This is one thing I shouted on the UC Berkeley campus yesterday for Cal Day. Cal Day is a day for prospective students and their parents to visit campus to learn about the departments, campus, and activities. The atheist group that I am a part of was tabling, and I decided to become an atheist street preacher. I called out those listed above, plus masturbators, ravers, blasphemers, immodest dressers, condom users, the promiscuous, potheads, drinkers, foreigners, bacon lovers, infidels, harlots, and a number of other types of people identified on the sign I'm standing with below.
There were people who were just annoyed with the yelling, and I did have a guy show me his bible and say "This is the truth", to which I replied "It's all a bunch of stuff made up in the desert thousands of years ago." My chants also included
- WE ARE ATHEISTS AND WE ARE PROUD!
- KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, WE LOVE YOU
- YOU WILL NOT BE ADMITTED TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, IT DOES NOT EXIST, BUT YOU ARE A PART OF THE KINGDOM ANIMALIA, THE CLASS MAMMALA, AND THE SPECIES HOMO SAPIENS
- DO NOT LIE AWAKE AT NIGHT WORRYING THAT YOU WILL GO TO HELL, ENJOY WHAT COMES NATURALLY TO YOU
- WE WON'T CONDEMN YOU, WE CAN'T, WE ARE JUST LIKE YOU!
- (when I would include Immodest Dressers)WEAR WHAT YOU WANT, INCLUDING YOUR HEADDRESS OR YARMULKE, WE LOVE YOU
- (and while in the middle of campus, near the "Stop the Cuts" signs) ENJOY CAL DAY, YOU DID ALL THIS, NOT SOME MAGIC SKY FAIRY, THIS IS YOUR SCHOOL!
I am pointing at a specific term in this picture particularly for your [and my] amusement. This poster includes a number of terms that have been seen on posters of street preachers, condemning such people, which is why we have "Cal Fans", "Obama Voters", "Money Lovers", and "Dirty Dancers". The guy on the left is the VP/webmaster of our group.
I also had a lot of fun just being able to yell things. It was interesting to watch others attempt to yell, because they didn't have nearly the volume I could muster. And I know we're not all atheists on here, but this was just too exciting to not post about :D
Car Pictures will be coming soon too
7 comments:
Love it.
Now we wait for the inevitable "This makes you no different from obnoxious religious proselytizers" comment.
if i were an atheist, i would have committed right away.
life's unfair, why live it?
But...isn't it similar? Don't both involve standing in a public space transmitting a message that cannot be empirically proven to people who aren't open to receiving it in the first place? Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems that in this case the only difference is that you're not on the receiving end of the unsolicited message.
Now we wait for the inevitable comment shit-storm wherein the atheists attempt to school someone who more or less agrees with their views but does not agree with the effectiveness of their delivery methods.:)
First of all, you're wrong about the existence of deities being outside of scientific inquiry. When you make a claim about the existence of something, you're making a claim about the state of the universe. If I think that Bigfoot exists, that's a testable claim. Whether or not there is a god is a question for science, as much as theists would like to claim otherwise.
Urs's message is inherently non-threatening, unlike theistic messages of hellfire, sexual shame, etc. There is a difference between having a good time and trying to shit all over other people's good time (i.e. the Christians in Lincoln who stand outside the movie theater with their signs and chastise college students every weekend). It's actually fairly important to get the message out that there are non-believers and that it's ok to be a non-believer. Often when people de-convert, they are completely alone. People may keep their doubts to themselves for fear of ending up alone.
Anyway, I'm going to play video games now.
Who are you trying to convince? The religious right are already sold on God and are never coming back.
Are there independents when it comes to religion? Those you're trying to get to vote for your side?
If there are, I doubt yelling sells anyone on your message. Yelling is inherently threatening, regardless of message.
Maybe you could go to elementary schools and give a small presentation to young minds that haven't come to any conclusions yet, or get some sort of school set up that tries to keep religious teachings away from scholastic endeavors.
Erica gets it
It's just reaching out to provide a safe space for a group of people who, according to default culture, are the "other".
Duh.
It's similar to the whole Gay Pride stuff, the GSA groups, women's safe spaces/groups, or ethnic minority groups. Because the "others" who aren't the "default" in society need safe spaces and need to know that they are okay, there are other people like them out there, they aren't freaks.
I get it. I'm sure most female-bodied people get it too. Or I should say, anyone who is an "other" in whatever way.
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