"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

[blackout]

Weather there is or isn't a god,
I propose we all stop worrying
and enjoy our lives. :rainbow1:

 

[Apex]

I am still trying to figure out why we would need to worry about our life if we thought there was a God...

 

[Masourga]

Well... it somewhat defeats their own purpose, in my opinion. In that it's a bit weak. Sort of going a luke-warm route of proclaiming atheist belief with a word like "probably".

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I am still trying to figure out why we would need to worry about our life if we thought there was a God...

I think the ad is mainly directed at people who have fallen away from their religions, mainly Christianity, but are worried at the prospect that they might have chosen wrong and will end up in Hell as a result.

 

[StripperClown]

I take it differently. I don't see it so much as thumbing their nose at theists as giving permission to atheists and agnostics immersed in a religious society to not feel guilty about believing the way they do.

As an atheist, I feel the same way. And as long as they're not doing what the crazy fundies do, and try to pass ridiculous legislation and what not, then it's ok with me. Everyone has a right to let their voice be heard.

 

[Luminous]

There is no probabilty.

When one has limited information there is probability.

 

[gnomon]

Man, I wish people here would actually read a linked news story before speaking.....

The word probably was required by the ASA. The original slogan in the ad did not contain it!

Jesus!

Anyway, now that the bus campaign has gotten underway,
Atheist bus adverts could lead to watchdog ruling on God's existence - Telegraph

Officials at the Advertising Standards Authority are now considering whether to tackle the question that has taxed the minds of the world's greatest thinkers for centuries.

Apparently Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are on the board.

He said: "If you're going to put out what appears to be a factual statement then you have to be able to back it up. They've got to substantiate this proposition that in all probability, God doesn't exist."
The ASA is now considering whether to investigate his complaint, which could lead to it reaching a deep ontological conclusion about a supreme being.

If advertisements related to God have to be fully substantiated.......I'll let ya'll figure that one out.

Also,
BBC NEWS | UK | England | Hampshire | Man refuses to drive 'No God' bus

A Christian bus driver has refused to drive a bus with an atheist slogan proclaiming "There's probably no God".



Ron Heather, from Southampton, Hampshire, responded with "shock" and "horror" at the message and walked out of his shift on Saturday in protest.

He then turned all pasty faced, his head did a 360 and projectile vomited pea soup.

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said: "I have difficulty understanding why people with particular religious beliefs find the expression of a different sort of beliefs to be offensive


"I can't understand why some people seem to have a different attitude when it comes to atheists."

Well said.


An interesting question. Who is the real religious bigot. The atheists for engaging in the same advertising campaign as other religions or the religious believer who refused to drive a bus that did not espouse his religious viewpoint.


:biglaugh:
Idiots.


Forgive me if I seem a bit rude to those who find this campaign offensive. The sheer attitude of atheists should keep quiet and sit their *** down in the back of the bus attitude by a bunch of fragile-egoed religious believers is too rich.

 

[Storm]

I don't find it offensive, just tasteless. I have the same opinion of religious advertising.

 

[Smoke]

The ad campaign was the idea of Ariane Sherine, and was supported by the British Humanist Association, as a response to a Christian ad campaign. The Christian ad campaign placed these ads on buses:

JESUS said: I AM the resurrection, and the life,
whoever believes in Me will live. www.JESUSsaid.org

JESUS said: When the Son of Man comes,
will He find Faith on the earth? www.JESUSsaid.org

Ariane Sherine noted that the URL in the ad leads to a website that includes this message:

God's wrath against sin

What is sin?
Sin is the state that resulted from mankind rejecting God. Sins are the acts that people do as a result. Sins can include exaggeration, lying, jealousy, stealing, murder, adultery or sexual perversion. Everyone sins by nature, as the scripture says: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

What is God’s reaction to it?
God says that sin results in separation from God. God hates sin and His anger with sin will mean that people are eternally separated from God. However God is also a compassionate God and in His mercy has provided a solution to the problem of sin and the sins of each person.

Why does He have this reaction?
God’s holy nature cannot abide sin. Sin has separated man from God. In his pride man wanted to be independent when God had provided all that he needed.

Is there an answer?
Yes, the answer is accepting the work of Jesus on the cross as your substitute. Jesus took your sin as He was the only undefiled man who lived on this Earth. The scripture says that: at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6). God’s just wrath against sin has been placed on His Son Jesus so that all who believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16b-18).

What are the consequences if you reject the answer?
God’s wrath includes the prospect of eternal punishment – it is appointed to men to die once and then comes the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). You will rise from the dead and will face the Judge and know that you rejected His kind and merciful answer. You will be condemned to everlasting separation from God and then you spend all eternity in torment in hell. Jesus spoke about this as a lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and all his angels (demonic spirits) (Matthew 25: 41).
​

It was in response to this that Ariane Sherine and the British Humanist Association launched their own campaign:

THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD.
NOW STOP WORRYING, AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE.
​

It seems to me that the most distasteful thing about the humanist campaign is the color scheme.

