There's Probably No God! - Richard Dawkins, Ariane Sherine, And The Atheist Bus Ad Campaign

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FFreeThinker
January 08, 2009

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There's Probably No God! - Richard Dawkins, Ariane Sherine, And The Atheist Bus Ad Campaign.

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The Atheist Bus Journey (by Ariane Sherine, Guardian)

Thanks to you we raised enough money to put ads on 800 buses across the UK, and the campaign has gone global

Today, thanks to many Cif readers, the overall total raised for the Atheist Bus Campaign stands at a truly overwhelming £135,000, breaking our original target of £5,500 by over 2400%. Given this unexpected amount, I'm very excited to tell you that 800 buses instead of the 30 we were initially aiming for are now rolling out across the UK with the slogan, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life", in locations all over England, Scotland and Wales, including Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, York, Cardiff, Devon, Leeds, Bristol and Aberdeen.

From today's launch, two hundred of the buses will run in London, because the campaign was originally started as a positive counter-response to the Jesus Said ads running on London buses in June 2008. These ads displayed the URL of a website which stated that non-Christians "will be condemned to everlasting separation from God and then you spend all eternity in torment in hell Jesus spoke about this as a lake of fire prepared for the devil". Our rational slogan will hopefully reassure anyone who has been scared by this kind of evangelism.

In addition, we're running adverts on two further types of media. In my last Cif blog on the campaign, I asked Cif readers for ideas on alternative ways to spend the funds, and also for thoughts on different slogans. Commenters WoollyMindedLiberal, PaoloV and Catch22 suggested that we use quotes from famous freethinkers, and we've done just that: from Monday January 12, 1,000 tube cards will run on London Underground featuring atheist quotations from Douglas Adams, Albert Einstein, Emily Dickinson and Katharine Hepburn (see above), alongside the original campaign slogan.

An animated version of the slogan will also appear on two large LCD screens on Oxford Street (opposite Bond Street tube station), so that you can see the advert live without having to wait for an atheist bus. And, to thank all donors and show the strength of atheism in the UK, every ABC advertisement will contain the line "This advert was funded by public donations".

Amazingly, the campaign has now gone international. Spain's Union of Atheists and Freethinkers are launching buses across Barcelona today with a translation of our slogan, Italy's Union of Atheist, Agnostics and Rationalists are also planning to roll out atheist buses, while the American Humanist Association have been inspired to launch a campaign, and buses carrying their slogan "Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness' sake" have now been running for over a month in Washington DC. Sadly, not every country has been so open to the idea: the Atheist Foundation of Australia tried to place the slogan "Atheism celebrate reason" on buses, but were rejected by Australia's biggest outdoor advertising company.

The campaign's success is thanks to Cif and Cif readers. If Matt Seaton hadn't allowed me to run with the idea here, and so many of you hadn't been so enthusiastic about it and donated generously to it, it would never have happened. There may be further campaign developments, and the campaign website and Facebook group will be regularly updated with the latest news; but for now, I hope you enjoy seeing the adverts on the streets, and that they brighten these bleak January days just a little bit. As Charlie Brooker one of the first people to donate to the Atheist Bus Campaign says: "Public transport in Britain suggests there isn't a God anyway, but in case anyone hasn't noticed, or feels isolated for thinking such a thing, this campaign should help." I hope it does.

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video...
• http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,3494,Atheists-launch-bus-ad-campaign,Ariane-Sherine

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/
• http://www.youtube.com/TheGuardian
• http://www.atheistbus.org.uk/
• http://www.atheistcampaign.org/
• http://www.richarddawkins.net
• http://www.youtube.com/richarddawkins...
.

Category: News & Politics

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JordanJm (12 hours ago) Show Hide

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@olgaking1 you do realize people have different hair in skin colors because of the regions they lived in and what type of weather there was for years as in the amount of sun and over the years they evolved to adapt to their region that's why people in Africa are darker because there is a lot of sun but people from Europe are more fair skinned because of the lack of sun

babri62 (1 day ago) Show Hide

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@Eltsacwenify you have to realize, before god there should be some place so god could exist there.For example Santa exists at North pole what is god address who made that address for him if you know give it to me I want put it in MY GPS.

Eltsacwenify (1 day ago) Show Hide

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I wish we could all debate on a humane level but unfortunately this is not the case. Both sides (but Christianity more so than Atheism) cop alot of abuse. You are right we believe that God has always existed before the universe was created and will always exist for all eternity. Don't ask me how, it's a mystery of our faith. If I understood everything about the universe I would be God himself.

olgaking1 (1 day ago) Show Hide

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@ pfftdudeguy.. Science says the hot environment of Africa, gave Africans their features ( curly hair, full lips, broad noses, dark skin). O.K. South Asia and the Middle East have hot environments, but, Middle Easterns and South Asians, have straight noses, straight hair, and most Middle Easterns have olive skin. What's different in the air over Africa and the Middle East, which are basically in the same region.

olgaking1 (1 day ago) Show Hide

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The universe created GOD. If it is possible for you and me to exist. Why not a force with the abiity to create things... You seriously believe, the different human races came about, because of the environment. NO WAY... What's in the air in europe that gave some europeans blue or green eyes. Why don't Asians have blue or green eyes or blonde hair? What's different in the air over Asia? No my friend, it's not natural selection, it's intelligent design selection.

robi2000 (1 day ago) Show Hide

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If Ariane told me that there were pig people living 65 feet below the earths surface and they created everything i'd enthusiastically embrace her and promise to begin a detailed novel on the subject !

pfftdudeguy (1 day ago) Show Hide

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You think Atheists are crazy for believing that everything and everyone on this planet just came together and that it's not possible. How the fuck do you think God came along? If all you believe in is creation, than who created God? How did God come together? How did God appear from nothing? Clearly, a part of you does believe that some things do happen on their own so don't be so quick to put down atheists when your beliefs are similar in a way.

pfftdudeguy (1 day ago) Show Hide

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I grew up Jehovah Witness and am now Athiest. I agree with you. Why is it that when we look back at things done only 200 years ago such as hanging ordinary people cause a 13 year old girl claimed shes a witch or enslaving a race because their skin pigment is brown, we look at that and are embarrassed by how stupid humans were. For fuck sake, we thought the world was flat less than 500 years ago! But we still believe in God and don't think that's ludacris?

babri62 (2 days ago) Show Hide

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@olgaking1 Before Christianity and Islam, there were other religions, such as Zorostrianism- which were even more complex than these religions. These are all made with human curiosity.

olgaking1 (2 days ago) Show Hide

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@babri62 I grew up a Christian, then I became an atheist, now, I believe there is more to life than we know. What you wrote in response to my comment, is exactly one of the reasons why I became an atheist. I believe the Bible is probably man made, but I also believe, there is something more to it. Ask yourself, how can simple humans back then, create Christianity, Judism and Islam?

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There's Probably No God! - Richard Dawkins, Ariane Sherine, And The Atheist Bus Ad Campaign

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