Religion

Atheist bus slogans – the debate goes viral

February 10, 2009

So you’ll know very well by now that I’ve been greatly enjoying the atheist versus Christian bus slogan war. (I wonder if the Muslims or the Hindus or anyone else will get involved? It would be quite good to see this debate evolve into a war of words between various religions, all played out on the sides of buses.)

Anyway, those funny folks over at CR Blog (News and views on visual communication from the writers and readers of Creative Review) came along and pointed people towards a bus slogan generator and asked for better responses to the atheist There’s Probably No God slogan. After all, the responses thus far from the Christians have been pretty lame.

This highlights a number of my favourite things about the internet: the debate itself, raging globally; people’s desires to get directly involved; a bus slogan generator website to make it happen. These things do make me smile.

Here’s one of my favourites from the CR Blog responses:

far fetched Atheist bus slogans the debate goes viral

So off you go to the bus slogan generator and have a go yourself. It’s lots of fun.

I was both amused and slightly perturbed by one of the comments on the CR Blog. Simon Coxon of neondog pointed out:

The war between the Christians and the Atheists will be traced back to 2009, where the Christians started blowing up buses.

Atheist buses – the Christian backlash

By alan

February 5, 2009

If you remember a while ago I was having a laugh about the atheist bus campaign, where ads on buses read THERE’S PROBABLY NO GOD. NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE. Then there was the inevitable complaint flurry and the ASA threw the complaints out.

Well, now there’s been a bit of a Christian backlash, which was also inevitable really.

The Reverend George Hargreaves, leader of the right-wing Christian Party, created a bus ad that proclaims “There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life.”

I think it would be easier to challenge this one with the ASA. After all, calling an ad that says “There’s probably no god” false advertising is shaky ground. An ad claiming something with the word “definitely”, however, is rather more open to a complaint requiring proof.

The Russian Orthodox Church is going with a more authoritarian line, invoking the old “We command” approach with “There IS a God, BELIEVE. Don’t worry and enjoy your life.”

The Trinitarian Bible Society makes the mistake of using a line from the Bible to put down non-believers with “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God” taken from Psalm 53, verse 1. Of course, if you are an atheist, you don’t give a toss what it says in the Bible, so that one is a bit of a toothless tiger.

These ads will run on 175 buses for two weeks from Monday. Who says debate in public life is dead?

‘No God’ campaign upsets Christians

By alan

January 8, 2009

Not really a a surprise there then. This is one of those delicious ironies that crop up from time to time where some idiot is completely unaware of just how ridiculous they sound. To give a bit of background, comedian Ariane Sherine in Britain dreamed up a campaign of bus ads proclaiming,

“THERE’S PROBABLY NO GOD. NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE”

(Image from smh.com.au)

The campaign was backed by serial atheist Richard Dawkins and funds were required. Asking for 5,500 pounds sterling, they actually raised well over 100,000 and the campaign went into full swing. And then the Christians started moaning. The campaign organisers must be loving it – you can’t get better advertising than some religious body complaining about your work. In this case it’s Christian Voice, a plainly fundamentialist group of fools that think they speak for Christians by “analysing current events in the light of scripture”.

But the issue is not one of atheism or religiosity. It’s one of free speech. These Christians would fight for their right to advertise their ministry, but what’s good for them is not good for anyone else apparently. And that’s where the truly ridiculous comments start to come in.

Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, said:

“There is plenty of evidence for God, from people’s personal experience, to the complexity, interdependence, beauty and design of the natural world.
“But there is scant evidence on the other side, so I think the advertisers are really going to struggle to show their claim is not an exaggeration or inaccurate, as the ASA code puts it.”

Yes. He really said that. Apparently, there is ample evidence for God but “scant evidence” that there’s “probably no god”. Why are these people so fragile?

I think that Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, has a handle on it when he says:

“I am sure that Stephen Green really does think there is a great deal of evidence for a God (though presumably only the one that he believes in), but I pity the ASA if they are going to be expected to rule on the probability of God’s existence.”

I’ll be watching this story for more entertainment.

Would You Like to Know the Truth?

By alan

December 17, 2008

It’s that time of year again. Because Christians hijacked a pagan festival all that time ago and turned it into a propoganda event for their belief system, they think they have some right to it. The fact is that most people have long since taken “Christmas” to mean “buy presents, get presents, eat too much, argue with family”. It’s a time of excess and stress and only the merchants in the marketplace really have any reason to celebrate. Yeah, I know, bah humbug.

