Bus campaign.

by Andrew.C Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:32 am

Just if you haven’t heard, here’s some latest news on those new British bus ads, those “atheist” ads.

This is the shortest article I could find on it, for those with ADD like attention spans.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/06/atheist-bus-ads-roll.html

The main reason I bring this up is because of our discussion before about the secular nature of Australia.

Article wrote:Amazingly, the campaign has now gone international. Spain's Union of Atheists and Freethinkers are launching buses across Barcelona today with a translation of our slogan, Italy's Union of Atheist, Agnostics and Rationalists are also planning to roll out atheist buses, while the American Humanist Association have been inspired to launch a campaign, and buses carrying their slogan "Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness' sake" have now been running for over a month in Washington DC. Sadly, not every country has been so open to the idea: the Atheist Foundation of Australia tried to place the slogan "Atheism – celebrate reason" on buses, but were rejected by Australia's biggest outdoor advertising company.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/06/religion-atheism

Secular indeed. Though, as Marc has pointed out, it was probably more just a censorship issue. Still...

Here’s another slightly longer article, if you were interested.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/world/europe/07london.html?_r=3&ref=world

by Nick Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:18 am

Some how, some way. This is Glen's fault.

by Andrew.C Sun Feb 08, 2009 4:09 am

Wow. Just Wow. To be honest, I did not expect such a thing, not because it’s totally unimaginable, but just because... wow.

Article wrote:The latest to hit the streets with pro-God buses are The Christian Party, the Trinitarian Bible Society and the Russian Orthodox Church. The Christian Party is paying for buses to carry the slogan: 'There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life.' The Trinitarian Bible Society has chosen a line from Psalm 53: 'The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.'

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2009/02/antiatheist-bus-campaign-launched-in-london.html

Hanne Stinson, the British Humanist Association's Chief Executive has made the following statement, after several requests for a response:

Stinson wrote:We entirely support free expression and freedom of belief, and so fully support the right of these Christian groups to place their ads on buses. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Of course, there are differences between the Atheist Bus ads and the new Christian ones and I want to take this opportunity to reflect them.

Our ads were a response to ads run by jesussaid.org whose website promised an eternity of hellfire for non-Christians. Our response message, suggested by comedy writer Ariane Sherine was intended to be reassuring, telling people not to worry and enjoy life, as there was probably no god and so no cause to fear an eternity of hellfire.

Our ads were funded entirely by thousands of individual donors who gave small amounts in an outpouring of popular support for the positive message. The ads now launched in response to our response are funded by organisations or wealthy individuals.

Our ads were positive and peaceful. They didn’t say, for example, that religious people were ‘fools’, unlike one of the response ads being run, which says that "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God."

Our ads were undogmatic and funny, with the addition of the ‘probably’ in line with the continuing openness of humanists to new evidence and in an echo of previous funny ads, like the Carlsberg ad which stated that it was ‘probably the best lager in the world’. The new ads are dogmatic and declaratory, leaving no room for reason and debate.

Of course, these groups are free to express themselves as they choose. Our ads encouraged people to think for themselves and I am convinced that they will continue to do so.

I would have thought that some Consumer Board would have stepped in, because surely that's just blatant false advertising...

by Nick Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:06 pm

Yes, I am going to change my beliefs on what I see on the side of a bus...

by Andrew.C Sun Feb 08, 2009 1:11 pm

Yeah yeah, good point. That seems to be a lot of the responses I've seen from people, about both campaigns.

It does go to show how much clout the Christian groups have over there, or, how much clout money has...

by Nick Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:54 pm

Stop saying clout.

by Andrew.C Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:34 am

Yeah, I did think twice in one sentence sounded weird, but once I started I couldn't stop clout.

by Tom Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:48 am

lets face it, who can!

CLOUT!

by Groove Champion Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:09 am

You guys have lost all clout by saying clout.
Well, at least most of your clout by saying clout.
Yes, I aware of the irony of saying clout in order to point out your lack of clout so don't bother pointing that out.
Clout!
Pirate

by Andrew.C Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:46 am

I wish I never said clout...

by Kexer Mon Feb 09, 2009 12:34 pm

CLOUT ~~CLOUT~~ FIVE!

by Andrew.C Tue Feb 10, 2009 5:42 am

*sigh*

Why do I even try to have serious conversations with you guys...?

by Nick Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:55 am

CLOUT BUS ADD CAMPAIGN!!!

