Let there be adverts: Christians hit back at the atheist bus

In the beginning, there was the atheist bus campaign. And it was good. Unless, that is, you were one of the many God-fearing folk who considered it blasphemy. They, however, are planning to get their own back.

A trinity of Christian groups have created their own series of advertisements to run across London buses, the medium of choice for the battle of beliefs, it seems.

The original ads from the British Humanist Association insisted: "There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

The new campaign is organsied by the Christian Party, the Trinitarian Bible Society and the Russian Orthodox Church. Their pro-God campaigns will run on 175 buses for two weeks from Monday.

In a somewhat cheeky move, the Rev George Hargreaves of the Christian Party has created a bus advert which proclaims: "There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life." It will run on 50 bendy buses in central London, east London and the West End.

Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church has booked 25 supersize bus advertisements, backed by a sponsorship deal with Russian Hour TV, using the line "There IS a God, BELIEVE. Don't worry and enjoy your life."

The Trinitarian Bible Society has taken a less temperate approach, using a line from the bible to scold nonbelievers: "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God," runs the advertisement's slogan, taken from Psalm 53.1. The church's campaign, which like the others was booked through outdoor advertising company CBS Outdoor, runs on 100 buses.

Last month the Advertising Standards Authority received almost 150 complaints that the atheist bus campaign was offensive to Christians, and that the "no God" claim could not be substantiated.

However the ASA ruled that the campaign did not break the advertising code, concluding that the ads were an "expression of the advertiser's opinion and that the claims in it were not capable of objective substantiation". As such, it said that it was unlikely to mislead or to cause widespread offence.

Writer Ariane Sherine first suggested the campaign in a Guardian Comment Is Free blog last June, to provide a reassuring counter-message to religious slogans threatening non-Christians with hell and damnation. She wrote: "Yesterday I walked to work and saw two London buses with the question: 'When the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?' (Luke 18:8) ... If I wanted to run a bus ad saying 'Beware, there is a giant lion from London Zoo on the loose!' I think I might be asked to show my working and back up my claims."

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Christian driver refuses to board bus carrying atheist slogan

You're either on the bus, or you're off the bus. And if the vehicle in question bears an advert proclaiming the (probable) non-existence of God, one churchgoing bus driver would rather not climb aboard.

Ron Heather, 62, an evangelical Christian from Southampton, refused to drive a bus bearing an advert from a national campaign aimed at persuading more people to "come out" as atheists.

About 800 buses across the country are to carry the adverts, which read: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and go and enjoy your life." Heather said he was "aghast" when he realised last Saturday that he would have to drive a double decker emblazoned with the slogan. He walked out of his shift in protest.

He said: "I was just about to board and there it was staring me in the face - my first reaction was shock horror. I felt that I could not drive that bus, I told my managers and they said they had not got another one and I thought I better go home, so I did."

Heather said he had been particularly offended by the name of the website featured on the ad, atheistcampaign.org.

He said: "This is a public attack on people's faiths. I have a lot of passengers who are over 90 or are seriously ill, and to tell them there is no God seems a bit insensitive, when God is probably all they have left in the world. Faith is a very important thing in people's lives, and I think [the poster] pushes the issue too far."

Heather later agreed to return to work on the condition that he would drive buses with the adverts only if no other vehicles were available. "I'm not going to let passengers down because of my feelings."

Writer Ariane Sherine, who first suggested the campaign in a Guardian Comment is Free blog, said: "Our campaign fully accepts and respects the rights of all other belief systems to advertise peaceful messages, and we'd hope that those with different viewpoints would extend us the same freedom."

A spokesman for the ASA said it had received 231 complaints about the British campaign.

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ASA clears Atheist Bus Campaign ads

The advertising watchdog has ruled that a controversial atheist ad campaign, which sparked the ire of Christian groups for proclaiming "There is probably no God", did not break its code.

Religious groups including Christian Voice complained to the Advertising Standards Authority arguing that the Atheist Bus Campaign, which ran on buses with the strapline "There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life", broke the advertising code on the grounds of substantiation and truthfulness.

The ASA, which said that some of the complaints were that the ad was offensive and denigratory to people of faith, faced the prospect of having to decide if God existed in order to rule on Christian Voice's complaint.

However, the watchdog said today that the British Humanist Association's campaign did not breach the advertising code or mislead consumers and that it therefore would not launch an investigation.

"The ASA council concluded that the ad was an expression of the advertiser's opinion and that the claims in it were not capable of objective substantiation," said the ASA. "Although the ASA acknowledges that the content of the ad would be at odds with the beliefs of many, it concluded that it was unlikely to mislead or to cause serious or widespread offence."

Writer Ariane Sherine first suggested the idea in a Guardian Comment is Free blog last June, saying an atheist bus campaign would provide a reassuring counter-message to religious slogans threatening non-Christians with hell and damnation.

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original article here