Madam, – Mick Murphy, in his defence of Veritas and criticism of Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (December 9th), has somehow come to the conclusion that the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland are showing “support for atheism”. This is quite absurd. Atheism is simply the absence of belief in all gods or deities, therefore a philosophical stance, not a political position.
The BCI have their rules and regulations, Veritas failed to meet these. How this equates to “support for atheism” is unclear. What is quite clear is the pejorative tone used by Mr Murphy with regard to something he clearly does not understand. – Yours, etc,
Madam – Rather than agreeing with Mick Murphy (December 9th) that the lunatics have taken over the asylum, I feel that the foxes are now controlling the hen-house. The decision by the Broadcasting Commission to ban the Veritas advertisement is one based on not wanting to offend, we are told. The public sphere is dominated, 99.9 per cent by non-religious sentiment, yet no one considers that irreligious, anti-religious or non-religious sentiment may be offensive to those with beliefs.
The logic is that the more strongly one holds one’s beliefs, the more offensive any attack on them would seem.
In that respect, to ban a simple advertisement for Christmas presents, on the basis that this would offend, assumes that the offended are fanatics.
And why would one be offended by such an advertisement? The transformation of the public sphere and removal of religion has to be replaced by something. If that something is non-religious, then there is a very unbalanced equilibrium being achieved, where the neo-religion of consumerism and materialism is being invited to fill the vacuum that those such as the Broadcasting Commission have created. The Minister for Finance is calling on us all to do our patriotic duty, and “buy Irish” this Christmas? Is his call offensive? Is he offending the non-Christians? Or the non-Irish? Or the poor who cannot afford such overpriced commodities? Is he offending those who do not believe in capitalist consumerism? Surely he ought to be taken off-air? – Yours, etc,