We should not be worrying how our signs are received by fundamentalists. They are a lost cause. They only know how to be offended and angry. Don’t waste your time listening to their whining.

We should we concerned about how the signs are received by liberal/agnostic believers. If the signs offend or upset them, rather than making them think, then we have wasted our effort and maybe even harmed our cause.

IMO, honest thoughtful signs like the one above strike the right balance. Fundies will of course be outraged, but liberal believers will see how simple and reasonable the sign is, making the fundies look ridiculous for flipping out.

If we put up signs that are rude and offensive to even the most reasonable believers, there’s a danger that the fundies may seem sensible and decent by comparison.

I live in the Triangle area of NC (Raleigh/Durham), and I’m joining the freethinkers group. I was pleased to find an atheist social meetup as well on meetup.com for the area – it’s over 500 members strong. We can have a voice, too, and Christians shouldn’t have a corner on using city property to display their message.

Oh, by the way, they thought ahead about possible offense and desecration of the sign – there are backups

It’s downtown Raleigh. Tir Na Nog? Cafe Luna? Know that area?

I am a bit sad I had not heard about this in the news…I am in the Raleigh area…

I mean the next thing you know they will think of us as godless heathens with no ethics or morals, socialists, communists, who want to destroy this country and defile their man-god thus are unfit to hold public office.

Oh…wait… they already believe that.

Eh. I liked the one posted a few days ago better. I think this one is indeed confrontational, for reasons others have pointed out.

I think the holiday displays should be inspirational and could do without the lesson.

I completely agree.

If freethinkers stick to just expressing what they’re about, without even mentioning the religious, the better the message imo. Even subtly confrontational messages can sometimes come across as being snippy or negative….

If you can achieve the same result without doing that, why do it?

The last sign was as close to perfection as I’ve seen so far:

http://friendlyatheist.com/2009/12/15/seattle-atheists-get-display-in-olympia-washington/

When the religious get their knickers in a twist over something inoccuous, they look bad, not us.

And I second (or third or whatever it’s up to) the let’s stop being apologetic about telling the truth. Liars should be called out as such!

Virgin Mary found cryptic
the obliquity of the ecliptic,
And forget the Holy Spirit,
Joseph is the one who ripped it.