Seeking verification of a claim made about AFA

[bruceeverett]

I've only been a member this year, so I wasn't around last year when the following was supposedly an issue. And although I've had a Google, and a forum search, and checked media releases and so on and so forth, I've found nothing to verify a claim that was made about the AFA in the media recently.

Specifically...

Last spring, skywriters wrote Jesus Lives across the heavens as part of the All About Life campaign, funded by a host of Christian churches in NSW and WA.
The Atheist Foundation tried to get the campaign banned, saying it contravened truth-in-advertising laws.

From - Atheists can do better than saying believers are stupid.

Is this in any way factually correct to begin with, and if there is truth to the claim, could someone please provide a little context? The article isn't particularly informative.

Thanks,

Bruce

[AFA Admin]

I've been on the AFA committee for quite a while now and I am not aware of this ever being discussed.
Sounds like porkies to me...

Protium

[bruceeverett]

Yeah. It had the faint whiff of BS about it.

I've been talking to attendees of the convention, and double checking claims made in the media in preparation for examples in a the book I'm writing about the misrepresentation of atheists.

Even before getting to the truth of a lot of claims, there has been a whiff of BS about them. There was something that smelt wrong about the way the "Pope Nazi" comment was reported in the media from the get go.

Got heckled as a credulous fan, by people credulous to the reporting. Was a lovely moment when it turned out that Dawkins was talking about Pius XII all along, and not The Rat.

Getting better at sniffing out propaganda.

[kazzaqld]

Originally Posted by bruceeverett

Got heckled as a credulous fan, by people credulous to the reporting. Was a lovely moment when it turned out that Dawkins was talking about Pius XII all along, and not The Rat.

Getting better at sniffing out propaganda.

Interesting Bruce, I haven't seen anywhere that he was talking about Pius XII?

Do you have link for that, please?

[davo]

Originally Posted by kazzaqld

Interesting Bruce, I haven't seen anywhere that he was talking about Pius XII?

Do you have link for that, please?

When I saw his speech he is clearly talking about Pius (but could not recall his name, so said 'Nazi') in reference to his upcoming canonisation when talking about miracles.

Pacelli (later Pope Pius) signs the Concordat between Nazi Germany and the Vatican - from http://nobeliefs.com

[kazzaqld]

OK I guess I thought because he was asked about Mary McKillop he was referring to the current pope.

Will have to try and find a video of his speech. My memory is obviously not that good....

[davo]

Originally Posted by kazzaqld

Will have to try and find a video of his speech. My memory is obviously not that good....

word is something like that will hit the net shortly, stay tooned.

[rGb]

Originally Posted by kazzaqld

Will have to try and find a video of his speech. My memory is obviously not that good....

[kazzaqld]

Thank you very much rGb - that has been bugging me ever since I saw Bruce's post!

Yes when you see it in context that's exactly what he said!

I guess I was still laughing at the Monty Python reference!

[davo]

Jason wrote up something about it here :

http://www.youngausskeptics.com/2010...gy-journalism/