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U.S. getting its own atheism bus campaign
Atheists seem to have a thing for buses. We recently wrote about the bus ads in London which proclaimed, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." Along these same lines, Washington, D.C., is now getting its own atheist bus campaign, headlined, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake." The advertiser is the American Humanist Association, which is putting $40,000 into the holiday campaign. An AHA rep says the group is running the ads now because "there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion." (Can't they just comfort themselves with some rampant consumerism?) For its part, the American Family Association was typically eloquent in denouncing the effort. "It's a stupid ad," says a rep there. |
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Interesting idea, I doubt it will do anything more then cause a bit of outrage among conservative evangelicals...but everything tends to do that nowadays. I did laugh quite a bit when I read the bus advertisement however :).
Posted by: Stuart Foster | Nov 13, 2008 8:20:37 AM
not horrid...I'm athiest myself (well actually more anti clerical agnostic) as is my father and was my grandma. The main misconcepetion about athiests is that they are either 1. Pagan (Some are, but hardly a majority, to me Pagans are a different faith and therefore not athiests) 2. Amoral (Nothing can be further from the truth, in fact most Athiests I know are Athiests because they have seen horrid hypocracy and corruption in the church) 3. Have no one to hold accountable for their actions (Again and as the ad states, a key part of Athiests are that they see many people leaning on god rather than personal responsibility for their shortcomings) 4. Have no sources for their guidence and/or are uneducated (My circle often uses the bible (as a work of lititature) along with the Koran, Dante's Inferno, the Tao and other spiritual books dating back to greece and rome. We indeed do not belive in a GOD but that doesnt mean we are misguided or not read...In fact many are very well read in several philisophical texts from the Bible to Ben Franklin.)
This ad works perfectly...Yes we do not believe in god, but it doesnt mean we don't believe in being good. Nor do we not care about cultural traditions or beliefs. (Damn skippy we're putting up a real christmas tree this year...and santas galore!) Good job...very well written
Posted by: glenn | Nov 13, 2008 9:16:45 AM
Here's the thing that I think bothers religious people about atheists, and its not whether they are good or not. Its the question of what motivation do they have to be good.
Posted by: Jeremy | Nov 13, 2008 10:28:47 AM
What motivates anyone to be good?
Religious people do what they will, and then claim to have their transgressions erased in some way. 5 hail Mary's or whatever, or atonement or ?
Centuries ago, they created a way to erase their sins so that people will stick with the program, otherwise they'd believe they're going to some soul hell and then act willy nilly the rest of the their lives. oh please......
We behave in society because it is the right thing to do. We don't need beliefs in ancient gods, angels, devils, etc.
Posted by: dave | Nov 13, 2008 1:24:49 PM
Sometimes I wonder what our majority religion would be today if the greeks were better and more prolific at warring.
We'd have hundreds to worship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_gods
you know they say: "history belongs to the victors" as conquering armies would often erase the local scrolls and beliefs.
religion was barbaric and some would claim still is.
Posted by: dave | Nov 13, 2008 1:38:54 PM
Hmm, I think you totally missed my point. What I was trying to say is that knowing someones religion, as well as how they act, tells you much more than just knowing someone is an atheist. With an atheist you can only know how they act, this leaves one with a large information gap, that can't be answered. With a religious person, you know what they claim to believe, and judging by their actions can tell quite a bit about a person. I have often heard it said that religion is not for perfect people, which is good since there are none. Anyway, I digress, you sort of answered my question while opening up a whole can of worms, what rules when we make them.
Posted by: jeremy | Nov 13, 2008 1:47:01 PM
See some Atheist Ads here - http://admanspicks.blogspot.com/2008/11/atheist-ads.html
Posted by: Des | Nov 13, 2008 8:48:28 PM
please give me a link to your faq
Posted by: Webcontrz | Nov 14, 2008 1:45:53 AM
But people have many other reasons to believe in a god than a motivation to be good. The religious community and a less-lonely feeling, just to name two. Now, I don't believe in God in the slightest, but there is nothing negative about religion until it is misused...or projected outwardly in a negative way (like when people kill for their god, to name an extreme example). But to those who need God for courage to proceed through a life that will eventually be over...why would I question them?
Posted by: sleeping in my party dress | Nov 14, 2008 4:42:49 PM
If belief in hell made people better then there'd be a lot less crime nowadays! Though I note that Christianity does allow for its believers to have their sins "erased" as long as they keep trying and keep being Christian.
Religion can be fine for an individual. It can be fine in a group. If you look at some of the ideas that religious people explore, be them Christian, Hindu, Buddhist (the three I look at) there's some interesting stuff there. It's also interesting how much there is in common.
A Christian group I talked with the other day looked more Hindu as they talked about living a simpler life with non-attachment and focus on some kind of Divine Centre. It was interesting though how the message was very dependent on which bits of bible they chose to use. Some other bits or interpretations could have given a very different message.
The problems come when people start believing things like which deity you worship is the most important thing about you - or that what it says in this book is entirely correct even the bit about the earth being 6000 years old and that this must be taught in science lessons. If I'd have mentioned the bits of Hindu scripture in that meeting that covered those ideas I may have likely caused upset. In some groups out there I'd have been in serious trouble. Rephrasing them avoided that.
Religion can be good, but it can also turn very ugly in the wrong hands. Sometimes I wonder how easy it is to separate the two aspects.
I believe that morality and compassion are good things in their own right. I'm agnostic, though I note that without evidence to support a god that takes an active role we cannot assume that there is one.
I believe that it is my own morals that stop me being Christian at least because I cannot accept a system that says that you will be judged based on whether you believe in Christ as opposed to Krishna for example. The more important thing is how you are as a person and how you interact with others. I can see the positive messages and example in Christ as he is portrayed now, but that's as far as I take it. I can also see how other deities/figures feature the same way in others' lives. I wonder how much of the current positive portrayal comes from how our culture has developed, not the other way round.
Posted by: Richard | Nov 17, 2008 3:45:09 AM
Who created those ads? The agency I mean, not the advertiser?
Posted by: A.B. | Jan 22, 2009 8:28:01 PM
