Atheist Bus Campaign Says Enjoy Life
THE Atheist Bus Campaign campaign is relaunched. Can a bus be an atheist? Yes. We live in liberal times. Perhaps is a bus can be a jihadi it will be immune from attack? Unless it wears a suicide fan belt, in which case the whole depot is f****.
The Atheist Bus Campaign launches today, Tuesday October 21 2008. With your support, we hope to raise £5,500 to run 30 buses across the capital for four weeks with the slogan: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
Atheists don’t worry?
Old Mr Anorak’s lawyer wold like it be known that his meeting “Jews for Atheism” will convene at his mother’s house at 7:30 sharp. Leave shoes at the door as the carpets have just been cleaned.
Professor Richard Dawkins, bestselling author of The God Delusion, is officially supporting the Atheist Bus Campaign, and has generously agreed to match all donations up to a maximum of £5,500, giving us a total of £11,000 if we reach the full amount - enough for a much bigger campaign. The British Humanist Association have kindly agreed to administer all donations.
First a godless bus; then a godless coach; then a damn train. And Dawkins for company. There is no god…
With your help, we can brighten people’s days on the way to work, help raise awareness of atheism in the UK, and hopefully encourage more people to come out as atheists. We can also counter the religious adverts which are currently running on London buses, and help people think for themselves.
Nothing like telling people they are alone in the universe to put a skip in their steps. And why attack God if he isn’t there..?
The Funeral Of Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins On Jews And Power
It’s Those Damn Atheists Again
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The Atheist Bus Campaign: There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life
It’s a miracle! - Resurrected atheist bus campaign takes off like a rocket
Posted: 21st, October 2008 | In: Strange But True Comments (35) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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January 7th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
[...] More Posted at 4:43 pm by Paul Sorene [...]
December 11th, 2008 at 5:18 am
there is a god but it is not a he or a she and it has nothing to do with the bible. but yes, there is some sort of god.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
It doesn’t really matter if there is a God or not. If you need to believe there is, well ok, be a christian, muslim, buddist, whatever and do as your bible says and be nice to everyone. If you feel there isn’t a God, well ok, be one with yourself and be nice to everyone. Win, win situation.
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Atheism worries me when it becomes a religion. Some states throughout history have tried to enforce it : notably the French state during the Revolution in 17898, and the sovietic state in communist countries. They were as bad, if not worse, than the other side. The writing on the bus is sarcastic and conceited; it ridicules people who believe. Saying that God exists or that God doesn’t exist is equally a belief, and suggests to me that those people are fanatics, and treat their fellow citizens as if they were ignorant.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Thats the point Steph88 - you dont have to do anything - its a get of prison free card
you dont have to show up - You dont even say what you have to do -
I say just live a good life - dont run people down - dont try to convert them - leave them be without your church and god - they will find their own way - and still live a good and honest life without the need of guidance from the guys in dresses -
October 30th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
To annie1,
I’m sorry if you’ve had religious people trying to shove their beliefs down your throat. I am a christian and I believe that, yes, you are completely free to make up your own mind and, yes, I don’t know you, but someone not knowing God worries me in the same way that if i saw someone I had never seen before about to be runover by a c ar I would try to stop it from happening. God’s kingdom is a gift for everybody and it doesn’t take much to get there - you just have to reach out and take it. And no you don’t even have to attend church every week, or kneel down with your eyes shut to pray or confess your sins to some bloke in a dress. It’s easy, honest! What have you got to lose?
October 29th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Why bother and who really cares. I dont want anybody to inflict their beliefs upon me. If I have a God, then that is my business, If I dont, then why should it worry anyone else? If I end up in a very hot hell because I have no God, then why would anyone want to convert me? They dont know me, so why would they want me in their safe haven - heaven? All this trash on the buses is about as good as promoting organic food. I only eat what I want to - organic or not - couldnt give a damn! I was appauled to see “organic” bananas and cashew nuts!! Do they know - really know - how long it would take to produce an organic banana? Definately not during the lifespan of the current organic epidemic! The same applies to God - I have never seen God, - but I wouldnt care if someone else said they had - Halleluja!! Buses are not the place to promote either anti or pro religion. Lets keep the sides of the buses for deoderant adverts, shall we? I went into a place today and stood next to the most revolting smelling, probably God fearing individual you can imagine. If only the bus had said “smell your armpits and repent”
October 28th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Tim,
you are the person who made up the claim that I had stated there were very few atheists in this country.
If you start off a post with a verifiably false assertion you can hardly expect me, or anyone else, to then go through the rest of it in the hope that somewhere along the line you might come within shouting distance of what might loosely be described as a fact.
