The atheist bus journey is an experiment in freedom of speech, religious criticism and equality in advertising. The campaign was originally started as a positive counter-response to the Jesus Said ads running on London buses in June 2008. These ads displayed the URL of a website which stated that non-Christians "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 prepared for the devil".800 buses are now rolling out across the UK with the slogan, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life", in locations all over England, Scotland and Wales.
Two hundred of the buses will run in London, an animated version of the slogan will appear on two large LCD screens on Oxford Street and 1,000 tube cards on London Underground feature atheist quotations from Douglas Adams, Albert Einstein, Emily Dickinson and Katharine Hepburn, alongside the original campaign slogan.
The atheist campaign has also gone international. Spain's Union of Atheists and Freethinkers are launching buses across Barcelona. Italy's Union of Atheist, Agnostics and Rationalists are also planning to roll out atheist buses, while the American Humanist Association have been inspired to launch a campaign, and buses carrying their slogan "Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness' sake" have now been running for over a month in Washington DC.
Sadly, Australians won't be treated to anything similar: the Atheist Foundation of Australia tried to place the slogan "Atheism – celebrate reason" on buses, but were rejected by APN Outdoors - Australia's biggest outdoor advertising company, responsible for advertising on most public transport.
via Guardian
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