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How is a giant billboard promoting atheism not proselytizing?
- Thread starter 1137
- Start date
That doesn't make it proselytizing, to me.
What do you see as the difference between proselytizing and advertising?
Tom
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber
For where they live, it's probably more of a reply than a challenge. I think it's great to see someone using resources to really put that out there. It's not TV-church "out there," but, still, it's the idea that yeah, we can and do have good lives without their god. They want question the idea, mock, ridicule and get emotional about people who don't believe in god, well, here's a community responding back. We are moral, our lives are good. God need not apply.
Well, all advertising is somewhat like proselytizing. But they aren't quite the same, are they?
Tom
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber
At the core of it, is there really any difference at all?
Right.
The billboard in question called to attention the existence of a nontheist club, one with purpose and community, but not religion.
Tom
Advertising promotes a service or product with the intent that the reader buy it, or at least buy into it. Proselytizing presents a side of an issue or belief with the intent that the reader buy it, or at least buy into it.
Not much.
Yes.
Proselytizing is selling an ideology. Advertising is about a particular product and a supplier. It is also selling.
Tom
I agree, they aren't extremely different.
But @1137 seems to think there's a difference that is important.
Tom
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber
Salvation is thought of as a gift of god's love. Not a product or service in our economic sense, but both are trying to said you need our stuff, even if you don't really need it.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
I think it is both simple advertising and weak proselytizing. It's not even very good Ad copy.
"Who knows?" would have been better, less in your face and unlikely to have upset anyone.
I can't speak to that.
Well, you know... it's only proselytizing when some group you don't identify with is doing it. If your group is doing it then it's not proselytizing, obviously.
Not in theory or in law.
The majority doesn't rule when it comes to civil rights. That's what civil rights are for.
And in the US there's a constitutional right to freedom of attitudes to religion.
But that doesn't stop vested interests being concerned when they feel threatened. That concern is also legitimate in the US under the right to free speech.
And the ad about atheism is, and looks to the churches like, an attempt to normalize unbelief. It comes on top of other concerns, such as the steadily falling interest of young people in organized religion, and in increasing numbers, any religion at all.
If I were professionally responsible for the social and financial wellbeing of a church or a religion, I'd be thinking hard and reaching for my right of free speech and I'd at least be consulting with my ad agency,
It's the right of both sides.
Grandliseur
Well-Known Member
Before the Internet, you mostly had Christian missionary type preaching by e.g. JWs or LDS. With the Internet, everyone has gotten on the bandwagon -- communicating with the global community is now the new norm. Everyone is a preacher these days, atheists preachers with their own gospel, C's with theirs, and Wicca's with theirs, and the new Norse gospel. (don't quite know what that is yet)
Some take it a step further, and atheists have become very vocal.
So many groups, but are they groups that actually meet?! That is a question I wouldn't mind knowing the answer to. I have no idea without googling, what your 'Order of the Serpent' is about.
As long as you don't go about killing a lot of people, etc., have it your way.
Last edited:
Grandliseur
Well-Known Member
With the way society is, I would be happy to simply be able to walk and go about safely without being mugged, etc. Don't really care if you are atheist, religious, agnostic, or just a ...tic. And, if you are a mad president, please let someone else carry the red button bag.
Augustus
…
They are not mutually exclusive categories. The purpose of advertising is to change people's thoughts or behaviours.
Not necessarily, though some are. An ad like "we are an atheist club meeting in address X and have website Y" is informative and not proselytizing.
No, it's a direct challenge to atheism in misery.
Augustus
…
Could have worded that slightly better.
The purpose of all advertisements is to influence people's thoughts and behaviour.
That's not what the advertisement was though. It is not purely an informational advertisement, it is a persuasive one (think about our message and visit our site).
The purpose of that advert is:
1) Drive traffic to the website
2) Encourage people to think about atheism and potentially question their assumptions
It clearly isn't aimed solely at atheists: "A good life without god? It's possible" is an indirect approach to persuasion. Indirect approaches are usually the hallmark of messages targeted at those who do not share the opinion of the sender (either oppositional, neutral, undecided, or potential proponents).
If it was solely aimed at increasing attendance at meetings it would be more direct and wouldn't rely on a secondary action (visiting the website) before getting its key message across.