Our ATHEIST billboard in Lakeland, Florida

[Vietnamvet-BRIGHT]

FYI: yesterday, Sunday Nov 2, our organization, Atheists of Florida, placed an atheist billboard in probably the single most religious town in Florida: Lakeland.



Tampa Tribune/Tampa Bay Online (TBO.com) article & reader comments ...

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/02 ... billboard/

News video by Tampa TV station Channel 8 interviewing Rob (president of Atheists of Florida) and some Lakeland residents about the billboard ...

http://www2.tbo.com/video/2009/nov/02/c ... ideo-news/


If you live in the area and want to see our sign, it is located in Lakeland at the corner of Highway 92 (Memorial Blvd) and Martin Luther King Jr Ave.



John (VietnamVet-BRIGHT)
Chairman of the Board
http://atheistsofflorida.org/

[stijndeloose]

Cool!

[Amethyst Deceiver]

I was reading about the same sign being put up in Charleston by the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry organization.

That stamp is great! I want one!

LAKELAND - Motorists along one of Lakeland's major thoroughfares are being greeted with a billboard asking a provocative question: "Don't believe in God?"

Then there's the answer: "You are not alone."

Um, that's not the answer.

[Vietnamvet-BRIGHT]

Just edited the OP ... added a news station's video clip about the board:

http://www2.tbo.com/video/2009/nov/02/c ... ideo-news/

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[Neil C]

Nice work, vietnamvet-BRIGHT, very nice work !!
I will be so very interested to hear all about your updates on this fantastic inititive. Thanks from Neil in Australia.

[Bert62]

A breath of fresh air !

[james1v]

[Fraser]

Bravo Vietnamvet-BRIGHT

[Elena]

Admired congrats from highly Catholic South Florida

[Aurlito]

"Preaching" Atheism. good luck.

[GTI]

"Preaching" Atheism. good luck.

"Don't believe in God? You are not alone."

Please explain how this sentence is "preaching".

[Arachno]

Beautiful

[Vietnamvet-BRIGHT]

More news stations are picking up on this story ...

Tampa's ABC Ch 28 ... article and video ... http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local ... ZODYA.cspx



This one shows someone vaguely identified as a pastor with a megaphone screaming to take the sign down and our Atheists of Florida president's great response to the request.


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[Neil C]

Again I would just like to say thank you for going on the front foot and taking the tosspots to task!!
You show us that there is perhaps some hope of defeating the army of the stupid and vapid.

[DanHurt]

Great job!

Are you concerned some of those folks will want to cause problems at your meeting?

[Vietnamvet-BRIGHT]

Great job!

Are you concerned some of those folks will want to cause problems at your meeting?

There is always that possibility when exposed to people who should be deemed clinically insane to various degrees; afterall, we're dealing with folks who truly believe that they are in personal contact with, on a mission for, and suffering for, an invisible alien and his sacrificial alien son.

BTW, illustrating the delusional nature of the local populace, I just got this pic in my email taken by one of our A of F members:

For those who can't make the trip, here's a shot of the location - note the funeral home's slogan, couldn't be better positioning!

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[Neil C]

Hi Vietnamvet-BRIGHT, I enjoy your stamping of the greenbacks.
I can picture some God Botherer preacher lecturing folk about your greenback grafitti saying; "the only things that belong on the great American currancy are praise to Mr. God and cocaine residue !!"

[hackenslash]

Good stuff, John. I hope you get a good turnout for the meeting.

[Vietnamvet-BRIGHT]

Hi Vietnamvet-BRIGHT, I enjoy your stamping of the greenbacks.
I can picture some God Botherer preacher lecturing folk about your greenback grafitti saying; "the only things that belong on the great American currancy are praise to Mr. God and cocaine residue !!"

Thanks, Neil. I know of three incidents in which upset Christers either tore up or burned my stamped bills after getting them back as change.

