Thursday, December 04, 2008

Thank Cthulhu, some people are still fighting the culture wars.

I thought after the election of Obama, that we'd turn our serious attention to the big problems of the world like war, poverty, hunger and the seemingly limitless ability of our fellow human beings to behave like giant dicks. But apparently all that stuff's been fixed.

Because a lot of people have the time to complain about these transit ads paid for by The American Humanist Association. The message of the ads is shocking, I know. That people could be good, not out of fear of being cast into a lake of fire, but out of genuine concern for the people you share the planet with.

How dare they!?

There was a time in this nation when Thomas Paine, the voice of the American revolution, could question the existence of God without anyone wetting their pants. But not today. In these enlightened times just asking the question, "why believe in god?" has brought hundreds of letters in protest.

"That ad is obscene to me! I wouldn't want my children reading that," one letter said.

Really? You wouldn't want to use this as a teaching moment to enlighten your children not only to your beliefs but the beliefs of others, and how this makes America a better country than say, Iran? You wouldn't want that?

Jesus.

Another threatened to call the ACLU on the grounds that the ads violated a separation of church and state. The pretzel logic of that one makes my head hurt this early in the a.m.

According to a report from WTOP.com, "It's not clear how many of those who complained actually ride the Metro system, as all but five complaints arrived via e-mail. One signed an e-mail as a "D.C. resident, Metro rider, and 'BELIEVER' in God," while another writer acknowledged, "I have never had the privilege to actually visit Washington, D.C."

That first letter writer must be a better person than you or me, because they're not only a believer, but a BELIEVER. I'm impressed by their command of the caps lock key, aren't you?

But if some of the letter writers don't live in DC, how did they hear about the ads? Why, from FOX News, of course.

Actually, I'm happy that people are obsessed with bullshit like this. Without them, I might actually have to write about important stuff. And really, what fun is that?

*Thanks for this story to Jen, a strong woman with patience and a finely wrought sense of the absurd.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Believers:

God doesn't like fucktards. So quit acting like one.

Luv,

Jim the reluctant agnostic

JD Rhoades said...

Christians and Jews are free to purchase as much advertising as they want in the promotion of their Sky God. In fact, I can point you to half a dozen billboards and signs within a ten mile radius of my house reminding me that 'SIN CAN'T WIN, FAITH CAN'T FAIL" and if I BELIEVE ON THE LORD Jesus Christ, I SHALT be SAVED." All of which is perfectly fine with me. Except maybe the one up to Sanford with the Bible passage that's so long that I'm afraid people trying to read it will run into other drivers.

Once again, Christians are outraged that not only do people have a belief different from theirs, they actually have the unmitigated gall to express it.

Unknown said...

Thank you for saying what I was thinking, but in a much more interesting way than I could have. I think we're moving towards more tolerance in this country, but we've got a long way to go when it comes to religion. We can almost tolerate non-Christian believers (except for Muslims), but if someone doesn't believe in any higher power, that's just too much to comprehend.

John McFetridge said...

I wonder if it makes a difference that it isn't, "why believe in god?" but "Why believe in a god?" Certainly people aren't upset that it's not god-specific?

At least we know JD didn't pay for the ad or it would have said, "Why believe in a sky god?"

Ha, sky god, that's funny.

WestonBoys said...

Or perhaps it's not that "a god" lacks specificity, but that it implies an okay-ness with pantheism that makes some people feel uncomfortable?

In the same vein, perhaps it was the lowercasing of "god" in the ad that provoked the BELIEVER to typographical erectitude.