The Backyard Skeptics are apparently trying to recruit more like-minded non-believers via a new billboard campaign in California. They figured that quoting Thomas Jefferson would serve their purposes:
 
 
But the truth is, Jefferson never said that, as the Christian Post points out: Atheist Billboard Misquotes Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson did, however, say this:

“”There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.”

 
I just finished listening to an interesting debate held at the King’s College, NYC last month. It was between Dinesh D’Souza, Christian apologist(and president of the Kings’ College) and David Silverman, president of American Atheist. The topic: Is Christianity good for America?
 
Obviously, Silverman’s position is “no” but the only particulars that he offers for his argument amount to misrepresentations, distortion of the facts (people in Scandinavian countries are more charitable because their governments donate more to non-profit concerns), false premises – as Leftists are wont to do (Christians don’t care about children because we’re opposed to gay adoptions) and a total dismissal of the history of western civilization. In other words, he can only arrive at his (hopeless) conclusion by playing fast and loose with the truth. Frankly, his supposition is derived either from ignorance, or a deliberate misunderstanding of the Christian faith.
 
I’ll never understand why atheists cling so vehemently to their non-belief. It’s tragic really. Because for all their hip, superior-sounding rhetoric, they can’t escape the simple fact that their philosophy renders life meaningless.
 
In a moment of brutal honesty, Bertrand Russell (British philosopher and atheist) said that the philosophy of atheism can only be built… “on a firm foundation of unyielding despair.”
 
Do you suppose the Backyard Atheists realize the truth behind Russell’s declaration?
Maybe they’re recruiting because misery really does love company.