But the Christians seem to think that they have some right to come and knock on people’s doors and remind them what Christmas is all about. In their minds it’s about the birth of their Christ hero, best described as some kind of cosmic zombie that was his own father and can make you live forever if you symbolically eat him and accept him as your master so that he can remove the evil that he put there in the first place. Or something. Yes, I’m being deliberately pertinacious, but there really are people out there that believe this as absolute fact.

Never mind that these same Christians that think they’re reclaiming the “real meaning” of Christmas have never heard of Saturnalia or Sol Invictus. Those fourth century Christians and their hijacking of pagan festivals have a lot to answer for.

But it gets worse than that. Those same god-botherers that have no idea what they’re really talking about, and who can’t seem to seperate allegory from fact and myth from history, came to my door yesterday. The woman even had the cheek to suggest that it was at this time of year that people’s thoughts turned to Jesus. How out of touch can she be? My wife insisted that I not be rude to her, so I simply sent her on her way. But she did leave me something.

god botherers 1 Would You Like to Know the Truth?

The truth, eh? Sorry, the Truth. Capitalising it makes it all the more true. You expect this sort of thing, really, but I couldn’t help being particularly amused in this instance. They’ve really surpassed themselves in sophistry and hubris this time. Look closely at the two paragraphs at the bottom of the pamphlet:

god botherers 2 Would You Like to Know the Truth?

Key points: you might look in books for answers to life’s big questions, but so often books become outdated or are revised or replaced.

And then we have:

god botherers 3 Would You Like to Know the Truth?

The Bible? The book that isn’t outdated or revised is the Bible? I can’t think of a more outdated or revised book in the history of books. Now, I’m all for people believing in the supernatural and higher powers if they want, and seeking the answers to those deep and meaningful questions that keep us awake at night. But the Bible as a book of truth? Seriously, how do these people ever expect anyone to take them seriously. The Bible is a damn good mythology, especially the Old Testament when Yahweh was this tantrum throwing storm god that was all envious and murderous. That’s some good stuff in there. But truth?

You know the best bit? And this is the absolute truth: After I’d shut the door in the Christian woman’s, after showing her the contempt she deserved, she disappeared off with her bible-bashing mates. Shortly thereafter a large Red Bellied Black snake was basking on the flagstones exactly where she’d been standing. First snake I’ve seen this year. Make of that what you will.

Christmas? I’ll be glad when it’s all over. Bah humbug indeed.

Church excommunicates author

By alan

November 30, 2008

I read about this today over at David B Coe’s weblog. It’s truly astounding. Various churches around the world never cease to amaze me with their antics, but this is one of the best ones for a while.

Author Jeremy F Lewis wrote a novel called Staked. The book deals with vampires and werewolves and all sorts of murder and mayhem. And love finally triumphing over all I expect. That’s pure speculation on my part, but it fits the paradigm.

Anyway, Jeremy’s non-denominational church (<– oxymoron alert) has decided that, according to the author himself, ‘by writing the book, I committed the sins contained within it. They also felt that I’d aimed the novel at young children (which boggles the mind) and that it teaches and encourages the use of vulgar language. Though I disagree wholeheartedly with their decision, I can’t really say they took the action they took in order to be mean… they appear to have been acting out of genuine concern.’

Sure, it’s probably not meanness. It’s astoundingly stupid and self-righteous. The church actually told Jeremy to renounce his book and stop promoting it and, when he refused, they “withdrew fellowship”. Jeremy says that this wasn’t exactly excommunication but it amounts to pretty much the same thing.

Unbelievable holy bullshit strikes again. The most vocal religious people really are the worst marketing team for religion. David Coe says on his blog “out of respect for Jeremy and consideration of the church itself, I won’t publish the church’s name here”. Well, I wish I could find out what church it was, because I’d happily name the idiots. You would think a church, based on the “teachings” of the most successful fantasy novel of all time, would recognise fiction. Then again, maybe that’s exactly the point. They obviously don’t. In the same way that Jesus really did rise from the dead and absolve us of our sins, Jeremy Lewis really is a foul mouthed, sex crazed vampire that fights werewolves. Or something.

Anyway, the upshot of all this, of course, is publicity that Jeremy Lewis could never have dreamed of. Once again the church manages to achieve exactly the opposite of its aims. I’d never heard of Jeremy Lewis before, or his novel Staked. Now I’m very well aware of it and so is everyone else thanks to the wonderful power of the internet. Way to go, Jeremy – I hope you sell a million books on the back of this. And who would want to be a member of such an idiotic organisation as this “non-denominational church” anyway.

