In Support of Smut for Smut
A University of Texas San Antonio student group called The Atheist Agenda has created a program on their campus called “Smut for Smut.” The atheist group is giving away pornography in exchange for Bibles. This apparently has caused quite a stir both among Christians and surprisingly among other atheists.
I get why Christians are up in arms. For one thing, most Christians haven’t read their Bibles and don’t realize that there are a few passages in Psalms which are very smutty. Those passages are of course at odds with the passages in Corinthians and other parts of the Bible which are very anti-sexuality.
So with one “stroke” so to speak, the Atheist Agenda encourage Christians to read the best book to de-convert people from Christianity (the Bible), expose the smut of the Bible, expose the prudishness of the Bible, and expose the contradiction to that same inerrant Bible. Oh, and it gets a lot of attention and is a fun and entertaining program.
It’s a win in every which way. Yet for some bizarre reason some friendly atheists (I’m looking at you Hemant) are very angry at the Atheist Agenda for this program. Yesterday I was commenting on a popular atheist blog debating this topic. But why debate it there when I can debate it here?
The cons of this program appear to be that it offends Christians. Oh shit, we don’t want to do that. Do I have to remind my fellow atheists that Christians got offended by the “Don’t Believe in God” billboards and the “Good without God” billboards? So if Christians are going to be offended no matter what atheists do, why not make it entertaining and have fun with it?
I support the smut for smut campaign and hope that they have a large variety of porn to give out. I think it would be particularly helpful if they had some gay porn too since fundamentalist Christians in Texas seem to really hate that type of thing. It will get them good and offended. Plus, the gay community is a natural ally to the atheistic community. So that too would be a win/win.
What do my fellow Dangerous Talkers think about this campaign? What other creative campaigns do you think atheist groups should consider?
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, billboards, culture war, discussion, free speech