Atheists celebrated the full spirit of July 4 th yesterday,
including their campaign to achieve full social equality that
featured an armada of flying banners declaring:
“God-LESS America - atheists.org” and “Atheism is Patriotic -
atheists.org”
Planes featuring the provocative banners took off in 26 states.
“This campaign would have been unthinkable just a few years ago,”
said Dave Silverman, President of American Atheists. “Non-believers –
atheists, freethinkers, humanists — are in the fastest growing
demographics in the United States .”
“There’s still a dark side here, though,” Mr. Silverman added. ”We
tried hard to have our peaceful banner campaign in all fifty states,
but we encountered companies that refused our business, and pilots
who said they were either afraid to fly planes with an atheist
message, or simply refused to do so on sectarian religious grounds.”
Blair Scott, Communications Director for American Atheists,
observed that despite successes like pride events, conventions and
the popularity of atheist-themed books, “we still face a serious
uphill battle in being accepted as ‘worthy’ Americans.”
“Polls show that regardless of qualifications, more than fifty percent
of Americans would not vote for an atheist candidate running for
public office. So, it’s no surprise that some companies do not want
our money, or that even pilots would refuse to do their job.”
“Imagine if an atheist openly refused to do business with, say,
a Catholic or Jew or black person. There would be a justifiable
public outcry!”
Dave Silverman added that one criticism of the banner campaign
included accusation that atheists took a “belligerent” or
“in-your-face” approach.
“That’s very strange,” said Silverman. ”When religious groups
advertise their events or express their opinions, it’s ’freedom
of speech.’ When we do the same thing, a double-standard takes
over We’re accused of being obnoxious or ‘insulting believers,’
which is not what we’re trying to do.”
“Anyone who insists that atheists don’t have the right to speak
out should get used to our campaign to win full public acceptance,”
said Mr. Silverman. “We have a lot of other interesting publicity
campaigns in the works. We’re just getting started.”
(AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil
rights for non-believers; works for the total separation of
church-mosque-temple and State; and addresses issues of First
Amendment public policy.)