The Guardian: All Aboard the Atheist Bus Campaign

[brandstifter68]

Wait! Did he just say there's no Father Christmas? No way! I want proof!

[brandstifter68]

Great campaign. Don't let Christians put you off - they're just terrified of the truth and too deeply and almost incurably indoctrinated.

[dooyeweerd]

Who cares in the slightest about Toynbee or Dawkins on questions of philosophy. These two don't know the first thing about the subject. It would be like asking a north american about evolution - utterly pointless!!!

[DoomNoMore]

When parents tell their children santa does not exists they should say "santa probably does not exist". ;)

[tominybikes]

THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD FOR FUCK SAKE

[chip279]

and that one god is ME 8)

[tominybikes]

isnt atheism the belief in god and not the belief in religion ??

[MrStevenWO]

@tominybikes I think you're thinking of deism.

[Johnnyfortune82]

The two of them seem to be so warmhearted...

[xNightshadex]

This is bullshit. Sure pick on God, but leave Krishna and Budha out of it. Why is it suddenly alright to publicly denounce Christianity and not any other religion?

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

Becuse faith haters are cowards?

[xNightshadex]

Agreed.

[korn2600]

they say GOD that means all gods not just your god.

[xNightshadex]

That's not the first thing that comes to people's mind and they know it. Plus in this video she's talking predominately about Christianity.

[korn2600]

ok if i say that all Christians are going to go to a lake of fire, on a bus i'm gessing that you are not going to like that are you?but if i say that someone wih a different view as you, you wont care at all.

[xNightshadex]

That is complete bullshit. I would care, seeing as I think that no one should be putting anything reflecting intolerance and prejudice of any kind on a bus, or elsewhere, especially where religion is concerned. I'm shocked that anything like it is happening in my country since we're supposed to be open and 'multicultural'.

[korn2600]

"especially where religion is concerned" why is this? and the bus ads are in the U.K. not in the USA. are you in the U.K.?

[piro6220]

it is not intolerance or prejudice, its just giving another opinion and the term god is suppose to encompass all figureheads of regligion. much like in god we trust does not mean the christian god in the USA. its ok for religions to going around enforcing their view on people why cant atheists do the same.

[NitB92]

You have a very selfish view of "god". Are you too ignorant to realize that this includes any god and not just the christian god? It does not say "Yahweh probably doesn't exist", although he probably doesn't.

[yahyahtoopy]

which god are they picking on it doesn't say which it just says god it doesn't say yahweh they aren't picking on "christians"

[yukimushu]

God is a term used to refer to all gods, not just the Christian god - look it up in the dictionary...

[dmustard11]

We need more of these buses..and then drive a few of them through churches and Christian camps etc.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

Please do it's funny that the best you can come up with is probably.

[dmustard11]

Well I believe God definitely doesn't, but a campaign like the one above couldn't really say that - it would cause more controversey.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

It's sad all that trash talking but the bottom line is even dawkins has to admit (much to his anger) that God could exist.

[RationalEmotive]

where was the anger?

I have to admit there could be a celestial teapot orbiting the sun between the orbits of earth and mars as well, someone could have designed it and set it on its orbit.

Consequences for my life=0

There is probably no teapot orbiting the sun between earth and mars, now stop caring and spent time with people you love.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

what's so upseting about people believing in said teapot?

[madboy003]

So why do you believe in God?

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

The hamer is an agnostic.

[peenishead]

lol did you just refer to youself in the third person

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

lol

peenishead?

[peenishead]

ya bro thats my name... like my real name

its fucked

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

lol

I hate to hear your sisters name.

[slugworth28]

because the time, energy, money is a waste of resources. the wars fought for your teapot "god" will kill n descriminate multitrudes of generations. all in his name. you will indocinate, push an shove your beliefs on children, people of new foundlands and creep into education, politics and social activity. and never having to ever show proof. and claiming you know or feel is evidence enough.

[RobertAndGiovanni]

The same way the invisible pink unicorn COULD exist.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

What's so frightening about an invisible pink unicorn?

[DeJay14]

yawn

[Oceanus57]

"they have to take offence, it's the only weapon they've got."

Dead right. And as soon as all decent, rational people stop buying into that tawdry "don't tell me the truth because I'm offended by it "crap, the sooner all mankind will be free of the toxins religions generate.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

He forgets laughing at you arrogant twats.

[Oceanus57]

Oh yeah, that's another of your tawdry god-botherer ripostes - "if you don't believe what I believe you must be arrogant."

Doesn't really work though, does it, you slimy, grovelling, god-bothering coward?

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

The hamer is an agnostic dipshit.

[Oceanus57]

Yeah, I already had you down as a "don't know".

