With almost precision timing, fascinating correspondence with Sheepy — he of the intellectually- and artistically- (as well as spiritually-)motivated faith which also manages to make complete sense to me — arrived this morning (with material to which I cannot do justice until fully-digested) at almost exactly the same moment as news that Britain’s (previously-mentioned) Atheist Bus campaign is expanding:
From today’s launch, two hundred of the buses will run in London, because the campaign was originally started as a positive counter-response to the Jesus Said ads running on London buses in June 2008. These ads displayed the URL of a website which stated that non-Christians “will be condemned to everlasting separation from God and then you spend all eternity in torment in hell … Jesus spoke about this as a lake of fire prepared for the devil”. Our rational slogan will hopefully reassure anyone who has been scared by this kind of evangelism.
In addition, we’re running adverts on two further types of media. In my last Cif blog on the campaign, I asked Cif readers for ideas on alternative ways to spend the funds, and also for thoughts on different slogans. Commenters WoollyMindedLiberal, PaoloV and Catch22 suggested that we use quotes from famous freethinkers, and we’ve done just that: from Monday January 12, 1,000 tube cards will run on London Underground featuring atheist quotations from Douglas Adams, Albert Einstein, Emily Dickinson and Katharine Hepburn (see above), alongside the original campaign slogan.
An animated version of the slogan will also appear on two large LCD screens on Oxford Street (opposite Bond Street tube station), so that you can see the advert live without having to wait for an atheist bus. And, to thank all donors and show the strength of atheism in the UK, every ABC advertisement will contain the line “This advert was funded by public donations”.
And the program has gone international. These buses are running in Barcelona:
These are welcome developments, and a tonic in the face of recent (and disturbing), religionist cries of victimization, that their faith is not being respected by atheist claims that a good and full life can be had without imaginary, improbable deities altering our destinies. This from people who read from a book which not casually suggests that I (and people like me) should be put to death.
Carry on, buses!
5 comments
It never ceases to amaze me that those who scream the loudest that their religious freedoms are being trodden upon, are the first to try and silence my atheism.
I am perfectly happy to let them believe in a big beard in the sky, or the Easter Bunny if they so choose. I simply wish that they would also allow me NOT to believe that there is some higher being steering my destiny or is in control of the universe.
As far as I am able to tell the universe managed to get along before a bunch of hairless monkeys decided that they were the masters of the universe and it will continue on after we finally blow ourselves up.
I LOVE these ads. I’m not an atheist, but I don’t think you have to be to appreciate the sentiment behind the ads. I believe it’s far more important to live well and treat fellow humans right because it’s the right thing to do, not because some old bearded man in the clouds might smite you for it.
As a hirsuit gay atheist, I’d rather believe in the big beard on my face than a big beard in the sky.
This site has a nice and often surprising array of quotes by atheists:
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/
Such as:
“In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move.”
– Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I’m a Reformed Consolidated Can’t-Be-Bothered-ist (Missouri Synod). I’d join the Church of the Subgenius, but $$$ is going to be tight this year, so despite the triple your money back offer, I’ll pass for right now.
I got to agree with others here, that one should avoid being an asshole because it is what one should do. You don’t have to believe in God to realize that living in a place where folks are civil is way more pleasant than one where folks are hacking each other to bits.
Folks pray, bad stuff still happens. Decent people suffer torments straight out of Dante, while terrible people prosper. Either said beard in the sky isn’t as powerful as advertised, or it’s screening it’s calls, and therefore an ass.
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