The Original Blasphemy Challenge Press Release!
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ACTIVISTS PLEASE SPREAD THIS FAR AND WIDE! Use this thread to talk out any ideas of communication to inform the press about this. Local TV news SoCal covered the story tonight. Send this to your local papers, your tv stations, radio stations, whatever! Post on forums, blogs, and information exchange sites, like Digg! For a compilation of the media and publicity the Blasphemy Challenge is receiving, visit this thread.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Zoe Lee, [email protected]
ATHEIST GROUP LAUNCHES $25,000 SALVO IN WAR ON CHRISTMAS
"The Blasphemy Challenge" Rewards Participants For Demonstrating Non- Belief On YouTube.
Blasphemy Challenge video here.
Los Angeles -- December 14, 2006. As part of its ongoing War on Christmas, the Rational Response Squad has launched a $25,000 campaign to entice young people to publicly renounce any belief in the sky God of Christianity.
Called "The Blasphemy Challenge," this campaign encourages participants to commit what Christian doctrine calls the only unforgivable sin -- blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. (The "Holy Spirit" is an invisible ghost who Christians believe dwells on Earth as God's representative.)
Participants who videotape their blasphemy and upload it to YouTube will receive a free DVD of the hit documentary THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE, which normally sells for $24.98. Beyond Belief Media, the distributor of THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE, has donated 1001 DVDs to the Rational Response Squad for The Blasphemy Challenge.
More than 180 participants have already blasphemed the Holy Spirit and earned free DVDs during the pre-launch phase of the Blasphemy Challenge. Their videos can be viewed here.
While anyone can participate in The Blasphemy Challenge, the Rational Response Squad is focused on reaching a young demographic. To publicize The Blasphemy Challenge to young people, today the Rational Response Squad begins an online advertising campaign focused on 25 sites popular with teens such as Xanga, Friendster, Boy Scout Trail, Tiger Beat, Teen Magazine, YM, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen.
To interview participants in The Blasphemy Challenge or request a review copy of THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE, please contact Zoe Lee via email at [email protected]. Brian Sapient co-founder of the Rational Response Squad can be reached at [email protected]
ABOUT THE RATIONAL RESPONSE SQUAD
The Rational Response Squad addresses irrational emergencies of all kinds, especially the ongoing emergency created by religious faith. What started in February 2005 as a popular internet radio show has since blossomed into an activist group with 21,000 members, seven regional chapters and a fast-growing youth division organized at FreeThinkingTeens.com. The Squad focuses on debunking false claims, publicizing the work of atheists and skeptics, and directly engaging the faithful with the goal of converting them to reason. The Squad's War on Christmas also includes initiatives to give free THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE DVDs to Christians who request them as well as covertly planting DVDs in Christian churches.
See: http://www.rationalresponders.com
ABOUT "THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE"
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE did it to the gun culture. SUPER SIZE ME did it to fast food. THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE does it to religion. A #1 bestselling independent documentary at Amazon.com, THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE holds Christianity up to a bright spotlight and asks the questions few dare to ask. Starting off by exploring the case that Jesus never actually existed, the movie goes on to examine other aspects of the Christian religion through interviews with Richard Dawkins, author Sam Harris, historian Richard Carrier and many others. Los Angeles Times: "Provocative -- to put it mildly."
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
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To send this press release to the media, the best method of approach is to send it to specific people at news outlets who have written about religious related issues in the last few months. You should address them personally and mention that you saw an article they did about such and such, and you thought this release would be of interest to them.
Work on your local media, as it's what you likely know best, and if you want to cover Philadelphia or SoCal markets the likelihood of us granting face to face interviews with the news outlets will go up.
You can do a google search for news, and use keywords like atheist, religion, god, etc... and write to the authors of the articles specifically. Online articles generally have email addresses for the authors.
Here is a google search for atheist in the news.
Here is a google search for Christianity in the news.
Here is a site that lists major newspapers by state: http://www.refdesk.com/paper.html#natnews
Here is a list of TV stations by state: http://newslink.org/stattele.html
Spread the word, atheists are coming out of the closet!
Vote for Democrats to save us all from the anti-American Republican party!
Please become a Patron of Brian Sapient
This is amazing! you've guys have gotten news coverage! and the people who got their videos PLAYED ON LIVE NEWS!! wow! and my fat head was on the news for a few seconds... so proud of my head.
