The Blasphemy Challenge
February 3, 2010 11:38 AM   Subscribe

The Blasphemy Challenge: deny the holy spirit on video and post it, and you can get a free copy of The God Who Wasn't There. Sponsored by The Rational Response Squad, the site includes the biblical definition of blasphemy and sample videos of other blasphemers.
posted by bright knight (14 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: This is pretty far past its freshness date. -- cortex



 
What if I just want to express moderately strong doubt?
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:41 AM on February 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


The press release for this is dated December 14, 2006. I'm pretty sure the DVDs are gone.
posted by lholladay at 11:43 AM on February 3, 2010


From exposing the hidden history of Christianity

Its about time.
posted by uni verse at 11:46 AM on February 3, 2010


Anybody seen this thing? Subject sounds interesting, but the marketing isn't giving me all that much confidence that the product stands on its own merits.
posted by gurple at 11:46 AM on February 3, 2010


My ex went through a divorce some years before we ever met. However, every single time a reference to his ex-wife or his former marriage came up in conversation, no matter how small or how fleeting, he would fall all over himself to say that he was totally over it and it was fine and not to worry and it was in the past and he was better really no seriously I mean it. After a while, I started thinking about how much this marriage that he was "over" was preying on his mind, and I started to wonder just how "over it" he was.

This stunt feels awfully similar.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:47 AM on February 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


Bleah. As a long time atheist I'd like to distance myself from anyone who wants to make a big show of pissing on other people's beliefs.

And on preview never mind. This was sorta unpleasant four years ago. It is just pointless now.
posted by Babblesort at 11:47 AM on February 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm arelgious as they come, but this is really more of an IRrational response. What the world needs now is more people acting like dicks.
posted by edgeways at 11:47 AM on February 3, 2010


Shitting on the altar still recognizes the altar.
posted by The Whelk at 11:50 AM on February 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


What's the point?
posted by MarshallPoe at 11:51 AM on February 3, 2010


I flagged this, but I didn't really know how to flag it. There should be a "really really old, and sort of irrelevant" option or something.
posted by muddgirl at 11:53 AM on February 3, 2010


Wikipedia:
The Blasphemy Challenge, started in December 2006, is an Internet-based project which aims to get atheists to come out and declare themselves as atheists.[3] The challenge asks atheists to submit videos to the website YouTube, in which they record themselves blaspheming or denying the existence of the Holy Spirit.[4] According to the RRS' interpretation of several passages of the Bible (specifically, Mark 3:28-29 and Matthew 12:30-32), this action is considered an unforgivable sin.[5] Thus, users who took the challenge saw themselves as crossing a point of no return to prove that they truly did not believe in the biblical God and would "accept the consequences" if after their death they find that the Christian form of the Abrahamic God does exist.[3] The first 1,001 users who took the challenge received a DVD of Flemming's documentary film The God Who Wasn't There.[6] Magician Penn Jillette,[7] author Christopher Hitchens, philosopher Daniel Dennett, and Raëlism founder Raël participated in the project.[8][9] It was also the first video of comedian and Internet personality Pat Condell.[10]

Response from Christians
Many Christian groups have responded to the Challenge with "Challenge Blasphemy" and "Praise the Lord Challenge".[11] Those projects are designed directly to counter the Blasphemy Challenge by encouraging individuals to show their faith in Jesus Christ by posting videos of themselves praising God, or praying by name for the members of the Rational Response Squad or users participating in the Blasphemy Challenge. [12]

So... three years later, it's over.
posted by zarq at 11:56 AM on February 3, 2010


I'm so areligious I haven't heard of the phrase "preaching to the converted!"
posted by Artw at 11:57 AM on February 3, 2010


This challenge meh, whatever. But "The God Who Wasn't There" was a fairly interesting movie. His Christ-birth timeline section was pretty excellent, I've seen other films do the same thing but he presented it better.
posted by haveanicesummer at 11:58 AM on February 3, 2010


Hello 2006. I can't say I'm particularly happy you're back, though now that you are, I guess I might try a different tactic in my attempt to find a job than getting deeper into debt with a master's degree.
posted by Caduceus at 11:58 AM on February 3, 2010


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