Atheism is making the rounds in the United Kingdom. Street by street. Bus stop to bus stop. A message of godlessness is being emblazoned on the sides of some 800 buses:
Really not offensive, unless anything questioning God's existence is offensive. Apparently to a great many people it isn't. The atheist bus campaign was fueled by public pledges in response to another bus campaign, the Jesus Said ads on London buses last June:
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". (The Guardian)
This really pissed a lot of people off. The original goal was to raise £5,500, enough to put the advert on about 30 buses. Instead £135,000 poured in, enough for 800 buses. Not just London, either, but all over England, Scotland and Wales, including Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, York, Cardiff, Devon, Leeds, Bristol and Aberdeen. Other media will now be used and the campaign is going international:
Spain's Union of Atheists and Freethinkers are launching buses across Barcelona today with a translation of our slogan, Italy's Union of Atheist, Agnostics and Rationalists are also planning to roll out atheist buses, while the American Humanist Association have been inspired to launch a campaign, and buses carrying their slogan "Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness' sake" have now been running for over a month in Washington DC. (The Guardian)
The best part, though, is the effort of an evangelical group to get the UK's watchdog agency for false or unsubstantiated advertising to rule on God's existence:
Officials at the Advertising Standards Authority are now considering whether to tackle the question that has taxed the minds of the world's greatest thinkers for centuries.
[snip]
Stephen Green, the Christian campaigner, is claiming they should be taken down because the statement in the adverts cannot be substantiated. He said: "If you're going to put out what appears to be a factual statement then you have to be able to back it up. They've got to substantiate this proposition that in all probability, God doesn't exist."
The ASA is now considering whether to investigate his complaint, which could lead to it reaching a deep ontological conclusion about a supreme being.
If it ruled that the wording in the posters was unsubstantiated, it would be interpreted as effectively saying that in all probability God does exist. Ruling that the words were justified could be taken as an agreement that God probably does not exist. (Nothing to do with Arbroath)
It sounds as if the ASA has yet to agree to make a ruling. If these folks do agree to rule on God's existence, they are really, really stupid. I won't rule it out, but my guess is they will dodge the issue altogether and the ads will stay. And multiply.
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It seems as though the fundagelicals are resorting to their old standard of proof for the validity of a statement. That is, a statement is true if lots of people have agreed for a long time and that the statement appears in an old book.
Many long-forgotten examples of this type of authority exist. Why are they not evidence for veracity as well? Why are the fundies not defending all old ideas that swayed many people and were written in books long ago? If agreement and pedigree are alone sufficient to carry the day for an idea then surely the true believers must admit that they are not in alone in perceiving the nexus of reality.
The very best result of this nascent advertising campaign is the sheer largess of the donors who have made it possible to post atheist statements on not thirty but eight hundred buses! Wow. That must be delivering some serious angst to the faithful. They probably didn't think that there are so many of us about. They are stunned to know our name is Legion.
Or, their suspicions that we are Legion are confirmed.
Better closing sentence and more in line with what I mean. (Typing too fast for reflection there.) In either case, most important points are made.
What's ridiculous about that is, they're challenging a "probably" statement on the grounds it can't be substantiated, but not the certainty implied by the "will" burn in hell statement. AND they're holding up people's subjective experiences as "proof" God exists.
I don't think you have to be an atheist to recognize that the there's been no definitive proof of God's existence, nor any proof of sinners burning in a lake of fire.
While here in poor old backward Australia, the advertising agency that controls "outdoor" advertising refused the Australian Atheist organisation the same bus campaign, without any explanation when reason was sought.
Showing arrogance, partisanship and irrationality in their decision making...and zero coverage in the media, unless I missed it.
The sun shines here alot, but there are sometimes dark clouds of ignorance at the controls. At least we have had an openly atheist leader in long serving Prime Minister Bob Hawke, which is more than you can ever hope for in the US.
RobT, there was a report on the good old ABC TV about the British campaign, which mentioned the similar campaigns in other countries and mentioned also that it had been refused here in Oz. But that's the only thing I've seen thus far.
Thanx Charlie B. I missed that. I have investigated the why's of this affair and have found out that APN Outdoors, the ad agengy that controls all outdoor advertising in NSW, refused the ad because of guidelines imposed by the NSW Government! That is correct. The State government is censoring all ads that have to do with religion or politics, in effect they do not allow any ads with a religious (or non-religious) content, nor any political ads.
I find this outrageous, and a flagrent abuse by Government to restrict free speech to this degree. Simply unbelieveable.
I live in one of the cities that these buses are running in, though I haven't seen one yet.
There are a lot of whinning evangelicals complaining on the website of the local paper, though they've quickly been shown up for being economical with the truth.
As to the use of the word "probably", that's down to the ASA in the UK requiring proof for any claims.
Stephen Green has absolutely no credibility. He's the head of a rather thuggish organisation called Christian Voice, who tried and failed to have the BBC done for blasphemy over Jerry Springer the Opera, the BBC was awarded cost and CV are trying to avoid paying. They have a reputation for bullying and have no problem using intimidation, not to sure if there are yet any proven claims of actual attacks, but Green made a far from subtle comment about buses being vandalised when this was initially announced in London. They have also in the past being closely link with the British Nationalist Party (BNP). Basically not a nice guy.