You do not, under any kind of decent moral standing have the right to target children with your ads. The idea of using a child fantasy such as Santa Claus to attract their attention is just as moral as Camel cigarettes using Joe the Camel to sell their garbage.

I am all for your free rights of speech. You have a right to push your ideas. Just as I have a right to push what I believe in. But, SHOVING your NON beliefs down the throats of children that have other cultures is unacceptable.

I just read your news release. Using the founding fathers as you are, if you have legitimate proof of their religious standings is one thing. But having a giant Santa Claus to get little childrens attention is very immoral. What were you thinking?

Then again, religion is often the foundation of teaching morals, so maybe that is what has happened with your decision making ability?

How would you like me to stand somewhere your child/grand childre, or someone in your organizations young people, and tell them you are a liar? Just as your ad says to our children? Would you like your child to pass such contradiction of what you teach? Maybe I should put some ads out there with, I don’t know, a super hero,with a big ad as ignorant as yours, stating, “I got all my powers from God”

Everyone in this world has a right to believe what they do, and to raise their families the way they find to be the truest in their hearts.
What this ad is trying to accomplish is the very thing you are supposedly fighting!

You attempt to brainwash people! Leave MY children alone.

Any serious problems with the content of the comment will be left as an exercise for the reader. However, I would like to point out a couple of things which might be important to people:

1. The Santa Claus bus signs on the outside were contracted by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and are completely independent of our signs on the inside of the bus.
2. That whole part about “How would you like me to stand somewhere your child/grand childre, or someone in your organizations young people, and tell them you are a liar”? That happens. A lot.
3. Atheism is apparently as bad as smoking.
4. I’m also pretty sure that the whole super hero thing she’s talking about already exists. Just sayin’.

SEATTLE ATHEISTS LAUNCHES SECOND WAVE OF BUS ADS

Seattle, WA, Oct. 2009 — Beginning on Nov. 2, and continuing through Dec. 27, Seattle Atheists will roll out a second series of interior ads on King County Metro downtown routes. The three new signs feature the following quotes:

“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” — Carl Sagan

“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” — Ben Franklin

“Religions are all alike — founded upon fables and mythologies.” — Thomas
Jefferson

These new signs, like those in our first series, are intended to educate people in Seattle about the rich American legacy of skepticism and critical thought, and to provide a rebuttal to religious fundamentalists who have spread the fallacy that the United States was founded as a
Christian state.

Seattle Atheists believes it is necessary to counteract attempts by the American religious right to retroactively and falsely cast our Founding Fathers and cherished public figures as posthumous members of their movement or supporters of their theocratic agenda. The United States is not, and was not, founded as a “Christian nation,” and these ads are intended to help illustrate that.

“The Founding Fathers could not have been clearer in both the First Amendment, their own writings, or the very first treaty the United States signed in 1796,” says Seattle Atheists president Paul Case. “There is a ‘wall of separation’ between church and state, and this country is founded on secular, not religious principles.”

Seattle Atheists will also be launching a fundraising campaign to expand our outreach efforts to include signs on the outside of buses as well for a future series of ads.

Seattle Atheists is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to serving the atheist community in the Seattle area. We strive to promote understanding and respect toward all freethinkers by providing information, creating a sense of fellowship, actively opposing discrimination, and above all, emphasizing reason, critical thinking over supernaturalism and the separation of church and state.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Paul Case, President of Seattle Atheists, (206) 826-0770,
president@seattleatheists.org

# # #

“Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”
- Susan B. Anthony

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.”
- Albert Einstein

Our president, Paul Case, was interviewed about the bus campaign by KOMO News, and you can get the story here: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/41618287.html