A doffing of the atheist cap to Family Guy, who advanced the cause of normalizing the non-belief in God. Brian came out as an atheist this week, though the show laid low by pretending (in TV Guide, I guess) to be about reuniting the cast of Star Trek: Next Gen. That was a disingenuous few-minute subplot, but what were they going to put in the description, “God doesn’t exist and even this animated dog knows it“?
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation don’t like the YouTubes so much, so I can’t show you a clip of the show, but here’s series creator Seth McFarlane chatting with Adam Corolla about his general atheist agenda:
Finally, a mainstream atheist character, even if he is a talking dog. Baby steps.
For all you non-god-fearing fans of Mr. Current, a recent video on what really happens when you go to the big social network in the sky. The end is, in a word, dead on.
I mean, you don’t expect a lot out of Fox News to begin with, but their editorial “slant” sometimes overwhelms. My dinner.
The inaugeration was soaked like a rumcake in God references, but a very special thing happened when Obama acknowledged that his country is comprised of 16% rational people. He said “Hey, you guys exist. And you probably voted for me”.
Fox tried to make a controversy of it, suggesting it was “offensive”. Offensive to acknowledge the existence of—is that some 48 million Americans? We exist, in massive numbers, Fox News.
The ironies in the following story are so sweet that I invite you to poor yourself a glass of Cabernet, slice up some Swiss and a tart apple, and savour this feast of Christian moronism. I’ll wait til you get comfy.
You may recall that 800 buses recently launched in London bearing the slogan: “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Co-sponsored by Dawkins, the British Humanist Association, and concocted by Ariane Sherine of the Guardian’s Comment is Free, the ad campaign was created in response to irritating, scary Christian bus ads warning of damnation, hellfire and other nonsense.
The ads are now being challenged by “leading Christian activist” Stephen Green, who has made a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and is calling for their removal.
Here’s one of the sweet nuggets of irony: “truthfulness” and “substantiation” are Mr. Green’s basis for a challenge. He suggests there’s not “a shred of supporting evidence” that God is not real, and thusly the ads (unlike most advertising?) are misleading.
Mr. Green: what kind of evidence will ever be recorded that God doesn’t exist? None, because proving a negative is a flaming logical fallacy. How does one show that something isn’t there? By the fact that we never see, hear, smell, touch or taste it? And anyone who says they have can’t replicate it for anyone else?
The onus is not on atheists to prove God does not exist; we are safer in our claim, as no evidence whatsoever shows that God does exist.
Which brings us to the second, even more succulent irony nugget. Should the ASA have to rule on the truthfulness of assertions of existence of a diety, the ruling logically has to
a) affect future Christian ads and
b) weigh in favour of those who don’t need to prove their assertion, as opposed to those who’s extrodinary claim has 0 extrodinary evidence to back it up.
Truthiness was apparently already addressed when the atheist campaign was accepted for appearance on British transit. Philosopher and BHA Distinguished Supporter A C Grayling wrote, in what we hope will inform a legal precedent, that the advertising rules that insisted on the “probably” in the atheist slogan need apply just as stringently to the Christian’s hellfire advertising.
Way to go, Mr. Green! You have exposed your religious convictions for the baseless nutjobbery that they are. You have no reason to believe God exists, and neither do we. Kudos.
Newdow already has a lawsuit cooking to remove “under God” from the pledge of allegiance, and previously sued to deChristianize the 2001 and 2005 inaugurations.
I hope Mr. Newdow is being considered for Humanist of the Year.
Friendly Atheist has an interesting look into the religious makeup of the US Congress…nary a mention of atheism, despite 16-20% of the population professing no religious beliefs.
Image by Brent Rasmussen of Unscrewing the Inscrutable, which contains an awesome explanation of belief in God versus knowledge of God, or how YOU can be an agnostic atheist!
When’s a good time to let your parents in on your flaming atheism? Not during the holiday season, as this video from Atheist Mind illuminates.
Why do people insist that belief in Jesus’ birth with attendant cute little donkeys, virgins, and wise men is required to exchange thoughtful gifts, dine together and celebrate our families? I had the great fortune to be raised in an atheist home, and that never stopped us from rocking the holidays.
I hope this kid’s band gets big and he never has to talk to his irrational, small-minded mom again. Snap!
The atheists really go for it with that “may reason prevail” and “enslaving minds” stuff, eh?
O’Reilly may not be strictly wrong; that’s a pretty logical comment about not having to post alternate views to, say, Martin Luther King Day materials. Just because someone’s celebrating a holiday or presenting a viewpoint, we don’t de facto have to present it’s alternate in the same arena. That smacks of creationists insisting we teach superstition alongside evolution in science class. We don’t, cause it’s ain’t the forum for it.
That said, there are 3 solid points I can think of in support of the Washington atheists:
1There are about 13 zillion major religions who’s December holidays we don’t shut down the whole continent for, including:
Masa’il, December 12, Baha’i
Day of Hajj, December 19, Islam
Eid al-Adha, December 20, Islam
Maunajiyaras, December 20, Jainism
Hannukah, December 21-28, Judaism
Tohji-taisai, December 22, Shinto
Yule, December 22, Wicca
Death Anniversary of Zarathustra, December 26, Zoroastrianism
Sharaf, December 31, Baha’i
So to be fair, we could pretty much write off the whole month and celebrate everybody’s nonsense religious holidays consecutively in an orgy of politically correct togetherness. What with white peoples projected to be 46% of the US population by 2050, down from 68% nowish, it seems only likely that the misty origins of Boxing Day sales et al will disappear and a more homogenous holiday season will prevail. Don’t be sad; these holidays all seem to be about God or the wonders of his creation, anyway, just not in Baby Jesus form.
AronRa, a 46-year-old geoscience student and prolific video ranter, has created an excellent series about the “Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism”. He’s been working on these for about a year, and though he has to hang it up for now for an extremely busy semester, the first 13 (yes 13!) installments are fantastic. We look forward to his return and wish him well on exams. Let the debunking begin.
1st Foundational Falsehood of Creationism
My personal rant against one of foremost falsehoods of the creationism movement; the idea that accepting evolution is tantamount to declaring atheism, or that one need be creationist to be Christian.
2nd Foundational Falsehood of Creationism
Exploring the erroneous notion that the holy scriptures were written by God, rather than be subject to the errs of humanity.
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