Atheism Ad Campaigns Gathering Steam

January 7, 2009 RSS Feed Print

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

The New York Times reports on a new campaign placing pro-atheist messages on British buses: 

. . . [S]o were planted the seeds of the Atheist Bus Campaign, an effort to disseminate a godless message to the greater public. When the organizers announced the effort in October, they said they hoped to raise a modest $8,000 or so.

But something seized people's imagination. Supported by the scientist and author Richard Dawkins, the philosopher A. C. Grayling and the British Humanist Association, among others, the campaign raised nearly $150,000 in four days. Now it has more than $200,000, and on Tuesday it unveiled its advertisements on 800 buses across Britain.

"There's probably no God," the advertisements say. "Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

How British, I thought. How European. But the London effort has already inspired a similar advertising campaign in Washington, D.C. And it looks like the American Humanist Association is weathering the economic downturn just fine. 

Tags:
London,
Great Britain,
advertising,
religion

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"This gives every person a fifty-fifty shot at being correct."

lets say i enter the lottery. there are 2 possible outcomes to this, i can either win or lose. that means i have 50% chance of each right?... wrong

religion isn't about what might benefit you the most, saying that means you act purely out of greed, which isn't looked fondly upon in any major religion anyway. atheists have looked at the for and against argument, and believe there is no god. by using logic and reason to work this out, there is no need to fear hell or anything. an atheist fearing god is like you or me fearing unicorns and fairies.

also atheists can be moral, and in a lot of cases more moral. a moral code based on observations of life today is a lot more valid than a moral code based on one of many interpretations from the bible or any other religious text. ask yourself, if there was no god, would you cease to be a good person? or would you rape and murder?

if you would be good, then great, we agree, religion is not required for morals. if you would rape and murder, then you are not actually being a good person at the moment, you are just behaving because of fear of punishment.

if you are religious, you are an atheist to every other of the hundreds or thousands of other faiths in the world, i just believe in one less than you. once you understand why you do not believe every other religion, you will understand why i do not believe yours

