When: March 1-3: 10am-5pm
Where: UTSA Main Campus by the Sombrilla in front of the MS and HSS
Trade your HOLY SCRIPTURE IN FOR PORN
We're tabling in front of the Sombrilla on March 1st-3rd from 10am-5pm.
Q: What the hell do you think you’re doing?
A: We’ve set up a table where people can stop by and donate their religious reading material and – if they desire, and if they are old enough – receive a number of porn magazines. This can include fundamental texts like the Koran, the Bible, or Dianetics; religious apologia and self-help like Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life and Lewis’s Mere Christianity; or those unnerving little tracts that Jack Chick makes.
We aren’t the first to come up with this. A group at UT Austin called The Knighthood of Buh did a similar thing called “Porn for Bibles” several years ago. They weren’t atheists, so they didn’t get nearly the publicity (or the backlash) we did when we broadened it to include all religions. It’s a clever reversal of the projects some religious groups have in which they collect porn and distribute bibles, and we owe the idea to the Knights.
Q: Why would you do such a thing?
A: It’s symbolic. Pornography is vilified by the religious community, but in reality the values espoused by religious doctrine are far more reprehensible. So, in effect, it’s trading something appalling for something less appalling. We also like to get people to think, to talk to us, and to debate with us. That only works when they understand just what we’re doing, hence this FAQ.
Q: My religious text is the infallible pinnacle of moral decency. Where could you possibly find fault in it?
A: The Bible and the Koran endorse slavery (Lev. 25:44-46; Col. 3:22; Koran 24:58), misogyny (Lev. 15:19-30,33; 27:3-7; Deut. 22: 23-24; 1 Cor. 14:34-35; 1 Tim 2:9; Koran 2:282; 24:31), violence (just search for any combination of the words “fire,” “blood,” “pain” and “doom”), and genocide (Ex. 12:29-30; Num. 31:1-54; Koran 17:16-17). God kills or commands the death of at least 2,270,365 people in the Bible, many of whom were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Koran isn’t much better.
These books do say something about loving one’s neighbor, being kind and charitable, and many other commonplace platitudes. But do we need the bloody mess that comes in between these statements? Haven’t many of us figured these things out for ourselves? Why does the divine consciousness that wrote or inspired these books contradict itself so markedly?
Q: Doesn’t this objectify women?
A: Women choose to participate in pornography of their own accord, and to say it objectifies them against their will presupposes their inability to make decisions – a mindset that kept them from voting and holding careers for a long time. If they want to display themselves in such a manner, and if consumers want to see, then both parties come away happy. The problem arises when someone who uses porn becomes addicted to it or can’t separate fantasy from reality. That’s a failure of the person, not the product.
We also have gay porn. How does that objectify women?
Q: Are you going to burn my book if I give it to you?
A: Destroying knowledge is one of the most disgusting acts imaginable. We keep what you give us as debate tools. Sometimes, in the case of tracts or pamphlets, they’re good for a laugh.
God Bless,
Atheist Agenda of UTSA
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Ok, I’m an Atheist, and whilst participating in a forum was directed to the ‘Smut for Smut’ campaign.
ReplyDeleteI must admit to some confusion, how is exchanging porn magazines for Bibles, meant to show Atheist is good stead, because it seems to me to be saying, “replace one bad world view with one as equally as bad”. IMO that is completely the wrong message to send.
Also there seems to be a perception that people who participate in pornography do so because of choice, while some no doubt do, it is ignoring choice forced upon some by necessity, i.e. poverty, drugs, or forced.
Regards.
Personally, I don't like looking at crack-addicted women in porn, but then i've never come across any woman in porn who looked like she was addicted to crack or any other hard drug. This arguemnt is one usually espoused by the religious who object to it on moral grounds and pick this argument out of the air, the same as they do with the figures for women trafficked into prostitution. The porn market in the US is regulated, and as such has certain moral values that would disallow this from happening.
ReplyDeleteAs an Atheist, i'm surprised you do not know that the bible is far worse than pornography. Pornography does not condone slavery, misogony, violence or genocide, as the person from the Smut for Smut campaign says above. Pornography is about 1 or more people showing their bodies or getting/giving sexual pleasure for money. Nothing more, nothing less. To imply that they are only doing it because they are poor, addicted to drugs or being forced denigrates them. You could say the same thing about people working regular 9-5 jobs in that they have to work to earn money to survive/pay for a drug habit. Just because it has sexuality and/or nudity invovled makes no difference.
Roland, I’m afraid you have a rather Pollyanna view of the porn/prostitution industry. A 10 minute search in the wiki will provide links, to the reality of the situation, i.e. drugs, STD’s, and ruined lives. But please don’t take my word for it, research it yourself.
ReplyDelete