Savage Popcorn

Christian Voice, the one-man campaign led by Stephen Green, is a group with a rather sordid history of resorting to threats and blackmail in pursuit of their aims. One of these aims was Green’s campaign to ban Jerry Springer: The Opera, which he lost rather spectacularly.

Now he’s facing bankruptcy.

At a hearing a fortnight ago, the BBC’s Mark Thompson and Jonathan Thoday, producer of JSTO, were awarded costs totalling £90,000 against Green. The BBC’s solicitors were awarded £55,000 and Olswangs Solicitors, who acted for Thoday, got an order for £35,000.

The money was due to be paid yesterday, but Stephen Green is pleading poverty.

And in an incredible display of bare-faced cheek he has written to both Mark Thompson and Jonathan Thoday asking them to waive their costs “in the interests of goodwill and justice”.

Goodwill? Justice? This man has no idea what these words mean. This is the man that heads a nasty little group (membership: Stephen Green) that has been willing to blackmail a cancer charity into refusing money raised on its behalf by JSTO, and has repeatedly used harassment and intimidation in its fanatical campaigns against JSTO and gay organisations it disapproves of.

I shall attempt to resist the temptation to gloat and suggest instead that if Green really does believe in his god, he should start praying.

The latest film to fall foul of exaggerated religious sensitivities is Mike Myers’ latest comedy, The Love Guru which has become the target of a petition, even othough none of the people objecting to it have actually seen it.

Even though both Myers’ and Paramount Pictures, who produced the film, have pointed out that religion portrayed in the film is purely fictional.

Mike Myers himself has described the religion he lampoons as a “mythical creation - it’s like the Force in Star Wars”.

I can’t help but wonder whether Myers has accidentally identified the real sensitivity behind this premature outcry: that deep down the religious know as well as the rest of us that all religions are as fictional as the Force in Star Wars.

According to Bhavna Shinde of the Sanatan Society in the US: “They should draw a line when it comes to people’s faith.”

They shouldn’t, of course, especially when the faith in question is more made up than most. Or should we expect to see Christians complaining about being lampooned in Cthulhu?

By the way, before you send your angry emails about my thoughts on religion, take a second to ask yourself: why is this the subject we all have to be nice about? And would you be just as annoyed if I wrote a story making fun of Wiccans or Thor-worshippers or grown-ups who believed in fairies or Santa Claus? One of the great weapons in religion’s arsenal is the accepted societal rule that we just don’t question other people’s faiths. But in a world where religious extremists have attacked America, are trying to outlaw choice and homosexuality, and are in fact sitting in power in the White House, all gloves have to come off.

- Devin Faraci on Religulous.

Not content with swiping their saviour from the Greeks, Anglican vicars are now trying to hijack (via) Dr. Who to prop up their creaking mythos.

Let’s get one thing straight. Jesus was a zombie, not a time lord.

From salvatore-pertutti via GodItself.

This is brilliant

(Via The Freethinker)

When religious leaders start talking about “religious rights” what they are generally getting at is that they want special exemptions from the sort of normal inquiry that might expose their beliefs for the hot air that they are. No such beating around the bush though for Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor who is demanding that the BBC should suspend its impartiality rules when it comes to religion, and just be biased in favour of Christianity.

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said: “Cardinal O’Connor speaks like a classic demagogue. His desire to have no contradiction to his message is authoritarian and anti-democratic. Religion already has hours of time of TV and radio in which no-one is allowed to question or comment. Thought for the Day is one such slot, where preachers of all hues are allowed to make blatantly political pitches for religious points of view, and no-one is allowed to interrupt. Mark Thompson’s enthusiasm for the Catholic Church is beginning to suggest that his approach to religion is not entirely balanced or objective. If he listens to the Cardinal, he risks undermining the BBC’s precious heritage of trust as an impartial voice for the whole nation – not just the Church.”

As has been widely reported, Paul Verhoeven is set to publish a biography of Jesus in September that claims that Christ was probably fathered by a Roman soldier who raped Mary during an uprising in Galilee. Verhoeven also claims that Christ was not betrayed by Judas Iscariot.

According to The Hollywood Reporter (via) the book – which was co-written by his biographer, Rob van Scheers - is the result of more than 20 years of research.

Verhoeven, who turns 70 in July, has had a lifelong ambition to make a film about Jesus, based on scientific research. Verhoeven decided to write the book to raise interest in the project. His publisher is in negotiations for an English-language translation.

Predictably enough, the instantly outraged are getting their complaints in already. Bill Donohue of the US Catholic League complained to Fox News (via) that the book is “with idle speculation grounded in absolutely nothing.”

Sounds like a religion, then. And on the subject of religion, here’s Pat Condell.

For an alternative take on the Jesus myth, I can’t recommend strongly enough that you check out The God Who Wasn’t There.

So not only do the makers of Expelled not understand evolution, the scientific method or how to make an honest documentary, they don’t understand the fair use doctrine either. Consequently, Yoko Ono is suing them for using John Lennon’s song Imagine without permission.

Premise Media, the people behind the film - which lists Imagine in the credits in order to dishonestly suggest that Ono sanctioned the song’s use - claim that their activities fall under fair use. They’re wrong, of course.

Fair Use is an American legal doctrine that allows the use of copyrighted material (the UK’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 covers similar territory in its Fair Dealing clauses) on order to comment on it. So playing Imagine in order to deconstruct the lyrics or make some observation about the melody is fair use, but helping yourself to the song just because it has a nice tune is copyright theft.

It has been known for filmmakers to use copyrighted music in pre-release versions of their films. When (or if) a commercial distribution is acquired for a film such as this, it falls to either the producer or the distributor to obtain the appropriate permissions - or find an alternative piece of music that can be used. To fail to do this with a song as instantly recognisable as Imagine really does demonstrate incompetence on a grand scale.

The people behind Expelled really do come across as being as inept as they are dishonest.

I haven’t said much about Expelled, Ben Stein’s disingenuous film about Intelligent Design, primarily because I still find it difficult to believe that anyone can take this kind of rubbish seriously. In all likelihood, the film’s release will be attended by the sort of delusional nuts that already buy into this sort conspiracy worldview and then be quickly and quietly forgotten.

But just in case the film does make it across the Atlantic or, worse, actually gets taken seriously be someone, here’s a couple of links.

Arthur Caplan demolishes every claim in the film and Richard Dawkins writes an open letter to someone who was taken in by it.

(via Pharyngula)