{"id":1147,"date":"2008-12-05T13:50:16","date_gmt":"2008-12-05T17:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=1147"},"modified":"2008-12-05T13:50:16","modified_gmt":"2008-12-05T17:50:16","slug":"the-c-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/the-c-word\/","title":{"rendered":"The "C" Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

Merry Christmas. From here<\/a><\/p>\n

Irish radio ban on advert about the religious meaning of Christmas
\nIreland’s broadcasting regulator finds the phrase “Christmas: aren’t we forgetting something?” offensive<\/strong><\/p>\n

A radio advertisement which reminds listeners about the true meaning of Christmas has been banned by Ireland\u2019s broadcasting regulatory body.<\/p>\n

The controversial advertisement says:\u201dCakes and crackers, Santa and stockings, turkey and tinsel, mistletoe and mince pies and presents and puddings. Christmas: aren\u2019t we forgetting something? This Christmas why not give a gift that means more?\u201d It goes on to suggest gift items such as candles, books and artwork: \u201cSo to give a gift that means more, drop into your local Veritas shop or log on to www.veritas.ie\u201d.
\nThe decision to reject the advertisement followed three unsuccessful attempts by an advertising agency contracted by Veritas to meet the BCI wording requirements. The BCI said that the phrases \u2018Christmas: aren’t we forgetting something?\u2019; \u2018Why not give a gift that means more?\u2019; and \u2018So to give a gift that means more\u2019 ”offend the legislation”.<\/p>\n

Veritas director Maura Hyland noted the “myriad of adverts being broadcast for alcohol, for example – which are not creating difficulties for the BCI”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The thought of offending \u201cthe legislation\u201d is a supremely satisfying one; but why is the advertisement offensive? One assumes because it uses the \u201cChristmas\u201d word with all its inherent overtones of exclusivity. After all, Jesus made the exclusive claim of Divinity: you can\u2019t escape the uncomfortable fact that, if he was right, all other religions are wrong.<\/p>\n

Including the religion that inspired this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The atheist bus campaign launches today thanks to Comment is free readers. Because of your enthusiastic response to the idea of a reassuring God-free advert being used to counter religious advertising, the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” could now become an ad campaign on London buses \u2013 and leading secularists have jumped on board to help us raise the money.
\nThe British Humanist Association will be administering all donations to the campaign, and Professor Richard Dawkins, bestselling author of The God Delusion, has generously agreed to match all contributions up to a maximum of \u00a35,500, giving us a total of \u00a311,000 if we raise the full amount. This will be enough to fund two sets of atheist adverts on 30 London buses for four weeks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For some reason, we did not see any august body of legislators getting upset by this; why not?<\/p>\n

The statement “There’s probably no God\u201d is not a scientific statement since we are not given the actual probability and proof; it\u2019s not an either\/or statement that could be correct or incorrect as in \u201cthere is no God\u201d; it\u2019s not even a coherent religious statement since it requires no belief either that God does or does not exist. So what is it? It is a meaningless statement \u2013 which is why it is inoffensive. In today\u2019s Zeitgeist we can give voice to any metaphysical meanderings we like, as long as it doesn\u2019t mean anything that can be pinned down. The Anglican Church of Canada does this all the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merry Christmas. From here Irish radio ban on advert about the religious meaning of Christmas Ireland’s broadcasting regulator finds the phrase “Christmas: aren’t we forgetting something?” offensive A radio advertisement which reminds listeners about the true meaning of Christmas has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}