Oh no, sorry, look, I put "clueless".

Same thing really.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

Yep me and warren buffett.

just a couple of clueless knobs compare to all knowing you.

[Oceanus57]

Gee, I'd love to debate you all round the ring but it really wouldn't help you, and clealry you don't have anything of merit to say except to suggest that there's someone famous who's smart who you imagine agrees with what you believe. Makes a change to have a bull-nosed agnostic hurling insults rather than the usual chris-chin mob. But the errot in your argument is the same. Suggesting atheists are arrogant is just ye olde ad hominem fallacy.

If that's all you got, you got nowt, lad.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

That's right try to draw attention away from your accusing agnostics of being clueless.

[Oceanus57]

Your tactic to start with the insults.

And it's pretty clear you're kind of arrogant yourself.

So that's the end of our little conversation.

Nice to see the don't knows having a bit of passion in support of their indifferent beliefs.

Have a nice day.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

Leaving already?

Yet another atheist bottom feeder who can't defend his own words.

[Oceanus57]

All you have is abuse. You have no proposition to debate. And I'm sure if you did you'd only have your tawdry insults to reinforce it. You just aren't interesting enough to engage with.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

Still no attempt to defend your words?

lol

[Oceanus57]

Is it like a game where the last one to post is the loser? Is that all you got?

[rubensni]

maybe Dawkins could become a columnist in The Guardian? Can't imagine he and Polly would agree on everything, but I'm sure he'd be at home amongst the regular opinion/editorial writers. And since he's retired from Oxford surely he has some extra time to bang out a few hundred words each week.

[fletzy44]

Well. Nice to see there is so much interest in this video. Just over 7,000 views in three weeks! People just aren't interested. I've just visited a video posted a few days ago by a Northern Irish guy talking for 2 minutes about his attempts to speak Korean, and it has got 110,000 views already. This 'campaign' was a total waste of time and money. A typical 'intellectual' exercise in stupidity. Toynbee and Dawkins need to see a psychiatrist urgently.

[FYR0MCO]

fuck atheist. i am not a religious person but i belive there is a God. anyway FUCK THESE STUPID WANKERS. ATHEISTS hahahah fucking retarded monkeys

[gullzasd]

proving what Dawkins just said...

[SparrowisSexy]

using up your only weapon, eh FYR0MCO?

[FYR0MCO]

what? go in jungle idiot

[SparrowisSexy]

If you watched the video at all, Richard Dawkins rightly points out that 'taking offence' is the only weapon religious people have got. And try revising your grammar before calling me an idiot...

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

He forgets laughing at you arrogant twats.

[FYR0MCO]

You are fucked in your head! No wonder all atheists are retards and lonely pedophiles. JAIL FOR ATHEISTS

hahahaha wankers

[SparrowisSexy]

I'm 18 years old so Im not sure how I can be a 'lonely paedophile' lol. How dare you suggest something like that about people you don't even know. Atheist or not, what does that have to do with being a paedophile?

You want to put atheists in 'jail' because we DON'T believe in a fictional sky hook, is that correct?

Let's see if u can reply intelligently without resorting to swear words this time...go on, challenge yourself.

[FYR0MCO]

Inteligency?!?! buwhahah you come from a fucking APE thats why all atheists are retards and losers ,people without life that should move their asses to work not to bark. fucking "ape" relatives

[SparrowisSexy]

We ALL evolved from 'fucking apes' actually. What right do you have to brand all atheists 'retards' and 'losers'? Life is rather fullfiliing when you let go of fairy stories.

No, the word I used was 'Intellligently'. If you can't read as well as write, please think before labelling me the retard.

By all means carry on. You're only demonstrating Richard's point :)

[gilli39]

Than again YOU have ape relatives too.

And you sure do a good job of showing it.

[chars101]

you're very clever!

[SparrowisSexy]

Dawkins...How I love thee ;)

[fletzy44]

Yes. Pray to your God - while he's still here. :)

[SparrowisSexy]

Is that a death threat? lol

[Greywyn7]

No, he's calling you a Dawkins fanatic.

Christfags don't understand that you can respect someone without sucking their dick.

[fletzy44]

Hey, sparrow. We are ALL under a death threat! In fact, it isn't a threat; it's an inevitability! :)

[fletzy44]

And, of course, Ms Sherine (who??), who in light of the failure of this campaign to generate any interest is now unlikely to secure the invitation to a spot in the next Celebrity Big Brother.

[fletzy44]

The most visits any site discussing this issue have received, as far as I can see, is the discussion of the Fox News coverage in the US, which to date has received about 11,000, and of course that is directed at US interests and their perspective. This 'campaign' has been a waste of money on an issue nobody cares about other than Richard Dawkins and his Oxford chums who have a direct interest (book sales) in keeping it going. He needs to get back to biology.

