Publicly Promoting Atheism?

[Forever Atlas]

I found this very interesting.

About 200 buses in London and 600 more throughout the UK have this slogan plastered to them. In addition it has been on big screens in town squares.

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

This is a campaign in response to several religious advertisements across the nation.

The hopes of the campaign is to get more atheists to "come out" and reveal their views. The only reason that word "probably" is in there is because of advertising standards that say it is impossible to prove God doesn't exist. Otherwise the idea they were trying to get across is "There's no God."

Now this brings up many issues that have been debated in the past -

Atheism being organized
Atheism publicly promoted
Atheist "evangelists" growing in numbers

Among other things.

What are your views on this? I wont ask too many specific questions but just what are your thoughts towards the campaign in general?

[Tenyasyugan]

I find it interesting but it seems like the religious groups would find it offensive.

Eh, free speech isn't exactly free anymore... Either, we keep the Churches/biblical communities happy or we stay true to what the original term of 'free speech' meant. I actually laughed a bit at the slogan, because it's something we kinda need to do. When I started thinking about it, I thought of how people would be offended by it, and in some way, try to get rid of it [which I find kind of stupid. Words are words, not bombs].

I like things like this, but not the repercussions people are bound to make from it. [probably going in circles here, so sue me, I'm 14 >.<]

[mangekyou sasuke]

It seems quiet interesting simply because the christian extremist websites will go insane.
Some athiest (sometimes myself) get offended by all the verbal and written litter that theists spit out onto advertisment and yet if one insignificant poster goes up supporting atheism goes up, everyone is in uproar. Religion still governs this primative world still, and it's sad to an extent.

[Ulti]

I find it very clever. It is a retort to the religious ads and yet they cannot fire back. The ad does not say God does not exist. It cannot be taken offensively.

[Phoenix]

I find it interesting but it seems like the religious groups would find it offensive.

They may find it hypocritical (and I might disagree), but offensive? That'd be very immature (and again, hypocritical) of them.

Atheism being organized

There's plenty of atheistic organizations. This is not new.

Atheism publicly promoted

I think the message is less "God doesn't exist" and more "stop being a prick to other people and enjoy life".

You could probably turn it around and say "There is probably a God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life".

Atheist "evangelists" growing in numbers

Has one walked up to you with a pamphlet? Or asked you if you were saved (or enlightened)? Expressing an idea does not equal going door to door preaching it.

[∞]

I don't really see too much wrong with it.

They aren't necessarily trying to offend people, far from it, at the heart of the campaign.
They aren't necessarily trying to convert people either, just get them to realise where their true beliefs of lack thereof lie.

[Nevermore]

I don't see it has a huge issue. They should be able to advertise their beliefs just like everyone else.

[Monkey]

athiesm isn't an organization, the entire point of atheism is to be against that institution - an institution believed to have no grounding - by turning atheism into an institution of its own, its recreating the problem.

however, as a religious person, I see no reason to take offense to this, i can find a lot of common ground with Pho's post. I also am not of the belief that this constitutes promoting atheism.

[Forever Atlas]

Originally Posted by Monkey

athiesm isn't an organization, the entire point of atheism is to be against that institution - an institution believed to have no grounding - by turning atheism into an institution of its own, its recreating the problem.

Which seems to be one of the results from this campaign.

however, as a religious person, I see no reason to take offense to this, i can find a lot of common ground with Pho's post. I also am not of the belief that this constitutes promoting atheism.

Now this doesn't surprise me, the campaign, and I'm not going to say, "TAKE THOSE HEATHEN SIGNS DOWN!"

As a matter of fact, I do believe that these might help people to think about and discuss the ideas of God and the purpose of life more.


Atheist Bus – Official Website - They consider it a promotion of sorts.

Atheist bus campaign spreads the word of no God nationwide | World news | guardian.co.uk

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Has one walked up to you with a pamphlet? Or asked you if you were saved (or enlightened)? Expressing an idea does not equal going door to door preaching it.

Evangelism doesn't necessarily have to mean that. It can be used to describe someone who promotes and feels strongly towards a cause. And yes, while it was not at my door, I have had that happen to me several times.

[Vice]

They did this in Chicago and a few other US cities over the summer.

