Atheist groups continue advertising campaign

By Paul Swonger

As CNN reports, a coalition of Atheist organizations are continuing their advertising campaign, aimed at "raising awareness about people who don't believe in a god" in Manhattan. New York's Manhattan subway system, the target of the ads is one of the busiest in the world with over 5 million riders per day. The month long ad campaign will be spread throughout a dozen stations with posters that read "A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?".

This is the second time this sort of advertising has not only been carried out, but covered by the major news outlets. So if the goal is raising awareness of atheists, are the News Agencies cooperating in being instruments of this?

Back in January of 2009, there was a similar campaign in Britain that plastered atheist beliefs on the sides of buses. Read about that here.

So what's the flip side?

While some religious faithful may be dismayed at the news, the ads may have an unintended affect. That is, those casual religious, of whom I am a former member, may decide to actually research premeditated, that which they hold to be the truth of their convictions, creating perhaps, more Apologists like myself who came from precisely this background. Indeed, I would say that aggressive anti-theistic absurdity is largely responsible for the strengthening of my faith, and indeed my move from a casual believer to a 'hardcore apologist'. This was dismaying news to a friend of mine who decided to educate me on the ways of atheist (or lack thereof *ahem*) only to find he had fostered the tempering of a religious zealot.