(Hat tip to Hot Air)
So an athiest group (athiests are organized?) in England is doing something I hate, which is pushing their beliefs on others. Even if I agree with them, I think they should keep their religion, or lack thereof, to themselves. After all, that seems to be the point of the ads they’re running on busses:
The adverts contain the slogan: ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life,’
Some people do enjoy their lives through religion. I’m not religious and I enjoy Episcopal church. It has a calming, soothing effect on me. I’ve written poetry about how the repitition of well-memorized statements in unison with others is somewhat calming to me, even if/when I don’t believe. The ritual itself is soothing. And then there’s that 10-minute sermon which – if you’re in a church with biblical and historical scholars for preachers – is like a historical lecture. So it’s easily possible to enjoy life within the confines of religion. Not to mention the feeling of community and the actual community a church creates.
I take issue when folks, outside of an academic-ish debate, try to invalidate the beliefs or lives of others. And use religion to do it. It’s hard to reason with “Well God says being gay is wrong,” or “Well, God said the world was created in 7 days.” How do you reply? “Scientific evidence says otherwise.” “Yeh, but God said this.” That’s a debate killer.
That’s what I feel like this athiest group is doing. “There is no God, you’re wrong, get over it.” Debate over.
I feel more for ardent Christians who take a similar tactic, because if they’re not motivated by the desire to piss people off by telling them they’re wrong, then, at the very least, they actually are trying to get people into heaven. They are literally trying to save (post-mortem) lives. I feel like this atheist group is just being confrontational for the sake of confrontation.
Well, a Christian group got pissed off and has reported the ads to the bus service regulator because they are allowing advertising that can’t be backed up with evidence, or so the Christians say. That’s true, I have no more evidence that there is no God than I have that there is a god. As it is, God doesn’t make sense to me, and the idea that I’m supposed to give up this gift of reason God supposedly gave me and just believe in and worship him makes me think that God is a terribly conflicted egomaniac. But I’m always open to the possibility of God.
Anyway, got off on a tangent there. Sorry.
They might lose that “no evidence God doesn’t exist” debate in court, if it comes to that. But if you’re not talking about, say, evolution or something else scientific, the athiests might have some problems. It’s difficult to invalidate people’s perceived perceptions of God in court. You can’t prove that those people aren’t sure God didn’t talk to them, after all. In some cases, you might be able to prove that they’re crazy, but hell, Tucker Carlson became a Christian the other day because he said God talked to him (“I exist,” God said to Carlson). He sucks, he really, really sucks and is a miserable cesspool of humanity’s potential, but I don’t think he’s a diagnosable schitzophrenic.
But it sounds like an interesting case, and I look forward to following it.