Another interesting mail drops into my inbox, which I’m sharing because we’re otherwise having a quiet day. I also think it will chime rather well with a subset of our readers. I’m not actually an atheist myself, but I am irked at how one-sided the religion-based advertising scene is.
The Atheist Bus Campaign is launching officially on Tuesday October 21 2008.
THE CAMPAIGN
The Atheist Bus Campaign began thanks to readers of The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog. Comedy writer Ariane Sherine wrote an article in June about the Christian adverts running on London buses, which linked to a website saying non-believers would burn in hell for all eternity.
Sherine joked that perhaps atheists reading her blog could each donate £5 to fund a reassuring counter-advert saying:
‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.’
She explained that the word ‘probably’ was included so that the advert would be allowed to run.
Hundreds of Cif readers then offered to contribute to the proposed ad, including political blogger Jon Worth, who set up a Pledgebank page and mocked up an image so readers could register their support. After just six weeks, 877 people had signed up, and another 262 pledged in response to Sherine’s follow-up piece on The Guardian site
The British Humanist Association has kindly offered to lend its official support to the advert should the campaign launch officially, and will be administering all donations.
CBS Outdoor, the bus advertising company, have now said that they will run the atheist advert on 30 buses for 4 weeks across London if we raise just £5,500, which means we need 1,100 people to donate £5 each.
This will be the first ever atheist advertising campaign in the UK, and will launch on October 21 2008. Donations will be collected via a JustGiving page, details of which will be posted in this Facebook group soon
Please join this group to show your support for the campaign. You can also email Ariane directly at [email protected] with ‘Atheist Bus’ in the subject line to register for updates
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Why non-fiction books need their indexes
Changes in status: Local Elections wrap up
What should the Liberal Democrats stand for?
Ben Wood
Ed Sanderson
Jack
Matt (Bristol)
John Grout
47 Comments
£5,000 for 30 buses across 4 weeks? Sounds like good value to me. Worth considering for party political uses.
See my earlier blog James – this is exactly the type of blue sky thinking that we need in our party.
http://liberalrevolution.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/the-lib-dems-need-to-push-harder-on-the-economy/
It may be a comedy show, and who knows there could be a good joke in their.
Or maybe it is serious? In which case it is a waste of money. It is bad enough that religious people go round proselytising and sounding all high and mighty. Now the aithiests want to copy them. I wonder when one of them will knock on my door and try and make me read the God Delusion?
“there” not “their”. I wish I could edit my spelling here.
“I am irked at how one-sided the religion-based advertising scene is.”
Possibly – but as this shows very few people are concerned enough to put their hands in their pockets.
Oh, I dunno – they’ve found 877 on Pledgebank and over 900 on Facebook, without particularly pushing the boat out and trying.
Aha, brilliant. This is going to be the best £5 I’ve spent in a very long time.
Or how about we keep personal religious views to ourselves, instead of ramming our views down each others throats.
My fiver is staying well and truly in my pocket.
I do not see an advert on a bus as “ramming our views down each others throats”, it is simply, as the term suggests, an advertisement, a means of communication, of publicity.
If they are so offensive, should political parties also be avoiding communicating via such forms of communication?
I’m also not clear how urging people to “stop worrying and enjoy their life” counts as ramming (non) religious views down people’s throats. I never realised “don’t worry be happy” counted as dogma – has anyone told Bobby McFerrin this? Maybe he should be burnt at the stake.
It is the “There’s probably no God” part I object to most, but I still object to being persuaded not to worry. I will worry as much as I like, cheers. Advertisement is a medium directly for mass persuasion.
Politics and religion are incomparable. There is no requirement for a winner with religion, so faith needn’t be democratic. For atheists, there is no reason to persuade people onto your side.
No problem – so let´s get the remaınıng bıshops out of the Lords, stop our state medıa channel gıvıng CofE representatıves dısproportıonate amounts of aırtıme – then we have a deal.
Anyone seen Boyce around?
About time.
Those of us with a brain in our heads have had the views of deluded morons rammed down our throats for long enough, why shouldn’t we do the same?
Excellent I say. Fiver going IN.
I object to the “probably” part too, other Duncan. But only because it’s not just probable, it’s definite.
Comments like these remind me why I hate LibDems so much – you don’t really believe in anything do you? I am Christian, don’t ‘ram my thoughts’ down anyones throat just answer any questions truthfully and if, when I die, I find out I am wrong I have at least tried to live my life helping others rather than being selfish (and no, I am not saying that athests/agnostics are any less likely to help people!) If those who deny God’s existence, however, are wrong you are all going to have a long time to have second thoughts.
