Be Excellent To Each Other

Religion reminds me of the Derren Brown show where he locked several persons in a room with loads of objects, and a counter on the wall. The participants had to figure out how what they were doing related to the counter progressing upwards, with a couple of hundred quid's reward if they could reach a target before a certain amount of time.

Knowing the participants would be so engrossed trying every combination of silly movements and positions, desperately trying to reach the target, Derren had painted instructions on the ceiling to obtain several thousands of pounds without playing this strange game, if only they'd look upwards. Nobody did.

Turned out the counter was determined by how many times a goldfish moved across an imaginary partition in a tank behind the scenes.

Except with religion, you can't see the counter, you'll never have the method revealed, and you only get your reward when you die.

So Derren Brown is the Devil?

FTFY

FTFY again

Bus FTF us

Has it been discussed on here that those Christian bus slogans got approved, and as such there are buses all over London stating "There definitely is a God"?

I genuinely don't understand how a statement such as that is allowed.

Can I have one saying "<insert famous celebrity name> is definitely a paedo and a murderer"?

Or if that is libel, can I have one saying "Eating faeces definitely cures all cancer"?

If not, why not?

That makes me really cross.

It wasn't Christians. It was the DSPCA (the Dyslexic Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)

The ad bods didn't want to correct their mistake.

Yup, but if the celeb proves that s/he isn't, then you'll be in trouble.

There is? Ha ha! Wow!

I've not seen one, TBH. I have seen the one that says "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." a few times.

Obviously there was going to be a response. It's just a good job the Atheists went after Christians and not Muslims, otherwise, obviously, the response would be bus-shaped bonfires all over central London.

I saw a bus the other day and it didn't say that, though it could be a different campaign, it said something like "People who think there is no God are missing a lot" or something like that. Quite what they're missing, I don't know, unless you think the world's slowest aerobics class is something not worth missing. Stand for ten minutes, sit for 10 minutes, kneel for five minutes, walk to altar for booze, stand for ten minutes, sit for ten minutes, kneel for 10 minutes. Leave with polished soul.

Yes-
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3182&p=185414&hilit=atheist#p185414


We should probably have a thread about it really, because I can see it continuing to run for some time

This should probably be split out, but the buses do exist, I promise.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/fe ... n-response

There's a piccy of one and an article.

The ASA has apparently said it is okay as it is not able to be substantiated one way or another. Surely an adequate response to them would be "Then stop saying it is definitely true, you morons!". In reality, they just appear to be appeasing the church, which is a horrendous turn of events.

Still, according to the ASA could I not legally use the following slogans?

"If God exists, he is a callous murderer"

"The Flying Spaghetti Monster is every bit as likely to exist as God"

"God definitely does not exist"

"Vampires are definitely real"

"Giant Cosmic Sparklecorn is Definitely Real, and You Will All Suffer Eternal Death unless you Wear Glitter!"

Which sounds interesting. Anyone fancy raising the money for the last one?

Lave - you should further investigate this.

Erm...

Will try too. Life is a bit distracting at present though.

Man, I love the part where Jesus casts the bus drivers out of the temple. Go-go angry saviour!

I'd be happy to put £5 towards a Sparklecorn ad.

Wait a minute, that's slander. Or libel. Whichever is the written one. It's also defamation of character.

I demand my right to bus-ply!

The atheist bus ads only mentioned God didn't they, not any of the more specific characters? The adverts would have had precisely the same meaning to any Muslim who read them as any Christian.

"The god-botherer hath said from his arse, actually there is a God. Aaaaaaah..."

No, they'd have had to say "There is no Allah" or similar.

Sorry, but no.

Islam, Judaism and Christianity are all 'Abrahamic' religions and all worship the same 'god'. What they disagree on primarily is whether Jesus was the messiah and *how* to worship and live their lives. 'Allah' is Arabic for 'god'

Sorry, but yes. If the word "Allah" had been on the buses all fucking hell would have broken loose (not that it would have been allowed to happen, of course).

I made one of those bus things for b3ta a while back

I agree with DavPaz because my understanding was that God and Allah were meant to be the same bloke. However, I honestly don't know how most Muslims would answer the question "Do you believe in God?". Would they just answer yes or say no, the believe in Allah?

True, lots of morons would have gone beserk. My point was that I didn't see the atheist ad as targeting christians specifically, it was aimed at religion in general. Anyone who worships a god should have taken the same message from it.

I certainly did (but then, one true God, etc.). I guess we'd have to ask some.

I'm hoping this will slowly turn into a new Reformation, but instead of monks pinning theses to the doors of Cathedrals and Councils and Diets being convened, the whole theological debate will be very gradually played out through the medium of bus adverts.

I'll be very impressed if someone condenses all 95 theses onto one colourful ad.

Indeed. By the time we have flying buses, everyone should be thoroughly bored of it and the whole religion thing relegated to a footnote in history.

Would it be excellent to start a bus-worshipping religion, on the belief that the messages on them are divinely put there by God?

I pray for a bus every time I'm waiting in the rain.

I work with someone who's muslim and the words are both interchangeable for him.

He can change bus ads with his mind?!

BEELZEBUB!

Obv FTFY

I have thought about this for fair some time now and have come to the following conclusions. The opinions that follow might or might not be my own:

1) A democracy should not be the will of the majority, but, rather a melting pot of the whole, and to deny one aspect of that democracy a platform to speak and make known its thoughts is a bad thing.

2) Freedom of expression is a given, and people should be able to speak to others about X, Y and Z.

3) If organized religion is such a fucking bad thing, why the fuc are people relying on bus adverts to spread the message, rather than jsut hanging out and engaging with other people.

4) Splitting people up into 'us' and 'them' very rarely works.

In conclusion, dialogue is the best option, and if people adher to beliefs that we might find odd, extreme, or offensive, then who are we to try to stop them doing that? It seems to me, that the original bus advert was a good idea, and now has been transmogrified into an atheist hate campaign, which is what I find repugnant over it all.

If you want to win the religion argument, one does not do it this way.

Yeah, but when it DOES work, it really makes life easier!

"People" aren't doing that, nor relying on that. The atheist bus ad was a witty response to irritating and frankly somewhat scary religious big money advertising that's gone on forever. The message was entirely reasonable by any standard, and if it made even one person who saw it go "Meh, you know what, that's right that is" and give up on whatever guilt trip or subscription they've been going along with until now, that's a bonus.

Your points could well be made against those religious advertisers, which seek to manipulate and push falsehoods. But as you say, freedom of speech etc etc.

I have no desire to turn it into an 'atheist hate campaign', and haven't really seen much evidence of that.

I'm just annoyed that the Atheist side has played by the rules and been reasonable about it ("There's probably no God") whereas the Christian side have just been absolute wanker about it, first trying to deny the other side any freedom of speech, and then by plastering what can only be described as lies and somehow getting away with it.

The moral high ground is something that Christian Voice certainly do not have in this debate.

Fuck buses. Give the money to a good cause* and feel smug.**



* such as Kern.

** yes, we know it's faith not works, but do it anyway.

BLUSPHEMOUS INFIDEL!

doesn't work.

BUSPHLEMOUS does though, at least in my peculiar mind.

I agree, splashing 'Allah' the side of bus would be stupid. Danish cartoon stupid