The atheist bus campaign is now in full force in the UK – I’ve yet to see one here in Bristol, but the letters page of Metro has been full of little else for the past few days. The icing on the cake is the fact that Stephen Green, litigious chairman of the Christian Voice hate group organisation, has filed a case with the Advertising Standards Authority, arguing that there’s no evidence for the statement, “There’s probably no God”. Aside from 2000 years of silence, of course…
This is, of course, the same Christian Voice group that was censured by the ASA for claiming that vaccines cause infertility… In an awesome example of the Christian double standard in action, Stephen Green says:
“It is preposterous for the ASA to think they can outlaw Christian freedom of speech and free expression of opinion.”
There’s something in your eye, Steve… oh, it appears to be a beam…
12 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 9, 2009 at 11:48 am
andyinthepiewithalmonds
For what it’s worth – most Christians I associate with think the bus idea a great idea for the way in which it’s launched the whole thing as a topic for popular debate around the water cooler… in fact one preacher I saw in December said we should donate money to the campaign!
That’s the problem with banding a certain group’s response as the ‘Christian’ line. It’s like lumping the Archbishop of Canterbury in with the Rapture Ready website from the loonier recesses of the Deep South. Would you necessarily stand by every word purported to be uttered by atheists??
I know you could seize on division as weakness – it is, but then I’ve already made clear my views on the inevitablity of human weakness – along with pride, unkindness and a great many other sins demonstrated by those in and outside the church. If Mr Green believes Christ died for his sins and tries to live accordingly then good on him. However, on this matter, I am happy to advise him to chill out and start feeling a lot more secure in the strength of the gospel to face opposition!
January 9, 2009 at 12:12 pm
FrodoSaves
I think we just have to face the facts: Christian Voice has a much better sense of humour than we’ve given them credit for.
January 9, 2009 at 12:15 pm
yunshui
Oh, I’m under no illusions that Stephen Green represents any sort of majority group in Christianity – as far as I can tell, Christian Voice is actually just him – but I find his shrill protestations amusing, and so recount them here. Please don’t think for a moment that I’m lumping all Christians together in the same sack. For one thing, I don’t think I have a sack big enough…
January 9, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Phil C
It’s all a bit silly.
I have a friend who worked at the ASA. He said most of his time was spent assessing complaints from companies like Hoover about rivals like Dyson. “How dare they claim to have the only true tornado suction system! Our system uses cyclonic power…”
Maybe they’ll actually have some fun for once. I wonder if it’ll affect political advertising.
January 9, 2009 at 5:33 pm
PhillyChief
Here’s the deal Andy – you, like other Christians can distance yourself from this character and say he doesn’t speak for you or the Christian line, but then are any of you saying or doing anything to counter his nonsense? Do you folk police yourselves? I never see that, and you know why? Because inevitably you all come back to thinking things like “If Mr Green believes Christ died for his sins and tries to live accordingly then good on him.”
Until the liberals and moderates stand up against the radical loons in their fold, then outsiders have no choice but to group you all together. It also doesn’t help when you all gladly count them as part of the fold for when statistics are spouted about how many in the world subscribe to your brand of religion. Hell, you’ll even count those of other brands when you make points against atheists for numbers of people who believe in a god and should some radical Christian group suffer some atrocity, then it’s not an attack on them, is it? No, it’s an attack on Christianity.
So please, spare me the double standard. Write this clown if you’re sincere Andy, and let him know he’s making an ass of himself and also making the rest of you look bad.
January 11, 2009 at 4:11 pm
null
Nicely said Philly.
January 11, 2009 at 4:24 pm
andyinthepiewithalmonds
Mr Chief Sir – I tip my hat to you… you are absolutely relentless! You attempt to tear me a new one with your own particular brand of rage – even when I’m essentially agreeing with you!
You refer to numbers, so I’ll refer to good old Wikipedia – apparently there are between 1.5 and 2.1 billion professing Christians in the world at present, making up about one third of the global population and encompassing 34,000 denominations. I’m not quite sure who’s up for policing that lot – but I’m not sure I’m the man for the job! Maybe I’ll just leave it to God to judge…
(incidentally I stand by my comment “If Mr Green believes Christ died for his sins and tries to live accordingly then good on him” – to be perfectly honest, the eternal state of his soul should be of rather higher priority to him than what either I or the atheist fraternity think of his pronouncements…)
January 11, 2009 at 6:11 pm
PhillyChief
You’re not “essentially agreeing with you”, you’re saying you don’t agree with this clown’s actions and you want it known that you’re not on board with his interpretation of Christianity but nonetheless, you’re not going to do much about it since, after all, “If Mr Green believes Christ died for his sins and tries to live accordingly then good on him.”
Here’s an example: let’s say Dawkins calls for the closing of churches in the UK. Wouldn’t you think me rather douchey if I said I don’t agree, but as long as he’s still an atheist, then good on him? Wouldn’t you, if no atheists spoke up, assume his views are representative of all of us atheists? Puh-lease.
Btw, I tip my hat to you for even when exposed, you still make some parting shots on me with snark such as “your own particular brand of rage”. Very nice. You sir, are quite relentless, too. ;)
January 11, 2009 at 9:42 pm
heather
My thoughts are a bit divided on this.
On the one hand, I hate advert messages telling me what to think and how to live my life. I don’t believe that copying those irritating Christian church signs will do anything except make people believe that there is a Church of Atheism. And I can think of much better uses for the money……
On the other hand, anything that riles Christian Voice must be good. almost by definition. And when I found that I could actually get an atheist bus to work, it brought me a wild joy.
January 12, 2009 at 6:18 pm
andyinthepiewithalmonds
This much I do know in closing. I like the word snark. It’s new to me and I eagerly await an opportunity to use it.
January 12, 2009 at 7:18 pm
PhillyChief
I know a certain someone who agrees with you Heather about the ads. I don’t have a problem with the ads, and we could quibble endlessly over how best to spend money in the atheist war chest. I think the pros outweigh the cons of the ads.
I don’t, however, like them simply because they annoy the Christians. That can be an enjoyable by-product, but as a reason in and of itself, I’m not on board with that (pardon the pun).
Yes, snark, snarky, snarkiliscious, etc. Glad I could give back. I regularly learn new words coming here (and watching Ramsey). I find Brit words very entertaining. ;)
January 12, 2009 at 11:09 pm
yunshui
Snarks are also quite pretty.