I've sent it to the local paper (The Reading Eagle) and WFMZ Channel 69 out of Allentown (yes, it really is Channel 69!) http://www.wfmz.com
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
I put this forward earlier this evening and I am glad to tell you that the Finnish Freethinkers' magazine is going to have an article on your campaign in their first issue of 2007 (it should be out in the early February)
I'll keep you guys updated.
http://www.myspace.com/jussikniemela
Excellent, please make sure to post results in this thread about who's talking about the Challenge.
Vote for Democrats to save us all from the anti-American Republican party!
Please become a Patron of Brian Sapient
This is a completely irresponsible promotion. People are going to take you up on it, get their free DVD and then, thinking they've secured eternal damnation for cussing the Holy Ghost for a few minutes, live blameless lives thereafter. Like what's the point of sinning anymore? It's hardly worth the effort.
Then, when they die, they find out that it doesn't really work like that. It's not enough to simply blaspheme the Holy Spirit. You have to accuse Jesus of performing miracles through the power of Satan, not the Holy Spirit, which means you have to affirm that there even was a Jesus--which this film is devoted to demonstrating that there probably wasn't--and that he actually did miracles--and that it was Satan, not the Holy Spirit, who did the magic. Then they die, and there they are, surrounded by a bunch of fundies, wearing a robe and a halo, listening to sheep chant "Praise to the Lamb" for all eternity while the rest of us enjoy the good company available in Hell. They're going to be awfully pissed.
Thandarr
Thandarr
[email protected]
It is simply enough to blaspheme the Holy Spirit - read Mark 3:29, Mat 12:31-32
The Pharisees accused Jesus of performing miracles through demons but Jesus says (Mat 12:32) "whoever speaks a word (refering to the Pharisees) against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks agagainst the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or the next"
The way I see it you Christians feel it necessary to twist the verses you struggle with but it is must easier to accept what it says. Fact is Jesus says their is one way for sure you can tear up that ticket to heaven. You need to deal with it. I know Christians wish Jesus hadn't said it but if it is any consolation you can be rest assured He didn't. Someone made the whole thing up.
DING DING DING WE HAVE A WINNER.
See video starting at 3:50
Vote for Democrats to save us all from the anti-American Republican party!
Please become a Patron of Brian Sapient
Sapient wrote: "Excellent, please make sure to post results in this thread about who's talking about the Challenge."
Sure!
http://www.myspace.com/jussikniemela
I just sent the release to The Seattle Times, as well as my local CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX news channels.
Wilson: "We were afraid that if you found out you solved a case with absolutely no medical evidence you'd think you were God." House: "God doesn't limp."
Shane wrote:
The way I see it you Christians feel it necessary to twist the verses you struggle with but it is must easier to accept what it says.
Thandarr responds:
I always enjoy it when a committed atheist calls me a Christian. Unfortunately, I feel obliged to point out for the benefit of those who may think otherwise that my post is not entirely representative of the mainstream point of view of orthodox Christianity.
Thandarr
Thandarr
[email protected]
I believe I actually did it. You can read my testimony on www.totalblasphemy.com. It comes up top in Yahoo for a search on "unforgivable sin".
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the breakdown of conscience. Without conscience, a man is totally evil. It's not what the pharisees were saying, it's what they were doing. Their words just revealed their inner state.
I believe Christianity is real. What happened to me either provides "proof" of it, or it describes an experience which was given religious meaning by the people who wrote the bible.
Jon
A disappointed antichrist.
Church Hall of Shame!
You may have sufficiently blasphemed the Holy Ghost to get out of Heaven. But at least you acknowledge it's not easy.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems more complicated than it looks at first glance.
Besides, if I'm going to hell, it's going to be for all the porn I've downloaded, all the sincere missionaries I've frightened, etc.
Thandarr
Thandarr
[email protected]
Yes, you're right on that one. It is difficult, although I wouldn't really say difficult - more like you carry on sliding down a slippery slope until the conscience gets so fragile that it breaks. Also, it involves a combination of religion and dirt, not just dirt. It's the end result of evil religion. Non-religious people don't end up blaspheming the Holy Ghost, because they've never felt the power of the Holy Ghost.
Jon
A disappointed antichrist.
Church Hall of Shame!
See, there's this Baptist preacher who got quoted in Newsweek making the exact same point I did.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16409851/site/newsweek
Whoops. Wait a minute. A Baptist Preacher! That's my proof? I guess I was completely full of shit after all. My bad. See you in Hell.
Thandarr
Thandarr
[email protected]