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Church sign says atheists have "nothing!"

I have passed this sign for about 8 days now. It didn't bother me at first but after passing it many times it's starting to get a little demeaning. I'm sure that I am not the only non-theist who is offended by this sign.

"God without man is still God-
Man without God is Nothing!"

Notice the exclamation mark at the end. That really twists the knife a bit to me. I am very far from having nothing. I feel like life has blessed me, I have many wonderful friends and a wonderful woman to share my life with. There are also the things that I own that I am very thankful for except I don't think they are speaking of material things. I have worked hard to earn respect and trust... This sign spreads the thought of looking down on atheists. The God virus is out of control. So anyway, what would you tell this offensive organization to make them understand that this is totally untrue? I am considering placing a letter in the door containing our viewpoint. Would you recommend this or is there a better way?

Thanks for all input.

Notice the attachment below, it contains the picture of the sign.

Tags: Church, letter, man, nothing, offensive, sign

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Permalink Reply by Patricia on May 14, 2010 at 3:15pm

As far as I'm concerned, my life is my own, & to have the freedom to do with it as I choose within the law. My life is nobody else's business & I very much resent being told I'm nothing. I got enough of that from parents, so religious freaks who don't know me should keep it to themselves, & mind their own backyards....not mine.
I'm trying to be polite here, but this crap angers me no end!

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Permalink Reply by Dave Rogers on May 14, 2010 at 3:36pm

Fools without a charlatan are still fools.
A charlatan without fools is nothing.

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Permalink Reply by richard lee on May 21, 2010 at 8:45am

Excellent!

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Permalink Reply by Matt on May 14, 2010 at 3:44pm

"Living well is the best revenge"
George Herbert (who happened to be a clergyman)

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Permalink Reply by Panku (Pankaj Kumar) on May 14, 2010 at 3:56pm

"God without man is still God-
Man without God is Nothing but free!"

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Permalink Reply by Howard S. Dunn on May 14, 2010 at 3:57pm

Here's a very brief list of self-proclaimed atheists. Most people probably won't recognize any of them because they had/have i>absolutely nothing to offer.

Douglas Adams
Woody Allen
Lance Armstrong
Isaac Asimov
Kevin Bacon
Clive Barker
Dave Barry
Ingmar Bergman
Marlon Brando
Richard Branson
James Cameron
George Carlin
John Carpenter
Vic Chesnutt
Noam Chomsky
Francis Crick
Rodney Dangerfield
Richard Dawkins
Daniel Dennett
Phil Donahue
Roger Ebert
Harlan Ellison
Brian Eno
Peter Fonda
Jodie Foster
Stephen Fry
Janeane Garofalo
Bob Geldof
Ricky Gervais
David Gilmour
Ira Glass
Jean Luc Godard
Theo van Gogh
Mikhail Gorbachev
Germaine Greer
Kathy Griffin
Sam Harris
Robert Heinlein
Katharine Hepburn
Christopher Hitchens
Penn Jillette
Billy Joel
Angelina Jolie
Diane Keaton
Kevin Kline
Hugh Laurie
Cloris Leachman
Richard Leakey
Bruce Lee
Geddy Lee
Tom Lehrer
Stanislaw Lem
H.P. Lovecraft
Seth MacFarlane
Bill Maher
John Malkovich
Barry Manilow
Sir Ian McKellen
Arthur Miller
Tim Minchin
Randy Newman
Jack Nicholson
Friedrich Nietzsche
Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Steven Pinker
Brad Pitt
Paula Poundstone
Daniel Radcliffe
Ayn Rand
James Randi
Ray Romano
Ron Reagan Jr.
Carl Reiner
Gene Roddenberry
Andy Rooney
Salman Rushdie
Oliver Sacks
John Sayles
Michael Shermer
Robert Silverberg
Sarah Silverman
Claude Simon
Steven Soderbergh
Howard Stern
Ken Stringfellow
Teller
Studs Terkel
Pat Tillman
Eddie Vedder
Gore Vidal
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Roger Waters
Joss Whedon

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Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on May 21, 2010 at 6:09pm

Good list! I keep finding that more and more people I like and admire just happen to be atheists!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nontheists

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Permalink Reply by Rayray on May 14, 2010 at 5:24pm

I just thought of a sinister plan; Rearrange the words on the sign to "God without man is nothing, Man without God is God. Hehe, I'm too good to do something like that though.

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Permalink Reply by IAmTheBlog on May 14, 2010 at 6:51pm

That would be funny! But it would probably accomplish nothing. If the church is so bigotted as to post that message in the first place, I doubt there's much you could do to change their mind. They would probably think it's good that it's offensive to you, that it might scare non-believers into believing.

Could you put up a sign of your own somewhere as a response? The Freedom From Religion Foundation has been putting up billboards to educate people about non-believers (and in part to answer billboards and marquees like that one). Don't know how much good it does, but it does at least let people know non-believers are out there.

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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on May 14, 2010 at 5:42pm

God without man is still an illusion.
Man without god is free of illusion.
I don't give a shit what theist think of my lack of belief. I do care what those with minds free of bullshit and with a degree of intelligence think of me.

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Permalink Reply by Martin Allen on May 14, 2010 at 7:07pm

These signs are a waste of time and space. Not really my problem. A bit like the bloke who stands on the pavement with a sandwich board proclaiming: "Repent, the end of the world is nigh". He gets in the way sometimes but you get passed him and don't give him another thought. What kind of a dumb-ass way to waste the time you have on this earth, standing on a pavement day after day, advertising nothing. The people who put time and effort into creating this sign, well, that's time, money and effort that could have been put to much better use. More their problem than mine, though. Just ignore it and move on. Spend your life with real people.

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Permalink Reply by Gerald Scott on May 14, 2010 at 8:45pm

Each day I go by seven churches. They all have signs with some xian verse. I'll never have to read the bible. But, some sayings have been there since the holidays and some of the letters have fallen off. One used to say "know god for everlasting happiness". Now it just says " no god for ever happi ". I love it.