Christ appears in phone advert, secular authorities act Phones4u has managed to offend Christians with a cartoon Jesus offering a thumbs up, apparently endorsing its range of Samsung handsets rather than the more-traditionally messianic iPhone. The advert drew 98 complaints, more than enough to trigger an investigation into the ad which appeared in the national press just before …
A cartoon of Richard Dawkins saying "These phone offers are obviously the best you can get and if you disagree you must be some kind of retard or primitive barbarian"
If you want to be rude and offensive then Prof. Dawkins is usually the man for the job.
NB:I'm an atheist but I don't like his attitude.
This post has been deleted by its author
I missed the recent advert portraying Mohammed sporting the new HTC ChaCha just before Ramadan..... What? There wasn't one?
Who'd have thunk it.
Not even an advert with Moses showing off his latest shatter-proof tablet!
Anyway, Phones4U strike me as being the most dodgy-car-dealer-esque of all the mobile phone peddlers out there; I speak from experience.
I'd just like to give "mocking and belittling core Christian beliefs" and "causing serious offence, particularly to Christians" the winking thumbs-up jesus stamp of approval. In fact can we make this a standard approval logo, and get a new forum icon featuring it?
Well actualy the mobile phone network I use is able to get capacity for 100 people and do some magic changing it into capacity that they can sell to 10000 people. Now I've checked the water wine thing and as volume goes this mobile phone company does more. Also changing water into wine is easy, it's getting an export liscence for said wine afterwards that the real magic.
The central tenet of Christianity is a belief in grace/ mercy.
That story was a good illustration; after shaming the mob into sparing the woman, he then refused to judge her and showed mercy/ compassion instead. I wish I could be that strong willed.
In any case, judging/ moralising should be a totally alien concept to a christian.
Alas, humans are judgemental, and a thin veneer of religion doesn't seem to improve your mark 1 human, it merely gives them another thing to judge with.
The whole 'God is on my side' is a terrible thing to argue against.
Time for a drink.
In other news, 98 people seriously need to find something significant to get upset about.
If your life is so easy that you have no problems to sort out besides complaining about a stylized cartoon of a famous dead guy - then I'm very jealous of you all.
If I'd spent my life uttering profundities and my image was still used 2000 years after my death, I'd be very chuffed indeed.
I expect Jesus feels the same and is now cursing those who got him removed from the Phones4U ad campaign.
Just out of curiosity how would I recognise a depiction of Allah if I saw one? Does he look like Jesus?
Come to that why does everyone expect Jesus to be white and with long hair (and more so for the big G as well!)?
Also why is it that any form of discussion regarding religion also has to tread carefully to avoid offending anyone?
If religious people actually believed what they said they believed then anyone saying anything against their religion would be laughed at and mocked rather than attacked.
Ok - enough trolling for now
"Also why is it that any form of discussion regarding religion also has to tread carefully to avoid offending anyone?"
The problem is that some people consider religion to be the most important aspect of their life. As such, they do take it very personally when you question them about their religion, even if it is a genuine question and not an attempt to criticise the religion dressed up as question (and I know several people who will happily do that).
Personally, I don't believe in any religion, and if anyone disagrees with me, that's their business, I don't get offended, even if they tell me I am wrong.
Some atheists can be very touchy about it as well. I used to work with such bloke. Now me, I'm atheist but by and large I just ignore the issue. I pretty much regard it as just another club that some people happen to be members of. But this chap could get really worked up over religion and nearly foam at the mouth attacking it.
"even if it is a genuine question and not an attempt to criticise the religion dressed up as question"
Even if it *is* a criticism dressed up as a question, what's wrong with that? Why shouldn't we be allowed to criticize religious beliefs as we would with anything else? I get incredibly annoyed when people come out with the "you can't criticize that, it's what I believe" argument, which seems to be getting more popular. Just because you believe something and that belief is important to you, doesn't make you right, and doesn't make you above being criticized. In the interests of civility there are ways of doing things, but the act of criticizing something shouldn't be dismissed just because it's criticism.
"If religious people actually believed what they said they believed then anyone saying anything against their religion would be laughed at and mocked rather than attacked."
Very good point. Religion is the only thing that automatically assumes immunity from any kind of criticism or analysis, obviously because their 'arguments' are so easy to refute. I'm sick and tired of a secular society having to tippy-toe around these godbotherers, for fear of saying or doing something that they deem "offensive".
Kudos to Phones4U for running this though. However, I think that using religion to sell anything would, as an atheist, put me off. Shouldn't we Free Thinkers be more offended?
When it is supposedly a core tenet of the religion in questions, I think it should probably cover not making an official complaint over something so petty.
Or maybe it should be, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, except for when we feel like a good bitch and moan"?
As a footnote, I find it sad that so many people are still ready and willing to believe things that they are told to be true, despite there being no evidence for them*, by those with questionable motives. It's almost as if the Enlightenment never happened.
*Books written several centuries after the 'fact' by people who by definition couldn't have been there, and which were compiled, translated, and heavily edited by authoritarian religious organisations over a period of centuries in order to suit the political motives of dictators in the middle ages don't count.
Just because someone has been forgiven something, doesn't mean that there shouldn't be an element of punishment or penitence involved.
Complaining about something (as opposed to banging on constantly) is fine. Bringing up something again and again after the fact is not.
However from the tone of your comment, I don't expect you to agree, as you've obviously fairly little understanding of religion and what you have seems to only exist to help you oppose and mock it.
I don't believe the bible is divinely inspired but you should check your dates. There are in existence gospels dating back to within 30 years or jebus's end and those are likely transcriptions or versions of oral history. The other books in the New Testey are things like correspondence between early churches and treatese on church doctrine and of course the mindf**k that is the book of revelations. A book I enjoyed that you might as well is "Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why" by Bart D. Ehrman.
Things like this are better described as "innapropriate" rather then "offensive". The trouble is the ad sends mixed messages and could appear to be saying almost anything - maybe encouraging contempt for a UK minority, maybe just being funny as the wonk suggested, or maybe spitting on the faith of billions worldwide. Basically, it's all best avoided if we all want to live in harmony.
"Depictions of Allah aren't allowed, as any depiction can offend Muslims, depictions of Jesus are generally OK as long as he's not winking, holding a heart, or endorsing any mobile phone that didn't come from Apple."
That actually depends on how "Low Church" the particular se(c)t of Godbotherers is. A number of the very fundamentalist protestant sects take a *very* dim view of *any* depiction on the grounds that it borders on worshipping idols or graven images and the like.
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