Atheist Tuesday: A Fool and Her Sign

49 CommentsAtheist Tuesday

This is an opportunity for you to comment on this image taken at last weekend’s Fiesta Hermosa. My question: What’s the point? I will fill in the details later in the week.

Comments (49)

  2. perdita

    Reply

    What’s the point?

    My guess is that you’re finding it hard to fill Atheist Tuesday’s.

  3. pdudgeon

    Reply

    Poor woman. She has no idea that everything she has is thanks to the God she doesn’t believe in.

  4. Nohm

    Reply

    Her point is to encourage people to “live your life to bring joy, love, and peace to all mankind”

    Says it right there on her sign.

    It’s also possible that she’s letting people know that she’s proud of not accepting baseless supernatural claims, and that other people should be proud of it also.

    Did you ask her what her point is? Only she would know. Did you run her through the good person test?

    • Steve Sanchez

      Reply

      Yes I did. When I mentioned that she got her answers from atheist websites, she smiled sheepishly. You know, that old saw: “What god are you talking about? Zeus? Thor?” etc.

      perdita: Sometimes a picture tells a better tale than my story. And it saves me a thousand words. And sometimes I’m in a hurry. And…

  5. vintango2k

    Reply

    “Poor woman. She has no idea that everything she has is thanks to the God she doesn’t believe in.”

    I agree, Zeus did so much for humanity, he fought the titans and cast them down low. Because of Zeus, the titan Atlas now holds up the sky so we aren’t crushed under the weight of the heavens! She’s very ungrateful indeed. =)

  6. Nohm

    Reply

    Steve, some people have come to those conclusions on their own, without websites. It’s not as if, until the internet came along, there weren’t any atheist arguments because none of us could crib from someone else’s work.

    I also question how “sheepish” her smile was, but that’s neither here nor there.

    When you said “Yes I did”, was that in answer to my question of you asking her what her point was, or was that in answer to my question of you running her through the good person test?

    Regardless, what was her response?

    Lastly, what do you think is the point to someone asking you “What god are you talking about?”

  7. Nohm

    Reply

    Wait wait wait… saying for the sake of the discussion that she *did* get her answers from atheist sites, do you think that there’s anything wrong with that?

    Because you grab many of your answers from Christian websites, correct?

    If you see nothing wrong with her doing the same, then no problem.

  8. A Soldier for Jesus

    Reply

    And sometimes, you just don’t need to do an essay every time.

    It seems to me that many atheists have “bandwagon convictions”. That is, they join the atheist bandwagon for the (waning) shock value, because they have friends doing it, to impress someone, or just for attention. If they were serious, they would do more than just read hate-filled Websites and comparing notes with “me too” types.

  9. BathTub

    Reply

    I imagine it’s the sheepish smile you get when you flee from the conversation, or perhaps like Tony did last week.

    My guess is she thought religion was a significantly negative force on the world that she would take some time out to say so.

  10. vintango2k

    Reply

    Usually people who wield signs are being proactive about something they believe in, ie. Steve. and that they want to get out the message, regardless of people agreeing with them or not. Sometimes its also just to get attention, people go out to draw attention to a cause, a belief, or perhaps just themselves. Any of those reasons work, eh Gnome? =)

  11. Nohm

    Reply

    Soldier for Jesus wrote:

    “It seems to me that many atheists have “bandwagon convictions”. That is, they join the atheist bandwagon for the (waning) shock value, because they have friends doing it, to impress someone, or just for attention.”

    I disagree.

    I think that if you read many “deconversion stories”, you’ll find that it was the opposite for many atheists when they announced it to their religious family.

    I certainly didn’t become an atheist to join anything. I simply no longer believed in any gods. By default, that made me an atheist.

    For my family, there certainly was no shock value to it, as my dad’s immediate side of the family are mostly apatheists. I had no friends “doing it” back then; the majority of my friends were born-agains, and the friends who weren’t were mostly mainstream Christians. I didn’t do it to impress anyone (why would that impress anyone?), and I didn’t get any attention out of it, so it would be silly if I became an atheist for that.

    Soldier for Jesus, what you wrote does not at all match the experiences that I know of. Do you know of people where you can confidently claim that they match your description?

    Also, exactly what do you mean by “they would do more than…”? What do you think we should be doing?

  12. Nohm

    Reply

    Oh, my bad. I just realized who you are, Soldier for Jesus aka Stormbringer.

  13. Vagon

    Reply

    Steve it seems you are going to be barbequing right next to me, Matthew 5:22.

    Soldier for Jesus, you should change your name to Psychic for Jesus seeing as you pretend you know what motivates atheists.

  14. BathTub

    Reply

    Well Stormy, we do often point out how terrible most of the mind reading is around here but the Christians do pretend to be able to do it and just keep on pretending it works.

