London's buses go to hell

London's buses go to hell

www.smh.com.au

Buses emblazoned with advertisements declaring "there's probably no God" will soon be travelling through the streets of London after the prominent atheist Professor Richard Dawkins agreed to help pay for them.

Campaigners say the messages will provide a "reassuring" antidote to religious ads that "threaten eternal damnation".

Professor Dawkins, the author of The God Delusion, said: "Religion is accustomed to getting a free ride - automatic tax breaks, unearned 'respect' and the right not to be 'offended', the right to brainwash children.

"Even on the buses, nobody thinks twice when they see a religious slogan plastered across the side. This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think - and thinking is anathema to religion."

(visit the link for the full news article)

This seems a little silly to me, but then I don't care about religion or people lack of it.

In a way these people have a point - if a bus can have the threat of eternal damnation on the side of it, why can't they put up a counter point to that?

In many ways they are right - respect is earned, not given and our children should be taught the merits of various philosophies rather than just being brainwashed into believing what the parents believe.

Is this freedom of speech though, or a propaganda war for the minds or souls of hose who may be sitting on the fence?

www.smh.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

Ya its silly as well as dangerous.
Imagine religious folk getting ticked and setting these buses to fire. There are hardcore religious people who can turn to criminals (aka terrorists) to 'defend' their God.

You can't fight ignorance and primitive thinking like this, let them die off. Simple.

[edit on 22/10/2008 by rocksolidbrain]

England needs people like dawkins, and his big mind, like america need people like bill maher, lol.

Why do people care outside these two countries, that they want a secular society. Uk and usa, are two inbred countries, where the term morons, apply to nearly everyone.

come climb aboard the atheist bus

were apparently victimising christians ^_^

bring a lion if you got one

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by noobfun



If thats a reply to me, lol, i am glad that america and uk, are turning into the countries they are. I have no problem with uk being secular, you go there.

Its just when the rest of the world, has to follow your hollier than thou attitude to everyone else, thats when we can say what sh*tty morals you people have.

reply to post by andy1033

actually the comments was simply me amusing myself

it follows comments in the other thread about how atheists are persecuting christians and singeling them out with an advertiment saying there is no god (of any description)

reply to post by budski


There is no route 666 bus in London, if i rember correctly its becuase it caused to many acidents.

But now you can put "there's probably no God" on the side of a double decker how times have changed.. The religiouse arnt going to be happy. And ill even go as far to say it could fuel Muslim extreamists loathing for Brits'.

Personly i dont care whats on the side of a bus,. But please dont make me have to get on one again at rush hour,during a tube/train strike.

Yeah, for a second I thought this meant they'd finally found the highway to hell that AC/DC sang about...bummer they haven't, but I guess that still means the jury's out on weather or not there is a hell as well.

Agnostic checkin in here.

My first thought was "how is this message different from the church?" and I came up with: "Well, while the church will outright say there IS a god, this atheist guy is chapioning a less certain statement by saying there PROBABLY isn't a god"...rather non-committal if you ask me.

So, I would ask myself who stood to benefit from these messages. I can't really say anyone does.

The reasoning stated is sound and correct in it's criticism of the clergy to an extent.

Saying there IS a god is a stronger statement than saying there probably isn't one.

Basically, if anyone says "probably, maybe, I think, there may" any of these non-specific kinds of statements, it kinda takes the fuel out of the fire for me.

The last thing I would want is for someone else to tell me what to believe.

I'm always slightly bewildered by the concept of a passionate atheist. It's like being a fervent nihilist. I'm not suggesting the concept is impossible, just that I imagine the passion comes more from wanting to make money or sell a few books?

A REAL passionate atheist would by definition devote themselves to different fields of interest, wouldn't they?

I've read and enjoyed Dawkins' work before but this smells a bit like publicity stunting, to me....

LW

About damned time.

If the church by my school is allowed to put up a giant tasteless 20+ foot poster on the side of their wall declaring "GOD LOVES STUDENTS", then we need more stuff like this to combat it. Someone needs to write "(Citation needed.)" below it.

Anyone claiming this ad is offensive or discriminatory... suck it.

I'm always slightly bewildered by the concept of a passionate atheist.

When you see someone drowning, the nice thing to do is to help them out. There are a lot of people out there drowning in the stupidity of religion right now, and we're just trying to reach a hand out to them.
Most people are so indoctrinated (including my parents) that they will choose blind faith over any amount of evidence, but for the 1 in 100 that we can wake up and snap out of their delusions, it's worth it.