In another incident, a older, retired Christer representing a gaggle of coffee guzzling Christers in a McDonalds restaurant threatened to beat me up as I stamped them. He stated that "brave men fought in wars for punks like me to have the right to do what I was doing;" that's when I reached down and put on my hat (shown below) and said "Really, tell me about it" ... that's when he went totally ballistic.



Life is fun.

(BTW, the badge on the hat is a Combat Infantry Badge or "CIB" awarded to US Army infantry soldiers & officers who have been in actual combat)

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[Elena]

Hi Vietnamvet-BRIGHT, I enjoy your stamping of the greenbacks.
I can picture some God Botherer preacher lecturing folk about your greenback grafitti saying; "the only things that belong on the great American currancy are praise to Mr. God and cocaine residue !!"

Thanks, Neil. I know of three incidents in which upset Christers either tore up or burned my stamped bills after getting them back as change.

In another incident, a older, retired Christer representing a gaggle of coffee guzzling Christers in a McDonalds restaurant threatened to beat me up as I stamped them. He stated that "brave men fought in wars for punks like me to have the right to do what I was doing;" that's when I reached down and put on my hat (shown below) and said "Really, tell me about it" ... that's when he went totally ballistic.



Life is fun.

(BTW, the badge on the hat is a Combat Infantry Badge or "CIB" awarded to US Army infantry soldiers & officers who have been in actual combat)

[hackenslash]

Hi Vietnamvet-BRIGHT, I enjoy your stamping of the greenbacks.
I can picture some God Botherer preacher lecturing folk about your greenback grafitti saying; "the only things that belong on the great American currancy are praise to Mr. God and cocaine residue !!"

Thanks, Neil. I know of three incidents in which upset Christers either tore up or burned my stamped bills after getting them back as change.

In another incident, a older, retired Christer representing a gaggle of coffee guzzling Christers in a McDonalds restaurant threatened to beat me up as I stamped them. He stated that "brave men fought in wars for punks like me to have the right to do what I was doing;" that's when I reached down and put on my hat (shown below) and said "Really, tell me about it" ... that's when he went totally ballistic.



Life is fun.

(BTW, the badge on the hat is a Combat Infantry Badge or "CIB" awarded to US Army infantry soldiers & officers who have been in actual combat)

.

Priceless!

[Vietnamvet-BRIGHT]

Priceless!

Actually there's a bit more to the event that lead to things at that McDonalds that fateful morning in Tampa.

As I was stamping away on a stack of fresh one dollar bills, the Christer/religiot came over to my table and smilingly asked me what I was stamping on the money. When I showed him one of the bills, he got visibly red and warned me that what I was doing was "against the law!" I pointed to his cell phone clipped to his belt and suggested that given that he had a phone and was witnessing a crime being committed that he call the police. That's when all hell broke loose as described above.


Like shooting ducks at the sheep arcade

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[Galactor]

John,

Congratulations on your campaign, good luck with the organisation and "give it some".

[jel]

Priceless!

Actually there's a bit more to the event that lead to things at that McDonalds that fateful morning in Tampa.

As I was stamping away on a stack of fresh one dollar bills, the Christer/religiot came over to my table and smilingly asked me what I was stamping on the money. When I showed him one of the bills, he got visibly red and warned me that what I was doing was "against the law!" I pointed to his cell phone clipped to his belt and suggested that given that he had a phone and was witnessing a crime being committed that he call the police. That's when all hell broke loose as described above.


Like shooting ducks at the sheep arcade

.

[rachelsinatra]

What gets me the most is that the billboard is extremely neutral. It makes no statement except "You are not alone". It simply asks a question. The reaction is as if the billboard says "There is no God. Fuck You!"

Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of these pop up. I have seen a couple of the anti-atheist, anti-evolution ones around where I live and I'm in Los Angeles! Edited to add photo of said billboard (which reads: ATHEIST: Someone who believes that something came from nothing. A scientific impossibility!)