Rejecting protests by Christian groups, Britain’s advertising watchdog agency has given the go-ahead to a campaign to plaster atheist signs on hundreds of buses and other vehicles across the country.
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the campaign, which uses the slogan “There’s probably no God,” was unlikely to mislead or “cause serious or widespread offense.”
While I think those are about the silliest ads I have heard of in a long time, I think they should have the freedom to run them. Christians can do the same if they so wish. That’s the nature of free market advertising. Certainly those weird black billboards allegedly quoting God stand as testament to that.
I think that the ad is more likely to make people think about God who would normally not do so. Most British are not atheist or agnostic, they are religiously indifferent, and the ad might jolt one or two into considering the issue. That said, I completely agree with the Christian bus driver who refused to drive one. There should be freedom of conscience on this issue.
Isn’t this anti-religious bigotry hate speech?
What if the slogan was about the Holocaust?
There are no atheists, just people with lesser gods.
How would that be for a bus sign?
Here’s what I don’t understand. A lot of arguments can be put forth to defend the notion that there is no God. Some of them might even make good bumper stickers. However — the conclusion that one would worry LESS if there were no God is not one of them! I mean — didn’t Karl Marx call religion the opiate of the masses? You don’t usually think of people on opiates as worrying a whole lot.
Which of the following statements is less worrisome:
1. You live in an ordered universe which is being run by a Supreme Being who is both omnipotent and benevolent. The SB cares about you and your life. There is meaning to the events of your life. When your life on this earth ends, the SB wants you to live eternally in a state of happiness and joy and in continued relationship with those you have loved throughout this life.
2. Life is a series of random events, many of which are horrific in their outcome. Fundamentally, the universe is utterly unaware of your existence and indifferent to your suffering. No matter what you accomplish in life — including the deepest relationships you ever develop — everything you do is utterly insignificant and without meaning and will all crumble in less time than it takes the universe to blink. All your relationships will be destroyed. Your ultimate destiny is obliteration, with a high probability of significant physical and emotional suffering beforehand. (Unless you’re lucky enough to die suddenly when young — in which case it will only be those who love you who will suffer.)
I don’t know about you — but I can’t see #2 being turned into a jaunty slogan!
And of course the “probably” introduces a whole set of worrisome thoughts on its own, as, e.g.:
“There’s probably no God, but if it turns out there is and you’ve got this bumper sticker on your car, you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.”
Catholic Mom, I love your posts but your writing style reminds me of a famous Catholic Blogging Lady with the initials A. W.
Am I right or barking up the wrong tree?
Well, in response to #5, I’m no atheist but you can also put it this way:
1) There is a very substantial chance that you will spend all eternity in unimaginable torment. The earth will grow old and die, suns will burn out, the universe itself will come to an end, but billions of years later you will still be screaming.
2) This can’t possibly happen.
I think some people can be excused if they find (2) to be a more comforting thought.
Terry Lee — no, I only blog in two places, and only as CM. Considering how much I babble, I really need to limit myself. 🙂
Ross — I don’t think anybody who is actually concerned that they will spend all eternity in torment is really going to be seriously relieved by reading a sign on a bus that says “there’s probably no God so don’t worry.” Especially since there’s such a simple solution to the problem. (And of course, there’s that dratted “probably” qualification.)
I meant “Terry Tee”
And I meant to add that the “probably” negates the entire message. I mean, frankly, I don’t know anyone who both a) believes in the possibility of eternal damnation and b) considers that there is a high probability that they will be among the damned (or if both a and b doesn’t do something to resolve the conflict very quickly) BUT assuming there were such a person, this message says:
1. There’s probably no God so you probably don’t need to worry about eternal damnation. (Although you and all you love are going to live pointless lives and die like rats.)
2. Unless there is, in which case following the advice of this sign will almost certainly result in your being eternally damned.
Sorry — either way, I don’t see the big appeal of the sign.