[fletzy44]

I think the point and importance of this campaign is perhaps best demonstrated by the total lack of interest people have in visiting this post. To date, since 6th January, it has failed to register even 2,500 visits. Last night I noticed a site by someone discussing the decision of Waltham Forest Council to move a chip shop 100 metres down the High Street to discourage youngsters from visiting it at lunchtime has received nearly 80,000 since 9th January. People are not interested.

[Shmebber]

I <3 Richard Dawkins.

[fletzy44]

Oh, and I am now waiting for all those same people to show their incredible humour (!!) by a barrage of comments using the word. I had better get my corset ready, just to make sure my sides don't split!!

[kaziqbal]

"religion has no arguments, taking offense is the only argument they've got"

Richard Dawkins is the man!

[fletzy44]

This campaign began apparently because atheists 'took offence' at an advertisement placed by people atheists believe to be fantasists and referring to a hell they do not believe to exist. I find it incredibly difficult to understand why? The world simply cannot function without tolerance, on ALL sides; nature does not and neither can we. I would also wonder whether, logically kazi, 'taking offence' is an argument; it seems to me to be a 'reaction'.

[xx1Alex1xx]

I find this advertisemnt somewhat absurd.

I'm an atheist, and I look at the world without religion. Religions biased the mind, and enslaves the people to modern reality. However though, I do think that their may have well have been a creator, who's mind is so advanced, that it is able to predict every output and input, that let up to human's, intelligent life. It may have influenced the evolution of human beings.

Just keep your mind open. Unless your religious, then you I guess you can't.

[tomme1981]

Why isn't there an advert on the side of a bus stating "There is probably no Allah".

Shurely this would be more appropriate in the more diverse areas of the Capital........

[fletzy44]

You make an interesting point, tomme. Apparently this campaign was a response to a 'Christian' advertisement/poster which offended a number of atheists. It does seem to me that tolerance and respect, on all sides, is rapidly being swept away. Surely there must come a time when reasonable, tolerant and decent people, whatever their worldview, be it Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Atheists, or any other, stand up and say that we just want a tolerant society.

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

You'd think so but so long as people like Dawkins and Fred Phelps do what they can to enflame people there will be suffering.

[fletzy44]

I don't disagree, Chare. The problem is, there are also plenty of 'Christians' ready to inflame people too. Fundamentalism of ANY kind, religious or atheist, seems to me to be an unhelpful approach. We should actually be looking for those things that unite us, rather than polarising on the basis that we don't agree with another's worldview. If you are a decent person, work hard, obey the laws of the land and tolerant, does it matter what worldview you have?

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

Because most atheists are 100% pussies.

[xx1Alex1xx]

Most religious people are 100% pussies. The don't make decisons based on their own morals, they make decisions based on other peoples morals, who took the time to put the religion that they believe in together. Go ahead, burn down all the trees, kill all animals until they go instict. Becauses that's not a sin. Religous people would be the pussies, because their not strong enough, to make their own decisions, and make decisions based on their true morals. They need a book to tell them what to do

[CHARESTHEHAMER]

lol.

Most of the military is religious.

[fletzy44]

Chare: When you say that 'Most of the military is religious', what do you mean? Are there any statistics about it? I'm just interested to know.

[fletzy44]

Don't you think morality is an instinctive thing, Alex? You don't necessarily need a religious faith, or indeed supporting religious texts, to tell you that murder is wrong, that stealing is wrong, that telling lies is wrong. These are self-evident to any decent human being, as natural as breathing, eating and sleeping. Many people of religious faith believe that all their scripture does is confirm what the human condition already makes obvious.

[GeneralFatman27]

Yes, but "probably" is used because making a definite statement would make them as bad as the Christians.

[02920497497]

Hahaha you all spent money on advertising a slogan that misrepresents your true opinion as atheists.

There is no proof that there is a god just as there is no proof that god doesn't exist. To firmly believe either way is folly.

I'm not an atheist but your slogan is more a representation of my view than it is of yours.

[fletzy44]

0292 etc: You are quite right in some ways. I guess if you go to buy a pint of milk, get to the supermarket and the carton says on it 'This carton PROBABLY contains milk' you might think twice about buying it. Or perhaps you want to visit the Eiffel Tower, get on the plane in London and the captain says over the intercom 'This plane is probably going to Paris'. I'd 'probably' get off. My main concern is EVERYONE, Christians, non-Christians, Muslims, need more tolerance. Society is failing.

[rubensni]

it's a joint campaign with the humanists, ya jack ass.

