200 buses in London have recently begun carrying the slogan "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association (which sponsored the ads), said: "We see so many posters advertising salvation through Jesus or threatening us with eternal damnation, that I feel sure that a bus advert like this will be welcomed as a breath of fresh air.”
Meanwhile a Christian bus driver has refused to drive a bus with the slogan on it. But Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, has backed the posters.
This ad campaign began in October, as Pluto moved from Sagittarius, the sign of religion, to sceptical, earthbound Capricorn. In some ways they are probably as bad as each other! But for now I'm on the side of the Capricornians.
6 comments:
Exactly, they are just as tacky and irritating as the religious fundamentalists. They're like mirror-images of eachother.
It makes me laugh. I'm annoyed by Christian posters and feel delicious schadenfreude that someone pokes at those wankers directly. My own view is that the question of god's existence or nonexistence itself isn't really a legitimate question since people can't agree on a definition of God.
Maybe claiming non-existence is more valiant since those in the existence camp then proceed to claim have privileged directives from God that often directly contradict others directives who also claim to speak for God.
Personally I think the fundamentalist disbelievers get it all too easy. Skeptics can just poo poo anything they like with the riling 'prove it' and go on being smug in their 'Oh look at all those poor believers with their need for faith..' cliches.
Doubt/cyncism are generally masks for analytic, fragmenting behaviour that leads to separation. Optimism/faith are synthetic, holistic and tending towards unity. Ok, often we need a balance, depending on whether we need to see the bigger picture, or examine the minutiae, but tending towards faith will uplift us, whereas doubting will depress us. Thi isn't about whether a concept like God exists, or even is a valid idea, its between belief (justified or not) and a nihilist, stoic disavowal of anything anyone else may want to believe in. Almost as if its just to be difficult/challenging. (Or is this just my experience!)
So I'll join the Sagittarians on this one...
I'd say there can be a lot of faith in doubt, if that make sense.
The original advert submitted to the ASA didn't have the word "probably" in it. There isn't a God...." was considered too provocative so they had to insert “probably” to comply with the ASA regulations.
They would also have banned the use of the same advert using the word Allah, which is interesting as it is just another name for God. However it is the use of the Muslim word for God that would be the problem in case it offended someone of that faith.
What also amused me was the order implied in “Stop Worrying” as if that would make anyone lose their faith or beliefs to just “enjoy their life”! Who says they don’t already enjoy their life, religion included?
What’s with these people religious or otherwise that feel they have the right to tell others what to do or believe anyway?
"and go on being smug in their 'Oh look at all those poor believers with their need for faith..' cliches"
Umm, so, calling the rape of altar boys a religious right, demanding an apartheid if women obtain the right to be ordained, cry out when a black person becomes a leader isn't a little ... criminal ?!? Clerics have been doing it for 2000 years and even in today's "democracies" they get showered with public money. You know, politicians want to be fair so they fund both sides - overcrowded shelters and career misogynists.
"What’s with these people religious or otherwise that feel they have the right to tell others what to do or believe anyway?" - human rights, the offesive and the counter-offesive - grab the first history book you can find. If theocracies were so great why not abolish the medical system, the justice system, women's rights, let's have slaves again, let's reawaken those biblical times. Or look at Asia and Africa where they're still official ...
"Who says they don’t already enjoy their life, religion included?" - Your "enjoyment" comes at the price at the LGBT community right now. Today men still "enjoy" positive discrimination when only they are allowed to climb the hierarchical ladder in church matters. No one's taking your right to prayer, we just want fantasy out of science and legislation.
Today I saw the ambassador of the Vatican in my country saying how they look forward to "societal progress". Well, how about they initiate it ? Like, have a real competition with women and not dismiss them because ... why do they do that anyway ? How about demonizing rapists, thieves, criminals instead of gays ?
Pluto sweeping through structures - check out http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/civil_rights/
Look how a Christian nurse has been "enjoying her life" - http://www.metafilter.com/78459/ProLife-Medicine-Whether-you-Like-it-or-Not
That "enjoy your life" should have been a "mind your own business" after all ....
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