These atheists are simply betting the house against the odds on Pascal’s Wager. As for me, my money’s on God to win, place and show, winner take all! 😉
The big problem I have with the ad, aside from its message, of course, is that there is no attribution. From what I can see in the picture, there is no indication it’s sponsored by this Humanist Association. Without attribution, it looks like the bus company or the city itself is sponsoring the message. The Christian bus driver is right to not want to drive it.
So, the Humanist Assoc. is bold in forcing its message but not so bold in putting their name out there with it? Hmmm…guess they’re not as confident as they purport to be,
A lot of atheists, in my experience, get their primary impression of what Christianity is from “fire and brimstone”-type preachers (at least in the U.S.; I don’t know about Britain.)
Given that, I think it’s understandable if their impression of the Christian presentation is:
1) If you don’t believe in God, you will go to hell.
2) If you believe in God, but it turns out that you picked the wrong God to believe in, you will go to hell.
3) If you believe in the right God, but you don’t believe exactly the right things about him, then you will go to hell.
Since different religions and even different branches of the same religion preach incompatible versions of (2) and (3), then to the atheist it appears that even if you accept the Pascal’s Wager terms you are statistically highly unlikely to guess correctly which God and which abtruse doctrines about God to believe in. So, if God exists at all in these terms, damnation is far more likely than not. Also, God seems like kind of a bastard, casting people into hell just because they failed the post-mortem doctrinal quiz. To our hypothetical atheist it seems far more comforting to not believe in God in the first place, if that’s the kind of God that Christianity has to offer.
You and I both know that this isn’t the kind of God that Christianity has to offer; but we’re talking about impressions here.
Also, and this is something I’ve noticed in previous discussions, there’s some kind of worldview difference operating here. Your scenario 2, where everything is transitory and there is no higher purpose, obviously strikes you as horrifying. I’ve heard many other people express the same sentiment. But while I’m not an atheist, I’ve been close to it in the past — and that scenario doesn’t strike me as horrifying at all. If it were the case that this life was all we had, and after that nothing but oblivion… so what? We’re alive now, we feel, we think, we love — all of those things are precious even if they are destined to be nothing but dust in a moment of time.
I’m not trying to argue for atheism here, but I am saying that the atheistic world view is not one that has to lead to despair and meaninglessness.
Ross, I’m wondering how old you are? Young people tend not to have too much of a problem with the “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die” approach to life. (At least in part because they have a lot of opportunity to drink and be merry and they don’t really think they’re going to die! :))
But the fact is that, even with that attitude, our whole life is forward-looking. We are supposed to go to school so we can get a good job, so we can have a decent income, so we can own a nice home, be able to provide a good life for our children, (so they can go to a good school and get a good job) etc. etc. Each thing builds on the next. We take good care of our bodies so that we can be as healthy as possible for as long as possible. We plan our investments so that we can retire comfortably. You can’t help automatically structuring your entire life around the prospect of a tomorrow.
But as you get older you can’t help noticing:
1) that the world is full of terrible suffering — not just the kind that you read about in the newspapers but (to name two immediate circumstances in my own backyard) things like my next-door neighbor who is dying of bone cancer or my older son’s best friend who has a little brother who had a brain bleed at birth and now has major handicaps (can’t walk, can’t talk) which will overshadow his parents lives until their deaths, and undoubtely permanently change his older brother’s life as well.
2) that all of our planning, and achievement, and accomplishment ends up as so much dust. No matter how much you love your spouse, or your children, or your parents, they will be taken from you. No matter how strong and healthy and beautiful your body, it will fail and decay. No matter how cleverly you plan your retirement, you may well end up senile and bed-bound for the last years of your life. And, of course, that assumes the best-case scenario. Things can go off the rails a whole lot worse and a whole lot faster than that.
But Christianity tells you that suffering is not random and pointless. That God is with you even (and especially) in your moments of deepest suffering.
