How Fast Are You?

From Savage Chickens, daily cartoons about chickens on post-its.

Reader Dave commented on yesterday’s post about those pro-atheist ads that will be running in New York transit stations soon.

Quoth he:

My only issue with this is that it is creating a double standard for expression of religion (or lack thereof). How is it that the Ten Commandments are banned from public court houses everywhere but tax payer funded public transportation can be used for support the Atheist movement? I don’t think this is right. I think there are a plethora of other places this could have been done without encroaching on public funded domains. I certainly understand why someone would not want to have to go ride the subway everyday and have the ten commandments, or any other religious doctrine, staring you in the face. However, there are two sides to that story. I do believe in God and I would not want to have to go ride the subway everyday and be visually told that I should just denounce that belief. I respect your convictions and definitely empathize with, what I am sure, is a personal belief that you may find yourself constantly defending. I just ask that you respect mine in return.

I replied to Dave’s comment, but I’d like to re-post my reply here because, frankly, I want to be really clear about a couple things.

In my (ever so humble) opinion, freedom of religion and freedom of speech are essential human rights. Therefore, I will not only respect your beliefs, but I consider it my duty to promote and defend your right to believe as you will, and your right to express yourself as you will.

(continue reading…)

These posters will soon appear in subway and transit stations all over the city of New York. I approve.¹

CNN reports:

On October 26, a dozen bustling New York City subway stations will be adorned with the ads as “part of a coordinated multi-organizational advertising campaign designed to raise awareness about people who don’t believe in a god”, according to a statement from the group, the Big Apple Coalition of Reason…

[Michael De Dora Jr., executive director of the New York Center for Inquiry,] says the ambitions behind the advertisements are threefold.First, the coalition hopes the promotion will enhance awareness of New York City’s secular community. He explained that the coalition also hopes to encourage “talking and thinking about religion and morality,” as well as support involvement in groups that encourage a sense of a social community for non-believing New Yorkers.

John Rafferty, president of the Secular Humanist Society of New York, another member group of the coalition, said the ads are in no way an anti-religious campaign. They are looking to reach out to more people who have similar feelings, but might not be aware of an outlet to express their beliefs, he said.

Rafferty and De Dora cite the American Religious Identification Survey, released earlier this year, as evidence of a shift away from organized religion. Those checking “none” for religion rose from 8 percent of the population in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008, effectively making “no religion” the fastest growing religious identification in the United States.

It is nice to be reminded occasionally that I’m not alone in my godless decadence lifestyle.

Via jesthered.