Three Detroit buses with advertisements promoting atheism appear to have been vandalized over the past week, an advocacy group said Monday.

The buses featured advertisements earlier this month that read: "Don't believe in God? You are not alone." The signage was paid for by a coalition of atheist and agnostic groups. In one ad, the word "Don't" is torn off, according to photographs provided by the group. On another, the word "Don't" is scratched over several times.

The SMART bus system is replacing the ads for free per its policies, SMART spokeswoman Beth Dryden said. She would not confirm that the advertisements were vandalized, saying only that they were damaged. Dryden said they have not filed a police report.

Atheists said the defaced advertisements were a sign of how they face prejudice.

"It's unfortunate," said Fred Edwords, national director for the United Coalition of Reason, the Washington D.C.-based group that paid for the ads. "It's a sign that we need to keep getting our message out. This kind of prejudice won't go away unless we are up front and out there."

About a dozen of the atheist ads were placed this month on Detroit buses, part of a national campaign to promote atheism that has placed ads in more than 20 cities on buses, subways and billboards.

The defaced ads were discovered during the weekend while the buses were in storage for the night, Dryden said.

Some billboards were vandalized in California this year, Edwords said, but this is the first time that their bus ads have been targeted.

Is it me or does anyone else feel kind of put off that the ads in question seem to read like a support group flyer?

"Don't believe in God? Its ok, we can help you."

Certainly, the free-thinkers can come up with better ideas that don't resemble church billboards.

Right on. I did not come to question my family's religious views (coming from southern baptists here ... sunday school, bible camp and all that) until my best friend in high school who was atheist did not hide his disbelief. I had never believed it all word for word, but the fear was there, hammered in for fifteen years by extended family members.

What I was trying to get at, I think, was that you can still get that "support" message across without seeming like a therapy group. Its just as easy for a religious group to use the same type of ads to reign in the disbelievers for sunday school. I've actually seen church billboards saying something to that effect ... Don't believe in God? Come in and let us introduce you.

Don

... the fear was there, hammered in for fifteen years by extended family members...

Don't believe in aliens? Come in and let us introduce you

Thank you, Christianity.





leprechauns, unicorns, Zeus, loch ness monster...

LOL. Same here. But yes, I've seen it. Also saw a billboard with the following adorable quote:

God is dead.
-Nietzsche

Nietzsche is dead.
-God

Don't believe in God? Come in and let us introduce you.

It'd be too risky for me to try that. Many a single woman or divorcee has been introduced to me. What if God rejects me, too? I don't think my ego could handle that.

Better have things left as they are. As long as I don't ask, I don't have to face god's rejection.

I wonder how many people who pray struggle with this. My belief is that prayers are never answered, and when they appear to be, it's a coincidence. How can people weather that? You need either a pretty thick skin, or to be needy and desperate beyond belief.

I know a woman who thinks that her presence causes lights to switch on as she walks down the street around dusk. She has the repeated experience of noticing that this scenario occurs: most of the lights are off. she's walking down the street, and as she walks past on of the lights, it turns on.

She is certain that her habits of noticing this gives her a sufficiently objective impression of how often it happens. Oddly, she is viewed by many as an intelligent person.



With this lack of awareness of biased perceptions, it is very easy to believe your prayers are being answered; and worse, to believe you had evidence that your prayers are being answered.

Also, focusing ones intentions helps many people to take the actions necessary to realize their desires. Prayer is a form of focused attention on one's desires.

In this way, prayer can help to bring about those things which are even slightly under a persons influence - like a new job, improvement in a relationship, better athletic performance, etc.