Atheist Bus Campaign
By: Navin (July 6th, 2009)
Ariane Sherine, now quiet a well known name in Europe and secular circles is a British comedy writer, journalist and creator of the Atheist Bus Campaign. This campaign is at the centre of many discussions among people taking the public transport in Europe. The discussion being whether there is a God or not?
It all began with a Christian organization which was allowed to place the URL on its bus adverts of a website which said all non-Christians would burn in hell for all eternity. Sherine called on the atheists to counter such evangelical advertising by contributing 5 pounds towards another bus campaign. This move was supported by political blogger Jon Worth who went on to set up a Pledge Bank page to get to the money required for the campaign. In response to Sherine’s follow up article, the British Humanist Association (BHA) offered to lend the campaign its official support and undertook to administer all donations. Sherine then asked Richard Dawkins, author of ‘The God Delusion’ for a quote for the campaign who in turn offered to match every donation up to 5500 pounds.
The campaign was also supported by television critic Charlie Brooker, poet and musician Labi Siffre, philosopher A C Grayling, writer Zoe Margolis. Some unexpected support from Paul Woolley, director of Christian think tank Theos a close associate of Archbishop of Canterbury who said “great way to get people thinking about God. The posters will encourage people to consider the most important question we will ever face in our lives”.
Finally with that kind of a support, the campaign went live on 21st October 2008 and the first buses started running on 6th January 2009 with the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” There was a lot of controversy about the slogan itself regarding the usage of words. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rules that any fact mentioned in the advert should be capable of substantiation. Opposing voices said that the advert was making a statement of fact and must be capable of substantiation if it is to not break the rules. The BHA stated that if the ASA ruled on this complaint then it would be ruling on whether God exists. On 21 January the ASA ruled that the adverts were not in breach of its rules as the advert “was an expression of the advertiser’s opinion” and was incapable of substantiation. They also claimed that although the advert was contrary to many people’s beliefs, it would not generate “serious or widespread offence”.
Richard Dawkins said he would have preferred the quote ‘There is almost certainly no God’ while A C Grayling saying that they can be certain that there is no God and therefore the word ‘probably’ should not be used. Some said that this kind of a qualification about God had put the campaign down but they should have been more frank and blunt about it. Interestingly the whole question revolved around if there is a God or not. The most important statement came from the creator of the campaign Ariane Sherine who said ‘it is necessary to be factually accurate, and that it is impossible to disprove the existence of God, it is only possible to say he ‘probably’ doesn’t exist.
Ariane said in the non religious version of ‘Thought for the day’ programme on Radio 4 about accepting the beliefs of others as long as they are expressed peacefully, and how the freedom to hold them is more important than the beliefs themselves. Well I would like to say that we might put on secular mask and a rational cap to prove that God does not exist. But at the end of the day we can never come to a point where we can prove the non existence of God.
On the other hand when we look around us, the earth and all its beautiful settings we cannot help but see the hand of a creator and intelligent designer. The very existence of complex beings working so beautifully together show the handiwork of a God above all other things. The Bible says that “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Finally we have taken this whole issue of freedom at such a level that we have forgotten why we asked for it in the first place. Now it has become just another excuse to accommodate many of the man’s deranged desires. No wonder Ariane says that freedom to hold the beliefs is more important than the beliefs themselves.
We have moved from lifelong marriages, to sky rocketing divorces, single parenting, legalizing of gay and lesbian marriages and their parenting rights, all in the name of freedom. Probably we need to first think why the limits were put in place and what the consequences of moving them are. Freedom without limits leads to lawlessness.
Leaving you with one small thought, in the midst of all big names airing their views there was this bus driver who refused to drive the bus displaying the advert. His employers were forced to find him another bus to drive. Probably he had read the following passage from the Bible that morning…
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’” (Psalms 14:1).
Tags: Atheist, Bus Campaign
July 7th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Surely only the fools can say, there is no God, when we can see the trace of His fingerprints everywhere in the universe. Only people who do not want to think, do not want to use their mind when coming to the topic of God say, there is no God. I wonder how someone is running a whole big campaign when she herself is not convinced with her conclusion and is just swinging between probabilities.
The Bible says, “When you look for me, you will find me. When you wholeheartedly seek me.”
July 8th, 2009 at 9:56 am
To say their’s no God, he/she should have an infinite knowledge about the subject. That’s why Arianne puts the diplomatic word “probably”. But for the probability of the probable to be xplored he still should have a probable knowledge about God. Which doesn’t seems to be the case. I think Arianne is just trying to be different and what better way than to pick up God as the topic which has a hundred percent penteration in the minds of people about the subject per se.
Keep writing bro.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:03 am
Recently, when I read about the formation of the placenta and the role it plays in keeping th fetus alive, and about the complex networking of the blood vessels of the fetus through the umblical cord at the placenta and equally intricate ‘pressure’ sensitive design of the blood vessels from the mother in the placenta… and about how their bloods come very close yet never intermingling but supplying nourishment and oxygen from mother to the fetus and taking away the waste from the fetus to the mothers kidneys… all at the placenta… my jaws dropped… Its more surprising that the information of the placenta formation is in-built in the fertilized egg…
the amount of information exchange that happens at the “cellular level” (without any conscious effort by the ’severely morning-sick’ mother) to accommodate the development of the fetus through its gestation period is so awesome that to just ignore it and ascribe it to some strange inexplicable evolutionary accident is gross atrocity to whoever designed it with such reproduceable accuracy and intricacy…. whoever made this and everything else equally breath-taking is worthy to be called ‘God’….
there will come a day when he will no longer wave his hands from behind a glass partition, dirtied by our philosophies and world-views, to get our attention… we can’t hear him but his fingerprints and presence is all around us… he surely seems to have fearsome precision in his finishing acts… we shouldn’t be caught unawares!
Get hold of him, stop worrying and enjoy your life…