Coming soon to a bus near you: a monumentally stupid war of the words between atheists and believers. This may be the most piddlingly insignificant religious conflict since Scientology had it out with “South Park.”
The trouble all started in England, as trouble usually does. A group of atheists purchased signs on the sides of buses reading "There's probably no God: Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
Humorous? If you’re an atheist, probably. Offensive? Maybe, if you happen to be a theist. Immature? Definitely. But a threat to religion? Hardly.
But some religious folk didn’t take too kindly to these signs. Chief among them was Alexander Korobko, a Russian millionaire apparently unfamiliar with the phrase “turn the other cheek.” Ring a bell, Alexander? Said by some guy, two thousand years ago, beard, did some tricks with loaves and fishes?
Korobko immediately sprang into action:
Korobko said an initial batch of 25 buses would take to the streets of the British capital with posters (twice the size of those posted by the atheists) picturing Moscow's 14th-century Holy Trinity-St. Sergius monastery and bearing this advice: "There is a God. Don't worry. Enjoy life."
Ka-POW! Take that, nonbelievers!
My favorite part is how Korobko made sure his ads were TWICE as big as the original, atheistic ones. We all know how words magically become more powerful when they appear in bigger font.
I have two questions for Korobko:
1. Do you honestly think that any atheist will, upon seeing your signs, clap his hands over his eyes and cry out, “My God! I finally see the light!”
2. If yes—do you really want somebody like that in your religion?
Perhaps I shouldn’t scoff. After all, there are a few important issues at play here. Among them: should people be subjected to religious propaganda against their will?
Should I be allowed to purchase a billboard across the road from a church, so that I can put up a sign saying, “There Is No God?” Better yet, what if I took out an ad in an atheist newsletter saying “Enjoy Your Time in Hell”? Am I exercising my freedom of speech, or am I being an obnoxious jerk who deserves to be silenced?
I think religions should welcome challenges of this kind. Religion, after all, is meant to be tested. You should never take you religion lightly; it’s your soul that’s at stake. If you find your faith beginning to waver after reading a billboard on a bus—maybe that means it’s time to do some soul searching.
Oh, well. This might be stupid, but at least nobody is being burned at the stake. Holy wars just aren’t what they used to be.
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1 comment:
I agree with you. I heard about the atheist campaign a while ago, but I did not know that about the Russian man and the even bigger signs. I am an "Americanized" Romanian, and every time I talk to my very Romanian dad about one of my best friends who is atheists, he always makes some comment about atheists being evil communists. Guess he's not alone! It's sad that, at least for Eastern Europeans who lived during communist times, atheism is associated with political leaders who banned Christianity. Although I am a theist myself, I have a great deal of respect for atheists, mainly because I have very close friends who are atheists, so I associate atheism with respectable people.
In any case, although I really enjoyed your comments and I agree with you that the response from the Christian side is really immature, I don't think that the atheist campaign in itself is immature. I don't think there's anything wrong with putting a sign like that on a bus. Religious organizations advertise and nobody says anything about it, so why are atheist not allowed to? A Church in Chapel Hill actually has advertisements inside the Chapel Hill buses, in both English and Spanish, encouraging people to attend their church (they also aim to be inclusive and their adds target all kinds of people - undocumented immigrants, gays, etc.) Should we call that immature as well?
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