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	<title>Comments on: Ask Richard: An Annoying Religious Sign on My Commute to Work</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/</link>
	<description>by Hemant Mehta</description>
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		<title>By: J2</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/#comment-393949</link>
		<dc:creator>J2</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:40:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=18002#comment-393949</guid>
		<description>What bothers me most about that guy is the school bus in his front yard. Did anyone else notice that?

It implies that he/she/whoever has a lot of contact with kids. Hopefully it&#039;s just with a church group and not a supposed-to-be secular institution. 

Although ... not much in Lynchburg is secular.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What bothers me most about that guy is the school bus in his front yard. Did anyone else notice that?</p>
<p>It implies that he/she/whoever has a lot of contact with kids. Hopefully it&#8217;s just with a church group and not a supposed-to-be secular institution. </p>
<p>Although &#8230; not much in Lynchburg is secular.</p>
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		<title>By: Seth Strong</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/#comment-393209</link>
		<dc:creator>Seth Strong</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:44:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=18002#comment-393209</guid>
		<description>Lynchburg shout out!  Agreed, we have to live with church signs.  But Lynchburg and Charlottesville have a growing secular, atheist, godless population.  I&#039;m one of them.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Lynchburg shout out!  Agreed, we have to live with church signs.  But Lynchburg and Charlottesville have a growing secular, atheist, godless population.  I&#8217;m one of them.</p>
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		<title>By: Aphanes</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/#comment-392591</link>
		<dc:creator>Aphanes</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:26:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=18002#comment-392591</guid>
		<description>I&#039;m not American, coming from the UK, but I&#039;m continually amazed by America&#039;s Christianity and how well it&#039;s holding on. However, the best hing that American Evangelists are doing is publicising vociferously to the rest of the world why we shouldn&#039;t be theists.

I&#039;d let the guy build his placards and billboards as big as possible until his house is covered in them. Enjoy it and put it on the web!

Theists don&#039;t realise how funny this stuff is and also how it actually works against them, pointing out how ridiculous their &quot;beliefs&quot; actually are. You can&#039;t beat someone with a billboard over their head, bible in hand and an appropriate quote from the bible to make people convert from religion. We should have more of them on  the streets, not less!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m not American, coming from the UK, but I&#8217;m continually amazed by America&#8217;s Christianity and how well it&#8217;s holding on. However, the best hing that American Evangelists are doing is publicising vociferously to the rest of the world why we shouldn&#8217;t be theists.</p>
<p>I&#8217;d let the guy build his placards and billboards as big as possible until his house is covered in them. Enjoy it and put it on the web!</p>
<p>Theists don&#8217;t realise how funny this stuff is and also how it actually works against them, pointing out how ridiculous their &#8220;beliefs&#8221; actually are. You can&#8217;t beat someone with a billboard over their head, bible in hand and an appropriate quote from the bible to make people convert from religion. We should have more of them on  the streets, not less!</p>
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		<title>By: Revyloution</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/#comment-392303</link>
		<dc:creator>Revyloution</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:01:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=18002#comment-392303</guid>
		<description>Im with Marc and Matto the Hun.  Signs like this open the opportunity for discussion.

Is this commute on a bus?  It might be the opportunity to turn to the person next to you and say &quot;Wow, I wonder if all Christians think like that?&quot;    Or some other innocuous statement that might prompt them to ask about your philosophy.  Small openings like that can  start rational dialogs to plant the seeds of reason and skepticism. 

If he&#039;s in a private car, he could bring it up around the water cooler at work (if he isn&#039;t afraid of being fired for being a baby eater).

And the extreme response would be to set up a protest in front of his house!  I think Penn Gillette nailed it when he said the best response to free speech is more free speech.  Nothing would make more &#039;mainstream Christians&#039; cringe than having a nutter like that defending their faith on the evening news.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Im with Marc and Matto the Hun.  Signs like this open the opportunity for discussion.</p>
<p>Is this commute on a bus?  It might be the opportunity to turn to the person next to you and say &#8220;Wow, I wonder if all Christians think like that?&#8221;    Or some other innocuous statement that might prompt them to ask about your philosophy.  Small openings like that can  start rational dialogs to plant the seeds of reason and skepticism. </p>
<p>If he&#8217;s in a private car, he could bring it up around the water cooler at work (if he isn&#8217;t afraid of being fired for being a baby eater).</p>
<p>And the extreme response would be to set up a protest in front of his house!  I think Penn Gillette nailed it when he said the best response to free speech is more free speech.  Nothing would make more &#8216;mainstream Christians&#8217; cringe than having a nutter like that defending their faith on the evening news.</p>
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		<title>By: Miko</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/#comment-392019</link>
		<dc:creator>Miko</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:34:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=18002#comment-392019</guid>
		<description>&lt;blockquote&gt;Unless it is violating local signage codes or zone regulations, there is nothing you can do about it and nothing that you should (or, at least, could) do about it.&lt;/blockquote&gt;

It doesn&#039;t necessarily follow that there is nothing that one should do about it.  Free speech leaves many avenues open; it only says you can&#039;t use violence (specifically, government) to physically prevent someone from saying something.  We&#039;re still free to talk to our neighbors about our concerns and seek voluntary non-coercive solutions.  I wouldn&#039;t really recommend it in this case, but it&#039;s definitely an ethically permissible option.

