Students of the Atheist Agenda club (excuse me, organization) at the University of Texas at San Antonio recently led a campaign to get students to trade in their Bibles or Korans for free porn. They called the initiative "Smut for Smut" stating that the violence in the religious texts are the causes of religious fighting and wars.
While I am not an advocate of the Koran (I believe all religions have some sort of truth in them in that they all usually teach Biblically true morals or lifestyles - love others, stand up against injustice, etc.; however, this is not to be confused with the assertion that all religions are True because it is not logically possible... see my explanation on this by clicking here), but I do not believe it to be smut, and I obviously do not consider the sexuality, violence or anything else in the Bible to be smut, either. (That's another conversation for another day)
Contrary to their organization's public statements, this campaign of theirs has very little to do with actually opening the channels of communication and instead is nothing short of a smear campaign against organized religion. Rather than write for pages as to my response, I will instead summarize my response in a few points and leave the door open for real conversation (feel free to speak your heart/mind by commenting on this post):
- Regarding their initiative and hope for dialogue: Logically and respectfully, if their organization's intention truly was to "talk," wouldn't it seem more polite and sincere to just sit down with Christians/Muslims instead of insult them?
- A question: Why put porn in people's hands in exchange for their Bibles (is it to be their new "Bible")? Based solely on this initiative, would it be safe to assume that atheist do have a god and authority, but instead of it being a person or entity, it is personal pleasure ("do what feels right")? Since most atheists argue it is possible to have a moral compass and not believe in God, wouldn't this smut for smut initiative speak against such a notion ("let's counter supposedly 'wrong' reading with more 'wrong' reading")? Granted, each of these is its own conversation, but are worthy questions none-the-less.
- A point for consideration: the reason the atheist agenda would seek to have people turn in their Bibles/Korans is so that those people are supposedly free to live however they want, with no authority over their lives other than themselves. Since the Bible speaks against sin (living against God), people are forced to make a choice when reading it. They can either (1) ignore those parts of the Bible (focusing on the parts they like better), (2) call those parts and morals of the Bible ancient and no longer relative to our culture, (3) turn their back altogether on (their) faith and embrace their new god - pleasure.
While I wholeheartedly stand against everything the Atheist Agenda stands for and speaks against, at least they know where the heart of the discussion is: God's Word. Now all they have to do is get it out of people's hands - and in this case they hope to replace it with other reading material.
NOTE: Having a Bible is not enough. Nor is it enough to just have one and flip it open in times of anguish. God's Word is our source of Truth, hope, love and understanding of life from Him who created it. The further people grow and walk from it the more confusing life gets and the more relative their truth becomes.
What do you think? Join the conversation. Click here to post a comment or question.
NOTE: The image above is not from the Atheist Agenda campaign. It is an atheist bus tour not related to the campaign I wrote about.
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3 comments:
Good to see you posting again, C2. As far as swaping Bibles for porn goes, I do not personally see this as a threat to those who have truly experienced Jesus in their lives, as we know the truth - Praise God. It is, however ironic that they speak of violence and smut brought by religion. Porn is born of violence and exploitation. Women espesially are exploited and demeaned in a life of porn. However, porn demeans the entire human existence at its very core. It breaks couples apartm, it is at the root of "good" people doing evil. THe only good that could come of this would be that if some of these athiests were to open up one of the Bibles, read it and learn the real truth. May God's will be done!
Regarding your first question, it makes me think of Sam Harris. I'm going through "Letter to a Christian Nation" with my students, and Harris says that he wants to have "dialogue," but can't keep himself from continually insulting Christians. It's kind of hard to have a dialogue with people you keep calling nutjobs in one form or another. It reminds me of what pastor Douglas Wilson says about atheism: It's two main tenets are 1) there is no God, and 2) I hate him.
"God's Word is our source of Truth, hope, love and understanding of life from Him who created it. The further people grow and walk from it the more confusing life gets and the more relative their truth becomes."
This is so true!
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