Atheist billboards

cWhy do you atheists have to put up advertisements on billboards and on the sides of buses? They
seem to be going up everywhere.
Atheists should have the same right to free speech as anyone else. Anyway, I notice Christian
and Mormon signs far more often. I can hardly drive a mile without seeing billboards like
"Follow me - God" or "Don't take my name in vain or I'll make rush hour last twice as
long."
But most people in this country are Christians. We aren't interested in being preached at
by atheists.
Then just ignore the signs and get on with your day. But these signs usually aren't aimed
at believers anyway. There are a great many people in the U.S. who are closet atheists
and feel very alone and isolated. That's why the billboards say, for example, "Don't believe
in God? You are not alone."
As a Christian, you take it for granted that you have a community and a support structure.
Atheists are just beginning to build a similar community. First they have to find each other,
since there are no atheist churches so they can't simply turn up at a church on Sunday.
So you're telling me atheists aren't trying to convert Christians?
Perhaps some atheists are. But personally, I don't think it's the best use of my time
to try and convert a committed believer. People believe in religion for emotional reasons,
not logical ones. William Lane Craig didn't wake up one morning and say, "The Kalam Cosmological
Argument is sound, so I should start believing in Jesus." He began by believing in Jesus,
and his arguments are just to rationalize his pre-existing belief.
It's easy to convert someone from one religion to another if his current religion isn't meeting
his emotional needs. However, becoming an atheist is a very different process. It only
happens when the believer decides that he cannot go on believing in something that doesn't
make sense to him, and intellectual honesty is more important than warm fuzzies.
As an atheist, I can't force someone else to undergo this process. I can only be a source
of support for someone who has already started down this path, by answering his questions
and showing by example that an atheist can be a normal, decent person who lives a fulfilling
life.
So Richard Dawkins isn't trying to convert anyone? What about the bus campaign that says,
"There's probably no god, now stop worrying and enjoy your life"? Isn't that an attempt
to convert Christians to atheists? And why do they say "probably"? It sounds like they're
not very sure of their message.
That campaign was actually a response to a campaign on London buses by a Christian group,
which told non-Christians that they would burn in Hell. In Britain, advertisements are
regulated by the government, and a lady named Ariane Sherine complained that the ads were
scaremongering and making a statement of fact that could not be substantiated. However,
religious groups get a special exemption from having to substantiate their claims, and the
government refused to take action. So Ariane then requested donations on her blog to run
an ad telling people not to worry about Hell. She raised over 150,000 pounds, mostly in
5 pound donations, and Richard Dawkins made a matching contribution, and that's how the
atheist bus campaign got started. They use the word "probably" because they could not
legally say that there is no god, although it's legal for religious groups to say that
there is a god.
Well, I hope that campaign never comes here. I would have a problem riding a bus that had
an atheist message.
Is your faith really that insecure? Maybe you need some desensitization therapy to get
over your phobia of atheists. We are your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, your
co-workers, your teachers, your athletes and entertainers. We are everywhere, but we are
not two-headed monsters from outer space. We are normal people who just want to live
and let live, without having to hide in the closet.