Guest Post by Morbo
Drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike are about to see something other than cement and 18-wheelers. A large billboard has been erected on the southbound lanes between the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel that reads, “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.”
The billboard is the project of a group called FreeThoughtAction. I was pretty surprised when I read about this. It’s not surprising that a group would seek to erect a billboard like this — what’s surprising is that they found a company willing to rent them the space.
Books by prominent atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have sold surprisingly well. But as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, atheism remains the last taboo, and there are some people in this country who just can’t deal with it. Billboard companies tend to shy away from anything that’s likely to get the conservative masses riled up and stick to wholesome advertising (like for cigarettes, liquor, lottery tickets and stuff).
I never ceased to be amazed at the lengths some people will go to snuff out the threatening message of non-belief. In Chester County, Pa., a woman named Margaret Downey who runs a group for non-believers sought and got permission to erect a “Tree of Knowledge” on the courthouse lawn last month.
The 22-foot evergreen tree was decorated with covers of books promoting skepticism of religion and concepts like evolution and church-state separation. It shared space with a creche sponsored by the Pennsylvania Pastors Network and a menorah erected by Chabad of Chester County.
These were not government-backed displays. They were privately funded and maintained. Everybody is playing by the same rules, everybody has access and everything’s cool, right?
Wrong.
The Tree of Knowledge was vandalized several times. As the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, Downey noted that not long after the tree was erected, “one of the spotlights was broken” and “the other five lights had been turned away from our tree to focus on the crèche.”
Two books covers were torn off the tree — Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species and Dawkins’ The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution. A few days later, six spotlights on the tree were unplugged, and someone tampered with the cables supporting the tree. Not long after that, more lights were removed and another book cover was ripped down. On Dec. 29 or 30, Downey said, “someone had taken a knife or bolt cutters and actually severed the lighting cords to where all the lights had to be replaced.”
Last month, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights complained about nativity scenes being vandalized. Yes, that’s bad. People who engage in such behaviors are boorish hoodlums who should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The same goes for anyone caught vandalizing non-religious displays as well.
An open forum is exactly that — open. Everyone gets to use it. This includes messages some people may not like. These messages are erected with private funds. No one is compelled to support them. We should all have the right to speak our mind about religion or non-religion on public space without government endorsement of any message.
It’s a nice idea, but it’s not going to work until some people take an additional important step: Grow up.