The atheist posters are the idea of the British Humanist Association (BHA) and have been supported by prominent atheist Professor Richard Dawkins. The BHA planned only to raise £5,500, which was to be matched by Professor Dawkins, but it has now raised more than £36,000 of its own accord. It aims to have two sets of 30 buses carrying the signs for four weeks.

The complete slogan reads: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

As the campaign has raised more than anticipated, it will also have posters on the inside of buses as well. The BHA is also considering extending the campaign to cities including Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Professor Dawkins said: "Religion is accustomed to getting a free ride - automatic tax breaks, unearned respect and the right not to be offended, the right to brainwash children. Even on the buses, nobody thinks twice when they see a religious slogan plastered across the side. This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think - and thinking is anathema to religion."

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the BHA, said: "We see so many posters advertising salvation through Jesus or threatening us with eternal damnation, that I feel sure that a bus advert like this will be welcomed as a breath of fresh air. If it raises a smile as well as making people think, so much the better."

But Stephen Green of pressure group Christian Voice said: "Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large. 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."

However the Methodist Church said it thanked Professor Dawkins for encouraging a "continued interest in God".

Spirituality and discipleship officer Rev Jenny Ellis said: "This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life. Christianity is for people who aren't afraid to think about life and meaning."

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

Advertising panel approves British `No God' bus ads

LONDON (RNS) Rejecting protests by Christian groups, Britain's advertising watchdog agency has given the go-ahead to a campaign to plaster atheist signs on hundreds of buses and other vehicles across the country.

The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the campaign, which uses the slogan "There's probably no God," was unlikely to mislead or "cause serious or widespread offense."

The ASA is a powerful regulator set up as a self-governing agency for the nation's advertising industry, with the authority to take its cases to the government's Office of Fair Trading. As such, its decisions are rarely, if ever, challenged.

The $100,000 ad campaign is sponsored by the British Humanist Association. The signs, in full, say, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." The ads will be placed on some 200 buses in London and on 600 other vehicles in England, Scotland and Wales.

The campaign has prompted one Christian bus driver, Ron Heather of Southampton, England, to walk off the job in protest. When he first caught sight of the banner, Heather said, "my first reaction was sheer horror." He added that "it was the starkness of this advert which implied there was no God" that got to him, and that "I felt that I could not drive the bus."

But Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, told reporters that "I can't understand why some people have a different attitude when it comes to atheists."

Most of the 326 complaints that the ASA received were from Christian organizations and individuals, who said the slogans denigrated people of faith. Others argued that the advertiser could not substantiate its claim that God "probably" does not exist. However, the ASA said the ads amounted to an expression of the advertiser's opinion and that its claims were beyond objective substantiation.

Source: http://pewforum.org/news/rss.php?NewsID=17392

"No God" bus ads banned in Italian city

ROME (Reuters) - Italian atheists have lost a bid to run "no God" advertisements on city buses after strong opposition from conservative political parties, a member of the group said on Saturday.

The ads reading "The bad news is that God doesn't exist. The good news is that you don't need him" were to have been put on buses in the northern city of Genoa, home to the Catholic cardinal who is head of the Italian Bishops Conference.

The mock-up was ready and the contract was sent to the group for signing but the publicity agency changed its mind and said the ad could not run it because it violated an ethics in advertising code, according to Giorgio Villella of The Italian Union of Atheists and Rationalist Agnostics (UAAR).

"Right-wing politicians criticized us ferociously," Villella said by telephone from the group's base, adding that at least one bus driver in Genoa said he would refuse to drive a "no God" bus.

"It's strange that in a country where ads depicting near-naked women wearing skimpy lingerie is permitted on buses that we can't run ads about atheism," Villella said.

Villella said the group's lawyers would likely file an appeal to a court to overturn the decision and that the group would try to run the ads in other Italian cities.

Atheists in Barcelona, London and Washington have already run "no God" ads on city buses.

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUKTRE50G1QP20090117