“you are all going to have a long time to have second thoughts.
Good God, is that a threat?!
“Comments like these remind me why I hate LibDems so much”
Ah, that ol’ time Christian charity.
Requests for forgiveness have been made redundant by Mr Bill Hicks, sadly.
“you don’t really believe in anything do you?”
In politics I find it is better to base your decisions on knowledge and reason, as faith has a tendency to get mixed up in unjustifiable invasions of other countries, like, say, Iraq, for example.
Faith is fine just so long as you can keep it separate from the institutions of state – if you’re getting led by the nose in any particular direction how do you propose to represent me?
Donate now at
http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus
The target of £5,500 has nearly been doubled already.
“n politics I find it is better to base your decisions on knowledge and reason, as faith has a tendency to get mixed up in unjustifiable invasions of other countries, like, say, Iraq, for example.”
It was politics that led to the invasion of Iraq, nothing to do with faith or religion.
Oh yeah?
Didn’t Blair say something along the lines of “if you knew what I knew” before parliament to justify his actions, before later saying that he acted in good faith?
Nothing to do with any judgement then. Or maybe it was, but if so why couldn’t he admit as much when it was shown that all the evidence which were used as reasons were shown to be spurious?
WMD launch ready in 40 minutes? Please!
Comments like these remind me why I hate LibDems so much – you don’t really believe in anything do you?
That is a little interesting – it’s hardly as if all the other political parties are made up of either atheists or religious people, is it? Every major is a broad church, ho ho.
I think the comment “There’s probably no God” is perfect, after all, no one has proof god ever existed.If you believe then fine, thats your choice
We are all free to believe in whatever we like.
They’re probably wrong but…
In as much as our organization exists to teach people of the character of God, we do, of course, disagree with the philosophy that “There probably is no God…”
Never-the-less, so long and they do not demean others as they express their beliefs, atheists have as much right to publicly express themselves as others.
We cling to God’s promise that “…he rewards those who EARNESTLY seek him” Hebrews 11:6, and we testify to the fulfillment of that promise.
David
“Helping change lives one bus ride at a time”
David Harrison, President
Bus Stop Bible Studies
What exactly is the “Liberal Democrat Party”?
I think we should be told.
In fact, £5 to anyone who can tell us all.
Either that or else someone should come clean and fund a bus advert to let us know.
How about this:
“There probably is no Liberal Democrat Party. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”.
Joe
Joe Citizen: Um… what? Could you just make a little clearer what point it is you think you are making, exactly?
Why is it implied that people who do believe in a God worry excessively and don’t enjoy their lives?! I’m a 20 year old student, I’m having a brilliant life and I’m a christian. I think it should be remembered that not all christians are like the extremists that become well-known. I don’t agree with anyone being yelled at that they are going to hell, but if anyone has any questions I’ll answer honestly. Christianity is about love and forgiveness. And anyway, wasn’t it water into wine?! Not wine to water!
It was neither. That story was made up.
There is more historical evidence that Jesus lived than Julius Caesar ever did. Not including Bible sources, Jesus was written about by the Jewish historian Josephus (A.D. 37-100), Pliny the Younger(in a letter to Emperor Trajan in A.D. 112), Tacitus (the important Roman historian), Suetonius (a Roman historian who compiled a biography of the first twelve Roman emperors in his “Life of Claudius”) and Thallus and Julius Africanus in A.D. 52 and there are thousands of archaeological findings that point to Jesus existence. Jesus existed. That is not a story.
Laurence didn’t deny the existence of a bloke named Jesus – he denied that this person was granted powers from Almighty God (/Himself) to turn water into wine.
Steph: the short answer to your (initial) query is that the adverts aren’t aimed at you, just as Alpha Course adverts aren’t aimed at Richard Dawkins. They are aimed at agnostics.
Yes Jesus probably existed (or Rabbi Yeshua to give him his real name). He was an “end of days” Jewish fundamentalist. The sort of guy you would dismiss today as having nothing to do with true religion.
I find the wording of the adverts slight odd. “Probably” no God, surely it is the probably element that causes many people the doubt and worry about their religious faith.
If there’s only probably no God, and the benefit of believing in him is eternity in paradise then the logical position would be to worry about it.
So isn’t this campaign going to cause more people to worry about the existence of God.
They had to put “probably” in because of the ASA. I don’t think anyone’s theological questioning is going to be answered on the back of a bumper sticker in any case.
