All aboard the atheist bus

nozzferrahhtoo

Target matched and at this time exceeded by 852,98 GBP. Well done all

Rev Hellfire

You have to ask, what's the point in wasting all this money?
Its not like it'll accomplish anything, personally I'd prefer to take my money and goto the pub.

Dades

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

You have to ask, what's the point in wasting all this money?

Are you not a tiny bit interested in the potential public reaction to such a promotion?

At the very least it should spark a bit of interesting debate. Worst case scenario, there'll be bombs placed on all the buses which will go off if the speed drops below 50mph.

nozzferrahhtoo

From the organisers:

** We reached the total at 10.06am - thank you so much to everyone who contributed! If you haven't donated yet and would like to then please do - we can then get adverts inside the same buses to strengthen the campaign's impact! **

Rev Hellfire

Dades wrote: »

Are you not a tiny bit interested in the potential public reaction to such a promotion?

The thing is I imagine there'll be as much interest in this as there is in any religious stuff put on the side of a bus, ie. None.

I mean if its all for a bit of a larf, I guess where's the harm. Still seems a waste though.

Dades

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

The thing is I imagine there'll be as much interest in this as there is in any religious stuff put on the side of a bus, ie. None.

The smartest reaction the various religious groups could give would be none.

I'm anticipating a bit more reaction, though.

Zombrex

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

The thing is I imagine there'll be as much interest in this as there is in any religious stuff put on the side of a bus, ie. None.

I imagine if there was no interest in religious posters on or in buses the various evangelical groups wouldn't spend the money on them.

back to the poster, I'm pleased they said "Probably ..." at the start, otherwise they would open themselves up to the common criticism from religious groups that atheism is as "fundamental" as they are.

I'm weighting for the "Jesus probably died for your sins.." poster :pac:

My original point still stands I think though. The idea that there is no God would probably cause a lot of people to start worrying. So I guess it depends on who the poster is targeted at.

nozzferrahhtoo

I see AC Grayling threw in 500GBP.

Dades

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

I see AC Grayling threw in 500GBP.

Puts my 3.16 in the shade. :pac:

nozzferrahhtoo

Dades wrote: »

Puts my 3.16 in the shade. :pac:

Thor is not impressed with your pitiful offering

Galvasean

Dades wrote: »

I suppose vegetarianism is a religion too, then?

Damn vegatarianists! :mad:


It would be funny if people complained about this. The 'probably' bit covers are proverbial asses. Imagine the precedent! If the religious organizations also had to be as open minded with their slogans.
Like Wicknit said, "Jesus probably died for your sins.." or maybe "We believe Jesus died for your sins".

This could be epic. Or on the other hand it could prove once and for all that no one pays attention while commuting.

side taught: imagine if our bus gets vandalized or better yet petrol bombed (no one gets hurt mind) :pac:

Dave!

Woah they met/surpassed the target in like a day :eek: It was only at €500 or thereabouts when I posted! :eek:

Tar.Aldarion

Some people gave £100. Oh baby. I'll wear a similar tshirt around town, just pledge to me!

Dave!

A few gave £500 also

Still impressed with the response!

Anybody notice it on richarddawkins.net? I don't see it... Would probably get a big response from there

growler

although a vaguely amusing idea, it seems to be a bit of pointless believer baiting which is bound to lead to some god fearing nutjob doing something stupid and probably hurting someone, as that seems to be what they do.

The media coverage its had already today on the bbc etc. is more than it will ever achieve on a bus, objective achieved spend the money on something more worthwhile.

Dades

I think it looks kinda pleasant.

8kvscdpglqnyr4

I also pledged £5 this morning at the grand total was at £4,000. It's great to see it's over £25,000 as I write this. Does that include the £5,500 from Dawkins already? If that does not include Dawkins, then it's over £30,000!

And from the campagin:
"With your support, we hope to raise £5,500 to run 30 buses across the capital for four weeks with the slogan"

Imagine what they can do with £30,000.

And while I was at it, I got me one of these:
http://atheistnation.co.uk/chimp-tshirt-bottle-green-p-95.html

limerick_woody

I pledged a tenner and i wish them every success!

robindch

Currently number one on the beeb's list of most-emailed stories:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7681914.stm

Ha!

studiorat

Dades wrote: »

There's loads of posters about promoting 'Jesus as the path to salvation' or whatnot, and I suspect no independent group verified that claim.

That's what I meant really...
Good to see my point of view regarding the matter is still personal though!

robindch

Alora Dazzling Supernova wrote: »

great to see it's over £25,000

Six and a half grand in the ninety minutes since I bunged them a tenner -- not bad

Only another $999,946,185.35 to go until the BHA can compete with PDN's financial clout.

