» Dani: gets theological
Dani wants to know if religion really makes the wheels on the bus go round and round
I am not religious, I never have been and I can pretty much guarantee that I never will be.
When I saw posters on buses by an atheist organisation saying something along the lines of “There is no God, just enjoy life” I thought they were great. Not necessarily because the poster was sending out a message I agreed with but more because it was refreshing to see advertising against religion.
But as you can imagine it didn’t go down too well with religious groups who then thought they would join in and send out bendy busses with pro-God slogans on them. The only difference being that the religious groups had done so before and that was actually the inspiration for the atheist campaign.
“I’m being passed by a bus displaying a poster claiming that if I do not believe in God, I will burn in hell”
This all happened at the beginning of last year and since then I have seen more posters telling you to believe in God than not.
After having a look online I became annoyed by one thing over all others, and that was the fact that the religious groups claimed that the atheist slogans would be offensive to people and that they shouldn’t be seen for that very reason. The people who said that really didn’t take Thumper’s advice to think before they spoke did they? Do they not think that some people might find their very own advertising campaigns offensive?
Standing on a pavement and being passed by a bus that is displaying a poster claiming that if I do not believe in God I will burn in hell for all eternity is a bizarre experience at the best of times, and could be kind of offensive. How could anybody think that having that written somewhere, especially somewhere that children will see, might not upset someone?
This all seems to fall back into that age old problem of one rule for one and one rule for another.
But that is not all, I am yet to be handed a leaflet informing me about the atheist’s view on the world but there have been a number of times when someone has thought it okay to force little booklets into my hand – in taxis, on buses, through my letterbox or even by having someone knock on the door and try their best to convince me that I am not whole until I have found God – I have even been handed a religious leaflet while in a nightclub (I couldn’t believe
that either).
The problem here is that I will not be rude, I wouldn’t want to hurt someone’s feelings by telling them where to go but I really am not interested. So I politely take the leaflet/stand and listen and then in the nicest possible way tell them “No thanks”. There are a few religious families living near me and I would never roll up at their front door with leaflets and a speech and try and persuade them to believe anything other than what they want to. If someone wants to believe one thing that is fine as long as they understand that I have the right to believe something different if I want to. Do we really need to be threatening people with eternal damnation?
Wheely crazy
What is it that makes seemingly pleasant and polite people turn into maniacs when they sit in front of a steering wheel? Some become rude, some seem unable to travel at regular speeds and others think they are the only person on the planet.
This extends beyond the road – people seem to adopt these strange alter egos when in charge of a supermarket trolley. What is it that happens to some of us when we are put in charge of a moving object? Do we ever really graduate from when we would bash our plastic cars into something until the other object moved as opposed to us moving ourselves?
August 14th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
seann veiws on life are insanely depressing please tell him to cheer up why have him in latest 7 ?
August 17th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Dear Dani,
Thank you for your piece about Religion, I really enjoyed it and found it interesting. I’m a follower of Jesus (Christian) myself and I’m a big fan of Dr Dawkins ‘There Probably isn’t a God.. .’ bus campaign. What the campaign does is bring the issue of God, morality and meaning to the public sphere once again, so the average Joe can think whilst waiting at the Bus stop can be tempted to think about the deep questions of life.
I was surprise to read that you passed a bus with some sort of poster damming you to hell. Did you really? Do you know what company or organisation it was as I would like to see it myself.
I don’t agree with Christian groups that claim the atheist campaign is offensive and should be banned. After all that would mean the Christian ads would have to be banned as well, freedom of speech and all that. As a believer in faith I welcome these kinds of discussions because it is not often in our culture that people dig deeper than the material realm.
Like Dawkins argues and preaches in his book the ‘God Delusion’ Atheism is a faith and a religion. I can’t image having enough faith to believe that the whole cosmos happened by chance, that there is no talented powerful artist behind this beautifully designed earth. I just can’t see how someone can have so much faith to believe that, there is no greater being overall in charge making the world spin. I’m sure you have faith in something, everyone does. Everyone has a god in their lives something they follow or live for. For example one of the biggest religions in this country is football; many people go to worship at 3pm every Saturday.
You may have heard of an Alpha course before? They run them at various churches across the city. It’s a space to ask honest questions about Christianity and life, it’s a great forum for dialoguing with Christians. Maybe you should check one out? It would make a great article! Anyway thanks again for your writing.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Yours sincerely
Chris