add, I am pretty certain that it is a distortion and/or an exaggeration of some obscure fact or figure.

In my opinion, ads like these are actually counterproductive for atheists and that’s another reason I am opposed to having them being forcefully removed. If they think they are going to win minds by implicitly (or explicitly in some cases) calling folks stupid (or worse), I’m hard pressed to see how this represents being “simply reasonable.” So keep those signs coming, kids. God will surely use them to help advance his purposes. I’m good with that. Hope you are too.