Listen / Read
Gorgeous. I didn’t think it would be long before this came up.
In your face Christians! You said we’d never manage it but we’re at £87,000 and still counting! Skank on you! Nah nah na nah nah!
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Let me compose myself…
The issues Rev Lain-Priestley brought up have been discussed with some vigour over at atheistcampaign.org. And no doubt these discussions will continue for some time to come. The Atheist Bus Campaign really has provoked debate, and that really is a genuinely good thing, for both atheists and theists.
A lot of people have asked the question “what has atheism got to do with not worrying and enjoying yourself? Since when did heathens have dibs on chillaxing and getting your rocks off?” And that’s a good question. As Rev Lain-Priestley said, she’s always chillaxing and getting her rocks off. So what gives, you godless dickwads? I hear you cry.
Well, let’s go all the way back to the start, shall we? In the beginning God created the hea— oops! Silly me. Wrong beginning. Let’s try again. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
Way back in June (remember, before the economic fabric of Western civilisation went well and truly down the shitter?) Ariane Sherine on the Guardian website’s Comment is free section, wrote :
Yesterday I walked to work and saw not one, but two London buses with the question: “When the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). It seems you wait ages for a bus with an unsettling Bible quote, then two come along at once.
The errant capital letters weren’t the only disturbing thing about this (Faith Hill or Faith Evans?). There was also a web address on the ad, and when I visited the site, hoping for a straight answer to their rather pressing question, I received the following warning for anyone who doesn’t “accept the word of Jesus on the cross”: “You will be condemned to everlasting separation from God and then you spend all eternity in torment in hell. Jesus spoke about this as a lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and all his angels (demonic spirits)” (Matthew 25:41). Lots to look forward to, then.
And then she said let there be a hugely successful fundraising campaign to run counter-ads not merely all over London, but all over the country, and then the world, mwahahaha! And there was.
Well, not quite. Hard slog was needed to get it all organised, help from Jon Worth and Graham Nunn (heh, Nunn) to get the website set up, the support of Richard Dawkins and the British Humanist Association and hell knows (or will do) how many others. All that support was quite important actually, as this first attempt at a campaign didn’t really ‘succeed’ as it were. That’s not to say it ‘failed’, it just didn’t meet expectations. Ariane and co weren’t deterred however, they believed you can herd cats! You just need to persist. And perhaps blackmail them with tuna. Or in this case with Dawkins’ cash and campaign t-shirts.
So she took a step back and planned it all out with said ingredients. And then wrote Dawkin ’bout a revution for Cif. I read that article and responded via email, saying, yes, yes Ariane, I’m down with that shit. Just give me the word. As I’m only a small-time blogger, and really just riding Peter Hearty’s coattails, there’s not a lot I could do. All my friends are cynical, apathetic and utterly disinterested in religion, to the point where they don’t even give a shit. Perhaps that’s the best tact to take. Me on the other hand, well, I hold on to the hope that we can change this world for the better, that we can make our voices heard, though we my be independent minded, we may not actually believe in anything per se, but just the absence of something and, yes, we may just have nothing better to spend our money on. But fuck it, fuck all of that. I have my reasons and finally here’s something I can get on board with, finally something I can feel a part of, something reasonable, something that the quietly disconnected masses can come together on and say hey, you! There’s probably no god. So stop worrying and enjoy your life. And so they were told, in vaguely uncertain terms, that we’re not going to worry about hell and damnation. We shouldn’t only have to listen to those who publicly proliferate their personal belief in supernatural beings and supernatural consequences for the way you choose to see the world. Chillax. Hug each other. Maybe a little bit more than a hug. Maybe you’re not into hugging before marriage. Whatever, it’s upto you. We’re all friends here.
And, somewhere in all of that, I put my money where my mouth was, and contributed. And so did a shitload of other people, just like me. Sure, we discussed the finer points, we weren’t sure about the ‘probably‘, it does sound like we’ve got a bit of a semi-on, I know, but there’s a reason for that. Ariane has mentioned it in her latest Cif article on the campaign. The most cock-on atheist of the lot, Richard Dawkins, has given his approval. Everyone read the wording beforehand and were happy enough to give their own hard-earned cash (buckets of the stuff) to see it come to fruition.
So, in conclusion, I’m super chuffed today. There probably is no god. I’m not worried. And I’m really enjoying my life as one of many cats in this heathen flock. Meowbaaahmeow.
Now the question is, will the Today programme let us have our say for once…?