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Atheists 'Slaves Obey Your Masters'


ChloeB

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HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The billboard is down, but the issue's not gone.

A billboard erected in one of the city's most racially diverse neighborhoods featured an African slave with the biblical quote, "Slaves, obey your masters." It lasted less than a day before someone tore it down.

Now, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission is investigating and is meeting with both the atheists who sponsored it as well as leaders of the NAACP who found it offensive and racially charged.

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r-ATHEIST-SLAVERY-BILLBOARD-large570.jpg

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Too cute by half. And they nearly were hoist on their own petard....boom! :innocent:

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May be off-topic, but does the Bible mention the race of the slaves? I've never understood why slavery is associated with black people. I would say most slaves in history weren't black.

It seems like those atheists were revealing their own racism.

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May be off-topic, but does the Bible mention the race of the slaves? I've never understood why slavery is associated with black people. I would say most slaves in history weren't black.

It seems like those atheists were revealing their own racism.

Valid point and I agree.

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Heaven forbid the opponents of the Bible actually use the Bible in their offensive. Good on the Atheists I say.

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Why, why, why must people insist in sacrificing Common Sense for the sake of passion? Is it really so difficult to be ready and willing to fight for your beliefs, but at least consider that others may not believe the same way that you do, that their focus may not be on what you focus on?

What an utterly bone-headed move. In one fell swoop, these idiots managed to offend people on a cultural, racial, and intellectual level. It is so much easier to sympathize with rational theists, now that we atheists have our own group of militants determined to make everyone look like asses.

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The Bible quote is taken out of context, as usual.

And I agree that the slaves in the Bible were most likely not the same ethnicity as was depicted on the billboard.

Also, the word is "servant" (but has been translated as "slave" in translations other than KJV)

Colossians 3

King James Version (KJV)

Colossians 3

1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

6For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:

7In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

8But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

9Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

10And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

11Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

12Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

13Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

14And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

15And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

18Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

19Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

20Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

21Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

22Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God;

23And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

24Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

25But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

Edited by msm57
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:no: Oh boy. Yeah, I'd say they went about it the wrong way.
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This is the problem with the New Atheist movement. They get extreme like religious groups and do stupid things. This was obviously a jab at the Bible. They should have just **EDIT** and not done anything. I mean what are they trying to prove? What, are they trying to show that a 2-3 thousand year old book supports slavery? Man how clever and educated these atheists are...

**Profanity filters are there for a reason, Hutton.**

Edited by aquatus1
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Wow. I live about 10 miles south of where this billboard is and knew nothing about it! Knowing the area.... this billboard isn't shocking at all. <_<

May be off-topic, but does the Bible mention the race of the slaves? I've never understood why slavery is associated with black people. I would say most slaves in history weren't black.

It seems like those atheists were revealing their own racism.

In the US slavery is most often associated with black people because within the US the most notorious example of slavery was African slaves. There's still tension in some places because of it and the civil war.

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Not clever or helpful in thier argument. Waste of money and detrimental to thier ideals. Regretful.

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Why, why, why must people insist in sacrificing Common Sense for the sake of passion? Is it really so difficult to be ready and willing to fight for your beliefs, but at least consider that others may not believe the same way that you do, that their focus may not be on what you focus on?

What an utterly bone-headed move. In one fell swoop, these idiots managed to offend people on a cultural, racial, and intellectual level. It is so much easier to sympathize with rational theists, now that we atheists have our own group of militants determined to make everyone look like asses.

It's kind of ironic you go to their website and the title of the web page is "Supporting Civil Rights for Atheists and the Separation of Curch and State". They're all cut from the same cloth, tit for tat, their reaction to that year of the bible thing was to go for the throat and it blew up in their faces. All of them are ridiculous, they aren't changing anything acting exactly the same as their opponents.

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Why is it that the billboard's sponsors are being condemned for highlighting a passage in the bible, while the religious zealots responsible for soliciting death threats are being almost entirely overlooked?

It's the case of the straight A student getting suspended for engaging in a school yard fight because they should know better, while the school yard bully goes unpunished because, hey, that's just the way they are. Shenanigans.

As someone that often gets behind it myself, I'm worried that this 'idiotic militant atheist' rhetoric is being pushed too far. The billboard was poorly thought out and it's unlikely to have any material positive impact, no doubt, but the public reaction appears to have entirely justified the motives behind it. Maybe if the public weren't so complacent and were more willing to call people out for improper conduct regardless of affiliation then we would see fewer atheists resorting to so-called 'militant' tactics.

But then I suppose when the scales are so lop-sided that one group is labelled "militant" for bringing attention to facts while for another it's "business as usual" when issuing death threats, there aren't going to be any quick fixes.

Edited by Raptor
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Why is it that the billboard's sponsors are being condemned for highlighting a passage in the bible, while the religious zealots responsible for soliciting death threats are being almost entirely overlooked?

Overlooked?

Have you seen some of the other threads on this site?

It's the case of the straight A student getting suspended for engaging in a school yard fight because they should know better, while the school yard bully goes unpunished because, hey, that's just the way they are. Shenanigans.

Wait, what? Who is getting punished for what? Did I miss an article or something?

As someone that often gets behind it myself, I'm worried that this 'idiotic militant atheist' rhetoric is being pushed too far. The billboard was poorly thought out and it's unlikely to have any material positive impact, no doubt, but the public reaction appears to have entirely justified the motives behind it. Maybe if the public weren't so complacent and were more willing to call people out for improper conduct regardless of affiliation then we would see fewer atheists resorting to so-called 'militant' tactics.

