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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 1:21 am 
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http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus

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

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CAMPAIGN

The Atheist Bus Campaign launches today, Tuesday October 21 2008. With your support, we hope to raise £5,500 to run 30 buses across the capital for four weeks with the slogan: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Professor Richard Dawkins, bestselling author of The God Delusion, is officially supporting the Atheist Bus Campaign, and has generously agreed to match all donations up to a maximum of £5,500, giving us a total of £11,000 if we reach the full amount - enough for a much bigger campaign. The British Humanist Association have kindly agreed to administer all donations.

With your help, we can brighten people's days on the way to work, help raise awareness of atheism in the UK, and hopefully encourage more people to come out as atheists. We can also counter the religious adverts which are currently running on London buses, and help people think for themselves.

As Richard Dawkins says: "This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think - and thinking is anathema to religion."


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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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:04 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:17 pm 
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They'd probably be getting death threats if they did that in here. I love the sentiment, though.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:49 am 
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I'm with Onio, There are far more worthwhile causes.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:21 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:22 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:49 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 3:49 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:27 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:23 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:58 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:54 pm 
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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.
:lol:

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 5:14 am 
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Or that he has bigger things to worry about?

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:03 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:22 pm 
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No Longer There wrote:
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.


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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PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:31 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:23 pm 
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As a net-result, they're also stealing 20k's worth of money directly from charity. I hope they're happy with themselves.


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 4:05 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 5:05 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:46 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:56 pm 
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You imply that Atheism isn't a religious belief. It's only the disbelief in a divine being.


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 9:39 pm 
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That's what I thought, but every athiest I've ever spoken to is against religion full stop.

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PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 1:20 am 
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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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PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 1:45 pm 
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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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PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 5:13 pm 
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Valiumgodmother wrote:
That's what I thought, but every athiest I've ever spoken to is against religion full stop.


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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