Check out our blog entries here, here and here. Then click the video link you'll find in the Fox News story here. Fair and balanced? You decide.
You can also read the Philadelphia Inquirer's coverage here.
Friday, June 13, 2008
"Don't Believe in God?": Billboard Travels Down Turnpike to Philly
Remember the "Don't Believe in God? You Are Not Alone" guy? Heee's baaack! Well, he's in the Philadelphia area ... and getting some provocative exposure from Fox News.
Check out our blog entries here, here and here. Then click the video link you'll find in the Fox News story here. Fair and balanced? You decide.
You can also read the Philadelphia Inquirer's coverage here.
Check out our blog entries here, here and here. Then click the video link you'll find in the Fox News story here. Fair and balanced? You decide.
You can also read the Philadelphia Inquirer's coverage here.
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We spotted this billboard driving back from Philadelphia this past Sunday (22 June 2008).
ReplyDeleteA friend told me about this one. Has me steamed. Yes I Am a Christian and I DO believe in God.
ReplyDelete....
Think about it this way...
The Christians who follow their beliefs and religion. If we're wrong and there is no God, or heaven and hell. We have nothing to lose.
But.. any who don't believe?
....
And another random thought..
How can athiest be athiest? To not believe in God there would have even a remote belief in him to think that he doesn't exist.
Dear Yes-I-Believe -
ReplyDeleteI respectfully offer these responses.
Your 1st comment: This billboard targets people who already don't believe, and it tells them they are not alone. If you DO believe in God, then the message isn't targeted at you. Most advertising is targeted in this fashion. For example, an ad for ladies handbags is not targeted to men or small children. Men and small children will tend to ignore those ads. Sorry this has you steamed, but nonbelievers are a growing minority and they have every right to do this.
Your 2nd comment: Your logic seems valid. This idea became well known after it was proposed by French philosopher Blaise Pascal in the 1600's, and is often known as Pascal's Wager. But it doesn't change anything for me. I am unable to "turn on" god belief. I'm just not wired that way. Do you think someone on high has played a cruel trick on me?
Your 3rd comment: Try substituting the word "unicorns" for "God" (and adjust the pronouns). Then we have "To not believe in unicorns there would have [to be] even a remote belief in them to think that they [don't] exist." So, the new sentence seems to say that because I can conceive of unicorns they must exist. That logic doesn't seem to hold water.
On Pascal's wager -- several years ago, there was a nice discussion of this on the alumni listserv of the college I went to. Someone pointed out that there's a big flaw in Pascal's wager: it doesn't give you any guidance as to which of the numerous ways to worship God that humans practice (not to mention all the others no one has dreamed of yet) is the right one. Clearly, by what most religions claim, to worship Him in the wrong way is just as bad as not to worship Him at all. Thus, Pascal's wager falls, not by its internal logic (at least, not only by its internal logic, which philosophers have debated), but rather (also?) by the empirical evidence that it gives no guidance as to what is the right way to worship God.
ReplyDeleteOn the question of "turning on" God belief, someone in the same discussion on my alumni listserv commented on this when I raised the issue of how God could value someone's professed belief in Him if it was held merely for such selfish purposes and was not sincerely held. (God presumably knows our hearts and hence can distinguish between true faith and the mere affectation of belief.) A participant on that listserv said that Pascal's answer is the classic one -- just act as if you believe and after a while you will indeed believe. (I know that religious Jews recommend this to skeptical Jews.) That is, even if you can't will yourself to believe, you can supposedly develop faith by acting as if you believe.
This still leaves me skeptical. If we are wired to develop faith by acting as if we believe (a proposition that I doubt, but let's suppose it's true for the moment), how is such a development of faith morally any different from the insincere affectation of faith of the person who is just trying to play Pascal's wager as a selfish bet?