  15. Anonymous

    Reply

    Too bad her sign didn’t just have “LIVE YOUR LIFE TO BRING JOY, LOVE AND PEACE TO ALL MANKIND.”

    The real purpose of her sign was to insult any person of faith that looked at it.

  16. Anonymous

    Reply

    Steve,

    What group or church was behind the evangelical picket signs on The Strand?

    • Steve Sanchez

      Reply

      @ Anonymous,

      They are the Broman Family. More on them, possibly Thursday. They are the “Nice” sign guys. Quiet. Gentle. Signs w/Scripture only. They have a wonderful back story. Stay tuned.

  17. Nameless Cynic

    Reply

    Stormy! Haven’t seen you around this site, have I?

    (I got accused of being an inverse-poe once because Stormy let down his Cone of Silence and I got about half my arguments through on his site. Yeah, good times…)

    And speaking of people who get all their arguments from websites, how you doin’? And are you really going with the “atheists just do it because all their friends do” meme? I’ve never figured how that one even made sense. Although there are more Secular Student Alliance groups in high schools every year, it’s not like they’re even a particularly measurable minority.

    And in a majority-Christian country like the US (varies by poll, but usually 85%+), if all your friends are atheists… well, that’s a very special community, isn’t it? (“Special,” in this case, meaning “imaginary” – thought I’d gut that strawman before Stormy came blustering in; he’s good for that.)

  18. Anonymous

    Reply

    Thanks for the info Steve.

    I liked the Broman signs a lot. I have seen similar signs being displayed in Venice Beach as well as the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas.

    I was curious if these “sign evangelists” were individual people/groups or if they were part of a larger ministry or network.

    I think it is an interesting strategy to spread the Gospel. I hope that they are blessed in their work.

  19. Nohm

    Reply

    Steve, you might have missed these questions to you that I asked above:

    When you said “Yes I did”, was that in answer to my question of you asking her what her point was, or was that in answer to my question of you running her through the good person test?

    Regardless, what was her response?

    Lastly, what do you think is the point to someone asking you “What god are you talking about?”

  20. vintango2k

    Reply

    @Soldier

    Have you ever spent time with atheists before, I attended a meet up group with them because I have a buddy that’s an atheist and it was very enlightening to say the least. There weren’t any real bandwagon jumpers there, just people who didn’t believe the things that the various religions were telling them. Its sort of the same way those pesky Native American people didn’t believe in the Christian God as the only God until their way of life was completely crushed by those compassionate Christians who just knew better than they did it seems…

  21. A Soldier for Jesus

    Reply

    “I just realized who you are, Soldier for Jesus aka Stormbringer.”

    I guess that means that you do not have to be civil any longer? Then I won’t waste your time and mine with a discussion.

  22. Steve Sanchez

    Reply

    Welcome, Stormbringer. Please contribute to the discussions because so few Christians do. Glad to have you!

    Nohm, I did miss the questions. I’m readying for a move into our new home (our first).

    I did take this lady through the Good Person Test and she understood very clearly where she was headed. We parted as friends.

    In regard to “which god”? I laugh because if one is a Christian, one believes in the One True God, God in the flesh: Jesus. I’m amazed that atheists can’t/won’t understand that.

  23. Nohm

    Reply

    Steve, it’s not the case that atheists can’t/won’t understand that, it’s that I think you misunderstand the point of an atheist asking you, “which god?”

    If you’d like me to explain the reasoning behind that question, I will. The nutshell is this: they’re asking you that question to remind you that, even though you view there as being only one God, to us He’s just one of thousands. Also, unless you specify exactly which religion and sect you belong to, we have no idea what you’re talking about when you use the word “God”.

    You may think you believe in the One True God, but to us it’s no different than a Muslim stating that he believes in the One True God, Allah.

  24. Nohm

    Reply

    Soldier for Jesus wrote:

    “I guess that means that you do not have to be civil any longer?”

    Way to jump to (the wrong) conclusions.

  26. Nameless Cynic

    Reply

    I guess that means that you do not have to be civil any longer?

    Dude, why pretend? You’re never civil from the beginning. Those of us who’ve played with you know this, and Steve’s about to learn.

    Then I won’t waste your time and mine with a discussion.

    Yeah, what I just said (I hate to repeat myself). You’re going to throw out the standard lines, and when they’re batted out of the park, it’s all ad hominem, all the time.

  27. A Soldier for Jesus

    Reply

    “You’re never civil from the beginning.”

    That’s a flat-out lie. You came onto my Weblog’s comments area being snide and abusive, and I didn’t let it fly. You’ve been sulking (and lying about it) since then. Dishonesty is in my huge list of why I don’t trust atheists.

