rathergood.com

http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus

Started this morning (21st of October) and they reached their target of £5,500 by about 10am



Current total is at £47,366.74.

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I'd expect a couple of members of this forum to be Christian, and this is meant not as me saying "fuck you, atheism is well win", just thought I would bring it to all your attentions.

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Oh herro

Well this is interesting. If they're raised that much in a day though it makes me wonder what we could do if we looked at putting our time and energy into something worthwhile that will improve society instead of "Look at (our/lack off) religious beliefs!"

Not saying Atheism shouldn't have posters in places other religious beliefs do, but fuck. At time of posting it's £60,233.08. And it's not even been 2 days. That's a hell of a lot of money. Imagine what we could do with that to help raise awareness on issues that would help cut crime in the UK, imagine how many children would actually get a chance at life by sending to the US to get treatments the NHS refuse to even acknowledge exist because they're "too expensive".

There are plenty of more deserving campaigns than this. It's obvious nobody expected it to raise this much this quick, but I'm disgusted people are actually giving so much to this cause. We have the power and the voice, so why are we regressing so quickly?

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"Did they look like psychos? Is that what they looked like? They were vampires. Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are!"
- Seth Gecko

They'd probably be getting death threats if they did that in here. I love the sentiment, though.

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meh.

I'm with Onio, There are far more worthwhile causes.

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Always tired.

Now that is an interesting point you raised there. (Current total is: £ 82,598.57)

I'm all for the campaign (though i do have mixed feelings about the slogan). But it seems like an awfull waste to spend that amount of money on sticking slogans on buses, trains and what have you. They've (more then) made their point.

Since the people behind this campaign are British Humanist Association i'm sure they could come up with a cause everybody in the UK would benefit from. And if not, they could donate it to some charity, there are a lot of charity organisations out there who aren't related to any religion. I guess the non-religious ones just aren't that interested in mentioning they're not religious all the time.

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The end of this sentence contradicts the beginning, therefore it is deep and clever.

True, there may be more worthwhile causes.

But it's about balance. Why shouldn't atheists be allowed to spread their message? We have faith schools, why not non-faith schools? A fairer society would recognise both sides of the debate.

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I wrote a book...

But you are allowed to spread the message. I mean people and organisations are are doing it all the time. It seems out of balance coz some religious people or groups get very wound up and feel personally attacked by that message.

And religious schools.. tricky one coz they recieve gorvernement funding. But i guess that as long as they don't recieve more then schools open to all beliefs (including the believe that there is no God) it shouldn't be an issue.

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The end of this sentence contradicts the beginning, therefore it is deep and clever.

Yeah, atheists should do something more than just raise awareness for their cause.
The atheists are in a difficult situation, though. We’ve got Christian Aid. Should we have Atheist Aid or Humanist Aid?

They could gain publicity and say ‘we’re helping people out of natural human kindness, not to gain brownie points from God’ but then they’d still be mimicking the Christians in using charity as moral self-justification.

NB: If you Google the words atheist, human and humanist with the word ‘aid’ you’ll find some interesting, conscience-wringing stuff. Here’s an example of the debate:
http://www.happyatheistforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&p=21837

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Lord Summerisle! Can't you see I'll be missed without bacon soup on my head?

http://www.freespiritz.net/Choicecuts.htm

If a good portion of that money went to another cause while keeping just enough to do the bus thing, the cause of atheism could get a double-whammy of positive propeganda, plus other causes could benefit too.

Is there a clause saying they have to spend all the money on themselves?

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Teh Amberz- "Or calling all biscuits cookies. How do you then differentiate between cookies and other types off biscuit?"

Sorry if I can't get the youtube thingy to work properly, but click on this link and you'll see the world's biggest advert for atheism - for free! The context is the US presidential election.

I'm not an atheist but if all Christians were like this, there's a chance I might be.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-4wQfQtpDAc

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Lord Summerisle! Can't you see I'll be missed without bacon soup on my head?

http://www.freespiritz.net/Choicecuts.htm

Oh my! People who think like that (if you can call it thinking) scare me.

(BTW.. replace the uk. part after http:// with www. and the youtube code thingy will work)

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The end of this sentence contradicts the beginning, therefore it is deep and clever.

I think the fact people seem more ready to contribute to this than a cure for cancer or an end to world poverty is proof in itself that there is no god.

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Nemesis of the Moron



http://www.myspace.com/valiumgodmother

Or that he has bigger things to worry about?