Given all the miraculous things jesus is claimed to have done and said it’s suprising that the first historical hints (let’s not get carried away by calling them ‘records’) for his existence date not from his own time but rather than from decades (at least) after his death.
Except of course it isn’t suprising, because the whole thing is a pack of lies.
Because of the decency provisions or the need to substantiate your claims. I think if ever there was something incapable of objective substantiation this was it!
Steph
Re Jesus’ existance:
http://www.atheists.org/christianity/didjesusexist.html
Theos has, today, donated £50 to the atheist bus campaign that the Guardian newspaper has been publicising throughout 2008.
Despite being launched nearly six months ago, the campaign to put a pro-atheism advert on London bendy busses has nearly folded on a number of occasions through lack of interest. It has only now been rescued by the millionaire Richard Dawkins who has offered to match donations up to a maximum of £5,500.
The campaign is clearly intended to be anti-religious, but its message (‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’) will, claims Theos, encourage people to think, like the Alpha posters it seeks to attack.
Paul Woolley, Director of Theos, said:
“We’ve donated the money because we think the campaign is a brilliant way to get people thinking about God.
“The poster is very weak – where does ‘probably’ come from? Richard Dawkins doesn’t ‘probably’ believe there is no God! – and telling people to ‘Stop worrying’ is hardly going to comfort for those who are concerned about losing jobs or homes in the recession, but the posters will still prompt people to think about life’s big questions.
“Campaigns like this demonstrate how active atheists are often great adverts for Christianity.”
Simon Wilson: “telling people to ‘Stop worrying’ is hardly going to comfort for those who are concerned about losing jobs or homes in the recession”
Neither is telling to believe in God. If this is really that great an advert for Christianity I look forward to certain groups putting all their advertising budgets into this, rather than token press-release stunt amounts.
Steph, what are your views on abortion and homosexuality? Certain religious teaching says that both are morally wrong, and that the penalty is Hell. These are real things that *some* Christians will worry about.
“It has only now been rescued by the millionaire Richard Dawkins who has offered to match donations up to a maximum of £5,500.”
Dawkins donation: £5,500
Total fundraising target: £11,000
Total amount raised on JustGiving (at time of writing): £117,000
I understand that Christians can justify to themselves that there is an invisible bearded man sitting on a cloud looking down on their every action, but claiming that Dawkins somehow bailed out the campaign is a stretch even by that standard!
“Dawkins donation: £5,500
Total fundraising target: £11,000
Total amount raised on JustGiving (at time of writing): £117,000”
Fair point James!
Lee Clark,
Thankyou for the link. I have read it and the writer makes some very good points but I believe christianity is more than just a book. Even if the whole thing was made up, which I still don’t believe is the case, when you are a christian there is so much more. As I already mentioned on https://www.libdemvoice.org/atheist-bus-campaign-quick-update-5002.html#comment-66884, several years ago my mum was given prayer and has medical proof that her incurable epilepsy has gone. I know that sounds crazy but I really can’t see any other explanation. Also, I don’t understand how people can look at the universe, for example the fact the earth is at the exact distance from the sun and at the exact angle needed to produce life on earth, and honestly think this all happened by chance. I don’t believe that faith and science have to be looked at separately and I strongly recommend the video of Rob Bell’s Everything Is Spiritual conference to anyone who is interested in the clash between faith and science.
Grammar Police,
I am personally against abortion but that view isn’t purely because of my faith. I find homosexuality a very complicated and difficult issue. I do have some close friends who are homosexual and I find it hard that if they were interested in finding out more about chrisitanity they might come across objection from christians who believe strongly that it is wrong. I do believe though that Jesus came for everybody and, if the bible isn’t made up, Jesus was recorded as spending time with anybody, from prostitutes to lepers so I don’t see why homosexual people should be such a big issue! Please remember though that these are just my personal views – I am not a complete authority on christianity!
James Graham,
I do not believe that “there is an invisible bearded man sitting on a cloud” looking down on my every action.
I do not believe that “there is an invisible bearded man sitting on a cloud” looking down on my every action.
Damned atheist.
“I really can’t see any other explanation”
And I can’t see any explanation for why I, you, we, or anything exists – but that’s no reason to make one up when there’s no solid evidence to support it.
“Also, I don’t understand how people can look at the universe, for example the fact the earth is at the exact distance from the sun and at the exact angle needed to produce life on earth, and honestly think this all happened by chance.”
Thats because you are thinking of it the wrong way round. It is BECAUSE the Earth is this exact distance and angle from the sun, that out of all the thousands of planets that we know about, probably only this one has any form of evolved micro organisms (us).