The Fort Worth Transportation Authority is going to be advertising for the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason, an organization trying to raise awareness that many people don’t believe in God.  In fact, their billboard advertisements will be displayed on four T buses and will overly an image of the American Flag saying, “Millions of Americans are Good Without God”.  The problem with this, as I see it,  is threefold.

First, it’s an obvious attack against Christianity during a major religious holiday season.  The coordinator behind the billboards, Terry McDonald said, “There’s so much religion in this area, and it’s so visible, we’re just trying to let people who are not believers know that there’s a lot of people like them.”  The fact is that about 7% of the American population is atheist, and a small minority of them have chosen an insensitive time to release their ad campaign.  If they were simply trying to make atheists aware of their existence, and not trying to agitate Christians, then why choose such a religiously specific season for their campaign?

Second, the implication within their organization’s name is that theists aren’t as reasonable as atheists.  The atheist argues that Christians rely upon blind faith and have no proof for what they believe, and I believe that accusation is advanced by their organization’s name.  It’s my conviction that atheists actually have to muster a lot more faith than the Christian.  The less evidence you have for your position the more faith you need to believe it (and vice versa).  In fact, the empirical, forensic and philosophical evidence strongly supports conclusions consistent with Christianity and inconsistent with atheism.  I believe that Christianity is more reasonable; allow me to briefly explain:

1. Scientific evidence confirms that the universe exploded into being out of nothing.  There are only two options in which to believe – either someone created something from nothing (the Christian view), or no one created something from nothing (the atheistic view).  Which is more reasonable?  The Christian view.  Which requires more faith?  The atheistic view.
2. The simplest life form, the cell, contains the equivalent information of 1,000 encyclopedias.  Christians believe that only an intelligent being can create such a life form.  Atheists believe that non-intelligent natural forces can do it.  Christians have ample evidence to support their conclusion, but since atheists don’t have any such evidence, their conclusion requires a lot more faith.

Third, there are many local groups of atheists within the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason that actively campaign against separation of church and state.  The Fort Worth Transportation Authority is a federally funded, public transportation project.  In short, it’s subsidized with our tax dollars.  This seems to be a major conflict of interest for those advocating separation of church and state to use a taxpayer funded project in which to tout their faith.

Here are the two local newspaper articles for your convenience:

http://blogs.star-telegram.com/honkin_mad/2010/11/godless-ads-to-run-on-fort-worth-buses.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-billboards_01met.ART0.State.Edition1.4a59352.html