Bus campaign. Buscloutkf4

by Andrew.C Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:49 pm

Nick wrote:CLOUT BUS ADD CAMPAIGN!!!

What is that? Some kind of equation?

Clout Bus + Campaign = ... world domination?

Yeah, sorry, Nick, I had to make to fun. I have little else in my life to bring me joy.

by Glenjamin Thu Feb 12, 2009 1:21 am

Just to get back to the point... apparently in the UK (where the original campaign started) the Atheist campaign has generated more walk-ins to churches than any other Christian run advertising. I say bring it over here, let's see what happens!

by Andrew.C Thu Feb 12, 2009 3:14 am

Yeah, I don't doubt that for a second. It seems whenever you have an vocal 'debate' like this that kind of thing will happen. But, what you're also forgetting, is that 'Atheists' don't really have 'clubs' like religions do, so you won't find statistics about 'how many people thought about atheism' or whatever, like you can with church attendance.

by Glenjamin Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:52 pm

Don't have clubs?
Apart from these guys?
Or these clowns?
Now i know you don't mean this group!

All jocularity aside, i think you'll find that people are becoming sick of the "it's old information so it can't possibly be true" argument, so they're having a look for themselves.

Have you ever read any significant parts of the bible to find out for yourself?

by Groove Champion Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:29 am

You can't use the bible as proof of the bible. I think you'll find people are becoming sick of that 'evidence'.
Personally I don't know any atheists who use the 'it's old information' argument. A fact is a fact regardless of it's age.
Pirate

by Tom Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:23 am

Yep. Plato and aristotle still hold valid and they are older than the bible.

by Andrew.C Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:51 am

Glenjamin wrote:Don't have clubs?
[...]

Yeah, I think you know what I meant though. As in, it’s almost universal amongst ‘organised’ religions that you associate yourself – and attend – some sermony thing at a concrete location, probably usually weekly. This is not the case with ‘atheism’ – all those things you put up are just ‘atheist/humanist’ foundations/organisations or whatever; not religious groups, which would be like saying that World Vision or The Deaf Society are religions.

Glenjamin wrote: "it's old information so it can't possibly be true"

I didn't quite get what you meant here, but if you meant that people denied the validity of the bible simply because it was old... no, I don't think anyone's done that before (well, probably, but noone I know).

Glenjamin wrote:Have you ever read any significant parts of the bible to find out for yourself?

I gotta go with Trev's response on this.

by Glenjamin Fri Feb 13, 2009 8:45 am

Umm, Tom- when were Plato and Aristotle around, the OT was an (developing) oral tradition from at least 2500bc (that is to say, probably earlier), i didn't think either of those geeky greekys were about before then?

by Andrew.C Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:15 am

Whoa. The bible must be true...

But you could also, for what it's worth, say that the philosophical ideas of plato/aristotle have been around (in some form) since the birth of humanity.

Not that time really matters in the slightest...

by Tom Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:43 am

The 'bible', since most christians don't use the old testament at all apart from genesis, is in this case the new testament, which is only about 1500 years old. You knew what i meant, stop being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative, if you have a point then blurt it out without thought like the rest of us.

by Glenjamin Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:02 am

Tom wrote: since most "christians" don't use the old testament at all apart from genesis

(quotation marks added by Glenjamin)

Umm, i'm not sure what you've been reading but the opposite is more correct. The OT (in such undeveloped nations as the US and England) is preached on more often than it's counter-part due to the fact that it's easier to do so, also because of the massive amount of prophecy that He fulfilled.

This is an article on those prophecies.

And no, the NT part of the bible is at least 1900 years old (don't make me talk to you about P66, and the other Papyrus documents we have), in fact we have an extant bible (that is all 66 books) that dates to around 300ad- which is far closer than anything you have on Aristotle or Plato (yet you take their words as gospel).

We can have a proper discussion about the facts of the bible in another thread if you'd prefer, as this one should probably stick to the bus campaign, which i support as it generates good discussion, like this one.

by Tom Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:49 am

Since when did i say that i 'take their words as gospel'! Most of what Aristotle said was complete and utter shite because it was based on assumptions about the world that are utterly wrong. The same can be said for plato, although plato didn't make many writings that could even, in any way be related to 'gospel' because he didn't preach. What he did do was write down a lot of socrates' dialogues which are basically articles on how to argue and not subject based in the slightest.

Stop putting words in my mouth.

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