Not sure if its the same group or not


http://forums.khinsider.com/religiou...eated-god.html

[Bangkok Superpussy]

Originally Posted by Monkey

athiesm isn't an organization, the entire point of atheism is to be against that institution - an institution believed to have no grounding - by turning atheism into an institution of its own, its recreating the problem.

I don't think the problem is organization at all, the problem is what the organization chooses to rally itself around. I'm completely in favor of atheists lobbying to get "under God" and "in God we trust" removed from our pledge of allegiance and our currency, respectively. I'm all for atheists organizing to promote secular values, separation of church and state, reason and awareness. Atheism is not synonymous with anarchy, and the idea that institutionalizing to work towards common goals makes us hypocrites is totally absurd. I cannot speak on behalf of all atheists, but the my biggest issues with religion have nothing to do with the fact that these people congregate and work together to get what they want; the shitty thing is that what they want is usually dumb.

Now, how do I feel about these advertisements personally? I find them redundant. In the last thirty years or so the number of nonreligious people in America has shot up from 8% to 16%. Our society is becoming more and more secularized, make no mistake about that, and it is occurring very organically. This is because the same people who insist that there's nothing rational about the idea of a supreme being are the same people who entice us with ninety year life expectancies, clean food and water, swine flu vaccinations, microwavable everything, fast cars and computer games. We don't need to flaunt our lack of belief, the work is doing itself although we still have a very long hill to climb before things like this (click it) cease to be true. While I like the fact that these ads generate controversy and broaden the forum for religious discussion, I can't help but think of them as horribly unnecessary.

[Phoenix]

Evangelism doesn't necessarily have to mean that. It can be used to describe someone who promotes and feels strongly towards a cause. And yes, while it was not at my door, I have had that happen to me several times.

By that definition, we could say there's anime evangelists, or video game evangelists. The word itself practically loses any sort of useful meaning.

I don't think the problem is organization at all, the problem is what the organization chooses to rally itself around. I'm completely in favor of atheists lobbying to get "under God" and "in God we trust" removed from our pledge of allegiance and our currency, respectively. I'm all for atheists organizing to promote secular values, separation of church and state, reason and awareness. Atheism is not synonymous with anarchy, and the idea that institutionalizing to work towards common goals makes us hypocrites is totally absurd. I cannot speak on behalf of all atheists, but the my biggest issues with religion have nothing to do with the fact that these people congregate and work together to get what they want; the shitty thing is that what they want is usually dumb.

Now, how do I feel about these advertisements personally? I find them redundant. In the last thirty years or so the number of nonreligious people in America has shot up from 8% to 16%. Our society is becoming more and more secularized, make no mistake about that, and it is occurring very organically. This is because the same people who insist that there's nothing rational about the idea of a supreme being are the same people who entice us with ninety year life expectancies, clean food and water, swine flu vaccinations, microwavable everything, fast cars and computer games. We don't need to flaunt our lack of belief, the work is doing itself although we still have a very long hill to climb before things like this (click it) cease to be true. While I like the fact that these ads generate controversy and broaden the forum for religious discussion, I can't help but think of them as horribly unnecessary.

/signed

[Nevermore]

As much as I tend to disagree with Pho, he's right. Evangelism, by very definition, is related to Christianity. It's basically become a separate term used to define it's promotion. So, this can't really be defined as atheistic evangelism (as that's technically an oxymoron). Granted, it's still promotion of Atheism. It's just thinly veiled as a "live your life" message.

[Forever Atlas]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

By that definition, we could say there's anime evangelists, or video game evangelists. The word itself practically loses any sort of useful meaning.



/signed

You could.

Originally Posted by Nevermore

As much as I tend to disagree with Pho, he's right. Evangelism, by very definition, is related to Christianity. It's basically become a separate term used to define it's promotion. So, this can't really be defined as atheistic evangelism (as that's technically an oxymoron). Granted, it's still promotion of Atheism. It's just thinly veiled as a "live your life" message.

I agree that's the main definition of Evangelism however -

From the Merriam Webster Dictionary - Evangelist - an enthusiastic advocate <an evangelist for physical fitness>

There really isn't any need to nit pick at everything. There was nothing incorrect about my use of the word although it is generally used in another context. That was actually my reason for using it. Especially take note of the quotation marks around it.

[Phoenix]

And my point is that, if you're going to define the word like that, you might as well not use it. It's devoid of any sort of useful meaning.