Why atheist Richard Dawkins says the Lord’s Prayer deserves to be on UK cinema screens

South China Morning Post ^ | 23 Nov 2015 | SCMP

[Cronos]

The Church of England has received unlikely backing from the biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins after the UK’s three leading cinema chains refused to screen its advertisement featuring the Lord’s Prayer.

The 60-second advert was due to be shown before Star Wars: the Force Awakens, released on December 18, which would have guaranteed it a huge cinema audience in the run-up to Christmas.

But the Odeon Cineworld and Vue chains, which control 80 per cent of screens around the country, have refused to allow it because of a policy not to allow political or religious advertising.

..The decision prompted an angry response from the church, which warned of a chilling effect on free speech. Many expressed support for its position including Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist best known for excoriating religions.

He tsaid: “My immediate response was to tweet that it was a violation of freedom of speech. But I deleted it when respondents convinced me that it was a matter of commercial judgement on the part of the cinemas, not so much a free speech issue. I still strongly object to suppressing the ads on the grounds that they might ‘offend’ people. If anybody is ‘offended’ by something so trivial as a prayer, they deserve to be offended.”

..The assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, told the Mail on Sunday he was “flabbergasted that anyone would find this prayer offensive to anybody, including people of no particular religious belief”.

[Cronos]

Laicite gone wild

[FreedomStar3028]

Boycott Star Wars then.

Yes. I know that really sucks. But once they make less on Star Wars opening night then they do early Sunday mornings, then they will show it. I am sure.

Too bad we don’t live in a world where enough of the audience would sit out.

[FreedomStar3028]

On the other hand. Why can’t other uber leftists have even a sliver of this guy’s logic and reasoning?

Even the broken clock is right twice a day?

[Fred Hayek]

People are growing tired of knee jerk political correctness and SJW’s.

[Pontiac]

I still strongly object to suppressing the ads on the grounds that they might offend people. If anybody is offended by something so trivial as a prayer, they deserve to be offended

It has always puzzled me that Atheist should be offended by the religious trappings of others

It also puzzled me as to why they should be offended by Christmas concerts in high schools where the choirs sing traditional Christmas hymns.

The militancy of atheist seems to me to be completely out of character to someone who believes in nothing. How can someone who believes that there is nothing greater than man be offended by someone who believes that that person is insignificant to a creator?

Why does it matter that others believe in a God?

I can understand that an atheist would not want government funds to pay for a Christmas creche but if the display is provided by a church why would this matter to an atheist. A creche does not change votes. A creche is non-partisan. If it is payed for erected and removed by volunteers what is the harm to the Republic?

Atheist are supposed to be rational. I rarely see rationality in their protestations.

[gspurlock]

The left’s big problem with Christianity is fundamentally the concept of “creation”. They do not believe anything can be created and are essentially parasites. The parasite consumes it’s host until the host is dead, then at the point of death itself, wonders what happened to its food.

According to the Christian religion, man was made in God’s image. Man is at his best when creating, when emulating the Father, not when consuming.

The mere concept that anyone can or should create anything at all completely destroys that belief. It rips the very ground from beneath them. That is why they are so violently opposed to Christianity and the concepts therein.

[Diamond]

Atheist are supposed to be rational

Atheists like to hold themselves out as rationalists but atheism provides no basis for any normative "supposed to be", or even rationality itself. Normative, abstract, universal, invariant laws of thought such as the laws of logic cannot be accounted for by matter plus time plus chance.

Cordially,

[JEDI4S]

I thought Newkirk had shed his mortal coil?

Blimey.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Yes. Tagline.

[RinaseaofDs]

I’ll call it - the movie is going to suck. They can’t help it - it’s going to be political.

[gusty]

I think people here are missing the point of what happened. If you read the article carefully, it is not atheists that anyone was trying to avoid offending. The prayer was censored in order not to offend the Bearded Imam and his three wives sitting in the theater.

[sarge83]

My wife’s nephew lists himself as the “friendly atheist” more like unfriendly a$$hole. He is about as friendly toward people of faith as a pissed on rattlesnake. Arrogant, condescending, preachy and down right nasty.

Oh the joy of seeing this arrogant little douche bag at Christmas just warms my heart. He keeps his mouth shut as long as he is getting time off and presents but 364 days of the year he’s bashing Christians and Jews for not believing every word that leaves his twenty something skull full of mush mouth.

I’m waiting for the Christmas where he starts a good snobbish Christmas bashing session and I am going to ask him why he took the holiday off and why he accepted any presents for something he mocks, hates and doesn’t believe in. I’m past 50 and tired of his gas, the little nitwit.

[Diamond]

Great tagline. And true as well:^)

Cordially,

[Pontiac]

You’re right

I took the thread on a tangent.