Helping to equip Christians to be loving, reasonable, respectful and knowledgeable ambassadors for Jesus
Showing posts with label Anti-religious prejudice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti-religious prejudice. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Sunday, 9 September 2012
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Friday, 15 June 2012
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Saturday, 26 May 2012
Friday, 4 May 2012
Saturday, 28 April 2012
Thursday, 26 April 2012
drcraigvideos: the Fall and Rise
Many of you will know about the YouTube channel drcraigvideos, which contained over 800 videos of debates and speeches by Christian philosopher, theologian and apologist Dr William Lane Craig, and had accumulated over 4 million views. Well, last week, YouTube shut it down for alleged violation of community guidelines and copyright infringement (apparently all it takes is a few seconds of disputed footage to disqualify an entire channel).
Oddly enough, precisely the same thing happened to another major apologetics channel PPsimmons (which had over 20 million views) on what appears to be the very same day as this incident. [UPDATE 17-5-2012: PPsimmons recently came back online! They managed to make enough noise to get the attention of google! click here to find out Youtube's stated reason for taking down the PPsimmons channel.]
It looks to me that a particular gathering of online atheists have given up on conversation, and simply desire to attack online apologetics resources instead (I know people who have been stalked and threatened with exposure of personal information or even death)! William Lane Craig, in particular, really seems to have gotten under their skin, with ring-leaders and YouTube atheist gurus resorting to personal attacks, ad populum fallacies and now, apparently, this.
It has to be said, however, that if this emotive, anti-intellectual branch of online atheism is a big angry crocodile, drcraigvideos' previous owner probably poked it with the stick a little too much (sarcastic comments and quite a bit of blocking)! Specifically, things got sticky when a "DMCA war" became waged, with both sides of the conflict convinced they were legally in the right and the other not. The climate seems to have been raised for trigger-happy "flagging" whenever you don't like somebody's views.
Which brings us back to our current predicament. This previous owner could not sustain looking after the channel, so handed it over to Reasonable Faith as an official channel. This was great news, but entailed a lot of tidying up and management! The decision was made to switch off YouTube comments - leveling the playing field so that no abusive messages could be posted. Not long after, however, the channel went down (though not before a number of atheist channels had mirrored some videos in the name of "free speech")!
So, what's happening now? Well, Reasonable Faith are appealing the decision, and apparently will know whether or not they've been successful within 14 days. It's irritating, indeed! Many links in many blogs and on many websites, which use these videos, are now severed. But we will have to see how open (if at all) YouTube are to revising their decision.
However, we apologists don't just lie down! Already, efforts are being made to re-upload all the video resources (I've been in contact with one person who backed up the entire channel - he's popular right now)! Reasonable Faith themselves are also starting with a fresh new channel, and are uploading carefully-checked content (the good thing being that they have unlimited video length, so many debates which were heretofore broken into 10-minute parts can now be seen in their entirety). Essentially, if past incidents are any indicator, this could result in a flood of all the videos back on YouTube, x 10! Indeed, it may even be one of those situations God uses for good - a chance to make a whole new stamp on Reasonable Faith's use of media? An important lesson to learn? A sign of worry amidst dissenters on Youtube? A way to mobilize fellow Christians? Possibly!
So, at the moment, we can be confident that the videos will all be back, though perhaps less optimistic for the drcraigvideos channel itself, with its substantial list of subscribers and web links. However, even if it is the case that we need to bid farewell to the channel as we knew it, it's already served a tremendous purpose in bringing Dr Craig to Youtube, and circulating the material itself (it was watching Craig vs Lewis Wolpert, several years ago, when I realized there may be a genuine need to re-examine my atheism)!
As annoying a situation as it is, I think good can come from this, as well as new creativity. One wonders what ripples it makes on the atheist community too. Some have been dancing for joy, (as if drcraigvideos were an oppressive Black Hawk helicopter taken down by an RPG) but I've also read comments from a surprising number of atheists who almost seem a little upset or even taken aback (perhaps for some it's the Christopher Hitchens syndrome of wanting someone to argue with)? This is an important time to remember those atheists out there who exercise far more integrity than the culprits behind these sorts of attacks.
I will leave you, for the moment, with two pieces of good news:
1. Lots of Dr Craig-related material is still intact. For example, here's perhaps the definitive William Lane Craig moment:
2. Fresh, new Craig videos continue to come in! For example, a delicious recent debate in Denmark:
... and two never-before-seen debates from Craig's 2007 UK Tour:
When an entire channel is knocked down, it can seem a time for outrage, bewilderment and defeatism. However, let's try to see the good that could come from this (such as a fresh break from the past, new resources, ruffled opposition, and amplified proactivity on the part of fellow Christian YouTubers). Things are uncertain right now, but there's clearly enough going on in terms of uploading and rescuing, that we can soon expect to have the material back, in one channel or another (or multiple channels!) and hopefully to stay.
I will keep important updates coming in. In the mean time, keep your eyes open for explosions of drcraigvideos material springing up around Youtube (and some other kinds of explosions I'm sure)! Those of you who are able to download and backup the backups of this content, I'd encourage also! Please feel free to post questions in the comments section, requests to fix broken links to videos, or even news and discoveries on this issue.
And, finally, I have a short video of my own to share with you. Strike us down, we will become more powerful:
[UPDATE: drcraigvideos was restored on May 18th! There has been much rejoicing and, as a result of this episode, it would appear that most of these debate videos now exist in triplicate on youtube! Result!]
