anti-atheist billboard

Point taken, but sometimes one want to have a say.

I went back and re-read what you said. You are claiming that this should be shut down on hate speech grounds:

Disparagement does not equal hate speech. This was taken down as it infringed on advertising standards, not free speech standards, if the pastor wants to say this in Sunday Mass he can, because it is not hate speech. This site is constantly disparaging all sorts of things, that is not hate. Hate would be if they put up a sign, “kill an atheist today, go to heaven tomorrow”, now that would be hate speech. So I don’t think the reason you give is legitimate, and I don’t think it will lead to Christians thinking better of atheists nor be helpful in the future. I am much more interested in free speech than peoples feelings. I normally agree with most of your comments but in this I think you are completely missing the point.

The Indelible Stamp gets it Offended Atheist Gets Stupid Christian Billboard Taken Down | The Indelible Stamp

Just because I don’t agree with this ruling (at the moment, since perhaps there’s an argument that might persuade me otherwise), does not mean I’m saying we should be soft on religion. In fact, this is not even about religion. This is more important. It concerns how we defend and articulate free speech and expression, since, by definition, free speech only make sense if you can defend the right of your worst enemies to express themselves too.

the good book has cleverly made it so, that any kind of ‘say’ us lot have to say, is ‘from the devil’. so any sense we want to drum into them, will just have them clutching their crucifixes even harder.
best defence? dont even bother. vent and rant with fellow skeptics, and leave the woo to their stupidness.
i must say, though, that when they start getting fucking retarded, i will step in.

No, I’m not. You really need to pay closer attention.

'Luthon64

best defence? dont even bother. vent and rant with fellow skeptics, and leave the woo to their stupidness

Ya know, I think this is a case of persistently wearing people down. You’re right that there are no instant wins and it’s very demotivating. Some people are just beyond argument for good. But we should note that secularism is on the rise and it’s in no small part due to the four horse men (now three. :'(): Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and Dennett.

This ain’t no battle but we shouldn’t just give up. I engage, sometimes publicly, religious people and shoot down the same same arguments over and over and over. Hopefully eventually it starts to sink in.

No, (s)he does not.

There is no unified structure in how atheists conceive themselves.
Quite so, but it was the billboard that ascribed certain attributes to "the atheist"; Mr. Gerber responded to that.
He’s doing what our opponents do:
Why should he not do it? The problem here lies neither with Mr. Gerber nor the ASA's ruling, but with the law itself. If the rules of the game are flawed and your opponent exploits those flaws, one would be foolish to play the game according to what one believes the rules should be. Such a cavalier approach would ensure that one loses the game. It is the law that should be under fire, not Mr. Gerber for exploiting it. Some people are shooting in the wrong direction here.

Here’s a picture of the billboard that caused all the trouble: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087778/Churchs-anti-atheist-billboard-banned-advertising-watchdog.html

Mild satire, in my view, and I’m offended that anyone found it worthy of complaint.

Quote: “Pulled down: Officials ruled a billboard erected outside a Johannesburg church that suggested atheists considered their existence to be accidental was likely to be found offensive.”

And as others pointed out, the real question here isn’t whether it is offensive (I find it mildly offensive myself) but why on this earth it is necessary to wage an endless war against offense. Society will never make any progress at all if no one is ever offended.

If the fundies have the right to put up offensive anti-atheism billboards, that means I ALSO have the right to put up my own offensive anti-religious billboards. That is just how I like it.

Amen to that.

Rigil

Steve Hughes - Offended

Awesome :smiley:

o lol’d IRL

My comment on this, in case anyone’s still interested in the issue: http://synapses.co.za/privilege-finding-offensive/