Atheist bus ads reach America
by Katherine T Phan, Christian Post
Posted: Friday, November 14, 2008, 10:28 (GMT)
A group of humanists announced this week plans to plaster over 200 buses in Washington DC with ads bearing its "godless holiday" message.
Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake", will appear on the outside and inside of DC Metro buses starting next Tuesday and will run throughout December. Newspaper versions of the ads ran in The New York Times and The Washington Post this week.
The advertising campaign is part of an effort by the American Humanist Association to reach out to like-minded individuals around the nation's capital and elsewhere who might be interested in humanism. The atheist group espouses the belief that people can live a moral life apart from a belief in a god or the afterlife.
"Humanists have always understood that you don't need a god to be good," said AHA executive director Roy Speckhardt. "So that's the point we're making with this advertising campaign. Morality doesn't come from religion. It's a set of values embraced by individuals and society based on empathy, fairness, and experience."
One version of the ad features a black Santa shrugging under red and green-coloured text with snowflakes appearing in the background. Posters of the ad will be mounted on the side of DC Metro buses, between the taillights, and behind the driver's seat.
Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group, said the campaign seeks to connect with "non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion", according to Fox News.
The move by the American humanists comes one month after the British Humanist Association said it will run ads declaring "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" on London buses in January.
British author Richard Dawkins, an activist for a more outspoken and aggressive brand of atheism, which some refer to as "militant atheism", has offered to part fund the London ads.
Whilst the Methodist Church in the UK believes the "no God" ads will have the opposite effect from the one intended and stir an interest in God, Christians in America are not amused at AHA's "godless holiday campaign".
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Added: Friday, January 30, 2009, 13:03 (GMT)
I'm agnostic... grew up Christian and I have utmost respect for people and the religeous or non-religeous views of others... however, I have little respect for people who do not accept that others have different beliefs and that that somehow different views are an affront and attack on their's.
This a conflict about who has the right to be evangelical: christians, muslims, atheists, etc. Preferably noone would be. I prefer to see no religeous or non-religeous posters... when we talk about evils people have done in the name of religeon or politics for that matter, it is always the aggressive evangelists who try to force people to change their opinions.
Mike, Madrid, Spain
Added: Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 22:50 (GMT)
"How do we define 'good' if we don't believe in God? God in his word, the Bible, tells us what's good and bad and right and wrong. If we are each ourselves defining what's good, it's going to be a crazy world," said Wildmon, according to Fox News."
What an ignorant thing to say! I don't know about him, but I don't need to be told what's right, I know instinctively. The idea of a crazy world is laughable, perhaps he should have thought about his interview for some time longer beforehand.
James, United Kingdom
Added: Sunday, December 7, 2008, 22:04 (GMT)
Every religion I have ever encountered is ultimately irrational. Religion can be used for great good, but it can easily be (and frequently has been) perverted for great evil. Why? Because religion perverts reason. If we, as a civilization, are ever to become truly civilized, we must abandon religion and replace it with something better... something more rational and more moral... humanism is good place to start...
I'm glad to see that the majority of British people have abandoned the irrationality and perversion of religion. I have great hope that one day America will join her, but for now at least, we have a long way to go...
Peter Sramka, Raleigh, USA
Added: Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 16:30 (GMT)
You people are more godless than these people. They have the right to say what they want. Get over it.
E Channon, Edinburgh, Scotland
Added: Sunday, November 23, 2008, 11:45 (GMT)
The argument presented here for morality ordained by God, rather than by man, appears to be that mankind produces many conflicting moral ideas, whereas God's is singular and definitive. If indeed God has defined a unique and self-consistent morality, then it doesn't appear an easy task to work out what it might be. In fact, belief in God and examination of scripture are very little help when it comes to being a moral person. While I could very easily reproduce all of those famously savage passages from the Old Testament, instead, here's part of one of St. Paul's letters to Timothy.
"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety" (1 Tim 2:11-12).
What moral lessons come from this? It is evil for a woman to become a teacher? Men have a natural authority over women and it is evil to reverse this? Women should look to being saved by having children?
It seems to me that the Christian is no better off than the atheist when it comes to morality. The atheist is exposted to various man-made moral philosophies that contradict each other and must decide for herself after considering them all. The Christian is exposted to various pieces of scripture and must decide whether to accept that they all acurately express the will of God, even the unpleasant ones like the above, and thus must somehow apply all of them to every moral situation. Or she must decide which pieces of scripture express the will of God and which contradict it.
Laurence Jupp, Cambridge, UK
Added: Thursday, November 20, 2008, 0:29 (GMT)
I disagree with Alistair Park. He missed the point about goodness coming from God. If it were up to man, there would be a wide range of ideas about what is "good." Besides the fact is the word good comes from and is the meaning of God. And being taught to love your neighbor certainly doesn't spread hatred. Also, there is nothing narrow-minded about standing up for what you believe; we're talking about two different things.
DH, USA
Added: Friday, November 14, 2008, 12:07 (GMT)
Wildmon shows just why the bus campaign is healthy:
"How do we define 'good' if we don't believe in God? God in his word, the Bible, tells us what's good and bad and right and wrong. If we are each ourselves defining what's good, it's going to be a crazy world,"
This narrow-minded attitude that only _your_ religion can separate good from bad or right from wrong is what leads to so much religious hatred around the world. If you are comfortable in your beliefs and tolerant of others you should have no problem with this campaign.
Alistair Park, London, UK
