Atheist Bus Ads

I was very interested, and somewhat amused to read about a new campaign, led by a group of humanists in Britain and supported by such well know luminaries as Richard Dawkins and A.C Grayling, to fund ads on buses calling into question the existence of God. The campaign, which has raised over 250,000 pounds so far, involves a bus ad stating: "There's probably no God, so stop worrying and enjoy your life". I applaud the campaign for coming up with a creative and open way to question religious belief, and the seeming monopoly of the religious communities in propagating their views. That it was done without the usual condescension and stridency of previous attacks of religion by atheists (Dawkins being a prime example) is surely to be commended.

What was predictable was the response from some religious groups. Christian Voice called the ads "offensive to Christians and others believing in a single God". Adding considerably to the irony is the fact that the campaign was conceived by Ariane Sherine in response to adverts on buses funded by religious organizations, notably "Jesus said" ads, and others providing a website URL which propounded such gems of wisdom as the threat of "spending all eternity in torment in hell" unless one believed in Jesus. Sherine wanted to find a way to propagate the humanist message without being as blunt as the Christians. If she had seriously wanted to match like with like, she should have come up with slogans like "God is a figment of your imagination, stop being delusional" or "Grow up and send God the way of the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus". Clearly tact was lacking in one of the advertising campaigns, and it is evident which one it was.

It is worth noting that there were varied responses from Christians to the ads. Some groups welcomed them, saying that it would re-open debate on metaphysical matters, which have far too often taken a back seat to practical ones in our modern consumerist society. However, the response from Christian Voice is telling because it only serves to underline the gross disparity facing humanists and atheists with regards to spreading their views. Any attempt to question the organized religion or faith is seen as offensive or derogatory or an attack on the foundations of British society and heritage. It is not clear to me why the church, or any other religious institution should be entitled to such a free ride. A Christian quoting bible verses on a street corner is evangelising, a humanist and atheist attempting to put forward their views in the same locale is seen as inciting religious hatred and insulting believers. This double standard is wrong, and must be stopped.

A even more hilarious response was an attempt by one Christian group to have the ad campaign stopped by lodging a formal complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), complaining that the atheist bus ads didn't meet the regulatory body's requirements on grounds of "truthfulness and substantiation". Without any irony whatsoever, the letter to the ASA claimed that the ads "completely fails to reflect the true state of the current scientific argument" regarding God. Since God exists, any attempt to question that notion must necessarily be false advertising. According to them, the evidence of God - in the form of "personal experience, complexity, interdependence and the beauty and detail of the natural world" - has proved largely incontrovertible, and made the statement "God probably doesn't exist" patently false. Adding to the letter's ridiculousness, it was soon revealed that large chunks of it were cut and pasted directly from websites. It seems that the group isn't even capable of independent thought, or aware of copyright regulations.

One excellent suggestion has been made regarding the atheist bus campaign. James Ball, who was a fellow PPEist at Trinity College, Oxford, suggested using this campaign as a controlled experiment to prove the efficacy (or not) or religion. We now have a number of buses going about London with atheist ads, and a number of buses going about London with religious ones. We also have a large control group (buses advertising cosmetics, shoes and the like). Let's track the punctuality of all the various buses and see if a larger proportion of the buses advertising the existence of God run on time as compared to questioning his existence. As James rightly pointed out, beating London traffic is surely something that requires divine intervention in some shape or form.