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I happened to be poking around old articles linked to from RichardDawkins.net, and in an article about atheist bus ads in Melbourne, I stumbled across this mostly unrelated but hilarious quote:
The Ahmadiyya community, sparked by a survey that found a quarter of the population regarded Islam as the ''worst religion on earth'', also plans to knock on 3 million doors in a campaign to prove otherwise.
Yeah, good plan, guys. "Our religion has a major public image problem... so in order to fix it, we're going to bother people at home." That's a facepalm if I ever heard one...
That is the name of the Des Moines bus driver who refused to drive a bus with the ever-so-controversial "There are at least two atheists in the entire world" ad.
I'm trying to get my angst up, but really all I feel is pity.
I remember when a bus driver in London refused to drive one of the "There's probably no God" buses. In that case, I could at least see that the driver was standing up for his principles, even though I think those principles are ignorant and delusional.
But in Ms. Shiel's case, exactly which of her beliefs are being violated? It's really sad, because this lady thinks she has strong convictions, but it's clear she hasn't even clearly defined her convictions to herself. (Unless her convictions include the absolute belief in the non-existence of atheists, but I somewhat doubt that...)
This woman is not standing up for principles, she is having an emotional response to the appearance of a phrase ("don't believe in God") which in this context doesn't really violate anybody's principles. But because of the political lay of the land, she is now surrounded by people patting her on the back and saying "Way to go!"
Even the hardest of the hardcore anti-atheist should say to Ms. Shiel, "Yeah, I hate those guys too. But this particular ad doesn't actually say anything negative about God or religion, so you can still drive the bus and not violate your principles." But they won't say that. She'll be a martyr in some circles.
And that makes me a sad panda.
I'm mad as hell about Des Moines Area Regional Transit (DART) deciding to pull the "You are not alone" bus ad after a single day. It's absurd that people would be offended by the least innocuous of the three common atheist ads, one that really doesn't make a statement any more profound than "atheists exist."
Apparently people were refusing to board the bus, which I ascribed to the height of bigotry... and still mostly do, though now after reading an article in which the Iowa governor blathers on a about the "message it sent", I wonder if an unfortunate confluence between the ad's layout and the standard DART artwork could have exacerbated the problem.
"All aboard, fellow atheists!" |
In the image on the right, the art on the bus makes it appear as though there is an arrow coming from the ad and pointing to the door of the bus. Maybe this is a stretch, but I could almost see people taking this to imply that the full message was, "Don't believe in God? You are not alone. Come join us on this bus!" If people took it that way, okay, I could see them being made uncomfortable.
Am I letting my imagination run wild here? The only reason it occurred to me is because when I first glanced at that picture, I thought to myself, "Huh, I haven't seen the version with the arrow before. Where is that supposed to be pointing? I don't get it..." I didn't extrapolate it all the way to "Come ride the atheism bus!", but my fallible human brain had briefly perceived the arrow as being part of the ad.
Now, any reasonable person, even a theist, ought to quickly realize the arrow had nothing to do with anything. But given that some people are so fucking crazy they won't even buy something if the cost comes to $6.66, perhaps some of the Krazy Kristians thought it would be bad luck, maybe even inviting a lightning bolt from the clear blue sky, if they were to even briefly stand so that an arrow was pointing at them unintentionally implying a disbelief in God?
It wouldn't make me any less pissed if this is true, but it would make me slightly less confused...
The Arizona Coalition of Reason has put up what ought to be the least controversial of the various atheist billboards, because all it says is, "Don't believe in God? You are not alone." In other words, it is asserting that at least two atheists in the world exist.
Somehow, asserting this fact in public is construed by some bigoted fuckheads as being somehow "offensive":
Phoenix resident Irving Faulkner says his first thought when he saw the billboard is that it’s in your face offensive.
Ophelia Ortiz had a similar reaction.
“I think it’s wrong, because why not believe in God? Everybody has their own beliefs,” said Ortiz.
ARGH! Ms. Ortiz, the billboard does not fucking say that you shouldn't believe in God. In fact, it says exactly what you said, that "everybody has their own beliefs," but those nasty atheists had the audacity to also go and suggest that maybe their beliefs... exist? What??
The other two common atheist advertisements read, "You can be good without God," and the original UK one, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." I can actually understand why someone might find the latter offensive.
First of all, it makes a direct theological assertion: "There's probably no God." In a perfect world, I'd actually rather prefer that billboards and bus advertisements didn't make assertions such as these, because, well, all other things being equal, talking about religion is kindof retarded. That includes discussing or promoting atheism -- in a perfect world. If theists would just STFU and stop trying to push their delusions on other people or influence the political process to conform to If you find this offensive, okay, I guess I can understand that. |
their arbitary dogmas, and if theistic beliefs that condoned violence and torture and hatred in the name of God were rare or nonexistent, in that alternate reality, this entire blog would seem rather silly, wouldn't it? Dawkins' The God Delusion would be nothing but a lot of hot air, rather akin to writing an entire book about why you didn't care for the taste of olives. But that's not the world we live in, is it?
The problem is that similar religious messages -- which I do believe are offensive -- are tolerated all the time. As long as it's okay to put up a billboard that says "Jesus saves!", then it ought to be just as okay to put up a billboard that says "Jesus doesn't save!" On a side note, those cities who have declined atheist bus ads because they don't allow religious advertising of any type, I'm down with that. As long as you can't shove Jesus down my throat, I don't need to shove my atheism down yours.
If you find this offensive, then you are a bigot. |
Secondly, the original billboard implicitly suggests that one major result of a belief in God is to make people worry and prevent them from enjoying life. I think this is true for a lot of people, and I am totally on board with the billboard because IMO the target audience is people who are already pretty sure there is no God but still worry about it. But I can understand a happy care-free theist (and yes, they do exist, obviously) being a bit resentful of that implication.
Now, the "You can be good without God" ad makes no such generalizations, and if you have a problem with it, then you are automatically a bigot, because you are saying all But if you find this offensive, then you are completely insane! |
nontheists are bad. However, it does actually make a statement that some people (i.e. bigots) might disagree with. So while it ought not to be controversial, I am not terribly surprised that it is.
But the "You are not alone" billboards? What? So what is the problem here? Is it that these people think there really are only zero or one atheists in the entire world? (I guess that one guy has been putting up a lot of billboards) Or is it that even just mentioning the existence of atheism is taboo? I admit, I am a little surprised people could call the billboards "offensive" with a straight face. Sure, I could imagine stupid assholes saying things like, "That kind of message is not what we need in our community" and "It makes me sad that some people reject Jesus." But to say that the billboard itself is offensive? WTF?!?