In discussing this campaign, I think it might be helpful to think back to the worldwide outcry over the Christian ad campaign that prompted it. Do you remember the news stories about it? The non-Christian bus drivers who walked off the job? The endless hand-wringing and offended bluster on countless message boards on the internet? The complaints filed with the Advertising Standdards Authority by non-Christian groups, protesting that since the Christians couldn't prove their opinion, the campaign was false advertising? The thread on RF that ran to over 500 posts with tempers flaring?

Of course you don't.

Surprising numbers of believers are brittle, bitter, easily offended, and prone to childish tantrums. I find it greatly amusing that they have not only gone to such great lengths to publicize the humanist campaign, but have, by their reactions to it. pretty much validated the ideas behind it. The members of the British Humanist Association probably never imagined their campaign would be so successful.

Lots of religious groups -- Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, United Church of Christ, Unitarian-Universalists, and many others -- advertise. Lots of other groups advertise, too: labor unions, the AARP, the American Automobile Association, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, Camp Fire, the National Rifle Association, and so on.

Just a little humanist advertising, though, is enough to get believers -- including some liberal believers -- to huff and puff and stamp their feet in righteous indignation.

As the believers set aside their mutually-exclusive beliefs to insist that any religion is better than no religion, and that people who don't believe in god should just sit down and shut up, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that maybe they really should stop worrying and enjoy their lives.
​

 

[gnomon]

Another thing overlooked about the bus campaign is the welcoming of the ads by some religious leaders because they feel it will spark some thought and discussion over a stagnant religious culture.

edit: I should qualify that. Rather than some I can only really remember one Methodist minister stating that they believe the campaign to be useful.

 

[kai]

The Advertising Standards Authority said it assessed 326 complaints. Some claimed the wording was offensive to people who followed a religion.

What a fuss theres 60 million people live in the UK and only 326 people complained.
BBC NEWS | UK | Atheist ads 'not breaking code'

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

While the British bus ads have gone ahead, a similar campaign in Genoa have been cancelled at the behest of the Catholic Church:

The city was chosen because it is home to the head of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, an outspoken opponent of artificial insemination and gay marriage.

Cardinal Bagnasco was said to be 'furious' about the proposal and told his officials write to the bus company and advertising firm in charge of the £13,000 campaign to express their opposition.

The is said to have been 'delighted' when he was then given the news that at the last minute the campaign had been cancelled.

Catholic Church blocks plans for atheist bus adverts - Telegraph

According to the article, the ads would have read "The bad news is that God doesn't exist. The good news is that you don't need him."

 

[Apex]

Are all atheists on a mission to come off as a bunch of arrogant asses? There has got to be some of them somewhere who think these kind of messages only make them look bad.

 

[Magic Man]

Are all atheists on a mission to come off as a bunch of arrogant asses? There has got to be some of them somewhere who think these kind of messages only make them look bad.

I don't know. Are all Mormons on a mission to come off as a bunch of arrogant asses? There has got to be some of them somewhere who think their messages only make them look bad.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Are all atheists on a mission to come off as a bunch of arrogant asses?

One small group in the UK and another in Italy is a far cry from "all".

There has got to be some of them somewhere who think these kind of messages only make them look bad.

Meh. I have less trouble with these than with the Mormon TV ads that make it look like the LDS Church has cornered the market on family values.

 

[gnomon]

Are all atheists on a mission to come off as a bunch of arrogant asses? There has got to be some of them somewhere who think these kind of messages only make them look bad.

Yeah, because asking for the same legal standards that allow religious groups to advertise is so arrogant.

And seeing as how the Catholic Church involved itself in blocking one attempt at an advertisement and basically getting their way shows how the law grants a religious group greater leverage over non-believers............I wonder who really is arrogant.

The only thing that looks bad are those people who
1) Fail to actually read and understand the news
2) Those who are basically stating that atheists should stay seated at the back of the bus

 

[Apex]

I can always count on people here to take other peoples statements and twist them into something they are not. And you guys didn't let me down.

I was referring to posting annoying and purposefully insulting slogans. This is something I have noticed is on the rise. Right here on my campus there is a group of atheists like this. Now, to dispel the notion that I am simply targeting the "evil atheists", a perfect example from the religious side (more specifically Christian) are the annoying billboards you occasionally see with things like "Hell is REAL!!!!" or "Beware the mark of the beast!". I consider those billboards to be on the same level as these atheist trying to get these statements posted in public places. Just as these billboards are denounced by other Christians, I was wondering if these atheist statements are also denounced by other atheists.

Is that a better explanation or do you guys need to twist my words some more to get a better explanation?

 

[gnomon]

The only thing that looks bad are those people who
1) Fail to actually read and understand the news
2) Those who are basically stating that atheists should stay seated at the back of the bus

You can say that again.

 

[Magic Man]

Well, that is completely different than your last response. I'm not really sure what you're getting at now, actually.

 

[Apex]

Good god people! You do not need to take everything other people say as if the meaning is supposed to lay on the extreme radical side of an issue.