The Dead Roo pointed me at the Blasphemy Challenge - record a YouTube video including the phrase "I deny the Holy Spirit", and get a free atheist DVD (or if you're not American, a much cheaper one). You can see some of the responses (including those from outraged Christians) here.
How you feel about this will obviously depend on your view of atheism. Those who want to profess their lack of faith or piss off the Christians will leap at it, and I can see the appeal in that. But I'm simply not that kind of atheist any more. Religion is simply irrelevant to my life, except insofar as those with imaginary friends try to impose them on me (which fortunately doesn't happen very often in New Zealand). Sure, I deny the holy spirit, just as I deny the flying spaghetti monster, fire-breathing dragons, ghosts, Great Cthulhu, or any of the other fictional props which form a backdrop to my preferred entertainments. But I don't waste my time thinking about it on a daily basis. That's no reason not to do it, of course, but going to the effort of recording a video saying so just seems to be caring too much about something which doesn't matter to me in the slightest.
How you feel about this will obviously depend on your view of atheism.
ReplyDeleteMeh... I think it has more to do with your view of juvenile shock tactics and folks who have spooky martyr complexes. (And, sorry, I've really got to wonder why so many high-profile atheists bear a creepy resemblance to the more hysterical brand of tele-evangelist. There's a book in there somewhere.)
Personally, I'm much more impressed by Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great. Agree with him or not, he writes like an angel and argues his corner like a junkyard dog. Bless him.
Agree with him or not, he writes like an angel and argues his corner like a junkyard dog.
ReplyDeleteOn a good day.
As for going out of one's way to diss xtians, it's a little like those true believers who accord so much power to Satan that they might as well come out of the closet and worship the poor old bogeyman.
Deny the holy spirit? What holy spirit, you geese?
Read some Flannery O'Connor, you'll find that the world's far stranger than any posturing about belief/non-belief could ever suggest.
An important point here is that outward displays of god denial have much more frisson in a country where almost half the population believe men and women were created in their current form by god.
ReplyDeleteHere in New Zealand ... meh.
Meh. It's lame and about as offensive as child throwing a tantrum. Still, I hope it makes them feel better.
ReplyDelete