The atheist bus campaign launches today thanks to Comment is free readers. Because of your enthusiastic response to the idea of a reassuring God-free advert being used to counter religious advertising, the slogan "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" could now become an ad campaign on London buses – and leading secularists have jumped on board to help us raise the money.

The British Humanist Association will be administering all donations to the campaign, and Professor Richard Dawkins, bestselling author of The God Delusion, has generously agreed to match all contributions up to a maximum of £5,500, giving us a total of £11,000 if we raise the full amount. This will be enough to fund two sets of atheist adverts on 30 London buses for four weeks.

If the buses hit the road, this will be the UK's first ever atheist advertising campaign. It's an exciting development, which I never expected when I first proposed the idea on Cif in June. Back then, I was just keen to counter the religious ads running on public transport, which featured a URL to a website telling non-Christians they would spend "all eternity in torment in hell", burning in "a lake of fire". When I suggested the atheist counter-slogan (now shortened for readability), the response was extremely positive, and hundreds of you pledged your support after the follow-up article.

As you read this, a new advertising campaign for Alpha Courses is running on London buses. If you attend an Alpha Course, you will again be told that failing to believe in Jesus will condemn you to hell. There's no doubt that advertising can be effective, and religious advertising works particularly well on those who are vulnerable, frightening them into believing. Religious organisations' jobs are made easier because there's no publicly visible counter-view to refute their threats of eternal damnation.

The atheist bus campaign aims to change this. In addition to the slogan, the adverts will feature the URLs of secular, humanist and atheist websites, so that readers can find out more about atheism as a positive and liberating alternative to religion. We've also set up an interactive campaign website and Facebook group, so that questions raised by the adverts can be publicly debated.

CBS Outdoor, the bus advertising company, will run the atheist adverts in January if the funds are raised – but we need your help to make this happen.

Your donations will give atheism a more visible presence in the UK, generate debate, brighten people's day on the way to work, and hopefully encourage more people to come out as atheists. As Richard Dawkins says: "This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think – and thinking is anathema to religion."

Frazzled wrote:Yes, its eminently more important to spend money on that then additional funds to charity or, heck just sending it to me. Oh well, a fool and his money are soon partying.

Chimera_Calvin wrote:On the other hand, Frazzled is absolutely right that this really is money that could have been better spent.

Railguns wrote:Just so we are clear, thinking and having faith are not mutually exclusive actions.(unless that was a tongue in cheek comment, hard to tell sometimes)

Personally I'd think it was funny, in a sort of "we are really bothered that others have a religion so we're gonna go out and tell them to stop!" way.

dogma wrote:There isn't enough discord in public messages nowadays.

dogma wrote:That's a good summary of the God Delusion. Would have saved me reading through Dawkins' straw-man effigy of religion.

But yea, full props for this. There isn't enough discord in public messages nowadays.

dienekes96 wrote:

dogma wrote:There isn't enough discord in public messages nowadays.

Discord or discourse?

AgeOfEgos wrote:

dogma wrote:That's a good summary of the God Delusion. Would have saved me reading through Dawkins' straw-man effigy of religion.

But yea, full props for this. There isn't enough discord in public messages nowadays.

You seem to have a pretty big hate-on for Dawkins

dogma wrote:

AgeOfEgos wrote:

dogma wrote:That's a good summary of the God Delusion. Would have saved me reading through Dawkins' straw-man effigy of religion.

But yea, full props for this. There isn't enough discord in public messages nowadays.

You seem to have a pretty big hate-on for Dawkins

Having met him I'll say he's a good guy. Almost so British it hurts. I agree with his drive for self-examination on both a private and public level. However, I think a lot of what he writes gets in the way of that. Particularly the narrow definition he ascribes to religion.

It's kind of funny really. Dawkins is kind of quiet man in person, yet his writing is much more bellicose. Where Daniel Dennet is kind of a prick in person, but much more balanced in his writing. I'm sure there's psychological lesson in there somewhere.

AgeOfEgos wrote:
That actually is funny, as in my initial post I was going to list Hitchens-->Dawkins-->Dennett in order of 'In your face' debate. I've watched Dennett lectures/debates, read many of his writings and never had that impression of the man...so that honestly does shock me. I envy you meeting Dawkins, if I may ask was it at a public debate? Have you met Hitchens and if so...in person impressions? Thanks.

Kilkrazy wrote:Personally I believe that religious feelings are generated by the same sorts of mechanisms in the brain that create imagination and abstract thinking. Religiosity is innate in the human condition and derives from the same sources as an important part of our intelligence.

dogma wrote:

AgeOfEgos wrote:
That actually is funny, as in my initial post I was going to list Hitchens-->Dawkins-->Dennett in order of 'In your face' debate. I've watched Dennett lectures/debates, read many of his writings and never had that impression of the man...so that honestly does shock me. I envy you meeting Dawkins, if I may ask was it at a public debate? Have you met Hitchens and if so...in person impressions? Thanks.

I met Dawkins at the American Atheist Conference in March of this year. I got an invite because one of my philosophy professors (Henry West) is one of the more well known proponents of Utilitarianism and the Atheist interpretation of J.S. Mill. We got a relatively private sit-down with Dawkins because Henry was going to retire at the end of the semester. Good conversation, and he really seemed interested in my musings, even if I was just a lowly undergrad.

Dennet was a guest speaker in my Philosophy of Science class. He set us up for a session of open Q&A, but preceded to hijack just about any point which was made about the weight of religion vs. high theoretical physics. It seemed academically dishonest. Granted, he was talking to a room composed of mostly undergrads, but he treated the two Macalester professors in the room in an equally dismissive manner.

In aggregation I would say that Dawkins strikes me as genuinely ideological, while Dennet is more obviously political. Not surprising considering the relative state of the creation debate in England vs. the US.

As for Hitchens...I have not met him, though I would deeply like to. I don't really like the image of him that I have in my head. To me he is the worst kind of Wilsonian Imperialist. He wants to spread his enlightenment to the world, regardless of the real weight of his self-aggrandized conclusions.

warpcrafter wrote:Aren't you all so nice and thoughtful and considerate in mincing around the issue? Well, just let me say that if I saw a bus going down the streets of my hometown with religious advertising on it, It would become a very bad day to be a bus.