So apparently there is a new ad campaign in Britain sponsored by a bunch of atheists. In the grand tradition of the defiant skeptic, they have committed to remind their fellow Englishmen, “There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life.” It’s up on like 800 buses in England.
It’s just like when the French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille.
I mean, it’s not like the British don’t have “real” atheists. They do. In fact, many of them are best-selling authors here in America. Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennett. All atheists, the kind that really don’t believe in God and aren’t afraid to tell you in the sharpest terms possible. The kind that write books with titles like: The God Delusion and God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. None of this namby-pamby “Probably No God” stuff.
So I wasn’t sure what to make of this new atheist slogan until I read about what their Dutch counterparts are planning. Soon Dutch buses will be graced (hah!) with the same fiery slogans that those English Double-Deckers don. But someone asked the Dutch atheists a very important question:
Which “god” doesn’t exist? And in talking about God, are you deliberately avoiding specific “gods” (like Jesus or Allah)? By using the term “God,” aren’t you really just going after the Christians?
“The term God is also a sort of container-concept. But if the campaign goes well, more will follow. The second reason why we start with this expression is because Christians are more accustomed to it. Muslims are more likely to react fiercely. I am therefore also more afraid of angry Muslims than angry Christians.”
Got it. If we thunder against the god of the Christians, they’ll probably shrug (or laugh) and keep walking. If we thunder against Allah, we might have to change our names, hire round-the-clock security, and move to America (!).
Atheism: The New Face of Courage (HT: Femina and Islam In Europe)
POST-SCRIPT: This story reminds me of a Table Talk we had with Pastor John after he returned from his sabbatical in England. He told us about a certain t-shirt shop that had shirts proclaiming “Bush Is a Terrorist!” and other such slogans. He said that he wanted to walk in and ask the proprietor a question. He imagined the conversation going something like this:
“Excuse me, I just noticed your ‘Bush = Murderer’ t-shirts and was wondering if you could answer me a question: Why don’t you have any ‘Osama bin Laden Is a Terrorist’ t-shirts?”
“Uh, I dunno.”
“I do. BECAUSE YOU’RE A COWARD!
Now that would have been entertaining.
January 28, 2009 at 10:26 am
This makes me wonder what they think of the angry Muslims and their God, as compared to Christians and “their God”. They obviously see a difference in behavior so I wonder if they ever question Christianity because Christians usually aren’t violent in their allegience to God as they see Muslims are. Do the non violent reactions of Christians make these atheists feel even stronger about their slogan that “there probably is no God” since we are not as angry and dangerous in our defense and reaction to opposing views and slams on our God? They might think somehow our God is not as worthy of angry protection as Allah is because it is not real. I am not saying that we should be violent and angry at accusations like that….I am just wondering what they think.