  28. Nameless Cynic

    Reply

    “You’ve been sulking (and lying about it) since then.”

    Really? This is the first time I’ve mentioned it that I recall.

    Ah, I take that back. I was pointed to this blog where they were talking about you and your fascinating commenting policy. I’m not clear where I was sulking or lying there, but hey. Whatevs.

    But let’s see.

    You came onto my Weblog’s comments area being snide and abusive

    Well, here’s the offending page in question. We’ll let the friendly people here decide who comes off as “snide and abusive.” (OK, yeah, I did call you “cupcake” once – is that the problem?)

    Dishonesty is in my huge list of why I don’t trust atheists.

    And the dishonesty is where, exactly? Because I try to source my arguments in the Scripture, except where I point out logical discrepancies (or where it’s appropriate to bring up outside sources). It’s a simple schtick, and easy for me to work with.

    (And, incidentally, just because you deeply believe something doesn’t mean it’s true – thus, me pointing out contradictions does not qualify as “lying”)

  30. Vagon

    Reply

    Oh noes, the tough Soldier for Jesus had his feelings hurt and so he locks down his blog. Of course censoring people is far more honest than say, an open discussion.

  31. A Soldier for Jesus

    Reply

    “And, incidentally, just because you deeply believe something doesn’t mean it’s true – thus, me pointing out contradictions does not qualify as ‘lying'”.

    So, reread your attacking comments. In fact, that is just how you started here, on the attack. And you have the nerve play the victim card?

    vintango2k says:@Soldier

    “Are you implying all atheists are dishonest?”

    Did I say that? Give me a little credit, I do try to avoid such statements.

    Wow, I feel like I’m back on the school playground. Why do atheists love to troll Christian Weblogs so much? When you have to follow rules (such as my refusal to allow each and every comment), you put up ad homenem attacks, straw man fallacies, ad hoc and others.

    By the way, I am quoting some atheist trolls in my next article at Stormbringer’s Thunder, hopefully publishing it tonight. Thanks for the help!

  32. A Soldier for Jesus

    Reply

    By the way, the outright lie that I’m am always antagonistic will be put to rest by a look at the Weblog itself. Cynic attacks, attacks again, cries because I did not put up with his nonsense, lies — here, let me do a bit of your work. This post is one of a couple that I wrote in answer to an atheist’s questions. Also, despite a rocky start, you may want to ask WEM about our discussions, but I do not have the time and inclination to plead my case any further.

    So, watch out for the “You’re never civil from the beginning” absolute statements, and lying, in the future, mmmmkay, Skippy?

  33. Nohm

    Reply

    Nameless Cynic,

    Thank you for the links in your last comment.

    Stormbringer,

    I think it’s always important to be civil to people. I was just acknowledging that having a discussion with you would probably not be fruitful, but I’ll be happy to be wrong about that.

    First things first, though: you cannot mind-read. Seriously. You do not have that superpower. Therefore, please be careful about telling others how and what they think.

    Thank you.

  34. Nohm

    Reply

    Soldier for Jesus aka Stormbringer,

    I asked you the following questions earlier in this thread. If you are able to, please give me your answers (these questions are regarding what you wrote in this comment):

    Soldier for Jesus, what you wrote does not at all match the experiences that I know of. Do you know of people where you can confidently claim that they match your description?

    Also, exactly what do you mean by “they would do more than…”? What do you think we should be doing?

  35. Dennis

    Reply

    @ A Soldier for Jesus

    I can see you get pretty passionate about defending the faith which is a good thing. However if I may suggest a few things?

    Don’t let anyone (including Atheists) get you to react to them in the flesh. It doesn’t do your Christian witness any good when you resort to name calling or talking down to others. As Jesus said don’t repay evil with evil. If you restrain yourself and pray for these lost people instead and let your witness be untainted.

    Just reading your few comments here on this blog thread I already get the sense that you take things very personally but remember what Jesus told us in the Beatitudes that you are BLESSED when they call you names / persecute you for HIS name sake! That’s how they treated the prophets. So rejoice! Be happy that they are treating you this way.
    Your reaction to their name calling, lies, accusations, slander should be with love, compassion, much prayer, and much Bible! We don’t need to fight this fight – God does the fighting for us. His Holy Spirit does it for us.

    In other words keep on evangelizing and reaching out to the lost that’s great! Keep in mind that those you are trying to reach out to are blind so why would you get frustrated? Also if they spit on you – remember they spit on Jesus, plucked out his beard, and stripped the flesh of his body. What was our Lord’s reaction?? He took it. We must strive to do the same when a few Atheists throw a few words at us. Again answer any anger and hatred with LOVE. Go the extra mile. Turn the other cheek. Don’t get de-railed from your mission and don’t disqualify from the race. Finish it strong! Preaching Christ and Him crucified.

