Atheist bus campaign gets off to a flying start
By Riazat Butt for The Guardian
Wednesday October 22 2008
The UK's first atheist advertising campaign has beaten its funding target in less than 24 hours, raising nearly nine times the amount needed to have its posters on bendy buses. Organisers of the campaign, which was launched yesterday, were seeking £5,500 to run adverts in London saying There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" on 30 buses for four weeks. By last night, individuals and organisations had pledged more than £47,900. Writer Ariane Sherine suggested the idea in a Guardian Comment is Free blog last June, saying an atheist bus campaign would provide a reassuring counter-message to religious slogans threatening non-Christians with hell and damnation.
She said: "Ours is a fun and light-hearted message but it does have a serious point to it: that atheists want a secular country, we want a secular school and a secular government. The strength of feeling has been shown with so many people willing to pay for this campaign." Sherine said she was surprised by the level of support but was pleased with the extra money, which would finance a more ambitious campaign. "We could go national, we could have tube posters, different slogans, more buses, advertising inside buses. The sky's the limit - except, of course, there's nothing up there."
Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, will donate a further £5,500. His contribution is not included in the sum featured on the Just Giving website, nor is the Gift Aid supplement, which will add at least £6,000 to the total. The British Humanist Association has agreed to administer all donations. Churches have responded favourably. The British Methodist church welcomed Dawkins's "continued interest" in God, encouraging people to think about the issue. The Church of England said it would defend the right of any group representing a religious or philosophical position to promote that view through appropriate channels.
A spokesman added: "Christian belief is not about worrying or not enjoying life. Quite the opposite: our faith liberates us to put this life into a proper perspective. Seven in 10 people in this country describe themselves as Christian and know the joy that faith can bring." The atheist buses will run from January in Westminster.
[It’s about time that we saw some of this sort of thing. At least it makes a change from Christian propaganda on our buses – then again I haven’t seen any for a while now. Maybe the Recession is biting into their advertising budget?]
10 comments:
Can we get them to take their message international? We're in desperate need of some rational ads on this side of the pond. I believe in God, but I am sick to death of the bombardment of all these religious nuts telling me what their god will do to me and how I should be living my life according to their particular set of beliefs. Enough already!
Check out my site. You may find it interesting. I am always up for discussing or debating my viewpoint.
Grace,
Jeremy
Innovation Apologetics Research
Bravo for this! A slogan like this in our little jerkwater would surely be vandalized. But everyone benefits from a free flow of information; the supernatural is well-represented already, and some simple logic would be a breath of fresh air.
You'd never see that bus over here {sigh}.
As usual, CK, you've attacted some interesting blog surfers. Your latest, Innovative Defense, has a Christian apogetics blog that is about as fun to read as the phone book. It's roughly equivalent to taking some random book out of your library, parsing every single word of it, with footnotes. Ugh.
Oh, I'm loving this :-)
Sadly, the italian government would never finance this sort of thing.
hrm...
clackclackaclacka goes the spraypaint can.
muahahahaha
*sprays atheist message on Pope's front door*
V V said: Can we get them to take their message international? We're in desperate need of some rational ads on this side of the pond.
You could always start a campaign... in your 'spare' time [grin] Or maybe prompt one of your organisations to do so....
ID said: Check out my site. You may find it interesting. I am always up for discussing or debating my viewpoint.
Thanks for visiting. I had a quick check of your site but I don't think that its for me. You seem to spend quite a bit of effort on biblical textual analysis - which is all very well - but as I've never read the Bible and never intend too its pretty much wasted on me. I am happy to discuss issues that come up here though....
wunelle said: the supernatural is well-represented already, and some simple logic would be a breath of fresh air.
Wouldn't it just!
dbackdad said: You'd never see that bus over here {sigh}.
You never know - Freedom of speech and all that...[grin]
dbackdad said:
As usual, CK, you've attacted some interesting blog surfers. Your latest, Innovative Defense, has a Christian apogetics blog that is about as fun to read as the phone book.
That did cross my mind I must admit. I think that he followed me over from Karla's place where I've been trying - and so far failing - to introduce her to reality.
tf said: Sadly, the italian government would never finance this sort of thing.
Are there any Atheist organizations that could get something together? Maybe we could start a trend... [laughs]
Have you heard about Elizabeth Dole's political ad in North Carolina? It's aimed at her opponent Sen. Kay Hagan. It says she's godless and supported by the Godless Americans PAC. Everyone's in an uproar about it. The PAC seeks to protect the rights of atheists. Heaven forbid!! ;-)
v v said: Have you heard about Elizabeth Dole's political ad in North Carolina?
I've heard something about it yes... A few blogs I visit mentioned it. Its all very odd when viewed from over here!
"The British Methodist church welcomed Dawkins's "continued interest" in God, encouraging people to think about the issue."
This kind of sums up my problem with "militant ateists" they seem to spend more time talking about god than relious people do!! who cares?! :)
Post a Comment