Making up claims which you then refute is, by definition, strawman, and is usually regarded as proof that you can’t muster any worthwhile reply.
Your claim that atheism is ‘progress’ from ‘outdated’ views is claptrap; what is there outdated about looking for proof of a statement? No-one can prove there is no god because it is impossible to prove a negative; that’s why Richard Dawkins refused to sign up to the ‘There is no god’ version of the advert. He’d be gutted by his colleagues if he did otherwise.
Logic applies irrespective of one’s culture and one’s language. You claim to value Western philosophy whilst simultaneously ignoring one of the central achievements of that philosophy.
You cannot seriously expect human beings around the world not to notice that you are propounding a logical absurdity under the guise of rationality; there is a jarring disconnect which simply provides an opportunity for religious fundamentalists to point to the hypocrisy of the claim.
And they do point to it, in much the same way as they point to the hypocrisy of the IMF, which had one set of rules for developing countries, but quite another when it is the US doing all the things the IMF has preached against for decades.
Of course, now that the Prime Minister is going cap in hand to the Gulf States for money to bail out the IMF we can expect rather less honesty about how badly some of those states treat their citizens, just as we can expect rather less honesty about how China treats its citizens.
But no doubt you will convince yourself that adverts on London buses will fix that as well…
October 28th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Your issue with my use of the word “large” as a description of the amount of people who have donated to the campaign is laughably pedantic. Of course it’s not a large amount of people in the context of the world population, did I suggest any such thing? Once more, if you don’t think that the response to the campaign is in any way impressive or has seemed to have struck a chord with a “large” amount of people in this context then I disagree. You don’t think thousands of people is a “large” amount in the context of donating money for adverts on the side of buses in London, and you don’t think that it’s the tip of an iceberg. Fine. As I told you before you even responded (with the very response I predicted): *shrug*.
Anyway, I said:
“If you’ve got a point, make it. Don’t hide behind a false air of intellectual superiority and condescending rhetoric.”
Yet the sum of your response was:
“Anyone with a grasp of simple arithmetic should be able to work that one out.”
“You do seem rather keen on making up strawman arguments, never a good sign…”
Oh dear, those last four words are embarrassingly cliched, and it’s all ad hominem sneering again I see. So after accusing me of knowing nothing about Western history or culture you decide not to actually debate any of those points and instead focus bizarrely on what you consider to be an inappropriate contextual use of the word “large”.
If you’re going to call people out on their supposed intellectual inferiority to yourself (which you’ve pretty much done with everyone you disagree with on this thread) don’t run a mile as soon as your shoddy points are questioned. You’re clearly not as smart as you think you are mate, otherwise you wouldn’t be so evasive.
I’m done with this “discussion”, I’m going back to arguing with people in real life about things that really matter, like football.
October 28th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Tim
I pointed out that on a planet with around 6.7 billion human beings ‘a large number of people’ would come to a rather larger figure than a few thousand people. Anyone with a grasp of simple arithmetic should be able to work that one out.
I have at no time suggested that there are only a few atheists in this country; perhaps you could explain where you derive this claim from?
You do seem rather keen on making up strawman arguments, never a good sign…
October 28th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Chernier,
Maybe you’re right and there are hardly any atheists/non-believers in the UK, and it’s limited to just the people who have to date donated £112k to what is a light-hearted idea for an advert. If you believe that then fine; I think you’re wrong, and it’s at least 16% in London alone according to the last Census. I guess that you didn’t read that I anticipated that exact response, as the question was clearly intended as a trap.
What exactly is your point? Or which of my points are you addressing? I’m perfectly aware of what Whig history is, but throwing second-hand pejorative terms around in an ad hominem fashion instead of actually addressing a point is likewise “unlikely to impress anyone with the intellectual force of your views”.
“It would help even more if you added up the number of people who have been killed in the name of god and compared it with the number of people who have been killed in the name of science.”
Go on then, add them up. What a totally baseless and pointless rhetorical claim. Are you claiming that it’s better that people believe supernatural-orientated lies as they’re less likely to kill each other? Like a placebo? Religion hardly led to no-one killing each other did it?
“Once you have done so you will discover that there have been many people, throughout history, who were atheists, and some of them were even atheists in cultures in which atheism could be a rapid ticket to extinction.”
I know. What exactly does that have to do with anything I’ve said? (Please don’t reply with a “Well if you don’t understand, then I suggest you…” type response, I know it’s your M.O. but people do it on the internet all the time and it makes you look like a pompous idiot). If you’ve got a point, make it. Don’t hide behind a false air of intellectual superiority and condescending rhetoric.