Oddly enough, precisely the same thing happened to another major apologetics channel PPsimmons (which had over 20 million views) on what appears to be the very same day as this incident. [UPDATE 17-5-2012: PPsimmons recently came back online! They managed to make enough noise to get the attention of google! click here to find out Youtube's stated reason for taking down the PPsimmons channel.]
It looks to me that a particular gathering of online atheists have given up on conversation, and simply desire to attack online apologetics resources instead (I know people who have been stalked and threatened with exposure of personal information or even death)! William Lane Craig, in particular, really seems to have gotten under their skin, with ring-leaders and YouTube atheist gurus resorting to personal attacks, ad populum fallacies and now, apparently, this.
It has to be said, however, that if this emotive, anti-intellectual branch of online atheism is a big angry crocodile, drcraigvideos' previous owner probably poked it with the stick a little too much (sarcastic comments and quite a bit of blocking)! Specifically, things got sticky when a "DMCA war" became waged, with both sides of the conflict convinced they were legally in the right and the other not. The climate seems to have been raised for trigger-happy "flagging" whenever you don't like somebody's views.
Which brings us back to our current predicament. This previous owner could not sustain looking after the channel, so handed it over to Reasonable Faith as an official channel. This was great news, but entailed a lot of tidying up and management! The decision was made to switch off YouTube comments - leveling the playing field so that no abusive messages could be posted. Not long after, however, the channel went down (though not before a number of atheist channels had mirrored some videos in the name of "free speech")!
So, what's happening now? Well, Reasonable Faith are appealing the decision, and apparently will know whether or not they've been successful within 14 days. It's irritating, indeed! Many links in many blogs and on many websites, which use these videos, are now severed. But we will have to see how open (if at all) YouTube are to revising their decision.
However, we apologists don't just lie down! Already, efforts are being made to re-upload all the video resources (I've been in contact with one person who backed up the entire channel - he's popular right now)! Reasonable Faith themselves are also starting with a fresh new channel, and are uploading carefully-checked content (the good thing being that they have unlimited video length, so many debates which were heretofore broken into 10-minute parts can now be seen in their entirety). Essentially, if past incidents are any indicator, this could result in a flood of all the videos back on YouTube, x 10! Indeed, it may even be one of those situations God uses for good - a chance to make a whole new stamp on Reasonable Faith's use of media? An important lesson to learn? A sign of worry amidst dissenters on Youtube? A way to mobilize fellow Christians? Possibly!
So, at the moment, we can be confident that the videos will all be back, though perhaps less optimistic for the drcraigvideos channel itself, with its substantial list of subscribers and web links. However, even if it is the case that we need to bid farewell to the channel as we knew it, it's already served a tremendous purpose in bringing Dr Craig to Youtube, and circulating the material itself (it was watching Craig vs Lewis Wolpert, several years ago, when I realized there may be a genuine need to re-examine my atheism)!
As annoying a situation as it is, I think good can come from this, as well as new creativity. One wonders what ripples it makes on the atheist community too. Some have been dancing for joy, (as if drcraigvideos were an oppressive Black Hawk helicopter taken down by an RPG) but I've also read comments from a surprising number of atheists who almost seem a little upset or even taken aback (perhaps for some it's the Christopher Hitchens syndrome of wanting someone to argue with)? This is an important time to remember those atheists out there who exercise far more integrity than the culprits behind these sorts of attacks.
I will leave you, for the moment, with two pieces of good news:
1. Lots of Dr Craig-related material is still intact. For example, here's perhaps the definitive William Lane Craig moment:
2. Fresh, new Craig videos continue to come in! For example, a delicious recent debate in Denmark:
... and two never-before-seen debates from Craig's 2007 UK Tour:
When an entire channel is knocked down, it can seem a time for outrage, bewilderment and defeatism. However, let's try to see the good that could come from this (such as a fresh break from the past, new resources, ruffled opposition, and amplified proactivity on the part of fellow Christian YouTubers). Things are uncertain right now, but there's clearly enough going on in terms of uploading and rescuing, that we can soon expect to have the material back, in one channel or another (or multiple channels!) and hopefully to stay.
I will keep important updates coming in. In the mean time, keep your eyes open for explosions of drcraigvideos material springing up around Youtube (and some other kinds of explosions I'm sure)! Those of you who are able to download and backup the backups of this content, I'd encourage also! Please feel free to post questions in the comments section, requests to fix broken links to videos, or even news and discoveries on this issue.
And, finally, I have a short video of my own to share with you. Strike us down, we will become more powerful:
[UPDATE: drcraigvideos was restored on May 18th! There has been much rejoicing and, as a result of this episode, it would appear that most of these debate videos now exist in triplicate on youtube! Result!]
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Friday, 6 April 2012
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Friday, 27 January 2012
Why I Cannot Support Same Sex Marriage
Same sex marriage has been a very topical subject in Scotland over recent months, with the launch of a consultation by the Scottish National Party (SNP) — which closed on Friday 9th December — on whether marriage in Scotland should be redefined to effectively legalise gay marriage and religious ceremonies for civil partnerships.The Scottish government has stated that it was its original position that marriage should be redefined, though Nicola Sturgeon — the Health Secretary — has said that religious organisations should not be forced to perform same-sex weddings should they not want to. It will be very interesting to see how long that lasts. After all, SNP MSP John Mason — a Christian — sparked a row last year following his support for a parliamentary motion that no religious group should be compelled to approve of or facilitate same-sex unions. According to Nicola Sturgeon, a survey of Scottish Social Attitudes has revealed that over 60% of Scots endorse the proposed change, with 19% dissenting.
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