Wait...you are proposing that the billboard was defaced on religious grounds?

But then I suppose when the scales are so lop-sided that one group is labelled "militant" for bringing attention to facts while for another it's "business as usual" when issuing death threats, there aren't going to be any quick fixes.

What are you talking about? Both extremes of the spectrum are being referred to as militants. There have been several posts here specifically pointing out how the behaviour of both groups is identical.

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Have you seen some of the other threads on this site?

I would like to. Where should I be looking?

Wait...you are proposing that the billboard was defaced on religious grounds?

Is that not a natural conclusion to arrive at? I understand that there's a racial component to the issue but the billboard is a direct attack on religious fundamentalism while the matter of race is entirely incidental. Maybe the fact that we're discussing this here in the Spirituality vs Skepticism subforum has caused me to approach from the wrong angle. What do you think? Do you deny that there's a religious component to the public's reaction?

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I would like to. Where should I be looking?

You are in the right forum. Spirituality and Skepticism is chock-full of posts about militant religious groups, particularly judeochristian ones.

Is that not a natural conclusion to arrive at?

Honestly, didn't even enter my mind.

I understand that there's a racial component to the issue but the billboard is a direct attack on religious fundamentalism while the matter of race is entirely incidental.

Only if you are one of the atheists proposing the billboard.

If, alternatively, you tend to consider race to be a far, greater priority than religious fundamentalism, as many, people in that particular (and indeed in many other inner city neighborhoods all over the U.S.) do, then the billboard is going to be a very unpleasant reminder of a very unpleasant reality. At best (and most optimistically), it will be seen as a blatant attempt to manipulate an association between slavery and somebody's personal agenda. At worst, it will incite actual riots. This reaction? Probably the best I would personally hope for. I would much rather someone tear down an offensive poster that was rather idiotically conceived to begin with.

Maybe the fact that we're discussing this here in the Spirituality vs Skepticism subforum has caused me to approach from the wrong angle. What do you think? Do you deny that there's a religious component to the public's reaction?

Deny it? Not really. Do I think it played any significant role? Not in the slightest. I would be willing to go as far as to say it wasn't even a consideration.

The simple fact of the matter is that different people have different things they consider important, sensitive, or delicate. If you go in assuming that everyone is going to agree with what you are saying, and don't even notice that you are deeply offending everyone along the way, you should not be surprised at being rejected.

And these people, it is not their first time. They know full well they are being offensive. They hide it under the pretense of waking people up, and try to play the "Misunderstood" card when they get called on it.

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You are in the right forum. Spirituality and Skepticism is chock-full of posts about militant religious groups, particularly judeochristian ones.

Gotcha. It seemed as though you were referring to other threads involving this particular occurrence.

Deny it? Not really. Do I think it played any significant role? Not in the slightest. I would be willing to go as far as to say it wasn't even a consideration.

Fair enough. If that's your take on it then I have little choice but to yield to your superior understanding of the social nuances of the situation, but if I catch wind of any religious groups claiming responsibility for these events then I'm coming back here and you're not going to like me. tongue.gif

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Using this poster was really stoopid. If Atheists really wanted to make an impact, they should have distributed a tiny little book by a French author of the 16th century: Etienne de la Boetie. He wrote a very nice piece of work, a must read for all titled Discourse on volontary servitude. Although at the time he couldn't really involved god and the church without being burned alive, the inquisitition was in full force burning anyone resisting the vatican, at the end he hinted that religion was a detterent to free thinking.

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Fair enough. If that's your take on it then I have little choice but to yield to your superior understanding of the social nuances of the situation, but if I catch wind of any religious groups claiming responsibility for these events then I'm coming back here and you're not going to like me. tongue.gif

I shall express my feelings in the form of a poster.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Again it is not religion, or atheistic governments that are the root cause of our problems. Fanatics just show us all a mirror of what we are all capable of. The reason we study logic and talk about being rational is because we have to work at it, we are emotional reactive creatures, atheist and believers are both equally subject to his. Nothing new here. So yes it was stupid what they did, irrational, emotional and reactive, and it will only hurt their cause. They are the "Westboro Baptist church" for atheist.

peace

mark

Edited by markdohle
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Again it is not religion, or atheistic governments that are the root cause of our problems. Fanatics just show us all a mirror of what we are all capable of. The reason we study logic and talk about being rational is because we have to work at it, we are emotional reactive creatures, atheist and believers are both equally subject to his. Nothing new here. So yes it was stupid what they did, irrational, emotional and reactive, and it will only hurt their cause. They are the "Westboro Baptist church" for atheist.

peace

mark

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

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Gotcha. It seemed as though you were referring to other threads involving this particular occurrence.

Fair enough. If that's your take on it then I have little choice but to yield to your superior understanding of the social nuances of the situation, but if I catch wind of any religious groups claiming responsibility for these events then I'm coming back here and you're not going to like me. tongue.gif

As an Atheist I thought the billboard was not well thought out. I am pleased Pa. acted so fast and so graciously.

I think we can always find ways to express dissent that is considerate of all involved.

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Has anyone thought of the possibility it might have been a black atheist who created the billboard?

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Can't imagine why that would make a difference. Black people are perfectly capable of making asses of themselves as well as any other race.

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