Here is Jeremy’s website and here is Staked at Amazon.

Bigotry I agree with

By alan

November 17, 2008

This is one of those signs that reinforces both sides of an argument. It argues eloquently for those that consider themselves highly devout and for those that are opposed to such nonsense.

And really, being the bah humbug that I am, I wish Christmas was just for Christians and we could do without all the commercial apoplexy that surrounds the whole gods-forsaken event. Ah, so begins the season of goodwill.

Where was the Lord of the stampede?

By alan

September 30, 2008

This comes under the banner of the truly ironic. I read in the Sydney Morning Herald today that more than 140 people have been trampled to death in a stampede in Jodhpur in western India. The people were Hindus on a pilgrimage to the 15th-century Chamunda Devi temple. There was a long, narrow passage that became a death trap when the people were gripped by some kind of panic.

Now, you’d think that this would be the ideal opportunity for a bit of divine intervention, no? Or, if a god or gods were being honoured by the pilgrimage of thousands of faithful, you would think that said gods wouldn’t let something like this happen in the first place. Shouldn’t the people be gripped by a holy calm rather than a panic?

A senior state government official, Kiran Soni Gupta, said, “We have lost over 140 lives due to suffocation. This was a chance accident.”

And indeed it was, in one of those moments that are actually not that uncommon. This particular deadly stampede was the fourth in India this year. The annual Haj to Mecca has a body count that Arnie and Sly Stallone could never hope to top in their most brutal movies combined:

From wikipedia:

# On July 2, 1990, a stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel (Al-Ma’aisim tunnel) leading out from Mecca towards Mina and the Plains of Arafat led to the deaths of 1,426 pilgrims.
# On May 23, 1994, a stampede killed at least 270 pilgrims at the stoning of the Devil ritual.
# On April 9, 1998, at least 118 pilgrims were trampled to death and 180 injured in an incident on Jamarat Bridge.
# On March 5, 2001, 35 pilgrims were trampled to death in a stampede during the stoning of the Devil ritual.
# On February 11, 2003, the stoning of the Devil ritual claimed 14 pilgrims’ lives.
# On February 1, 2004, 251 pilgrims were killed and another 244 injured in a stampede during the stoning ritual in Mina.

Of course, hundreds, even thousands of deaths at a specifically religious event are considered a terrible accident; pure chance. One grilled cheese sandwich with the hazy image of a Messiah on it is a Divine Miracle. Let’s all look up Pareidolia for our homework.

dogbuttjesus Where was the Lord of the stampede?

In a slightly similar vein, I was greatly entertained today by Michael Fridman’s post at A Nadder!, where he equates books of the Bible with their very modern counterparts. Why are some mythologies still causing deaths by the thousand while others are considered nothing more than fairy stories? After all, a religion is nothing more than a myth that some people still believe to be the truth.

World Youth Day – even the name is abuse

By alan

July 20, 2008

Word abuse that is. I was going to try to avoid posting anything about this mass gathering of Catholics (pun very much intended) but I can’t help it. Hundreds of thousands of “pilgrims” from all over the world coming to Sydney to block our roads and cost our small businesses at least a weeks takings. Not to mention the massive amount of our supposedly secular tax dollars that got donated into the event. An event held by the wealthiest religious institution in the world, incidentally.

But I’ll avoid all the obvious rantings that are so easy with something like this. Let’s keep the whole thing on topic for the blog. Well, as much on topic as this blog ever is.

You can always rely on religious institutions to have very little respect for words and their meanings. They’ll bleat on about the literal word of god or the sacred word of scripture and so on, and then they come out with a selection of words like World Youth Day. The only word among those three that is vaguely accurate is World. It is an event that is televised all over the world and people from all over the world descend upon it. But Youth? Day? The bloody thing went on for a week and had very little to do with youth.

