Atheist Lawyer Smokes Holy Book Joints

Atheistextremist
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Atheist Lawyer Smokes Holy Book Joints

 

A BRISBANE-based atheist has risked inflaming political and religious tensions by posting a video on YouTube showing him burning pages from both the Koran and the Bible.

The video, by lawyer and Brisbane Atheists member, Alex Stewart, 29, comes as international outrage continues over the proposed burning of multiple copies of the Koran by a radical Christian pastor in the US.

Yesterday, the president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ikebal Patel, slammed the video.

"I think it's highly offensive that he has done this to two of the holiest books in the world," Mr Patel said.

"It does not in any way add any value to trying to promote world peace and the consideration of different views - especially when there are heightened tensions around the anniversary of September 11 and the Eid el Fitr (end of Ramadan) celebrations."

The 12-minute YouTube video, one of more than 90 posted by Mr Stewart, shows the Queensland University of Technology-employed lawyer tearing pages from both books and using the paper to roll what looks to be marijuana cigarettes.

After smoking both he gives marks out of 10 - rating the Bible as a better burner than the Koran.
 

In his commentary, he said people should just "get over" the burning of books like the Bible or the Koran.

"I guess that's the point with all this crap," he said.

"It's just a f---ing book. Who cares? It's your beliefs that matter. Quite frankly, if you are going to get upset about a book, you're taking life way too seriously."

Yesterday, Mr Stewart told The Courier-Mail he expected people to be offended by the video but was not worried about reprisals.

He said although it looked like marijuana, he was actually smoking lawn clippings.

"The video was a joke video, of course. I never actually do drugs. People do this stuff all the time and if people get really upset about this then they're taking it far too seriously," Mr Stewart said.

He said basic freedoms, like the freedom of speech, should not be revoked just because someone might be offended.

Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said he didn't believe Mr Stewart had contravened the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act.

He said penalties for blasphemy had also been removed from the Criminal Code.

"I don't think on the face of it that what he's done is an offence . . . nor do we think it should be," Mr Cope said

Anglican Church spokesman, Dean Peter Catt, labelled it a stunt that on one level was humorous.

"But I can accept that some people would be scandalised by it," he said.

Father Catt encouraged people not to take offence, which would just escalate the issue, as had occurred with the threat by radical Florida Christian evangelist Terry Jones to conduct a mass burning of the Koran on September 11, unless Muslim plans to build an Islamic centre near the Ground Zero site were scrapped.

 

http://www.news.com.au/national/lawyer-alex-stewart-smokes-pages-from-the-koran-and-bible-and-says-we-should-get-over-book-burning...

 

 

"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck


Atheistextremist
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I know some of the more

 

balanced folk in our crew will find this offensive but I don't. It's inflammatory but I don't care about that either. Like the rest of the West, Australia is highly polarised by the debate over the expansion of islam across the country. We can either take the ability to criticise and mock faith by the throat or we can risk losing it altogether.

 

 

 

 

"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck


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I liked the video. Sometimes

I liked the video. Sometimes it's hard to find the right rolling papers at the convenient store. F I offended anyone I'm so sorry but I gotta go with this guy. It's not my belief.

If all the Christians who have called other Christians " not really a Christian " were to vanish, there'd be no Christians left.


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Atheistextremist

Atheistextremist wrote:

 

balanced folk in our crew will find this offensive but I don't. It's inflammatory but I don't care about that either. Like the rest of the West, Australia is highly polarised by the debate over the expansion of islam across the country. We can either take the ability to criticise and mock faith by the throat or we can risk losing it altogether.

 

 

 

 

Actually (as I might be considered on of the 'balanced folk' lol) I think this is fine.  He is pointing our the absurdity of people holding a 'holy book' as a sacred cow.

The reason I get pissy about the other book burning is it is one religious nutjob trying to incite a holy war by burning the 'evil' book of another bunch of religious nutjobs.

 

Essentially, one guy is burning a book to show absurdity, and the other is burning a book out of hypocritical hate, bigotry and fear.

Not sure if that makes sense, but that is my thought process.

Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.


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To this guy's credit he did

To this guy's credit he did smoke a page of the bible too so if Muslim zealots want to claim they are being picked on, fuck them.

He is merely demonstrating the absurdity of taking being offended to a violent level. I doubt if you smoked a page from "The God Delusion" this guy would demand your arrest or want you killed. I think the only way he would demand your arrest is if you broke into his house and stole his copy.

Pick either god, the god of the bible or the god of the Koran. I find it absurd for humans to feel the need to protect daddy when daddy could squash us mere mortals like a bug.

I also find it absurd that with all the pain and suffering that an all loving god would make being picked on a priority over disease, war, crime ect.

If the worst any of us as individual human beings have to worry about is merely being offended, we'd all live in a better world.

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog


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mellestad

mellestad wrote:

Atheistextremist wrote:

 

balanced folk in our crew will find this offensive but I don't. It's inflammatory but I don't care about that either. Like the rest of the West, Australia is highly polarised by the debate over the expansion of islam across the country. We can either take the ability to criticise and mock faith by the throat or we can risk losing it altogether.

 

 

 

 

Actually (as I might be considered on of the 'balanced folk' lol) I think this is fine.  He is pointing our the absurdity of people holding a 'holy book' as a sacred cow.

The reason I get pissy about the other book burning is it is one religious nutjob trying to incite a holy war by burning the 'evil' book of another bunch of religious nutjobs.

 

Essentially, one guy is burning a book to show absurdity, and the other is burning a book out of hypocritical hate, bigotry and fear.

Not sure if that makes sense, but that is my thought process.

Although, I guess I do sound contradictory, well to be fair, I am contradicting myself.  On one hand I think burning books is 'bad' and I agree with people like Jeffrick that the very act is a summation of ignorance.  On the other hand I can understand it under certain motivations, and possibly even support it.

I doubt I've given it enough thought to say I'm objective about it, at this point I probably dislike it when it fails to match my own bias.  Biases.  Biasi.  Biaie.  

Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.


Atheistextremist
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This is a

 

fairly typical Aussie piss-take. While all the world is going nuts over the crazy pastor this guy just lights up and smokes the stupid things.

I can't help thinking that if you attempted to publish either of these books today they would be outlawed. The real crime is what's inside them.

 

 

 

 

"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck


Brian37
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Atheistextremist

Atheistextremist wrote:

 

fairly typical Aussie piss-take. While all the world is going nuts over the crazy pastor this guy just lights up and smokes the stupid things.

I can't help thinking that if you attempted to publish either of these books today they would be outlawed. The real crime is what's inside them.

 

 

 

 

You cant nor should you outlaw printing thoughts, no matter how stupid or insidious they may be. The only thing you can do is put them to the light of scrutiny, blasphemy and ridicule.

 

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog


Atheistextremist
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Brian

Brian37 wrote:

You cant nor should you outlaw printing thoughts, no matter how stupid or insidious they may be. The only thing you can do is put them to the light of scrutiny, blasphemy and ridicule.

 

While I respect the bigness of spirit you are showing here, you'd agree with me, surely, that there are some ideologies that should be unlawful?

We could make a huge list of bible crimes from slavery to beating servants, abusing wives and kids, to slaughtering unbelievers with tacit support from god. There's racism, sexism - the list goes on and on.

If the bible or the koran were made into a movie they would be banned from screening. I guess you are saying the safest place for this sort of stuff is in the public eye and I understand that. It's just...

"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck