Atheist Billboard Campaign

A while ago the atheists took the war against religion to the sides of London buses. Then the Christians retaliated. Now the ball is back in the atheists' court.

The new campaign (reported by the BBC) aims to challenge the idea that children can be labelled with their parents beliefs. Which is a good thing to challenge. Freedom of thought goes alongside freedom of speech as being pretty important.

This is the last part of Ariane Sherine's project, and her Guardian piece on this campaign is found here: Hey, preacher - leave those kids alone.

Create your own bus slogan

...well, sort of: http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bus/.

A New Atheist Bus Campaign

From Rebroadcast.

George Hargreaves

Will the atheist bus campaign help promote The Christian Party in forthcoming elections? Well, not really. Sadly for their leader, George Hargreaves, we have a political system with, on average, 2.5 main parties. Thankfully the Christians are miles down the list.

Christian Bus Campaign

It seems that the Christians got a bit peeved by the atheist bus campaign. The Christian Party, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Trinitarian Bible Society. I find this quite amusing, the original atheist bus campaign was a response to Christian advertising and it's message that non believers will go to hell.

So what do these organisations have to say?

The Christian Party: "There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life." That's very definite, if, I believe, almost certainly wrong. I have huge issues with bringing religion into politics, so I will refuse the offer to join their party.

The Russian Orthodox Church: "There IS a God, BELIEVE. Don't worry and enjoy your life." Unfortunately believing in the Christian god requires worry, and more often than not fear. Not for me either.

The Trinitarian Bible Society: "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God," I take exception to being called a fool.

Oh well, looks like I'm going to be a godless heathen for a while longer, damn!

P.S. Have you notice how terrible all three of those websites are? The TBS even refers to Richard Dawkins as an 'atheist'. Do the quote marks indicate they know something we don't?

(Yet) More on the Atheist Bus Campaign

Apparently the Advertising Standards Authority has received a few complaints about the atheist bus adverts. I kind of expected the Christian right to have a bit of a fit, but was not prepared for this:

"Stephen Green said: "It is given as a statement of fact and that means it must be capable of substantiation if it is not to break the rules.

"There is plenty of evidence for God, from people's personal experience, to the complexity, interdependence, beauty and design of the natural world."

Green comes from the organisation Christian Voice, who are about as extreme as mainstream Christianity gets in this country.

Hopefully the ASA will do the right thing. Next time I see a Christian advert anywhere though I am going to change a few words around and send it to the ASA, and I encourage you to do the same!

The BBc also covered the launch of the campaign, and has a video here.