Bottle_of_Smoke

Ariane Sherine's pretty damn hawt

robindch

"Christian Voice", aka Stephen Green, the UK's busiest one-man pressure group, scored a hugely enjoyable own-goal in July, when he caused the UK's blasphemy laws to be abolished. Last Sunday, his powers of prophesy let him down again when he shot the following snorter past his own goalie:

Green wrote:

Richard Dawkins is so concerned that the atheist message is dying on its feet that he is to fund a humanist evangelistic campaign, Christian Voice has learned. But in a twist which will have Christians in gales of laughter, the advertising campaign, which will be based on the catchy slogan 'There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and get on with your life,' is to be stuck on bendy-buses.

Apparently, an atheist blogger named Jon Worth came up with the idea, but his fellow humanists, not known for their generosity, wouldn't stump up the cash. Now Richard Dawkins, whose anti-Christian zeal knows little bounds, is to finance the doomed venture.

Should the ads be placed on London 's Bendy-Buses, it would be a highly-appropriate move since these have proved to be a danger to the public and are due for the chop under new Mayor Boris Johnson. Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today: 'How funny that Richard Dawkins is so scared of the threat which evangelical Christianity poses to atheism and his beloved Darwinism that he has to fund a campaign to attack God. He really is the nearest thing atheists have to an evangelist while his belief in non-belief is held with a fervour which many religious people would do well to emulate, so long as they don't make themselves look as inept as he so often does, poor man.

'I should be surprised if a quasi-religious advertising campaign like this did not attract graffiti. People don't like being preached at. Sometimes it does them good, but they still don't like it. The advertising space on a bendy-bus is just the right height as well. But the graffiti artists, and indeed the atheist advertisers will have to be quick or the bendy-buses will be off the road in Boris's purge, taking the anti-God message with them. Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large. It occurs to me that the addition of just a few words from Psalm 14 would make the entire message Biblical: "The fool hath said in his heart ..." '

As of the time of writing, the amount collected had exceeded €60,000, almost ten times what was needed.

Galvasean

Facts smacks we have an agenda to run.

We should organize a trip where we all ride the bus waving and smiling at people we pass. Might be good PR for our kind.

Zillah

This is incredible. Wonderfully demonstrative of the real number of atheists/agnostics there are. They can now do it in several cities, I wonder exactly where this will end.

Dave!

£52,000.......

What are the chances of it reaching £100,000?!?!? :eek:

Tar.Aldarion

it's flying up, 100£ every time I refresh heh.

Tar.Aldarion

it's flying up, 100£ every time I refresh heh.

Dades

Galvasean wrote: »

We should organize a trip where we all ride the bus waving and smiling at people we pass. Might be good PR for our kind.

I was thinking wouldn't it be fun to have a site where anyone could post a picture of themselves with the banner in the background!

Maybe with the excess cash the Humanists would stump up for a Dublin bus, instead of coke and hookers.

MrPudding

Dades wrote: »

I was thinking wouldn't it be fun to have a site where anyone could post a picture of themselves with the banner in the background!

Maybe with the excess cash the Humanists would stump up for a Dublin bus, instead of coke and hookers.

Or, get the hookers to wear a tshirt with the slogan?

MrP

studiorat

Galvasean wrote: »

Facts smacks we have an agenda to run.

Here here!

From "Marketing for Militant Atheists"

Little badges... Kind of like the pioneers badge of yore. "What's that little badge?', "Oh! yeah, I'm an Evangelical Humanist. You really must come to one of our meetings!"

"Un-miraculous medal!" On the back it could say, "This Talisman has been quadruple blind tested and found to have no physical healing or spiritual qualities it's purely a placebo to make the wearer 'feel special'"

MrPudding

studiorat wrote: »

Here here!

From "Marketing for Militant Atheists"

I want one.

MrP

rozeboosje

Dave! wrote: »

£52,000.......

What are the chances of it reaching £100,000?!?!? :eek:

Considering this is only day 1 of the campaign and they're currently up to 73,000 .... Need I say more

Ok. Pity we didn't think of this ourselves but feck it. We should organise something similar here! I'm sick of sitting on the bus and seeing those religious ads all over the place. One day I'm going to see that poster "WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST" and find to my dismay that that time I actually said it out loud... :eek:

limerick_woody

wow! Some people really mean it... Great to see what's going on over there.

Labi Siffre 22/10/2008 £1,000.00 £282.05 As God knew / What Judas would do / In the final accounting / Who betrayed who?

