Great first day
10.12.09 | simon | 
Email This Post
I’d like to thank everyone today for their donations. It’s been a steady stream of donations rolling in all day. Thanks heaps guys!
We’re over 5% of the way there, which is not bad at all for the first day. There are a number of media opportunities coming up over the next week or so that should spread the campaign to a wider audience. I’ll be sure to outline them here or on Twitter as and when they occur.
Our target is $10,000 for the initial ad run. That works out at approximately $900 per ad-on-a-bus, so we’ve nearly got one ad sorted…let’s go!
173 Responses to “Great first day”
Pages: « 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 » Show All
Pages: « 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 » Show All
December 11th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
@wayno $5
haha, $5!!?!, hmmmm… as long as you contribute to my “mirage” campaign?
I’m going to spend all the money raised on a new car to spread the word. Can you guess what sort?
“Mitsubishi Mirage”.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Awesome!!
“Celebrate Reason”
Search Christopher Hitchens and his numerous debates on religion on Youtube. Well worth it.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
@regan: $6
Thanks for your contribution to spreading the word of rational thinking, every dollar helps.
December 11th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
It never fails to amaze me that atheists and unbelievers so readily buy into the commercial trappings of Christmas, to the extent of buying and playing CDs of Christmas music.
December 11th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I enjoy Christmas, which is fortunate because there is no way of avoiding the commercial trappings and everything else that goes with the season.
I enjoy Easter eggs, going to Halloween parties
and when my young daughter losers a tooth and puts it under her pillow I replace it with a gold coin because you just can’t trust the tooth fairy. Christianity is embedded into Western culture, but that doesn’t mean its true or as a non believer mean I can’t have fun and enjoy it. I am not a joyless scrooge.
December 11th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Christmas as a holiday was created by humans and not by god, what its actually celebrating has largely moved on from the original meaning
Christmas is a time for families to get together, to enjoy life and celebrate. Regardless of what they believe.
In that respect my Christmas may be similar to BR Graham-Michaels….
except I wont put a toy manger in my house
December 11th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
to finish off a great day of online atheist debating
from some guy called Kent Hovind. This was in his doctoral dissertation
whom I guess wont be donating
“Only God knows the details of how it really happened. I believe He has revealed many details about the original creation in His book the Bible. Everything else we come up with down here is just our theory.
December 11th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Here is a great documentary which will help put things into perspective . It’s a must see, highly recommend it, it ‘s requires almost 2 hours of your time though, so would suggest you see it when you have a free time or relaxing at home with a glass of beer or wine–you’ll like it.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5547481422995115331&ei=WNshS-3uMpOKqQPSzanHDQ&q=Zietgeist+google+video&hl=en#
December 11th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
If you believe Christmas was created by humans then you have very little understanding of Christianity.
December 11th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
“Bloody hell, looking back through the messages it amazes me how many people jumped the gun and “assumed” I was a religious nut. Poor old @Pete Knight talking about my ignorance (actually pete I did read the faq’s so ignorance is assuming that I didn’t) and “my god” breaking down churches (that happened because god said it was their time by the way) and @Jack who said I 100% believe in god” (that’s news to me jack!).”
So you already knew, that makes you a troll then! I wasn’t the only one to be misled by your post.
A merciful god would have let her most loyal beleivers die peacefully in bed, not crushed by the collapsing roof of a church.
From my point of view, I have no problem with people believing in gods, pixies, werewolves, pink unicorns or whatever, what I do take issue with is religions. What religion is about is controlling people, the priests, bishops, imams, the pope etc. living a life of luxury off the back of poor parishioners, like the parasites they are.
There is little difference between the mafia and the catholic church, they both originate in Italy, they both used torture, death, and still use extortion, fear, intimidation and live off the backs of hard working people. Funny how the catholic church does best in poorer countries!
December 11th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Congratulations to all involved in giving this campaign wheels!In New Zealand we are lucky to enjoy freedom of thought, religion and expression. Posters may be interested to visit http://www.jihadwatch.org and learn about a different scenario..