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Always tired.

Yeah, don't you know he's busy working on something to trump his latest masterpiece we call "AIDs"? Or make something more devastating then Tangshans 1976 earthquake?

The campaign is now just below £100,000. As if my faith in the UK hadn't been lost already this has sealed it for me. We have proven we can make a difference by uniting people of 1 set of beliefs, yet we've chosen to do it for what is quite possibly the most useless campaign out there. If all Richard Dawkins can think to do with the money is use it for a national ad campaign I'm really reconsidering whether or not he is a good guy after all.

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"Did they look like psychos? Is that what they looked like? They were vampires. Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are!"
- Seth Gecko

But by that same logic then, the Christians who advertise on buses are not good guys - surely THEY can think of better things to do with the money too?

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I wrote a book...

I've got nothing against what he's doing at the base of it. If it closed when he got the £5,500 I would have just thought "Great! About time someone advertised atheism in a positive manner.". But it's not just £11,000. It is almost £100,000. £100,000 that is being spent just to state a religious opinion over improving lives. I can't even comprehend why anyone would want to 1-up religion that much.

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"Did they look like psychos? Is that what they looked like? They were vampires. Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are!"
- Seth Gecko

As a net-result, they're also stealing 20k's worth of money directly from charity. I hope they're happy with themselves.

as far as i see it, this campaign is working because it is different. sure, i'd like to see that £100k spent on better things (cancer awareness, water for developing countries etc. etc.) but when adverts for charities are being shoved in your face at every available oppertunity.. when something a little bit different like this comes along, i would probably find it easier to part with a small amount of my money.

PLEASE DONATE TO MACMILLAN - we need your money to increase cancer awareness around the country
PLEASE DONATE TO THE RSPCA - we need your money to continue our services protecting animals
PLEASE DONATE TO SIGHTSAVERS - we need your money to give the gift of sight to people in the developing world
PLEASE DONATE TO THE NSPCC - we need your money to continue our services protecting children
PLEASE DONATE TO THE RED CROSS - we need your money to support people in the developing world
PLEASE DONATE TO THE HIV/AIDS CHARITY - we need your money to continue our research into treating and preventing this disease

oh hey, fancy giving a bit of money to an organisation who just want to put a slogan on a bus?

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www.myspace.com/purebrightstar deviantART

I can see how that mentality works, those adverts also start to shoot up at this time of year too, on the build to Christmas, there's no better time to make people feel guilty when these causes should be keeping a constant level awareness over the whole year.

People like to stray away from the norm, even if doing so causes a new norm.

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Teh Amberz- "Or calling all biscuits cookies. How do you then differentiate between cookies and other types off biscuit?"

The way I look at it, I have my charities I support - Shelter, Tommy's Campaign and the one/s that do stuff to help save Sun Bears and bears that are mistreated for entertainment, medicinal stuff, etc. If someone approaches me for anything else, I politely tell them that and wish them well in raising money. Only if they push it do I get narky with them. What I don't get is if Athiests don't believe in anything, why are they so into advertising it in the first place? Is there a group athiests belong to? Because normally, if a group of people come together with the same religious views, they normally become a religion themselves, but in the case of athiests and taking in the basic etymology, would that not mean the more people who get on board (nice bus pun, eh.....lol) the more they disprove themselves?

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Nemesis of the Moron



http://www.myspace.com/valiumgodmother

You imply that Atheism isn't a religious belief. It's only the disbelief in a divine being.

That's what I thought, but every athiest I've ever spoken to is against religion full stop.

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Nemesis of the Moron



http://www.myspace.com/valiumgodmother

Mr Me is a devout atheist. I think it's good to raise awareness about atheism. Shouldn't we be celebrating diversity?

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meh.

I think that in a world where religions are being "advertised", it's only fair that not having belief get's a fair shout too. Thats what this campeign is all about, to counter the religious ads on the buses. I see what you mean though VGM, though I would call it a frame of mind rather than religious doctrine.

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Teh Amberz- "Or calling all biscuits cookies. How do you then differentiate between cookies and other types off biscuit?"

You've spoken to me, I'm an atheist and am hardly against religion full stop. In fact, I love religion. It's one of my favourite subjects to read up on. There's valuable lessons in most of them which are worth adopting to make life more tolerable.

The Hindu God, Shiva, has to be the best deity ever.

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"Did they look like psychos? Is that what they looked like? They were vampires. Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are!"
- Seth Gecko