Sure, old Pope Benedict the Ratzinger prattled on about how the young people should pay heed if they feel that their god is calling them into the service of the church. After all, most church leaders of all ranks are getting old or being hidden away in distant parishes to help them avoid accusations of child abuse and, no matter how much they big themselves up, the church is slowly dying. It’s one small mercy, I suppose. Calling the event World Catholic Indoctrination Week would have been far more accurate. But the church, any church, never has much of a track record when it comes to accuracy.

popebenedictxvi 3 World Youth Day – even the name is abuse

Pope Benedict the Creepily Smug Looking

Which brings us to another piece of word abuse associated with this event. Their slogan – The Time Of Your Eternal Life. Really? It says very little for heaven if a few days freezing your arse off camped at Randwick Racecourse is as good as it’s ever going to get. Who wants resurrection and eternal life if it’s not even as good as Sydney in the winter. Don’t get me wrong, I like Sydney (without the Catholics), but it’s not my idea of the pinnacle of human existence. At least, not in July.

And one final gem from Ratzinger himself. On Friday he gave an apology to the victims of clerical sexual abuse. He made no mention of what they were going to do to prevent it happening in the future, and even had the audacity to suggest that he felt their pain. But the apology was made, however insincerely. Then the very next day, during his mass, he spoke of the need to embrace the church to beware the dangers of a secular existence. Apparently the irony was utterly lost on him.

Ah well, at least it’s all over for now. I pity Madrid in three years time.

Bits and pieces

By alan

April 23, 2008

Well, busy as ever, but I don’t want to ignore you lovely people. Here’s a few bits and pieces for you to peruse.

Michael Fridman over at a Nadder pointed me in the direction of these two highly entertaining pages. The first is a list of the ten greatest ever typos, according to Oddee. I have to admit that the first and last ones are by far my favourites. Check them out here.

The second of Michael’s recent discoveries is the news that Paul Verhoeven is making a movie (or some say he’s written a book) that claims Mary, the mother of Jesus, was raped by a Roman soldier. Let’s face it, very few movies, even ones supposedly telling a true story, have much basis in fact. However, Verhoeven’s premise here is actually a lot more likely than the story generally accepted by Christians the world over. Seriously, two thousand years ago a woman gets pregnant. Which is more likely – virgin insemination by some all powerful, anthropomorphic superbeing or rape by a bored Centurion? Occam’s Razor anyone? It’s an old argument really; Christians, Jews, Muslims and all the rest are all convinced of a truly outrageous story against the wealth of evidence. But let’s not stop picking them up on it when the opportunities arise.

You can read a bit about Verhoeven’s deliberately inflammatory plans for a movie here or Liveleak are referring to a biography of Jesus that Verhoeven has written here. Perhaps he plans to make a film of his own book.

Quote of the week

By alan

April 9, 2008

Every once in a while people say things that reverberate for days, weeks, months after they’re uttered. They’re often the sort of things that the person will, many time over, wish they could take back. But, as someone once said (I can’t remember who – my recall is not what it was), “Trying to take back a word once it’s spoken is like trying to hold back the tide with a broom.”

You never know, some people say things that any normal person would wish they hadn’t, yet they stand by them out of pure stubbornness or, more often, complete ignorance. Time will tell where this one falls. It’s doing the rounds of the blogosphere at the moment, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon. I’ll snatch my version from the Chicago Tribune blog:

Rep. Monique Davis, a Chicago Democrat and member of the Illinois legislature, stepped egregiously over the line when she verbally attacked atheist activist Rob Sherman for his religious unbelief during his testimony April 2nd to the House State Government Administration Committee, says the Council for Secular Humanism.
Sherman had been testifying before the committee that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s plan to donate one million tax dollars to Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago was unconstitutional when Davis launched into a diatribe against atheists, asserting that atheists did not have a right to present testimony to the legislature.

Rep. Monique Davis, Chicago Democrat.

A Democrat no less. Did she really attack him for his religious unbelief? Here’s the exchange in question:

Davis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy – it’s tragic – when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school.
I don’t see you [Sherman] fighting guns in school. You know?
I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous…
Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?
Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!
Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court…
Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.

“The Land of Lincoln where people believe in God”? I thought it was called America. The Land of Lincoln where people believe in God in a bit of a mouthful. Perhaps Lincolnland would be easier. Or get right to the heart of the matter and call it Godworld.

“it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!”? Dangerous for children to be aware of a philosophy? “God forbid” that they should ever be exposed to a variety of ideas and then subsequently be allowed to formulate their own opinions on what they believe.

She must have been drunk. Either way, it’s a belter and the repurcussions are likely to go on for a while yet. Nice one, Monique Davis, you score the ever more infrequent Word Quote of the Week.

EDIT: As requested in the comments, here is the actual audio of the Great Davis Tirade: The Land of Lincoln where people believe in God.