December 11th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
For those who are interested, I will be posting the religious donation tally on my new blog every morning, inspired by the Atheist Bus project!
http://www.rationaltruth.co.nz/
December 11th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Br Graham-Michael Says:
“If you believe Christmas was created by humans then you have very little understanding of Christianity.”
I really dont get this remark. I may not be a smart man but I do understand where Christmas came from… The pagan origins of Christmas come from ancient Babylon, whrhr the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast. This tradition still lives on.
The catholics just decided to piggy back their holidays on it. In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25.
So how is Christmas not a creation of humans, whether I believe in a god or not? (not really expecting a decent answer, but I could try)
December 11th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Watched the spot on Closeup tonight. Not sure that it was that convincing. ‘Probably’ sounds like halfway to maybe, which is a heck of a lot closer to ‘Yes the is a god’ than any atheist is likely to concede. So agnostic it is.
Funny how the application of the term ‘atheist’ has different effect on people. I know some who’d run a mile from being labelled ‘atheist’ because they have a fear of being lumped in with others they hold no real agreement with in more important issues.
It’s a bit like most labels, where labels tend to hinder real conversation on a topic about which the group is most passionate!
‘Well done’ to the Minister lady who did a good job in putting a bit of pressure on the campaign’s slogan and premise (and Simon).
Anyhow, as Nigel Latta would say, ‘Good luck, you’ll need it!’.
December 12th, 2009 at 1:43 am
Hallo Atheists, I do agree with some of you! In a time of terror the atheist won’t call out to GOD they will scream like an animal because you obviously believe you don’t have a soul. Christianity believes that everybody has a soul, where does Love, Compassion, Reason and all the other essential emotions come from that makes us different from Animals. You don’t kick your kids out as soon as they can fend for themselves? Do you feel sad when somebody dies? Do you care for, and cherish others? New Zealand was founded by Christians and what about The National Anthem? Here is a Piece of The Anthem
“God of nations! at Thy feet
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our Free Land.
Guard Pacific’s triple star,
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand “
I come to the conclusion that You lot Don’t Believe in Your country.
Immigrate to Zimbabwe.. Robert Mugabe is an Atheist and so are the Government and You will prosper in poverty, war and genocide.
December 12th, 2009 at 6:55 am
@Rudolph- I was suprised to read your assertion the Robert Mugabe was an atheist.
This is not true, and not the it really matters but he is a Roman Catholic…
Fact checking and research, not just believing what you are told, might be a good idea before posting on a blog with a url like nogod.org.nz
December 14th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Hahaha seriously it’s hilarious that Christians think Atheists have no morals.
If they were comfortable in their faith they wouldn’t feel threatened by us.
December 14th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I feel sorry for you Rudolph. To me you are lost in a fog and you sound confused and angry. Your phrase “scream like an animal” is quite chilling. What has ‘feel(ing) sad when somebody dies’ got to do with whether or not someone believes in god? Animals function in the main according to instinct, humans are able to think…the ability to think does not require the presence of a ‘soul’.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
You are correct in stating a pre-Christian pagan feast was kept close to the winter solstice, ( albeit the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere ), and which continues to be observed by many both outside and inside ( rightly or wrongly ) the Christian Church.
Until the fourth century many of the feast day of the Christian Church were celebrated at differing dates. Indeed, most Orthodox traditions continue to celebrate the Incarnation in January. Pope Julius’ aim was to rationalize the Christian calendar – and he succeeded where others before had failed. The inspiration of Pope Julius was God given, not man made. This is a fundamental belief in Christianity. I am at a loss to understand why those outside the Church must continue to deliver such misdirected and jaded opinions of what the Christian Faith is about. In one sense it matters not when the Incarnation is celebrated, but that Christians come together to celebrate it.
Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast. This tradition still lives on. Few would claim that has anything to do with the truth of Christmas. Of course, the Church, like most institutions, has corners of weakness and vulnerability, ( it is after all a church of sinners ), but label the whole Church, or even one Tradition of it, in this manner is so way off beam.
