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Newsstand: November 19, 2009
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The Art of Not Knowing
They're here. After Halifax's transit system rejected them, citing "a message that could be controversial and upsetting to people," and Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, and London all followed suit, Toronto is officially this country's first city to host bus ads saying: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
The Freethought Association of Canada, who solicited donations to pay for the ads and who received approval from the TTC and CBS Outdoor for them last month, told Torontoist that the ads started appearing on buses about a week ago, but that the organization was only able to catch and photograph one of the busses this past weekend (above). And, sure, the United Church has already issued its response, and in Calgary the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada is planning to book bus ads of their own to counter the impending atheist ones. But creating a dialogue is entirely the point, and the Atheist Bus folk are obviously happy and relieved that their busses are finally out in the wild somewhere, writing on their website that "it's nice to finally see this in Canada isn't it?" That'll have to be the last word; God, unfortunately, could not be reached for comment.
Hat tip to CanCult.
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Countdown to "hate speech".
What I don't understand is, if you believe in God, why then is this billboard upsetting? It's not like a little billboard poses a threat to your faith or anything. I mean, if you believe in God, you feel like you've got the superior inside track to those who don't anyway, so who cares?
Atheists see pro-God messages everywhere, all the time, and this bus ad is pretty benign as far as God messages go. In fact, "stop worrying and enjoy your life" is pretty good advice in general, no?
I just don't get why atheists feel the need to proselytize. Isn't this part of the problem of organized religion i.e. let me make up my own mind whether or not there's a god? Are atheists going to come knocking on my door with God is Not Great in hand? Actually I'd probably take it...
But how is this any different than religious people advertising a church or going door to door forcing their religion on others?
The whole point of this ad is to show religious people how annoying it is for athiests when they see religious ads.
yes believer or not, enjoying your life sums it up very well I think.
Re. God being unavailable for comment. He was probably just busy
There's probably no god.
Now stop praying to him for the bus to show up.
Hooray! I can't wait to see one.
But isn't this hate speech?
I love how "hate speech" has become the new version of book-burning. Whenever an idea forces people to question their beliefs or questions the status quo it can just be shouted down as hate speech. That is a heavy boom to level.
Hate speech would be something advocating the eradication of theists or another group. One wonders, can the religions even claim to be innocent of that? This ad just suggests a simple idea no more profane, anachronistic, or undeserving than any of the religious views.
I always believe that those so quick to suppress questions and introspection do so because they know their premise is shaky and wouldn't stand up to more than cursory scrutiny.
In the end, does it really matter what the guy next to you believes is waiting for him when he dies is different from what you believe? It's kinda like hating him for the TV shows he watches.
YES.
THIS IS GOOD.
I forget where I first came across this cartoon but Google turned it up quickly enough:
http://www.webs05.com/images/religion/cartoons/atheist-cartoon.gif
Doubt is the diametric opposite of faith. Of course the faithful are against it.
It's true. You wouldn't believe the abuse I get for being a lapsed atheist.
Not really. The opposite of faith is not doubt, it's certainty. Faith can exist in an environment of doubt - in fact it thrives on it. FUD, Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt are, after all, the chief weapons of religious movements and "conversions".
Certainty nullifies faith, makes it much less potent. Knowing what lies ahead, knowing what happens, knowing what can (and can not) be done, that's the hallmark of certainty and the enemy of faith.
i think there was something far more upsetting to beleivers on kenny and spenny...
I'm proud to say I donated to this. Glad to see it coming to fruition!
For those who say "atheism is no different from any organized religion," I would indeed recommend God is Not Great. You can easily find the PDF version or audiobook online, if you're interested in having your mind blown.
The faithful can console themselves during these trying times, safe in the knowledge that if their creator really IS omnipotent, omniscient, etc., then He created the Athiests as well. Not necessarily as a challenge to the faithful, but perhaps as something for non-believers to believe in.
I can't tell you how happy this makes me. I'm sick of being badgered with ads telling me I'm going to hell. Everyone gets a voice, even atheists.
Another reason for the rest of the country to hate Toronto, though they do love our money.
The rest of the country doesn't hate Toronto for reasons, they just want to hate us.
My feelings about this are mixed.
I fully support their right to say "There's probably no god".
And I also think "Now stop worrying and enjoy life" is a positive message too.
But I think that by juxtaposing those two statements, they're implying that God makes people miserable. And that's what bothers me about the ad.
I'd like to see some religious group respond with an ad that says: "There's probably a God. Now stop worrying and enjoy life."
It's not that they're implying that God makes people miserable; it's that religion makes people worry—which it does tend to do. There are too many people out there who think that unless they flatter God incessantly and continually apologize for being a shitty person, they'll be tortured in hell for eternity.
And Marc, that's probably true, and I'm certainly no fan of "Hellfire and brimstone" preachers. But I don't think the Atheist Bus Campaign should be over-generalizing and implying that most theists think that way. It's a little insulting.
Ted, I don't think they are implying that, you are inferring that for whatever reason or bias.
It is more likely that they mean, as Marc pointed out, to stop trying to appease some imaginary god. If there is a god, I feel confident that it is much too busy to be so petty and narcisstic that it needs constant adulation and prostration. Also, religion is notorious for placing all kinds of ridiculous restrictions on people, like what they can and can't eat, as well as how they can love. Plenty of theists play the shame game or the holier-than-thou schtick.
I, for one, think it is foolish to believe in something you hear way removed from second-hand, from a message supposedly delivered to some sheep farmer or what have you by an angel 2,000 years ago. Anybody in their right mind knows well enough don't believe everything you are told but yet billions of people are falling all over themselves to enslave their minds and bodies to such a shakey story.
That said, last night an angel came to me and made me write down the word of god. For $19.95 you too can own a copy. And if you order now, I'll throw in a free circumcision (yeah, we do that too).
Indeed, Marc. What I don't understand is why some atheists would torture themselves worrying about whether their actions (or the actions of others) are moral or not. What imaginary being are they trying to appease anyway?
Ted, it's like you're psychic or on the UC's payroll or something.
Heh. Awesome.
I think this ad is concern trolling. It makes a stronger argument - instead of "discard this belief because it offends me", it's "discard this belief because it hurts you."
But as Yann Martel wrote, "Who am I to kick out someone's crutches?"
Let's say theism is just a psychological crutch that also cripples you. Well, I have plenty of defense mechanisms that also a tad self-sabotaging. Like being a stubborn bitch. Free speech aside (yes, yes, we're all for free speech) who am I to knock that? We all believe fucking stupid things. Just look at the graffiti vs. illegal signage post.
Now, I can understand saying "drop this belief" if a) it hurts others more than it helps or b) it hurts the believer more than it helps. I feel like this ad is essentially making the latter argument.
That's problematic because for every theist who feels shame, guilt or fear because of their beliefs - and they certainly exist - there's a theist who feels pride, honor, and security. There's a theist who is externally motivated to do good who wouldn't have mustered up the internal motivation without theism. And for every atheist who feels they've been spared a heavy psychological burden, there are atheists who carry a heavy psychological burden anyway, whether that's because of their non-beliefs or something else entirely. Becoming an atheist isn't a get-out-of-worry-free card.
Lastly, I'm doing all this work regarding aboriginal communities and the government-sanctioned decimation of their (technically theist) cultural/spiritual beliefs, who have been struggling for hundreds of years to reclaim and regenerate their spirituality, and the "Freethought" people are all "Hey you guys can relax now, there's no god!" and it strikes me as culture-blind and white privileged. For some people, losing their theist belief system would be a godsend (so to speak). But there are lots of people for whom losing that system is a devastating loss with significant negative results.