The Blasphemy Challenge

[Sniper_Zegai]

This is the original video challenging you to speak out: The Blasphemy Challenge

And here is the video I watched that brought me to this: Response to the BC

And also a news report about the video: News report

This is basically a challenge for people to make a video response and say they deny the holy spirit, an enternal and unforgivable sin in the eyes of the lord. To prove they dont beleive in god and are'nt afraid of the apparent "conseqeunces" of not beleiving.

This video however got a nice bit of media attention. People were saying that this video was simply to get teenagers angry and destroy their souls, etc, etc. The arguement the filmer made was that he was helping young people speak out who felt they were having religion forced their throats by their peers.

So I gotta ask. What do you think?

And what do you beleive in? Or should I ask who taught you what to beleive in?

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My feeling towards this are that this has no real harm and the truth is this 2 minute video offering a free DVD is'nt going to convert the mind of a real religous person. In fact if you willing to commit an "unforgivable" sin for a free DVD, then you cant be much of a beleiver in the first place. I think there are plenty of people who are Atheists who are afraid to speak out, especially amung teenagers whos parents are deeply religous.

But in case you were wondering, I beleive in God. Not religion. The only thing some religions have in common is the apparent existence of an all powerful being and given the fact its religion, not god himself that is asking for my time, effort and money. I came around to this way of thinking when I was very young and asked myself (and teachers and parents) "If I was'nt taught to beleive in God at school or at home, then how would I know?" and this troubled me a whole lot. And I eventually came around to the way of thinking I have today.

P.S. The part where it said "Retail Price: $24.95, Your Price: ONE SOUL" made me laugh a lot.

I hope you enjoy debating this topic. Thanks for looking.
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[Ezekiel]

Eh, I really don't care what anyone believes. Don't mean that in an ignorant way; what I'm saying is "to each their own." I was raised Catholic, but just never really had any faith. I certainly don't now. So I will say that I do not believe in God, but I respect those who do. The way I look at it, as long as you aren't pushing your beliefs on others, you're okay by me. I HATE when people pressure other's to join their religion, as if they will get some reward for recruiting people. It's not a "team", it doesn't matter if their are more catholics than buddhists, so just back off.
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[iscalio]

[Sniper_Zegai]

[kuwaizair]

wow, an atheist's hayday huh? Just focus the camera on some dead dog and talk about how the world is nothing but "a chicken sandwitch", all life is someone's soulless, meaningless food. Maybe that is what I'd do for this video.
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few runes short of a set of 27

[Shad]

Retail Price: $24.98
Your Price: ONE SOUL

Hahahaha

Really though I think this video will serve no good purpose but to stir up trouble and let a few angsty teenagers feel better about themselves. It gives the world the idea that if you are an atheist you hate religion, and that's silly. I don't have to believe in a god to respect the generally positive message religion brings to civilized areas of the world, and the cultural values entailed in it. Causes like this don't really help anything, they just worry and fire up the drives of people who are strongly religious and encourage people who should be acceptant of others' beliefs to be angry and hateful about it instead. When the Christians decided 1500 years ago to purge the world of all non-believers thousands of culture icons and mythologies fell into oblivion and were sadly lost from the world. When the Nazis decided 70 years ago to enact the reverse they were even more destructive. Religious doctrine sometimes encourages radicalism, so I can be a bit more understanding of people who go on a holy tirade because aspects of their ethos support it. Although their actions may be wrong their motives are pure. An atheist doesn't have a higher power to appease, so what's the point beyond simple immaturity of stirring up trouble by slandering those whose beliefs are different? I don't see too many atheist organizations going around funding schools and feeding the homeless.

My grandparents are on a (Christian) missions trip to Africa right now helping out hundreds of starving kids while this guy's making a name for himself by insulting their beliefs. Albeit an atheist myself, which do you suppose I have more respect for?

Groups that speak out against religion internally, anti-Christian music scenes and such, are fine. When someone really pushes it on the rest of the world through the media like this it bugs me. There are a thousand more worse things to protest than Jesus Christ.

[Sniper_Zegai]

Interesting, I never looked at this as "Athiests protesting Jesus" before. And I agree, just becuase Im not for religion does'nt mean I hate it becuase most religion (besides Scientology) do alot of good. Although some people use religion as an excuse to be intolerant of people. I guess this could be looked at as an "attack" on Christianity but who knows.
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[SwissStopwatch]

This thing has been around for a while. I don't remember when I saw it first, but, it was a while back.

I more or less think this is, in fact, just there to stir up trouble. Really. I know some people complain about how ridiculous certain extremist religious groups can be (Fundamentalist Christians are one I hear about plenty). And, certainly, there are a few crazy religious types out there. Well, here's proof that the crazy extremists certainly are on both sides of this. This is just as intolerant as someone insisting that their religion is the only true way. Actually, atheism like this can't be differentiated from a religion much at all.

The guy may have the beginnings of a point in that the tendency is for young people to have religion forced down their throats in a lot of cases, and, it's pretty obvious that a lot of them don't at all appreciate it (either on the level that they philosophically disagree, or on the level that they don't like going to services), since, you know, a lot of them just stop going to church at the first opportunity, when their parents can't make them do it anymore. He would have the point a little more strongly, except that he's using it as a weak excuse for grandstanding. It doesn't do much for the issue he claims to do this for at all, it's really just "Hee hee hee, we're smarter than those people because they believe in GOD! Mwahaha!", which I think is kind of silly. People like this are there, and they come out of the woodwork to shout every so often, to the annoyance of many...

[Azuma]

I post this website, not to insult ANYONE. I believe myself to be somewhat Christian, though mainly undecided, my whole family is Christian and I have a multitude of friends who are Christian. Just to let you know. =P

http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/god-toc.htm

You may have come across this website before. It's basically a more rational approach to the same ideas as the video above. More logically thought out for one, and not asking people to start a worldwide frenzy on Youtube. We could do with less folk like the guy shown in that video posted at the start of the topic. =P

As for me, I don't deny nor accept the fact that God could be real. As I said, i'm undecided. But I think of it this way... are we ever going to find out if God is real or not? He doesn't leave any clues, it's all about faith. So we should really start arguing about it, not just in this religion, but ALL religions really. To many conflicts are sparked by differences in religious standings, and it's silly. If you're going to fight, fight about something more logical, eh? =D

[eXistence of Fly]

[Hawk Thanatos]

^ Hear hear! :P


I tend to think religion in general does more bad than good but I don't think this is a good way of "helping young people speak out who felt they were having religion forced their throats by their peers." In fact I don't think there's much reason to speak out at all, if someone doesn't believe then that should be good enough for them, just like if someone does believe then they should be able to practice their religion privately without forcing it down others' throats.

[Admiral Ackbar]

[Sniper_Zegai]

Wow, this must be ancient....Oh well.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Educational as always.
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