Bibles for Porn
It appears that a group of atheists in San Antonio, Texas, have launched a program in which college students can swap Bibles and other religious texts for high-class pornography. The idea is for people to equate the two rather than to actually promote porn. Clever? No doubt. Effective? I'd say no.
As an atheist, I'm well aware that our popularity ranks somewhere between Dick Cheney and herpes. Voters would almost certainly elect a transsexual murderer president, so long as he was a believer, over an atheist. I'd like very much to be able to put my weight behind an effective pro-atheist movement.
Bibles for porn isn't it, for a few reasons. For one thing, it reinforces the image of atheists as a group of licentious libertines who would spike the school water supply with LSD given half a chance. Hardcore Christians like to think that their morality derives entirely from faith, and that ergo those without faith somehow lack a morality. This idea is of course wrong, but handing out porn is hardly the way to disprove it.
The second thing I object to is the notion that the Bible is 'smut', as the program's manifesto calls it. Hardly. The Bible is a book upon which the foundation of Western culture is based. For that reason alone, it has immense historical value. Rather than trading Bibles in for porn, atheists should actually sit and learn it. The world would be better off if people were to analyze 'sacred' texts critically rather than simply adopt their tenets wholesale.
Far more effective were the light and breezy 'atheist bus' campaign that made a slight stir in England last year.
March 5th, 2010 - 12:49
Bibles-for-Porn seems to be from the PZ Myers school of Shock and Awe Atheism. (One imagines the standard conservative Christian reply: why not Korans-for-Porn? What are they, atheist chickenhawks?) Anyways, it will only lead to more idiocy from Fox News and the like. Sucks, but that’s America.
Your last point is important, though. Self-styled defenders of rationality cannot afford to be seen as close-minded.
March 5th, 2010 - 13:21
Right- I’ve always regarded PS Myers as a useful idiot for the theist community.
March 5th, 2010 - 13:21
er, PZ Myers
March 5th, 2010 - 22:07
You know who’s a far more interesting atheist (to me) than Myers? The guy who made the Brick Testament website. He really did read the Good Book and has a spin, but fire-and-brimstone Christians (rather than existential types like me) will be put on the spot by his work.
March 6th, 2010 - 01:32
“The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins completely changed my life in high school. Turned me from an agnostic to an atheist. His subsequent work in the atheistic community has also been powerful.
Its funny that you say that the popularity of atheism is so low. In my biology academia bubble, it is rare to find somebody who is not an atheist. I am always shocked when I look at the demographics of the country and see how low our numbers are.
March 8th, 2010 - 07:57
Well said Matt, I totally agree about the Bible being the building block for Western Culture. When Atheists refer to it as smut or claim it to be outdated, they are really missing that key point.
But I do wonder about any of these pro-atheist campaigns. Now correct me if I’m wrong (I do believe in God, but I find a lot of the church dogma to be outdated and missing the key points of Christianity), but isn’t one of the big reasons that people are turned off of any belief is because of how in your face and preachy it is? Wouldn’t any atheist get offended if an add on a bus said “Jesus Loves You”? Wouldn’t any atheist shake their head if someone offered Bibles for Porn?
If that’s so, then why is it ok the other way around? I mean, if you want people to choose for themselves, then why ram atheism down peoples throats with bus adds or any sort of campaigns? I mean, if church and state should be seperate (which they are not in England, but that’s a whole other story) then shouldn’t state and not-church be seperate too?
Even though I do believe in God, I have no problem with atheism, I used to be one myself after all. But what I do find annoying is when atheists get preachy. Just like I find it annoying when Christians, Mulsims, Jews, or anyone else gets preachy.
And I actually enjoyed Matthew Stinsons comment about Qu’arans for porn. I know that you were joking, but it is a serious question that I have. Why are atheists so obsessed with the Bible and Christianity? Isn’t Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and every other religion just as irrational as the other? It’s a touch irrational and close minded to only accept Bibles for porn and not the Vedas or Daodejing.
March 8th, 2010 - 09:55
Thanks for the comment, Glen- just one clarification. The students involved with the ‘bibles for porn’ campaign actually did accept other religious texts besides the bible. My title was perhaps a bit unclear.
Though I personally am opposed to religious faith in all forms I think the emphasis atheists place on Christianity has to do with the fact that in the Americas and Europe it remains the predominant religion.
And I think given the generally low public opinion of atheists in the US a little public relations doesn’t hurt. My problem with the ‘bibles for porn’ campaign is that it reinforces rather than repudiates negative stereotypes of atheists.
March 8th, 2010 - 13:40
Oh sorry Matt, I didn’t know that they accepted all of them. But yeah, the title is rather unclear, my bad!
And I do understand that most atheist “movements” are centred in Europe and North America. But I think that atheists in those places could probably learn a thing or two from atheists in China. Just leave people be (on an individual level that is) and do your own thing. Posting ads that say that there is no God is not really the “live and let live” that so many atheists claim to want.
I think though if atheist group do want to do a little bit of PR, then they should use the religious texts as a vehicle. I mean, if atheists started telling Christians to “Do onto the least of my brothers as thou do onto me” (which is what should be the building block for all Chrisitianity) then that could be a very effective, and rational, argument to have people just leave them the heck alone.
March 8th, 2010 - 14:22
A transsexual murderer may be slightly less electable than an atheist, but only because they’re a transsexual. If they were pre-op, it’d be a close race.
I, like Glen, have no problem with atheists despite my fairly non-committal theism. And I completely agree that preachy is preachy regardless of from whom it’s coming. At least when I deal with Muslims who tell me I’m not conservative enough I can quote the Qur’an to tell them to back off.
But I think that atheists in those places could probably learn a thing or two from atheists in China. Just leave people be (on an individual level that is) and do your own thing.
I’ve often thought that of those with faith as well. I know one Chinese guy who’s hardcore Evangelical Buddhist, but his family (with whom I’m friends and how I barely know him) have pretty much dumped him over this. In my experience Chinese don’t give a crap if you’re this or that. Mostly they’re just surprised to find out you’re not Christian, but then this is right along with the surprise over my eyes being brown, not blue, so I don’t think too much about it.
March 8th, 2010 - 14:46
I can see your point about ‘preachy’, fellas, and for that reason I think atheists ought to be more selective in their promotional efforts than the ‘bibles for porn’-style gigs. But at the same time, I don’t have a problem with churches that advertise slogans on billboards, preachers on television, or any other PR for religions. I’d encourage atheists to do the same, just wisely as we’ve got a long way to go before being accepted by the mainstream, at least in the US.
March 8th, 2010 - 18:06
Wait a minute.
Which is lower on the Schiavenza Popularity Scale: Cheney or herpes?
March 10th, 2010 - 14:21
Ha! I hold both in equally low regard, but I’d say on a nation-wide scale Cheney still is quite a bit more popular. I mean…does anyone like herpes besides doctors who treat it?
March 10th, 2010 - 15:42
“does anyone like herpes besides doctors who treat it?”
How many GPs and doctors specialising in sexual health and related areas are there in the US? What’s the prevalence of herpes (I believe in NZ it’s shockingly close to 50% of the adult population… don’t know what the rate for sheep is)? It could well turn out that herpes is actually more popular than Cheney.
March 10th, 2010 - 22:11
I’m pretty sure I’d trade contracting herpes for Cheney to have never been in a position of power.
March 15th, 2010 - 19:59
You sure dude? Herpes is for life, Cheney was only around for 8 years…
March 17th, 2010 - 08:48
I could tell you are an atheist from the ideas on your blog that you have expressed thus far. And you probably you are smarter than other religious believers. Tell us what you have accomplished with your life so far.