British atheists have raised ₤83,000 (more than $130,000) to put ads on buses in London that read, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Joan Bakewell writes in the Times Online:
So what is the atheist bus achieving? First, it establishes a sense of solidarity among those who see religious sentiments carrying the day simply because they are well organised and well funded. From the tone of their blogs the bus-funders are often young people who feel that no one is listening to them. Now they are at least being heard.
Its second achievement is to convey the fact that atheists believe in something rather than nothing. It is a canard of the religious to suggest that atheism is an absence, a void, a moral vacuum. It is no such thing. It constitutes a body of belief in humanity and its virtues. A lack of faith and the decline of religion are often blamed for the current evils of society. Those without belief in God want it to be known that they have as strong a moral framework as those who follow ancient biblical texts and commandments laid down long ago by desert tribes. It is not an unreasonable thing to expect, and the bus is perhaps a jokey way of saying so.
Interestingly, some say that the inclusion of the word “probably” in the ads is actually an endorsement for a belief in god, for those who want to hedge their bets. Read the full article here, and, for the sake of comparison, read about the response to bus ads about Islam that ran in Seattle.