[fletzy44]

If anyone would like to get involved in this 'Campaign for Tolerance', I would be happy to hear from them; atheists, those of whatever religious belief, those who simply want to see a more tolerant society, which MUST surely be the basis for the kind of society most of us would like to live in. As I say, I would be happy to hear from anyone who is interested in 'getting on board' (a 'Tolerance Bus'?).

[rudyhenkel]

People who believe that those who don't agree with them will burn for all eternity cannot be tolerated by any decent person.

[fletzy44]

My point, rudy, was simply that we need a new way of thinking, and it has to start somewhere. Respect and tolerance, however you look at it, are disappearing fast, and it an issue that we ALL have to address. I am not sure 'tit for tat' (witness the Gaza situation) ever solves anything; it just polarises people. People should be bigger than that, and responsibility begins with us as individuals.

[thudds]

yes good luck with that. You didn't invent Respect and Tolerance mate, it's just that some people (quite often religious/mystic nutjobs) take advantage of this e.g. Gaza, where Israelis have had to tolerate, amongst other violence, endless rocket attacks and the enduring antisemitism of the world.

The Athiest bus campaign is a great little initiative to remind the part of the world which gave us the beauty of the Enlightenment that there is no need to turn the clock back and do it again.

[fletzy44]

Thanks, thudds. I know I didn't invent Respect and Tolerance. Ariane Sherine has not invented atheism either. Nor did 'religious nutjobs' invent Auschwitz or the gulags in Soviet Russia. Atheist fundamentalism poses as many worrying issues as religious fundamentalism, it may be argued. My concern is the growth of intolerance in an increasingly insecure world, and I do not necessarily see this as purely a religious issue. If atheists need 'reminding', maybe the world needs to remember respect.

[fletzy44]

In the next few weeks, I am going to work on the nuts and bolts of a 'tolerance' campaign. I actually believe that most people ARE tolerant, caring, understanding and have a good heart. The problem is the silent majority are being rather overwhelmed by the extremities. Perhaps it is time for those who are tolerant to be encouraged to express and promote that sensitively and with some degree of pride in themselves.

[fletzy44]

What needs to be promoted is both tolerance and respect. I have wondered, in the light of this campaign, whether those of us who actually believe tolerance and respect for others' beliefs is something worth building on could not begin our own campaign and promote it in this kind of way. We all know that Richard and Polly find those with religious faith 'infantile' (I quote Polly from an article she wrote in the Guardian just before Christmas), but we need to be bigger than that.

[fletzy44]

I believe that the biggest issue here is one of intolerance; we are rapidly becoming a society where we people simply cannot tolerate that someone else has a different world view. I say this equally of SOME of those who have religious belief, and SOME atheists. Surely, surely, surely, we can ALL respect that someone else has a different worldview, whatever that may be, and learn to live alongside each other without the need for this kind of approach.

[thudds]

Excellent work Ariane, Richard & Polly but with all due respect you needed Mr Hitchens if only to supply the liquor ;-)

Onward Bus of Reason!

[TheAbsurdHero]

He's also the only man who can make Dawkins the 'good cop'.

[thudds]

lol true! Oh dear, Ariane you've got the looks and the voice "Forgive me Richard, I've had unclean thoughts ..."

[TheAbsurdHero]

Wow! Well, thanks, now my thoughts are straying. Of course, we could use this to our advantage, "Hey theists, look who we've got on OUR side!" and then show them Ariane.

[thudds]

Indeed, though I think she's showing us up

[StraightGodless]

You said it Richard. He speaks the muhafuckin truf!

[waveoflight]

Very funny.

[LikeAPossum]

It seeems Ariane is wasting herself. Reading these comments I'm certain that she would be able to convert many atheists even to Islam if she wanted ;)

[Craydon]

Everybody all aboard!

[Fordi]

"They have to take offense. They have no decent argument; it's the only weapon they've got"

Classic, eloquent Dawkins.

[ogjimkenobi]

Oh my God I am straight up in love.

Ariane Sherine, you've stolen my heart and now I must seek you out.

Checking on travel expenses to England......

[closedmouth]

Get away, she's mine!!!

[ogjimkenobi]

I saw her first! And besides I already purchased my tickets to London.

Once I've found her I will sing her songs of my undying love for her unimaginable beauty until she can no longer resist and falls madly in love with me.

It's a foolproof plan.

[ONEamWALKAH]

Id love to meet Richard Dawkins in person. I am not one that feels the need to get peoples autographs, but i would definitely like to get a signed copy of The God Delusion.

I give the young lady a thumbs up for this also, good idea, turn it around on em'.

[AsylumArtLivan]

Great video, LOVE RICHARD DAWKINS!!!!