That this world IS transitory and ultimately futile, but that life, itself, is not. As the cross-stitched kitchen towel in my mother’s kitchen used to say:
There is just one life
It will soon be past.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
The point being that there IS, in fact, one thing that lasts. Or more specifically three: faith, hope, and love. Other than that, eveything else is ultimately just a pile of cold ashes.
My next-door neighbor is a devout Catholic. He is at peace because he feels that whatever happens, if he dies tomorrow or is able to live a few more years, his life is in the hands of a benevolent Lord. My son’s friend’s parents are devout Evangelicals. They don’t see their son’s handicaps as a terrible and pointless tragedy, but as something that has happened for a reason — something that calls forth from them their greatest love, their greatest hope, and their greatest faith that their son will live a full and meaningful life. They are two of the most cheerful people I know.
I’m trying to imagine how anyone’s life could be transformed, how the cross they bear could be lightened, by the message “There’s probably no God, so don’t worry.”
I’m curious to know if the promoters of this message sought legal advice before placing these ads, or if the bus companies did likewise before accepting them.
Including the word “probably” has to imply they accept the possibility that there may indeed be a God. What if that God happened to be a vengeful God who chose to take out his displeasure by obliterating the vehicles that carried this message? Who would be liable for the loss of the passengers?
The insurance companies are going to refuse to pay because “it was an act of God”. That would appear to leave the bus companies and the milque-toast atheists on the hook…
Unless, of course, they’re willing to admit that there is indeed a God.
Maybe I’m contrarian, but I think the timing of these ads is perfect. Here we are in the middle of a recession, unemployment is rocketing up, the pound is dropping like a dead duck, the weather has been awful for months, the British people are by and large feeling pretty miserable whichever way they turn — and then the British Humanists come along with this fabulous slogan!
They start with a negative, “There’s probably no God,” and then they say to people who are dragging their butts along the ground, just get on and enjoy yourself. Enjoy what? If ever there is evidence of the bankruptcy of unbelief this is it.
It would be wonderful if someone could come up with a few hundred thousand for a campaign that builds positively on the Humanists’ negativity!
It might be that many more people will act on these thoughts than before. Pointing to a sign as the bus passes one might say to an elderly lady “See that? Hand over your wallet”. Why not? Why even say anything. Just take it.
LONDON — Christians are soldiering on in the battle over God’s existence by putting ads on London’s famous red buses urging people to have faith.
The posters are a response to an atheist campaign that told people to stop worrying about religion because God probably doesn’t exist.
The Christian Party has paid 15,000 pounds ($22,000) to run ads declaring: “There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life,” in red, pink and orange letters.
The ads will start appearing buses Monday, just as a monthlong campaign by atheists ends. In that campaign, atheists paid for bus ads saying there is probably no God, so “stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
The atheist campaign, organized by the British Humanist Association and backed by Oxford University biologist and author Richard Dawkins, sparked a debate over religious — or anti-religious — messages in public spaces.
More than 300 people complained to Britain’s advertising watchdog, arguing the atheist ads were misleading and denigrated people’s faith. Christian groups decided to respond after the Advertising Standards Authority dismissed the complaints.
“The atheist campaign has been something of a red rag to Christians and was begging for a response,” said George Hargreaves, the head of the Christian Party, a religious group that fields candidates for elections to the European Parliament. “I got tired of seeing these messages on buses driving past my window and want to give people the chance to read something with hope.”
Another Christian group has also joined the campaign, with a more confrontational message from Psalm 53:1, which reads: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” That ad will run for two weeks.
And the Russian Orthodox Church has joined in with an ad reading: “There is a God, believe. Don’t worry and enjoy your life.”
Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Society, said the society supported the right of religious groups to post their messages but said the advertisements were “dogmatic and declaratory, leaving no room for reason and debate.”
“Our ads were undogmatic and funny, with the addition of the ‘probably’ in line with the continuing openness of humanists to new evidence,” she said in a statement on the British Humanist Association Web site.