Zone regulations and the like, on the other hand, are an underhanded attempt to attack fundamental rights.  They&#039;re written in such a way as to suggest that they aren&#039;t intended to deprive people of their rights (so that they sound harmless in the abstract), but are then selectively enforced to silence opinions of which the rulers disapprove.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>Unless it is violating local signage codes or zone regulations, there is nothing you can do about it and nothing that you should (or, at least, could) do about it.</p></blockquote>
<p>It doesn&#8217;t necessarily follow that there is nothing that one should do about it.  Free speech leaves many avenues open; it only says you can&#8217;t use violence (specifically, government) to physically prevent someone from saying something.  We&#8217;re still free to talk to our neighbors about our concerns and seek voluntary non-coercive solutions.  I wouldn&#8217;t really recommend it in this case, but it&#8217;s definitely an ethically permissible option.</p>
<p>Zone regulations and the like, on the other hand, are an underhanded attempt to attack fundamental rights.  They&#8217;re written in such a way as to suggest that they aren&#8217;t intended to deprive people of their rights (so that they sound harmless in the abstract), but are then selectively enforced to silence opinions of which the rulers disapprove.</p>
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		<title>By: Richard P</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/#comment-391995</link>
		<dc:creator>Richard P</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:36:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=18002#comment-391995</guid>
		<description>&lt;blockquote&gt;Carl Jung once said, “Everything that annoys us about others can help us to understand ourselves.” &lt;/blockquote&gt;

This is a great one Richard And true.
The version I learned was, we see in people a reflection of ourselves, what a person hates about another is simply a reflection of something within that we hate about ourselves.
 
It took me a long time to find the source of anger I had within myself. It always seemed to well up when things were not to my view. I learned do a lot of self reflection to root out the anger. Once I learned to love myself, accept myself for who I am, and evaluate my beliefs, to make sure they were in accordance to the actions I believed were morally correct, most of the things that would drive me to anger became things of humor.
I would suggest a little self reflection To find the root of this anger and deal with that.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>Carl Jung once said, “Everything that annoys us about others can help us to understand ourselves.” </p></blockquote>
<p>This is a great one Richard And true.<br />
The version I learned was, we see in people a reflection of ourselves, what a person hates about another is simply a reflection of something within that we hate about ourselves.</p>
<p>It took me a long time to find the source of anger I had within myself. It always seemed to well up when things were not to my view. I learned do a lot of self reflection to root out the anger. Once I learned to love myself, accept myself for who I am, and evaluate my beliefs, to make sure they were in accordance to the actions I believed were morally correct, most of the things that would drive me to anger became things of humor.<br />
I would suggest a little self reflection To find the root of this anger and deal with that.</p>
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		<title>By: Justin</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/#comment-391987</link>
		<dc:creator>Justin</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:27:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=18002#comment-391987</guid>
		<description>Well said. The door swings both ways.

Plus, everyone driving by that house probably thinks he&#039;s an idiot.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Well said. The door swings both ways.</p>
<p>Plus, everyone driving by that house probably thinks he&#8217;s an idiot.</p>
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		<title>By: cathy</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/#comment-391937</link>
		<dc:creator>cathy</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:35:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=18002#comment-391937</guid>
		<description>People should be allowed to have political signs on their property, regardless of message.  I know it sucks to have to see such public assholery, but you have to respect that people have a right to free speech.  There is a man who has a sign with very racist messages.  I feel disgusted and offended, but I know he has a right to his speech as I do to mine.  You have every right to be offended, you have no right to censor him.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>People should be allowed to have political signs on their property, regardless of message.  I know it sucks to have to see such public assholery, but you have to respect that people have a right to free speech.  There is a man who has a sign with very racist messages.  I feel disgusted and offended, but I know he has a right to his speech as I do to mine.  You have every right to be offended, you have no right to censor him.</p>
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		<title>By: andrew</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/#comment-391934</link>
		<dc:creator>andrew</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:28:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=18002#comment-391934</guid>
		<description>As PZ frequently advocates, don&#039;t get upset at this kind of stuff; its pointless.  Instead, point, laugh and ridicule.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As PZ frequently advocates, don&#8217;t get upset at this kind of stuff; its pointless.  Instead, point, laugh and ridicule.</p>
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		<title>By: Matilda1</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/06/ask-richard-an-annoying-religious-sign-on-my-commute-to-work/#comment-391930</link>
		<dc:creator>Matilda1</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:25:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=18002#comment-391930</guid>
		<description>Agreed, it would be hypocritical of us to complain about such religious signage while we deride religious types who complain about atheist billboards.  There is no personal right against being offended.  Furthermore, are those signs really offensive to you as an atheist?  Personally I just find them dumb and eye-roll worthy.

On a personal note, my evangelical grandmother at one point many years ago purchased one of those big signs businesses use with the flashing arrow and removable letters.  She had a large back yard that was directly adjacent to the most busy street in our city, and placed the sign, complete with religious and anti-abortion messages, near the road.  It didn&#039;t last long as the city required permits to post any sign along that road and she didn&#039;t have one.  Apparently it was too much effort to obtain one because she got rid of the sign and I never saw it again.  But as a tween, that brief period was long enough for me to be completely mortified.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Agreed, it would be hypocritical of us to complain about such religious signage while we deride religious types who complain about atheist billboards.  There is no personal right against being offended.  Furthermore, are those signs really offensive to you as an atheist?  Personally I just find them dumb and eye-roll worthy.</p>
<p>On a personal note, my evangelical grandmother at one point many years ago purchased one of those big signs businesses use with the flashing arrow and removable letters.  She had a large back yard that was directly adjacent to the most busy street in our city, and placed the sign, complete with religious and anti-abortion messages, near the road.  It didn&#8217;t last long as the city required permits to post any sign along that road and she didn&#8217;t have one.  Apparently it was too much effort to obtain one because she got rid of the sign and I never saw it again.  But as a tween, that brief period was long enough for me to be completely mortified.</p>
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