Labi Siffre, is a renowned (Something inside so Strong...) songwriter and secularist.

PDN

I am delighted to see this initiative working and I genuinely hope they put this message on many more buses in as many different locations as possible.

The biggest enemy of Christianity is apathy. Thousands of people who are getting on with living their lives and never thinking of God will see the buses and, as a consequence, start wondering whether God exists or not.

Keep sending your donations in!

DanCorb

I hope all the extra money is put to good use.

Tim Robbins

DanCorb wrote: »

I hope all the extra money is put to good use.

Tim Robbins has donated.
http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus?page=3#donationtable

Galvasean

PDN wrote: »

I am delighted to see this initiative working and I genuinely hope they put this message on many more buses in as many different locations as possible.

The biggest enemy of Christianity is apathy. Thousands of people who are getting on with living their lives and never thinking of God will see the buses and, as a consequence, start wondering whether God exists or not.

Keep sending your donations in!

If they are that apathetic they'll probably just take the buses word for it.

George W Bush and the Pope donated £2.00 each. Nice of them.

edit: few wise asses donated £6.66

Dave!

They're gonna have to put some serious thought into what to do with all the money now £5k is one thing, £75k+ is quite another! They could put ads on TV and radio as well as on the buses if they want to! Here's hoping it gets used wisely

Galvasean

NOOO!!! We've become too rich and with richness comes corruption! Soon we will go against everything we believed in... uh....

Honestly, I'd like to see an atheist billboard. Ask the White House how much they want to place one on the lawn.

Zillah

Awesome:

This is amazing! We're so grateful for your generosity. If you haven't donated yet and would like to then please do - we're now going to advertise across the UK. Buses, trains, billboards - the sky's the limit!

Galvasean

Who says the sky is the limit? All aboard the atheist BLIMP!

Coming September 2012, the atheist space shuttle!

Dave!

Since the Christians seem so eager to embrace the idea, perhaps they could have an oul' pray and ask the G-man to write the slogan in the stars?

rozeboosje

I had to. Simply HAD to.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po9Z9YCjt_Y

Dades

Nicely put together - well done!

Galvasean

rozeboosje wrote: »

I had to. Simply HAD to.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po9Z9YCjt_Y

One of the side links was to the Red Hot Chili peppers song 'Cant Stop'. They show up in A&A a lot. Are they.. like us?

rozeboosje

Galvasean wrote: »

One of the side links was to the Red Hot Chili peppers song 'Cant Stop'. They show up in A&A a lot. Are they.. like us?

Human? Yup.

Atheists? Wouldn't that be great!?:p

rozeboosje

Dades wrote: »

Nicely put together - well done!

Cheers. All for a good cause eh?

nozzferrahhtoo

This just in from the Humanist Association:

The wheels on the bus go round and round and round and round!

The Atheist Bus Campaign is driving along at full tilt. Donations are pouring in, as are the phone calls from newspapers, sales pitches from ad agencies, and emails from everyone who’s ever had a worldview!

As always, we want and expect feedback especially from our members and supporters. Every policy decision and campaign announcement receives some praise and some criticism. There are two things that are special about the feedback on this campaign (both from the public and from our members and supporters). First is how much of it there is! Second is that it is overwhelmingly positive.

Of course there are always some critical comments. There have been numerous suggestions for changes to the wording, major and minor. We appreciate all this feedback, but there would never, ever be a slogan which everyone would be entirely happy with, and everyone who has their own ideas seems to feel that their modification is the only one that would need to be made! One person offers an idea because they think we should be less “presumptious”, another suggests that the slogan is already too “soft”! One person says they’re agnostic and it’s too atheistic, another says that “probably” isn’t sure enough of itself! So, in reality, we have hopefully found a balance between the possible “routes” that this bus could have taken, and it’s reassuring that despite a handful of criticisms of the negative beginning to the statement (“There’s probably no God”) the overall message is laidback, positive, and refreshing.
More than half the number of members who join the BHA in a usual month, joined in a single day between Tuesday and Wednesday!

It seems that, quibbles aside, Ariane’s advert has tapped into an undercurrent of thought which wants to shrug in the face of religious slogans.

Thank you for all your support.

Zillah

rozeboosje wrote: »

I had to. Simply HAD to.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po9Z9YCjt_Y

Oh bloody hell I hate conservative religious people. Did anyone else notice the subtle change christianvoice.org.uk made to the message? They claim the slogan was "There's probably no God, so stop worrying and get on with your life" rather than "...enjoy your life."

So...God damn...petty...