October 28th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
David R
It would probably help if you grasped that religions encompass a much wider range than you appear to imagine.
It would help even more if you added up the number of people who have been killed in the name of god and compared it with the number of people who have been killed in the name of science.
I very much doubt that the millions killed in the death camps were cheered by the knowledge that the Final Solution was devised by some of the finest scientists Germany had to offer…
October 28th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Tim
If you really believe that a few thousand people constitutes ‘a large number of people’ then you need to get out more.
And if you don’t understand what Whiggish history is then you need to take a few years and read some.
History, that is.
Once you have done so you will discover that there have been many people, throughout history, who were atheists, and some of them were even atheists in cultures in which atheism could be a rapid ticket to extinction.
Proclaiming your superiority whilst simultaneously demonstrating your profound ignorance of the history of Western culture is unlikely to impress anyone with the intellectual force of your views…
October 28th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I agree Carlos -
I think the religions are scared - otherwise they wouldnt protest so loudly when they are lampooned -
We have had 2000 years of Christianity - and other theisms and the middle east doesnt look much different today than when the Romans occupied it .. It doesnt seem like its been a great success this god thing.
October 28th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Indeed, people are indoctrinated with a very wide range of views, but surely the problem is that being indoctrinated with anything is likely to cause a great deal of anguish; religion isn’t the worst.
Consider the people who were indoctrinated with the pseudo-science of Social Darwinism; a lot of people died as a result of the belief that one could scientifically prove that some ‘races’ are inferior and are doomed to be destroyed in the survival of the fittest.
The wars of genetics killed far more people than the wars of religion did…
October 28th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I suppose the point is (if it’s not blatantly obvious) is that god can be a huge source of anxiety, especially considering he doesn’t even exist.
That is not to say that atheists have nothing to worry about. At least, atheists can worry about real things, like having your house repossessed, or experiencing the tragic death of a close one, rather than burning in hell for the rest of eternity for being gay or being coerced into arranged marriage.
Considering that people are being brought up and indoctrinated with these views, I can see how there should be a space for campaigns like the Atheist Bus.
October 26th, 2008 at 9:38 am
I am fed up with the religious people of all persuasions suggesting that If I dont believe in god or have no faith I am a bad person and going to hell. Ah but I have morals.
I would suggest that if you compared my morals with the ten commandments you would come up with a similar list. People dont need god to live the right life. I would also suggest that athesists may be on a better more honest path than the believers as they live according to their own set of morals and are not swayed by evangelists or hate sermons. Atheists are not setting off bombs around the world.
Now you may say that without religion we would have anarchy - but as only 7% of the UK population attend church -that leaves 97% of non believers - and we dont have anarchy.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Nobody needs to call on their God until they need too - when everything is honkey-dorey - we swan around and enjoy every minute. I have a friend who was an atheist - until he was stuck below in a submarine - he called out to his God - fortunately the sub came up and they all survived. I asked him not long ago if he still had his faith. He asked me - faith, what faith? and I said do you still believe in the God who brought you and your collegues to the surface, when the likelihood of you surviving was very remote - he answered “it was luck - I got no time for the God thing now - you just shout out “God” when you are in a tight corner. Pretty well sums up religion and being an atheist - you are what you are when the circumstances dictate
October 24th, 2008 at 12:48 am
I can see your possible responses unfolding before me so I’ll try to head them off where possible and save you time.
I was referring to this:
http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus
If your point in response is that that’s only a few thousand people, then I’d suggest that it’s the tip of an iceberg based on my personal experience. You might then say “no it isn’t”. In which case I’ll shrug.
“Outdated” depends on your position of course. I can only speak for mine, but I think that the sentiment of the ad is aligned with it. I would suggest such examples as Catholic opposition to contraception of any type, the idea that living things were created by a supreme being as described in Genesis, and Zionism of any kind. I’ll leave Islam out of this, not because I’m afraid of getting a fatwa slapped on me (I think it’s an absolute load of rubbish, and a plagiarisation of the preceding monotheisms, for the record), but because I don’t know where to start.
(Now for some ‘heading off’…)
Yes I suppose I am Eurocentric, and no I won’t apologise for it. I’m not in the slightest bit ashamed of being Western, or British or anything else, and I won’t patronise people from around the world by pretending that I don’t think they’d be better off with more application of what I personally perceive to be the best aspects of Western philosophy in their societies.; such as democracy, and yes, liberty, equality and fraternity. Unfortunately we seem to export the worst of our culture more keenly. I am however open to non-Western philosophies when they have a relatively practical application in a philosophical sense (I quite like aspects of Buddhism for example), and I think we can learn things from other cultures, just not when they’re based on anything supernatural, because I don’t think that there is any such thing as the supernatural.
