When I first heard of the Atheist Bus Campaign, I was quite amused. Launched back in October, the campaign is essentially a joint venture from the British Humanist Association and Richard Dawkins, attempting to add balance to the religious propaganda which frequently appears on London public transport.

The campaign takes the form of a large red, yellow and pink poster plastered to the side of London’s buses, proudly proclaiming “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

Frankly, the posters are quite tricky to miss but if you don’t live in the capital then you can be forgiven for not having heard of them until now. Despite having exceeded the original £5,500 target (which Dawkins agreed to match, pound for pound) by around £140,000 at the time of writing (*152,000 at the time of circulating this digest email), the original intention was to adorn only 30 buses (of the 8000 vehicles operating on London’s 700 different routes each day) for one month. The campaign has however, become a lot bigger than initially expected. The British Humanist Association released a statement only a few days ago which officially launched the campaign in over 24 other locations and stated the adverts had already run on 800 buses, the London Underground and “two large LCD screens on Oxford Street”.

Now I realise that criticising the first ever atheist advertising campaign is unlikely to be particularly popular, especially when said campaign involves the Patron Saint of Atheism Himself, but to be honest, I don’t understand it.

I like the concept, it’s quaint and catchy; but if the slogan is truly to intended to stop people from worrying about the existence of God, in my opinion it has failed. It’s a great way to catch media attention and to perhaps make atheism a point of discussion but that’s all. I don’t believe anyone will walk away from the poster with a new confidence in the world and I certainly don’t believe it will make anyone question their faith.

While Alpha Course and other religious posters adorn the London transport system forcefully promoting all manner of books, seminars and revivals where God may be discovered, the atheist alternative simply offers a worry-free life, safe in the knowledge that there “probably is no God”. I don’t find that a convincing line and I’m not sure anyone else should either. My views about religion are based on my experiences and upbringing, the company I keep, but importantly also the available evidence. The Bible offers no substantial evidence for belief in a divine creator especially when considered against the available criticism. I won’t proclaim my approach to the topic has ever been neutral but the slogan does nothing to prompt theists to question their beliefs. If anything, the direction to “stop worrying and enjoy your life” is more akin to one of the Ten Commandments.

In discussing the slogan with another atheist, I was reminded of an exchange between James Randi and Chris French in an interview earlier this year. Towards the end of the interview (which should appear in print in the next issue, and online as a video around the same time), Randi volunteered: “All I want is just to get people thinking. Have them ask questions, have them think about what I have told them. Don’t believe me any more than you believe these other people who make these claims. I’m making a claim too; it may not be true, investigate it, think about it.” French echoed the same sentiment in return, saying: “The bottom line is, just think for yourselves, question everything. Question what I’m telling you and look at the evidence”.