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Bumper stickers a bad idea?

Hey everybody, I'd like to get your opinion on this.

I'm in South Carolina and I proudly drive around with atheist signs put up in the back window of my car. I rotate them out based on whatever mood I'm. Sometimes I'll have stuff like "Blasphemy is a victimless crime", "You don't need god to be moral", "Imagine no religion" (with the twin towers), or even a copy of the "There's probably no god, so stop worrying and enjoy your life". Now I've been doing this ever since I left religion almost 5 years ago. (Most of the time I was in Jerry Falwell's HQ of Lynchburg, so moving down to SC wasn't too big of a change)

In all that time I've only had a couple of people honk at me to give me the finger, and a handful of religious tracts left on my windshield. Yeah, I get nervous sometimes but it's a bit of a rush and I have yet to have anything thrown (or shot) at me. However, there are some people, namely my parents, who are constantly upset about this. They're not religious, but they're afraid I'll get physically hurt or the car will be keyed by someone who is offended. I understand their concern, but the way I look at it: the fact that this is even a possibility is all the more reason I need to speak up and make my existence known. They'd prefer I just stay quiet and blend in, ignoring the fact that just about every car down here has a Jesus fish on it, you can't throw a stone in any direction without hitting a church, and politicians go out of their way to out Jesus each-other. I feel staying quiet doesn't help anything. I'm a citizen and I have the right to express my opinion. To not exercise my rights out of fear of reprisal is just plain wrong. Am I out of line on this?

Tags: Carolina, South, bumper, car, stickers, violence

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Permalink Reply by Michael on June 28, 2010 at 12:31pm

Can't let acts like that force people into the shadows, gotta be proud to be a great ape!

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Permalink Reply by Bluetamon on June 28, 2010 at 12:22pm

I have some stickers that I bought that my girlfriend doesn't want me to put on my car. I work (not live, thank god) in Louisiana and that place is chock full of religious nutbags. My solution is to put the stickers on those flat, flexible magnets like you put on your fridge. This way, when you drive, you can display them, but when you park, you can pull them off so they can't key your car. Granted, it wouldn't work if they followed you into a parking lot, but it is better than having a bulls-eye on your parked car.

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Permalink Reply by Corey on June 28, 2010 at 11:42pm

I was born and raised here in Louisiana. I have a t-shirt that simply says ATHEIST. I wore it out to a few places one night just to see what would happen. People did stare, but didn't actually say anything. Granted, I only went to a few places with it on and there weren't very many people there. I expected much worse, although I'm sure if there had been more people it would have been much worse.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan on June 30, 2010 at 1:57pm

That would be a lovely shirt to wear with your family to church on a lovely Sunday morning.

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Permalink Reply by BLK-Sagan on June 30, 2010 at 4:46pm

That's the best Idea I heard on here.

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Permalink Reply by Sam Jones on June 28, 2010 at 5:04pm

I can see the issues here. I am a fan of Chuck Palahniuk. On my last car I had one of his stickers that simply said "the cult." This "cult" is an online writers cult at his website. Well, needless to say I had Tracts, key marks, screams, etc at me and the stickers weren't even related to religion at all. Since this was during the summer and my jeep rarely had the top on it, I put a beware of dog sticker on the back as well, then put my big German Shepard on a very short leash in the back of the jeep. He LOVED car rides. He couldn't get out of the jeep or reach anyone from where I had him tied unless you actually reached in but, you couldn't tell that unless you were way too close for comfort. It fixed that problem.

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Permalink Reply by Olga Spelts (Human Bean) on June 28, 2010 at 6:39pm

I dont think you would be abandoning any atheist believes so much as youre a witness to the hostility with which christians (mainly) are filled. I had a friend put a 'choose choice' bumper sticker on her beetle and she got alot of hostility directed at her as well in the very catholic city she lives in.

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Permalink Reply by Ken on June 28, 2010 at 9:03pm

Just being visible is inherently an accomplishment. People may find the courage to question the majority when they realize they are not so alone. Display your bumper stickers with pride.

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Permalink Reply by funk Q on June 29, 2010 at 12:17am

I just don't like bumper stickers. I don't have any reason. They do look tacky though.

I do like message T-shirts and badges because they involve physically bearing and bareing the slogan. At least they provide an opportunity to discuss the idea being presented, whereas bumper stickers are like drive-by preaching or lecturing from some anonymous advocate and often they aren't even clever, wise or sensible.

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Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on June 29, 2010 at 11:46pm

Once upon a time, I had a very tacky bumper sticker on my car: "Champlain Pipeline Company: Don't Pass Your Gas In Vermont". Of course, that was when I had a car.

bumper stickers are like drive-by preaching or lecturing

I'd never thought of it that way before. You have a point.

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Permalink Reply by funk Q on June 30, 2010 at 12:53am

You have a point.

Thanks, I did think of that when I posted the above. I was going to suggest that fitting scythes with very sharp points to wheel hubs and driving through enclaves of the faithful might do more than bumper stickers in the short term. Of course, in this case, I'd have a bumper sticker declaring: "Reaper"