December 14th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
“The inspiration of Pope Julius was God given, not man made. This is a fundamental belief in Christianity”. I would have though that was a fundamental belief of Catholicism, not christianity. There is nothing about rosary beads, nuns, confession, hail marys, popes etc in the bible. I guess these are all the product of “god given inspiration”.
I suppose the inquisition, the burning of ‘witches’, the persecution and suppression of science, & the slaughter of the crusades etc were due to “god given inspiration” on the part of the various popes who brought these things into being?
December 14th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
How the church treated Galileo Galilei:
‘After 1610, when he began publicly supporting the heliocentric view, which placed the Sun at the centre of the universe, he met with bitter opposition from some philosophers and clerics, and two of the latter eventually denounced him to the Roman Inquisition early in 1615. Although he was cleared of any offence at that time, the Catholic Church nevertheless condemned heliocentrism as “false and contrary to Scripture” in February 1616, and Galileo was warned to abandon his support for it—which he promised to do. When he later defended his views in his most famous work, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in 1632, he was tried by the Inquisition, found “vehemently suspect of heresy,” forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest’.
December 14th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
How the church treated the cathars:
‘The doors of the church of St Mary Magdalene were broken down and the refugees dragged out and slaughtered. Reportedly, 7,000 people died there including many women and children. Elsewhere in the town many more thousands were mutilated and killed. Prisoners were blinded, dragged behind horses, and used for target practice. What remained of the city was razed by fire. Arnaud wrote to Pope Innocent III, “Today your Holiness, twenty thousand heretics were put to the sword, regardless of rank, age, or sex.’
….no doubt a result of “divine inspiration from God”.
December 14th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
@Br Graham-Michael
Thanks for posting the further bit on Pope Julius and the choice of the Dec 25th date..
Hopefully more people (believers and non beleivers) will understand the origins of Christmas now….and how humans choose to celebrate Dec 25 over the millenium…
a great link on the Pagan origins is on
http://www.essortment.com/all/christmaspagan_rece.htm
December 14th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
accepting the Christian version of the Christmas story to me is not likely , as it means accepting everything in the bible and having “faith” in something of which there is not evidence…plus some of the stuff in the bible is just nasty..
so I conclude “There’s probably no god, but have a merry christmas with you friends and family and enjoy the the time you have together..”
December 14th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Accepting EVERYTHING in the Bible is more than a little worrying. If one believes that that is the expectation of a Christian then I must repeat myself – you have little understanding of Christianity. No serious Christian accepts every dotted i and every crossed t of the Bible.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
PS Faith – now that’s a different journey altogether!
December 15th, 2009 at 10:59 am
@Br Graham-Michael
“No serious Christian accepts every dotted i and every crossed t of the Bible.”
Isn’t this admitting that you’re cheery picking the bits of the bible that you want to use?
That is such a cop-out. This does nothing at all to support your cause or bring respect to your faith. The bible is supposedly the word of God and yet you chose to listen to only the bits that are convenient to you? Your faith and your religion are a joke and have no credibility to me any more.
Thank you for playing. You lose.
December 15th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Quite the contrary. It means approaching the word of God with prayerful thought and due consideration, not least bearing in mind that aspects of the Bible, particularly early Hebrew writings are as much a ‘reflection’ on the cultural influences of the day. There is nothing easy in this – and certainly no cherry picking. ( Or even cheery picking – nice typo !!! )
December 15th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Meant to add. A game it isn’t – well not for me. Hearing other’s opinions is enlightening to an open and receptive mind. I am gaining a lot – certainly not losing anything.
Cheers.
March 17th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
if mark sainsbury was 13 in 1969 he won’t remember jefferson airplane. their singer, grace slick, was asked once what she thought of religion. her answer was “man is the only animal that knows it is going to die. so he has invented religion to get him through the day.” not a bad answer from a pop singer.