Help Put a Pro-Atheist Message on British Buses

A couple months ago, blogger Jon Worth tried securing pledges to put a pro-atheist ad on UK buses (fourth story down).

877 people offered to donate, but it wasn’t enough to purchase the advertising. The campaign was temporarily halted.

However, today, it’s back up and running and much stronger than before.

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.”

Not only that, it has the financial support of Richard Dawkins.

Dawkins will match donations up to £5,500, so the goal of purchasing ads can be attained for just £2,750! He adds:

“This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think — and thinking is anathema to religion.”

Donations are being handled by the British Humanist Association. You can contribute to the campaign by going here.

The sooner they get the money, the sooner the message reaches a wider audience!

Speaking of which, when does the US version of this campaign begin?

We’re still clinging to the few stationary billboards we have.

Alphager

You took some time writing this post, didn’t you?
They have already raised over 10’000 Pounds 🙂
justin jm

If you want my $.02, there is no way anybody could object to the billboard’s content. “There is probably no god?” How could that sound dogmatic to anybody?
Daniel Hoffman

“Thinking is anathema to religion…”?

What is he talking about?
Daniel Hoffman

PS,
I have been visiting this site and messageboard for a while now, and have come to the conclusion that atheists seem to have a perception that Christians are neurotic.

Let me tell you as a Christian, if these bus signs are trying to make a statement, they resonate absolutely nothing with me, partly because as a believer I can say “There is a God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life”. Has anyone read what Jesus had to say about sparrows and flowers and worry?
Larry Huffman

Daniel,

Wow…where to start.

First of all…cannot tell if your first post was sarcasm or not. It means, thinking dooms the religious…because if you think, you will stop being religious. Oh, I know you think you think…but it is what you pre-occupy your thoughts with that counts. Thinking about virgin births and dead guys raising to save the world and everyone who thinks differently from you being tossed into hell…well that is not really thinking, that is imagining.

As for what jesus has to say…since he introduced the world to the wonderful doctrine of hell and an afterlife of suffering and torment, well…what he says about birds and flowers is inconsequential.

And Daniel…you do know that more death and hate has been spewed in Jesus’ name than any other? Right? So, as an atheist…I do not worry about the afterlife…as the bus ads say…but I do worry about followers of jesus getting any kind of control. Religon does not have to be true to be deadly…history provides real evidence to be worried about christians in power.
Daniel Hoffman

First of all…cannot tell if your first post was sarcasm or not. It means, thinking dooms the religious…because if you think, you will stop being religious. Oh, I know you think you think…but it is what you pre-occupy your thoughts with that counts. Thinking about virgin births and dead guys raising to save the world and everyone who thinks differently from you being tossed into hell…well that is not really thinking, that is imagining.

Or, it’s thinking differently than you. Is it only “thinking” when I arrive at your conclusions?

And Daniel…you do know that more death and hate has been spewed in Jesus’ name than any other? Right? So, as an atheist…I do not worry about the afterlife…as the bus ads say…but I do worry about followers of jesus getting any kind of control.

No. The 20th century atheistic regimes in the USSR and China killed a lot more than Christianity (or any religion) has ever killed. I know killing others isn’t inherent in atheism, but it makes your point both wrong and moot.

Religon does not have to be true to be deadly…history provides real evidence to be worried about christians in power.

History provides real evidence to be worried about ANYONE being in power. That’s why our founders wrote the constitution as they did. This is not a problem for Christians – we’re the ones who say man is inherently sinful.
Oli

Daniel Hoffman said
No. The 20th century atheistic regimes in the USSR and China killed a lot more than Christianity (or any religion) has ever killed. I know killing others isn’t inherent in atheism, but it makes your point both wrong and moot.

Ah, but there you are conflating deaths caused by atheists with deaths caused by atheism. Since you admit that slaughter isn’t inherent in atheism, if you want to compare the death counts of atheist Russia and China, then i want to compare the religious bodycount of Europe during the middle ages. Since pretty much everyone was a theist back then i’m sure you’ll agree that its fine to add up all the deaths caused by murder, war, mistreatment, etc. And in fact we should really add all those caused by “Acts of god” since he is pretty much a theist too, so thats the plague, earthquakes, tidal waves, etc too.
Now who has the higher bodycount.

Of course we are both wrong to do so. In the case of the soviet states, atheism or theism wasn’t the problem, ideology and slavish obeidience to it was. This is a trait that theists share with communists, nationalists and other ideology driven thinkers. Its is much rarer in atheism because atheism has no tenants of faith, articles to adhere too or rules to follow. It simply means lack of belief in god/s.

So, can atheists cause mass slaughter? Historically only if they buy into rigid ideologies.
Catherine

because as a believer I can say “There is a God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life”. Has anyone read what Jesus had to say about sparrows and flowers and worry?

Daniel,

While you (and, of course, many others) find comfort in your Christian beliefs, there are also those who use fear as a means of getting people to believe the same things they do.

There are Christians who make God out to be some sort of cosmic Santa Claus who is watching your every move and just waiting for an excuse to smite you. They worship an angry God whom they believe allows terrorists attacks to happen and who sends natural disasters to punish people for their sins.

And even in less extreme cases, there are people who do worry because of their faith because they are afraid of accidentally sinning or because they think that they can never please God or because there are things about their life which don’t match up with what their church tells them is the proper way to live.

I think that is a big part of what this ad is addressing.
hoverFrog

Secular London will probably just ignore the ads. Well, maybe. I’d raise a little snigger at them. They’ll hardly raise awareness or confront entrenched religious views, not in a city where most people don’t really care about religion.

You really want one of these ads on the side of a Texas School Bus. That would get people talking about atheism and faith. That is really the point, after all, not to put down believers but to encourage people to talk about atheism. Like we’re doing here.

There’s probably no [INSERT NAME OF DEITY HERE]. Now stop worrying and enjoy life.
Daniela

You said 2250, but it is 2750, right?
alphager

£ 43,812.42
Hemant Mehta

You said 2250, but it is 2750, right?

Of course it is.

I will now pretend like I have no idea what you’re talking about…
Smockingly Mocking

One way to test the “probably” component would be to sacrifice an atheist (or two).

We can then conclude scientifically that the killing of an atheist does or does not send one’s soul to Heaven or Hell. If the dead athiest comes back to haunt us then we theists were right after all.

Atheists should have no fear of dying for their cause, in my evaluation. So please, go ahead and die for your non-beliefs.

Do we have any volunteers?
Awesomesauce

Ohhh mememememe! I want to die for my atheist “cause!”

Since, y’know, this is the only life I get and I’ll cease to exist when I die, I might as well kill myself and waste the precious time I do have.

Oh wait…