    God Bless you I will be praying for you that God grants you His wisdom as you continue to serve Him. Remember we are ambassadors of Christ – we represent the RISEN King of Kings.

    In other words there is no need for us to talk down to anyone, call them names, or even get frustrated. We just step aside and say: can you get this one Jesus? The enemy will try to side track you and get you down to the unbelievers level – so always put on your armor before posting and doing battle! Amen? God Bless

  36. Nohm

    Reply

    Stormbringer, replying to vintango, wrote:

    “Are you implying all atheists are dishonest?”

    Did I say that? Give me a little credit, I do try to avoid such statements.

    This is what you wrote:

    “Dishonesty is in my huge list of why I don’t trust atheists.”

    When I parse that, it certainly appears to me that you’re implying that all atheists are dishonest. Please show how to parse that in a way that would not give that implication.

  37. Nohm

    Reply

    Soldier for Jesus,

    For the record, I’d like to say that your view of your discussion with Nameless Cynic is not necessarily my view.

    Also, while it’s possible that you might feel that you’re not antagonistic, it’s a common thing for people to not realize exactly how they’re coming off to other people. It’s something that I myself had to work on when I was younger (and, it can be argued, I’m still working on).

    In other words, it’s possible that you don’t see yourself as being antagonistic, while other people (in the most honest and humble of ways) think that you are.

  38. vintango2k

    Reply

    @ Storm

    ” Dishonesty is in my huge list of why I don’t trust atheists.”

    Shouldn’t you have then written…

    “Dishonesty is in my huge list of why I don’t trust SOME atheists.”

    If I you had written…

    “Dishonesty is in my huge list of why I don’t trust black people.”

    I would call you a racist.

    You see how people can interpret and take offense when you make sweeping statements like that right?

  39. Nohm

    Reply

    Vin,

    Even if he had written

    “Dishonesty is in my huge list of why I don’t trust some atheists.”

    How is that substantially different from saying:

    “Dishonesty is in my huge list of why I don’t trust some people.”

    I mean, does anyone really have to mention that any person’s dishonesty would make them hard to trust?

  40. vintango2k

    Reply

    Good point Gnome, its sort of stating the obvious really, unless you’re in the habit of trusting dishonest people.

  41. Patrick

    Reply

    @Dennis

    You are scaring me. What you wrote above sounds passive aggressive and shows me that you have been set up by the bible and the people around you that what you believe is the ultimate truth and no matter what anyone shows you even if it were/is irrefutable evidence against your belief system that you won’t budge. What your statement to me sums up is this: “When people argue against you this should tell you that you are right.”

    It also makes it sound like you guys are the victims and not the inciters, which is what you are. You go to other peoples events and passive aggressively (or however you would state that) confront people.

    I hope that one day you will start to read more than just the bible. I am sorry that I wasn’t there more for you when you had no friends. I am sorry that I let you get convinced into believing that your nature is a sin. I should have questioned you more when you told me that you found god, instead of just saying “great, i am happy for you”. I should of shared with you my out of body experiences and let you know that the demon you saw was just a trick of the mind. I hope that you will someday find your sanity again. I hope that you finally overcome your fears. Please stop trying to save people from something you don’t truly know really exists. If you want to pray, pray. Find your own truth. Keep religion personal. Since you said yourself:

    “We don’t need to fight this fight – God does the fighting for us. His Holy Spirit does it for us.”

    Then do that. Live by example. Feed the hungry, bath the dirty and all that stuff.
    I don’t believe in a ruling god and I have had “religious” experiences. But having had so never made me want to go out and change others beliefs. Dennis, your actions and the person you have become makes me feel sad for you. Part of me really wants to help you and the other part still thinks that you will just figure it out for yourself. Obviously, it has been a long time and the latter part is losing out, hence the comment.

    Patrick (your brother)

    p.s. any argument against what i just said will only prove to me that I am right (that is meant as a joke?)

  42. Mr. Gordons

    Reply

    Atheists are notorious liars and manipulators. No wonder they’re the least trusted.

  43. perdita

    Reply

    Mr. Gordons, do you think atheists lie and manipulate more than theists? What do you base this opinion on?

  45. vintango2k

    Reply

    How enlightened a statement Mr. Gordons, as a reward I present you your troll crown, may your reign as King Troll be a peaceful one. =)

  46. Nohm

    Reply

    Well, Mr. Gordons, that’s certainly one viewpoint. Mind explaining why you feel that way?

  47. Scotty-MB

    Reply

    I don’t know what the point of her sign was, but when I saw her at the Fiesta, I asked her if she was willing to bet me on it whether there’s a God or not!

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