Atheist Evangelists!

[**Rowland Croucher**]

*Sightings* 11/6/08

A Busload of Unfaith

-- Daniel Sack

Once upon a time, as we historians say, religious communities spread their
message through preaching. In this modern, media-saturated world, they use
advertising. Mainline denominations create cute or earnest television
campaigns. Lubavitcher Hasidic Jews send fleets of mobile homes through the
streets of New York, plastered with signs and playing music through
loudspeakers. There's a billboard above an expressway near my home
proclaiming the arrival of Alpha, the evangelical study course created in
Britain.

Now the other side is getting in on the act. As a recent Associated Press
story reports, British atheists are planning advertisements on London buses
proclaiming, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your
life."

The idea began as a grass-roots response to an article in London's *Guardian
*. In June, Ariane Sherine, a journalist and comedy writer, objected to an
advertisement then appearing on London buses for an evangelical group which
asked, quoting the Gospel of Luke, "When the son of man comes, will he find
faith on the earth?" The ad pointed viewers to a web site that condemned
atheists to eternal hellfire. This struck Sherine as false=97or at least
unproved=97advertising. She invited her atheist readers to pledge =A35 each; if
they raised =A323,400 they could run their own ad for two weeks.

The original column provoked almost three hundred comments on the
*Guardian*web site, many saying "sign me up." In six weeks over a
thousand people,
coordinated by the British Humanist Association, pledged money. Oxford
biologist Richard Dawkins, author of *The God Delusion*, promised to match
all contributions up to =A35,500. With =A311,000, they plan on having the
advertisement on thirty London buses for four weeks, starting in January.
There is now, of course, a blog
(*http://www.atheistcampaign.org/*<http://www.atheistcampaign.org/>),
a Facebook group, t-shirts for sale, and plans for advertisements in other
British cities.

Atheism is not, of course, new. Historian James Turner traces the
appearance of reasoned and socially acceptable atheism to the last half of
the nineteenth century, often among people with roots in Christianity. And
early atheism wasn't just an intellectual phenomenon. Orator and politician
Robert Ingersoll made a career of speeches for the general public about
agnosticism in the nineteenth century. Ambrose Bierce and H.L. Mencken took
great delight in tweaking believers in the mass media in the early
twentieth.

Recent years have seen the rise of "the new atheism," ideas and books
produced by Dawkins, journalist Christopher Hitchens, and author Sam
Harris. Unlike the earlier generation of atheists, most of whom focused on
philosophical arguments against a belief in God, the new atheists argue that
religion is a source of violence and intolerance in modern society. Their
books have occupied top places on best seller lists.

Although inspired by Dawkins and the others, the London bus advertisement
strikes a different tone for a broader audience. The new atheists are
confrontational, calling believers deluded and downright dangerous. The
advertisement, on the other hand, is softer and reassuring, telling readers
that atheism is the path to happiness and joy. It is, in its own way,
evangelical.

It's not likely, however, that this message will be coming to the United
States anytime soon. The Associated Press story notes that most Britons
identify themselves as Christians, but church attendance is low and faith is
rarely discussed in public. A Gallup survey conducted for the Institute for
Studies of Religion at Baylor University, however, found that 11 percent of
Americans are unaffiliated with a religious community, but a majority of
that small minority believes in God. The United States has a much higher
religious church participation than Great Britain, and a much stronger
commitment to the public expression of religion. Publicly subsidized
transit systems don't hesitate to include religious ads, but atheist bus ads
would provoke a storm of protest in most American cities.

The British campaigners are thrilled with the response to their campaign.
Twenty-four hours after their blog went on-line they raised almost ten times
their goal, letting them make big plans for their next step. "We could go
national, we could have tube posters, different slogans, more buses,
advertising inside buses," Sherine told the *Guardian*. "The sky's the
limit - except, of course, there's nothing up there."


*References*:

Jill Lawless, "Atheists spread word in London; It's 'no,'" *Chicago=20
Tribune*,
23 October 2008, 10.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-britain-atheist_23oct23,0,3300153.story


Ariane Sherine, "Atheists =96 gimme five," *The Guardian*, 20 June 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/20/transport.religion

Daniel Sack is a historian of American religion and administrator of the
Border Crossing Project at the Divinity School.

*Sightings* comes from the Martin Marty
Center<http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/>at the University of
Chicago Divinity School.

Attribution

Columns may be quoted or republished in full, with attribution to the author
of the column, *Sightings*, and the Martin Marty Center at the University of
Chicago Divinity School.
--=20

Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/ (20,000 articles 4000 humor)

Blogs - http://rowlandsblogs.blogspot.com/

Justice for Dawn Rowan - http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/

Funny Jokes and Pics - http://funnyjokesnpics.blogspot.com/

[DKleinecke]

On Nov 6, 6:35 pm, **Rowland Croucher**

Post by **Rowland Croucher**
Publicly subsidized
transit systems don't hesitate to include religious ads, but atheist bus ads
would provoke a storm of protest in most American cities.

Atheists occupy a peculiar position under American Law. There is the
clause in the Constitution that says the government cannot establish
religion and this has been interpreted quite broadly.

If the atheists were willing to declare themselves a religion (they
are, of course, far too disorganized for anything like that) they
could force the bus agency to carry their ads. But then they would
lose a much more major battle because the government could not defend
them as "science" or "impartial opinion" or whatever.

The Unitarian-Universalist church, which might as well be atheists
because it has, by proclamation, no beliefs at all could advertise if
they wanted to. I think they are not interested. For the record, there
is no reason to suppose an individual who belongs to the Unitarian-
Universalist church is an atheist - its just the church as a whole I
am describing.

I doubt if atheist ads would cause any protest. Ads from some pretty
far out religions have appeared without causing protest.

Hari Krishna. Hari Rama.

[Matthew Johnson]

In article <SPNQk.3415$***@nwrddc01.gnilink.net>, **Rowland Croucher**
says...

[snip]

Post by **Rowland Croucher**
It's not likely, however, that this message will be coming to the United
States anytime soon.

Really? I see that message all over the place, implicit in plot lines to most
popular TV stories, and also in most advertising.
[snip[

Post by **Rowland Croucher**
The United States has a much higher
religious church participation than Great Britain, and a much stronger
commitment to the public expression of religion.

True. But how much is that really worth, after all? As Victorinus said before
his baptism, "walls do not make a believer".

Post by **Rowland Croucher**
Publicly subsidized
transit systems don't hesitate to include religious ads, but atheist bus ads
would provoke a storm of protest in most American cities.

No doubt it would. But how long would this last, and how effective would it
really be? There is a new boldness to the "new atheism", we should expect them
to be more willing to put that protest to the test.

Post by **Rowland Croucher**
The British campaigners are thrilled with the response to their campaign.
Twenty-four hours after their blog went on-line they raised almost ten times
their goal, letting them make big plans for their next step. "We could go
national, we could have tube posters, different slogans, more buses,
advertising inside buses," Sherine told the *Guardian*. "The sky's the
limit - except, of course, there's nothing up there."

Proving what some of us have long suspected: the difference between Evangelicals
and Atheists is not that big after all;)

Still, Sherine's final line there reminds me of one of the best snappy comebacks
I have ever heard in the ideological warfare between atheism and faith. The
Soviets loved to publicize Gagarin's famous line, that he went up in to heaven,
and didn't see God there. An anonymous Russian Orthodox priest is said to have
answered, "if you could not see God on earth, you will certainly never see Him
in Heaven".

THAT is the attitude, THAT is the insight that shows the vital difference
between atheism and faith.