Boston Area Coalition of Reason Kick Off Event (Nov 2)

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Good without God? Millions of Americans are.
boston.unitedcor.org/

Kickoff Event

When: Monday Nov.2, 7:30-9:30 PM
Where: Harvard Science Center Hall D. Free and Open to the Public

I thought this could be of interest. One of the member organizations is the Tufts Free Thought Society. www.facebook.com/group.php

Comments

moderator note

[ron_newman]

Could you please post the relevant information as text (date, time, location), and put the graphic behind an lj-cut? thanks

[magid.livejournal.com]

You might want to edit your image, too, since "Publilc" is not the usual spelling.

[turil.livejournal.com]

These folks would do well to read some marketing and communications theory, including George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant book.

Something more like "Curiosity, it's what makes us want to be better." would communicate the same message, without the defensiveness and negativity and antagonism against "god". Define yourself by what you are, rather than what you are not so that people will feel inspired to follow you...

[turil.livejournal.com]

Also, people have many different meanings for "god". For some the term god means "love". So the title of the campaign and book to these folks sounds just like "Good Without Love" which is pretty dumb sounding, and probably not at all what was intended. I say, leave "god" out of things unless you are very clear what you mean by the term.

[cnoocy]

This seemed remarkably non-antagonistic to me, actually. I think you may be reading a lot into three words.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Reads loud and clear to me.

[perich.livejournal.com]

Do the (very few) people who think god means "love," rather than "a supernatural consciousness worthy of worship," not understand what the rest of the world thinks of "god" as? Is the conceptual leap, "Oh, okay, they mean 'god' as in 'that guy who lives in the clouds,' not my conception of god" too much for them?

I mean, some people think of meat as disgusting. Should every steak ad include a disclaimer?

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

I agree. "There's probably no God" is mildly aggressive. "Good without God?" isn't.

[candid.livejournal.com]

For me, "god" means "gluten." Which means the campaign sounds like "Good Without Gluten."

Which (in a cosmically-improbable coincidence) is the name of a great little blog:

http://goodwithoutgluten.blogspot.com/

One wonders if the whole campaign wasn't secretly spearheaded by coeliacs.

[ron_newman]

but posting text as a graphic, and misspelling a common word, does indeed show a need for better communications skills.

[turil.livejournal.com]

When you are doing PR, and trying to convey a message, it's kind of crucial to actually care about what your audience thinks.

And it's actually not "very few" people who link "love" to the term "god". It may not be the only definition most people have for the word, but it's definitely one of the top definitions that get included for many, many people who've been raised with Christian traditions. That and the idea that "God is Light". I think a lot of anti-Christian folks kind of don't pay attention to that fact. I've talked with a lot of very religious folks, mostly Christian and more esoteric spirituality types, who do indeed feel that God is more of a scientific force that is easily represented as literally being the "sensation of love" and the idea of pure energy (pure light), and not at all some "guy in the sky".

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

I sincerely doubt that there's anyone that takes 'God' to be literally synonymous with 'love'. When people say God is love, they are referring to His (or Her, or his, or her) infinite compassion, not saying that the terms 'God' and 'love' are interchangeable.

Put it this way: Earth is a planet. Not all planets are Earth, and when I say Earth is a planet, I don't mean Jupiter is an Earth.

[turil.livejournal.com]

:-) !

Us glutenless are serious heathens, aren't we...

[perich.livejournal.com]

Something more like "Curiosity, it's what makes us want to be better." would communicate the same message

No, it wouldn't.

The original message is a marketing gem: non-antagonistic (good without god, question mark: it's offering a positive state as an option), concise (three words in large text to entice the reader, four words below it in slightly smaller text to elicit more), clear (the most important words are all one syllable or easily visualized terms, like "millions" and "Americans"). It's presented in a readable font with plenty of empty space around it, that space being filled by the non-confrontational image of a blue sky.

Given the issues that non-believers have had marketing themselves in the past, I was frankly astonished when I saw this poster. It's almost unprecedented in its quality.

[turil.livejournal.com]

You haven't talked to many people about God have you? People are far more complex than you seem to think when it comes to ideas about "god".

[perich.livejournal.com]

Compared to however many hundreds of millions in the Abrahamic (Judeo / Christian / Islamic) and Hindu traditions, who believe that their gods are anthropomorphic?

[turil.livejournal.com]

I understand that it's not always easy to see how language works in the mind, which is why I suggested the Lakoff book. It's a simple book about the complex issue of linguistics and how it effects people, using PR campaigns to demonstrate the power of the word.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Maybe infinitehotel hasn't. But as the son of a minister, an ordained minister myself, and the author of God: What Do Different People Mean When They Use That Word?, please believe me when I say that your objection was utterly idiotic.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

infinitemorning, sorry. Wrong attribution.

[cnoocy]

If I understand you correctly, you are stating that there are a significant number of people who so closely align "God" and "love" in their mental lexicons that they read the phrase "without God" as entirely synonymous with the phrase "without love". Is that correct, or am I misunderstanding you?

[turil.livejournal.com]

The current one up there is certainly better than some messages I've seen from the anti-something-about-god folks, but it's still literally antagonistic, just not as obviously so. The term "without" is a negative word, connoting a lack of something, and emptiness, rather than a fullness. Yes, the term "good" is obviously a step in the positive direction, but when you combine the negative "without" with the positive "good" they cancel each other out, and you are left with people hearing nothing beyond "God". Literally.

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

On the contrary, I think "God is LITERALLY love, and I will accept no other definitions" is the most simplistic and boneheaded definition I've ever heard. I tend to trust in humanity's ability to reason through this sort of thing. I'm sorry if you've encountered people who simply can't.

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

Since love is an emotion not an entity that can be prayed too, perhaps you have more in common with the folks putting this on than you let on. Well that or it is all just a concern troll thing.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

I believe that love exists. I also believe that light exists. I don't believe that a god exists.

To say they're all the same thing is a little...limiting.

Message was pretty clear to me.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Free and open to everyone.