Will Mitchell of AK 12:44PM March 18, 2010

IT WAS IN THE MONTH OF MAY IN THE HOLY WEEK ON A THURSDAY AFTERNOON THAT I HAD ASKED MY FIRST HUSBAND LOUIS A CARUSO IF HE COULD WATCH THE CHILDREN WE HAVE 3 BECAUSE I WAS SO TIRED THAT I NEEDED TO GET SOME REST...HE SAID YES AND WATCHED THE CHILDREN. I LAID DOWN BY THE FIREPLACE MANTLE ON THE FLOOR SAID OUR LORD'S PRAYER AND FELL ASLEEP. I AWOKE AND IT WAS DAYTIME WERE I WAS.I WAS FLOATING AND BREATHING NORMAL. I SAW TO MY LEFT A HOLY LADDER OF ANGELS.ON THE LADDER OF ANGELS WERE A MAN AND A WOMAN GOING UP THE LADDER OF HOLY ANGELS. THEY WERE CLOTHED IN WHITER THAN WHITE ROBES..THE MAN IS FACING FORWARD AND THE WOMAN IS LOOKING BACK AT ME WITH A CLOTH AROUND HER HEAD AND A WHITER THAN WHITE VEIL UNDER HER EYES AND WITH A WHITER THAN WHITE CLOTH WIPING TEARS FALLING FROM HER EYES...AND THERE IS SOMETHING ANGRY PUSHING IN BACK OF ME BUT I DID NOT LOOK BACK..I ASKED MYSELF WHY IS THAT WOMAN WEEPING,WHY IS SHE CRYING..I TURNED TO THE RIGHT I LOOK UP AND THERE ARE THESE TWO TALL TALL CHURCH DOORS..THEY DISAPPEARED IN FRONT OF MY EYES...ON THE RIGHT IS THE PRETTY LADY WITH THE HOLY ANGELS TENDING TO HER SHE IS WEARING WHITE AND BLUE HER HANDS ARE ACROSS HER CHEST AND SHE IS FLOATING..THEN I SEE A HUGE GOLD NOT OF THIS WORLD TRESSEL WITH THE BIGGEST DIAMOND I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE..THE HUGE MARBLE TABLE IS OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST SUPPER TABLE WHITE THE HOLY MEN ARE THERE. I WAS SO SCARED I DID NOT KNOW WHERE I WAS..UNTIL I LOOKED BEYOND THOSE MEN AND THERE HE IS...OR SHEPARD JESUS..I RECONIZED HIM RIGHT AWAY....HE CALMED ME WITH HIS PEACE..HIS HAIR IS DOWN TO HIS SHOULDERS AND HIS BEAUTIFUL FACE......HIS BEAUTIFUL BEARD AND MUSTACHE.....HE IS WEARING A WHITER THAN WHITE HOLY ROBE...HIS ARMS ARE AT HIS SIDE....HE IS GLORIOUS...AND JUST A TAD OFF TO THE RIGHT HAND SIDE....GOD IS THERE I DID NOT SEE GODS FACE BUT HIS GLORY IS SHINING IN HIS SON....OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST SPOKE TO ME WITH HIS MIND...AND SAID ..YOU BELONG HERE AMONGHST US THIS IS YOUR DESTINY.....I WEPT AND CRIED UNTO HIM AND ASKED BUT THE CHILDREN WHOSE GOING TO RAISE THE CHILDREN..THEN WITH SO MUCH COMPASSION ...LOVE MERCY SAID .THEN GO BUT REMEMBER YOU WILL ALWAYS COME BACK TO ME FOR THIS IS YOUR DESTINY I KNOW HIS VOICE .HE LOVES US ..GOD LOVES US...THEY DISAPPEARED..IT WAS THE FOLLOWING WEEK ON MAY 22 1985 THAT LOUIE AND WERE IN A CAR CRASH...HE WAS THE DRIVER I WAS THE PASSENGER..I HAD SEEN FROM HEAVEN THE CAR CRASH SITE BUT NO CAR WAS THERE AT THE TIME WHEN I FELL FROM HIM HEAVEN TO EARTH...IT MADE THE NEWSPAPERS HEADLINES ......KATONAH N.Y. MAN KILLED ON I 287 WESTBOUND....BEFORE WE HIT THE IMPACT OF GRASS I SAID JESUS TAKE US...I REMEMBER PEACE WHEN I AWOKE I HAD GASPED FOR THREE BREATHS OF AIR..JUST LIKE I DID WHEN I WOKE FRIDAY MORNING...IT'S SAD TO THINK THAT GOD SENT HIS ONLY SON ALONG TIME AGO FOR OUR SINS...THAT THEY LOVE US UNCONDITIONALLY AND THEY ARE ALWAYS WAITING FOR ALL OF US JUST ACCEPT OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST INTO YOUR HEARTS JUST LOVE HIM AND GOD..

KAREN A CARUSO 5:15PM January 09, 2009

Let us assume for the sake of argument (not to mention simplicity) that there are only atheists and Christians in the world. This gives every person a fifty-fifty shot at being correct. If a Christian is correct, he/she will spend eternity with God who will reward him/her for his/her deeds and perserverance. If a Christian is wrong, then he/she ceases to exist and that's that. After all, atheism doesn't really allow an ethical code, so we can not say that the Christian who was wrong lived a good life. If an atheist is correct, then he/she ceases to exist and that's that. He/she can't enjoy what they did on earth, he/she just simply cease to exist and his/her life was pointless. If an atheist is wrong, then he/she spends an eternity in hell as punishment for his/her sins and unwillingness to accept Jesus as his/her Lord and Savior. Now taking into consideration both sides, atheism has the most to lose while Christianity has most to gain. Is this the reason atheists have to get out of bed? If anything, atheists have more to worry about than Christians.

Dr. Shade of NC 7:19PM January 08, 2009

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Dan Gilgoff covers religion for U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War, and is a former politics editor at beliefnet. E-mail Dan at godandcountry@usnews.com.

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