There are atheist groups out there doing stupid things, but this has to be one of the dumbest. A college atheist organization called, Atheist Agenda, has been conducting something called "Smut for Smut." They give out porn in exchange for bibles. Seriously.
In the view of club members, religious texts are as smutty as pornography because they contain violence and torture and spark religious wars. But mostly, it's a public relations stunt meant to ignite debate and attract new members to the club.That sounds like reasoning that you might expect from some clueless college students. Unfortunately, when atheists groups -- even just a pack of moron students -- do something like this, it makes all atheists look bad. I've got nothing against porn, and quite a bit against the Bible, but trying to equate the two is just idiotic. Whatever else the Bible is, it's an extremely important collection of ancient writings with high literary value. Offering to exchange it for porn, as if there were some equivalence, just makes you look stupid. I'm not one who thinks religion deserves respect, but there's no need to spit in the face of believers with cheap and useless stunts.
Any atheist interested in increasing our numbers should be encouraging people to read the Bible and really think about it. Reading the Bible with a critical eye, learning about biblical scholarship, studying how it was written, compiled, translated and used throughout history -- these things destroy blind faith. Extensive Bible reading, combined with further investigation and critical thought, is the number one reason I became an atheist. And I'm not the only one.
Your opinion here has a lot of merit, and I wonder if it is really the best option. As House says, "if religious people were rational, they wouldn't be religious". I fear that asking them to read the bible is counterproductive, because that's what got them where they are in the first place--the "critically" part is missing. I doubt that asking them for rational (i.e. critical) debate, will supply it.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that ridicule is more effective. There is no "rational" counter to that. My background I think differs from yours. If not for my dad being an athiest, I'm sure I would have followed my mom into DEVOUT catholicism, but although it was never discussed, I knew he thought it was all BS... and just the possibility existing caused me to have to evaluate things on their merits. Had I been raised Fundy (you were?) I dunno what ....
I agree that this event here is kind of spitting in the face of religiots, but it seems to be effective. Lots of people are talking about it, and that seems to be most important. I think, it's not stupid, the main point is that religious texts are "smut". I couldn't agree more. Raising the possibility is all good.
How does one get a "critical eye?"