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...move follows a monthlong campaign by atheists, agnostics and other nonbelievers that saw 800 London buses plastered with a less God-fearing slogan: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." Ariane Sherine, an atheist and London-based comedy writer, devised the scheme after seeing a Christian bus advertisement. "It basically said that unless you believe this, you're going to end up suffering," she says of a pro-Jesus poster that featured what she describes as a "fiery apocalyptic sunset." "Our campaign provides reassurance for people who might be agnostic and don't quite believe...
...Similar atheist campaigns have run in Barcelona, Madrid and Washington, D.C. But since its Jan. 6 launch, the London scheme has been credited with inspiring atheist bus campaigns in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany and Italy, where next month posters in Genoa will read, "The bad news is that God does not exist. The good news is that we do not need him." The Genoa campaign prompted Father Gianfranco Calabrese, a spokesman for the Archbishop of Genoa, to speak out against what many opponents of the campaign call blasphemy. "There are some methods which promote dialogue and others which feed intolerance...
...teaming up with the Russian Orthodox Church to place the message "There is God. Don't worry. Enjoy your life!" on at least 25 buses from March. "We're living in a difficult time, when crisis is being extensively promoted and people need some life-asserting message," he told London's Daily Telegraph...
...anyway, say the London atheists, it's actually the Christian adverts that may be offensive to some. While the Humanist Association defends the right of Christians to air their views, many of its members object to the Christians' choice of words. Richard Dawkins, the eminent Oxford biologist and author of the best-selling book The God Delusion, takes issue with a slogan that calls nonbelievers fools. "That's a particularly obnoxious quote from one of the Psalms," he says. "Ours was extremely gentle and respectful by comparison." The use of the word probably in the atheist slogan, he says, does...
...Although the atheist posters were taken down when the campaign ended on Feb. 1, this modern-day Crusade being waged on London's transport system isn't over yet. The atheist bus organizers say they are regrouping and will launch another campaign in April, knowing that Christian groups are likely to respond in turn. "I don't object at all to the Christian ads that are going up, especially if they make people think," Dawkins says. "If more people think for themselves, we'll have fewer religious people...