[edit on 10/22/2008 by Yarcofin]

reply to post by budski


First of all... not disagreeing with you or trying to be condecending here.

You asked if this is a case of freedom of speech?

Well, if any religion can tell me I'm going to hell for not wanting to associate myself with the insanities of any religion, then saying that there probably isn't any God is the same amount of free speech only in the other end of the spectre.

Dawkins is right. Religion has not earned it's respect. I speak mostly hereof christianity since that's the part of the world I grew up in.
Fortunately I don't have a single devout christian in my nearest circle of friends. The only ones being my grandparents who still linger in old traditions, brainwashed for 70 years.

If religion at any time assumes that it has prove anything, AT ALL, from the pure basis that a lot of needy people seek refuge in it, then I can assure you that I will equally assume to be able to prove that God doesn't exist, never has and never will... I believe in fair play. Since religion doesn't want to prove the existance of God, then I don't have to prove the opposite.

More power to those buses... and please let kids choose for themselves. If anything religion proves that adults are no better at knowing what is best for themselves than kids are....

Ya its silly as well as dangerous. Imagine religious folk getting ticked and setting these buses to fire

This is the whole point of his campaign, don't you get it?! Religions can get away with putting slogans on busses saying were all going to hell, or good catholics dont use condoms, and get a free helping of AIDS too.

The point is HE is just as entightled to put his sign/slogan up on a bus and the religious people will just have to put up with it, like he puts up with their crap. Being seen as a major religion, or heck any religion how small, doesn't/shouldn't give you the right over anyother person or institution to project your beliefs over other individuals.

In other words, he has just as much right to be offended by you telling him he is going to hell, as you would be by him telling you that there is no God.

Originally posted by LoneWeasel
I'm always slightly bewildered by the concept of a passionate atheist.

LOL...I always refer to them as "God Hating Atheists". While not all atheists fit that description, it seems the most vocal go way beyond just not believing, or even disliking religion, many seem to be quite angry with the non-existent Abrahamic God.

Edit -- always think its i before e.

[edit on 22-10-2008 by Sonya610]

Originally posted by rocksolidbrain
There are hardcore religious people who can turn to criminals (aka terrorists) to 'defend' their God.

Now that doesn't make any sense at all? isn't that completely contradicting religion on a whole? I would go a step further and say that isn't that the reason why the world is nose diving into complete chaos? Good old religion the answer to our prayers.

I am Christian, and yes I see a problem with this advert, but it has nothing to do with religion. He has every right to say there is no God outright if he wants to and stick that on a bus... just as Christians do the exact opposite.

The problem I see with it is the buses have just become an even BIGGER target for terrorists...imagine the headlines for one second.

"Bus claiming God is not real is destroyed"
""Blasphemous buses wiped off the planet"

I could go on, this is gold for terrorists out there, now they can truly be martyrs dieing to prevent people saying there is not God.

reply to post by StevenDye

yes but its gold for us too

look what the crazy religeous folk did

lets be honest crazy religeous folk dont need bus advertisments to do dumb things

it sounds like the goverment thinking, terrorists might so we better ban it

i think they have better targets then wondering around london all day trying to get on the right bus to blow it up


[edit on 22/10/08 by noobfun]

When chilfren come of age they choose for themselves wat religion they see fit. Yea the parents have influence on their decision but everyone has a choice. When I was in high school I made my choice and I'm a non-denominational christian.

If you think christian children are brainwashed into believing in God or watever you think then the same goes for athiest kids. You probly are going to try to persuade them to stay atheist when they get older.

What would some of you think if your child decided they didn't wanna be atheist anymore and wanted to be a christian.

The story goes both ways. If this guy wants to put signs up that speak his opinion then he made the choice to but don't critsize christians for doing the same thing before him.

I completely agree with the above poster.




And these terrorists you refer to as crazy religious people... no they don't really have anything better to do. They are about to kill themselves, so I don't think they'll mind to much about getting a buswith this slogan on the side.

reply to post by Sonya610


They're more annoyed with theists ramming their religion down said atheists' throats. They obviously can not be angry at a god they don't believe in, by very definition. I imagine most Christians in the US would be annoyed if they had 'In Zeus We Trust' on their money, had to mention Zeus in every pledge, and were exposed to Zeus-believers on radio condemning aspects of their lives that don't affect anyone else.

Vocal atheists are not angry with god, but at the people who won't leave them alone. That's all.