Front moves to city streets as Atheist bus ads warm up battle with believers
Throughout our world, Athiests, Freethinkers, Humanists and non-believers have mounted a promotion campaign that is reaching citizens by way of some simple, but effective, bus cards.
    Simply stated, their message is "There's probably NO GOD, now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
    Creator of the campaign, England's Ariane Sherine of the Freethinkers of the the UK, started with the idea that if she could raise a few thousand pounds she could get her message up on a few buses. The response was overwhelming. She attained her original target within a couple of hours and went on to raise more than a hundred thousand pounds.
    Similar bus ad campaigns were initiated in Canada, US America, and Australia. Not all attempts were successful. For example, while some cities in Canada are now featuring the ads on their buses, others, like Halifax and Ottawa, rejected these ads by giving as reasons rules which obviously had not been applied to religious messages in the past.
    The battle is being fueled by various media as the bus ads have become newsworthy. It is possible that the international media has shown some of its bias through its choice of exceptionally weak spokesmen for the religious side. Others believe that the major hitters representing believers are avoiding this battleground. Usually, they are not challenged directly and are not comfortable with reality-based dialogue, or duking it out with atheists.
    From this corner, I conclude that religious forces have found it difficult to make their case in a similar simple and forthright manner so it has resorted to claims of that the ads are offensive. Sometimes, a truth hurts, but truth hasn't stopped religion in the past, and as the battle warms up, it reminds me of the quotation that says, "In war, the first casualty is truth!"

Copycat Christians strike again
    Not to be outdone by this thought-provoking campaign, religious groups have responded with bus ads of their own by using an identical visual likeness — with a couple of appropriate word changes. Churches also feature similar messages on their bulletin boards and street displays. Atheists, of course, do not have similar facilities from which to broadcast their message.
    This is yet another example of Christians and other religious groups copying and attempting to dilute their opponent's messages. Since their creation, Christians have employed this strategy as they have found it profitable to capitalize on other peoples ideas.
    For example, prior to creation of their story of the Virgin Mary, there were at least six ancient myths of virgins giving birth to sons possessing special talents from the gods. This myth, and others, proved to be audience pleasers in ancient times, hence their adoption by a religious community two thousand years ago.
    Later, they attached their stories to the celebrations and events that had been observed by non-Christian societies for thousands of years before their saviour's alleged birth. Its hard to think of any major event to which Christians can claim original ownership or that they created without being motivated by the success of others.
    It has been reported that a Christian busdriver has refused to drive any bus carrying the ad while several riders have refused to ride on buses carrying the atheist message.
    When one considers the sheer magnitude of the religious presence in our communities with their edifices dominating city skylines; billboards, bus ads, religious broadcasts influencing most of the media; and religions control over many of our courts, you would think that our simple message would be seen as nothing more than a small fly in their baptism fonts.
    Of course, the problem exists because believers have had the playing field much to themselves for hundreds of years and could either directly or indirectly invoke punishments on anyone who questioned their authority. As the song says, "times are a changing."
    To stay up to date on the progress of this campaign, I have included links to blog postings, video clips and websites that feature photos, interviews and comments. Some of these sites are raising money for similar bus ad campaigns throught our world. I heartily endorse their appeal.
 
Canada leads the way in North America
    The Freethought Association of Canada is spearheading the bus campaign in Canada with predicatably excellant results given the history of atheist suppression in Canada. Debates featuring President Justin Trottier have appeared on Ontario television while coverage by national and local newspapers has been positive and encouraging in spite of a few discouraging words from some believers. The association has created a special web site for the campaign that aims to keep everybody up-to-date on its progress.
    Creating a "spoof" campaign of the message is credited to the United Church of Canada. To their credit, the church has taken a more liberal attitude to the atheist bus campaign than most other Christian denominations. There strategy of not getting into a turf war may find its roots in the fact that the church has been losing active members for the last three decades and can't afford a blood bath. The atheists are not about to get into one, either, as they believe reality and truth will claim the day over most of the claims from the pulpit.
    Daily newspapers have reported on the bus ad campaign while several TV and radio stations have hosted some lively debates.
    I have included a link to The Guardian.
    Of course the event is fully supported by Richard Dawkins, and a multitude of bloggers including Helmut at the Friendly Atheist and VJack over at Atheist Revolution in his February 25th posting.
    If you want to get the whole scoop, you can try Googling "there probably is no god". Of course, if you want the message from the other guys, Google "there is a god".
    Personally, I would like to live in a world . . . without Gods!
                                     -- Anton Kozlik