Atheist Ads Are 100% Legal
After 326 complaints, numerous calls of “blasphemy” by Steven Green of Christian Voice, and a bigot who refused to do the job he is paid for, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have decided that the current atheist adverts are not illegal and do not break advertising code. Let’s look over some of the claims made:
“The wording is offensive to religious people”
Response: The wording told you to “stop worrying” and “enjoy your life”. It didn’t say there was no God, nor that you are a fool for believing in God, nor that religion leads to evil. The message was clear; people shouldn’t spend so much time worrying about their “afterlife” when it might not exist, and spend more time having a good time.
“The advert is misleading because you cannot prove there probably isn’t a God”
Response: Neither can you prove there probably is. If Christian adverts can get away with claiming that not only is there a God, but said God will send you to hell for eternity for not believing, then atheist adverts can get away with “there probably isn’t”. The advert isn’t meant to prove anything; it is an opinion on the existence of God, and so like the infamous Carlsberg “probably the best beer in the world” adverts, it is void from objective substantiation.
“The adverts cannot be held as opinion because nobody is attributed to them”
Response: Actually, three groups are held as attributers in the form of links: humanism.org.uk, richarddawkins.net, and atheistcampaign.org. The advert is clearly the opinion of those groups and whoever supports those groups (or agrees with the advert itself). There is no difference between the opinion stated in this advert and the opinions stated in Christian adverts which are attributed to the Bible. Oh wait…there is a difference; the atheist adverts are accurate reflections of reality.
Sorry Christians, better luck next time.
Contact Adrian Hayter
My Facebook
My Atheist Nexus Page
My Twitter
My Reddit
My Atheist Spot
My FriendFeed
My Technorati
Atheist Forums
Loading ...
About damn time that governments started thinking reasonably
Yeah really! For once logic has won over blind faith! It's unfortunate though that Christians can get away with saying there IS a god and you WILL burn in hell for eternity if you don't worship him (kinda sounds like extortion, doesn't it?). At least this is a step in the right direction.
See? Obama's president for one day and the world starts making sense.
now if they would only make a law that says…. if you are a pharmacist, you must dispense medications, prescribed by a physician. if your religious beliefs keep you from it, you are not allowed to be a pharmacist. same with doctors…. if their religious kookism keeps them from doing their job… they cant have that job and can be put in jail for non compliance.
I wouldn't go so far as to put doctors or pharmacists in jail for not complying. But this whole 'I can't give you medication because your beliefs don't match mine' is shite. Such an act should lead to a doctor or pharmacist being banned from practice, but not jail.
I know! Some of his Obamary goodness must have floated across the Atlantic!
…except that Obama's a god-botherer as well.
But he's still got a good head on his shoulders and promotes a secular nation, or at least a nation that isn't theo-centric.
A similar campaign was started in Italy. Somewhat a surprise to everybody (…not), it failed
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Athei...
Methinks they doth protest too much…
What really annoys me is when Christians get all pissy about things like this, they give the rest of us who like to have a decent reputation a bad name! :(
What really annoys me is when Christians mouth off about things like this, then I drive down the highway and see billboards with a damn Bible verse on them, or 'Jesus loves you!'
It's simple: believe what you want, but don't try to push your beliefs on me.
Works for most things besides religion. It's acting, not the belief, that causes the problem.
Most of the time I don't even tell people what my religion is.
Indeed!
a) you can't prove that god doesn't exist
b) you can't prove that god exists
c) if god doesn't exist, it means that every church in the world is a misleading advert
so
to be really unpartial, you have to say that no signs of religion should be allowed, including churches
or
you read the part of the bible where the Christ says that you don't look at the splinter in the eye of another, but you should focus on the big tree sticking out of your own.
I'm an atheist, but I still think some pieces of the bible are worth a great deal, especially those dealing with understanding, forgiveness and general good will. Too bad that many so called Christians seem to forget about them
Erik
"Spiritual people enlighten me,
religious people frighten me."
** Sanitize the state, rid us of xian institutions **
Xians are the oppressors in the US, not the oppressed.
Get rid of their illegal special status: tax their property, tax their income, de-fund their so-called faith-based initiatives. Then we’ll see how long their pernicious institutions last.
A secular state ought to unplug itself from forcing us to support liars, pedophiles, politicos . . . who cram their non-existent god and perverse values down our throats.
Persecution? No, restitution for 225 years of prig morality and unlawful control.
Crush the infamy.
bipolar2
Yes, I do believe that the Bible does have good teachings in it and if people loosely followed and used it as a way to lvie life, we would have a better world. Its when you take the words literally and to the word that things get out of hand.
Pointless. You can't use logic on people who base their lives on mythology, which easily explains anything and everything that you need or want it to, and cannot be refuted because there is always more mythology to back it up.
The lord Jesus compells you!
Just kidding. Debtes on christian mythology are never complete without someone telling us about the lord jesus, are they? :)
Does anyone else sense an all-out religious war coming along in the near future?
I'm a Christian and I think that those atheist ads carry a good message :)
Why? Just curious, I'm not saying I'm Christian, I just want to know why you think so :)
Ahhh how intolerable are these so called religious people.
A nation that holds sience over dogmas I beleive were his words
And woohoo, some of us brits get some good stuff!
If you could reason with religious people there would be no religions.
You guys might enjoy my video series "God Idols", which takes a satirical look at some major religions. Below the link to the introductory special.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6hMexveJd4
Leave a comment, let me know what you think!
Bout bloody time. I can’t believe this was even a debate. It’s simple legal logic. There’s not a lawyer in the world who couldn’t win this case. It all boils down to the stronghold of favouratism and “special attention” organised religion gets due to it having been around for so long and infiltrating all aspects of social history. That’s why I like the scientologists. They’re proof in point anyone can make a religion up and people will be dumb enough to fall for it. I try to stay neutral in these matters because I know not all religious folks agree with the fundies way of thinkin, sometimes it just boils my blood though :/
—————————–
http://www.atheistabyss.ning.com
—————————–