Sorry if the above sounds defensive, but I thought it best that you understood ‘where I was coming from’.
Let me know if you have any comments about the rest of my original post.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
numbers thats all its ever about with u religious people, so you dont see fact from fiction. If there were no religious people in the world, would you be religious? you’re sheep, you follow the crowd and obey your lord, the shepheard. in your opinion believing god exists and all, jesus only had 12 disciples, but you believe what he did to be true, the numbers were against him, so what was this about numbers again? that means jesus was a bit of a loner and spoke crap =) ouch?
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:14 pm
the whole point is that religious people dont think for themselves. Start to think, how logical is it to base your life around a book written over 200 years ago, a book, a science fiction book. is your life so bad that u need something to always look forward to, to always fall back on, but never responds. you should be content in yourself an others around you and not seek to look for a God for happiness. All it brings is death and destruction, and the ultimate evil of the world.
“The sky’s the limit - except, of course, there’s nothing up there.”
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:14 am
Tim
Would you care to provide some numbers for your ‘large amount of people’?
And explain what you mean by ‘outdated’ in this context?
Because it sounds like history according to Whig…
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:57 am
chernier, were you beaten up by middle class post-imperialist atheist/agnostics at school? There must be some reason for your inverted snobbery vis-a-vis “Middle class people in a privileged post-imperial country”. These adverts aren’t going to be running in Zimbabwe; they’ll be running in a privileged post-imperial country full of middle class people.
Surely when people say that religion causes an awful lot of unnecessary bother they have a point, and it’s perfectly reasonable to make that point, even if it’s done in a fun and roundabout way. In fact it’s almost a spoof, or the exact opposite of a religious advert (particularly in the use of the non-committal “probably”, and the general “don’t worry about it, chill out” tone).
You’re missing the point by over-analysing it. It expresses a general sentiment about the tiresome and outdated nature of (monotheistic, in particular) religious dogma; one that a large amount of people seem to agree with.
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”
Yeah! You could get hit by a bus tomorrow
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:38 pm
What Dawkins usually states is that there “almost certainly” isn’t a god, which I tend to agree with. In fact, he stated in the GD that he’s technically agnostic. The problem is that people seem to think that agnostics consider the odds of there being a god to be 50/50, which is so horrendously annoying that I, at least, just call myself an atheist anyway.
This campaign has nothing to do with Dawkins by the way, other than that it has his financial support, he had no part in choosing the slogan.
This is Ariane Sherine’s brain-child (and originally supposed to be a joke).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/21/religion-advertising
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
You might win a few more converts if you demonstrated some faint acquaintanceship with the nature of evidence and the mechanisms of scientific thought.
There is no bar on putting ‘there is no god’ on a bus.
There is a bar on Dawkins supporting a statement which says ‘there is no god’ because he would be laughed at by his colleagues.
He can’t prove it.
And a person who claims to be a scientist making an absolute statement has to be able to prove it.
As for the twaddle about adverts on the side of a London bus preventing people being killed in the name of religion, I can only point out, once again, that it is delusional.
Middle class people in a privileged post-imperial country who still have the mindset of those Victorians who looked upon the world and thought it was pink.
Now if you really want to rack up the numbers of people killed in the name of anything at all then genetics is the clear winner…
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 am
“their views on religion are a matter of total indifference to the vast majority of their fellow human beings…”
Tell that to a person who will be executed if she doesnt bow down before Allah’s opinion as described in the Koran. Or to a Muslim girl who cant prove she was raped without at least 4 witnesses. Or to an 8 year old choirboy who accepts a priests penis in his anus because he and his family can’t question a man of the cloth and his superstitious ramblings because he has the backing of a super being that scares them.
Or tell it to a person who has to write “Probably” because UK lawyers are pussies and scared of people with imaginary friends and wont allow truth in advertising.
There is no god.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:07 pm
“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”……standing alone on the dirty street, in the cold & rain ,waiting for a bus that never came.
Atheists always seem to cheer me up with their beliefs.
October 21st, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Grand Finale: you’re not allowed to put “There is no God” on the side of a bus, because it’ll upset the religious people. Aww.
October 21st, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Well spotted, GF!
Agnostics for Jesus, unite!
October 21st, 2008 at 5:34 pm
it goes the same with organic….