The Atheist Bus Drove In on the Web

Three atheists and an agnostic bus: Ariane Sherine, Richard Dawkins and Polly Toynbee. (Photo: Leon Neal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

As Sarah Lyall reports in today’s New York Times, the new British advertising campaign casting doubt on the existence of God — which started yesterday with large posters on the outside of 200 London buses brashly proclaiming politely suggesting “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” — grew entirely out of a blog post on The Guardian’s op-ed blog.

That initial blog post was itself inspired by an ad the blogger, Ariane Sherine, had seen on a bus in June, suggesting that users of London’s public transit system should visit the Web site Jesussaid.org to find out what the future had in store for them. What Ms. Sherine discovered was a Web site that threatened unbelievers like her with eternal damnation:

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.

Fighting Webfire with Webfire, Ms. Sherine blogged about her experience and encouraged like-minded readers to donate money for an ad campaign that would give unbelievers equal time on the side of at least a few London buses.

As Ms. Sherine wrote in a follow-up blog post yesterday on The Guardian’s “Comment is free” blog, the response far exceeded her modest expectations:

thanks to many Cif readers, the overall total raised for the Atheist Bus Campaign stands at a truly overwhelming £135,000, breaking our original target of £5,500 by over 2400%. Given this unexpected amount, I’m very excited to tell you that 800 buses – instead of the 30 we were initially aiming for – are now rolling out across the UK….

Amazingly, the campaign has now gone international. Spain’s Union of Atheists and Freethinkers are launching buses across Barcelona today with a translation of our slogan, 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.

While it may often seem that people who spend a lot of their time reading and writing on Web sites are conducting only virtual discussions, and arguments, over matters great and small, the fact that Ms. Sherine’s blog post, and the comments posted in response to it, eventually led to the spectacle of buses with atheist, or agnostic, messages on them driving around the streets of British, American and Spanish cities is yet another illustration of the fact that the Web can be a powerful way to translate virtual energy into actual movements. Just in case the imminent presidency of Barack Obama wasn’t already proof enough of the Web’s actual power.

In a video report on Guardian.co.uk, Ms. Sherine celebrates in front of a newly agnostic double-decker bus, along with Richard Dawkins and Polly Toynbee, two of the better-known atheists who helped publicize her campaign by linking to her Web site, and writing in support of the idea.