A couple days ago I posted a link to this story in the Guardian about a British advertising campaign promoting atheism. The catch phrase: "There's Probably No God."
There's been more discussion around the campaign in the Guardian around this (not really a surprise, people are very attached to their make-believe sky-spirit). I like this article by A.C. Grayling, who brings the smackdown on the the word "probably". Turns out the it's in there because the sales twits who sell ads on buses think it would be legally inaccurate to simply say "there is no God".
Grayling has this to say:
"There is something delicious about the thought of a functionary in an advertising agency doing ontology by arbitrating on the question of which fictional characters need a grey area of uncertainty around discussion of their existence – Little Red Riding Hood? Rumpelstiltskin? Santa? Betty Boop? Saint Veronica (who allegedly started out as sweat on a cloth and became a person)? Aphrodite? Wotan? Batman?"
Fun stuff. Read the whole thing here.
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- Stephen Whitworth
- The editor of prairie dog, a news and entertainment magazine published every two weeks in Regina, Saskatchewan. Really.
3 comments:
I find these advertising billboards to be just as annoying and childish as fundamentalist billboards proclaiming "Jesus is Lord".
There are plenty of people out there who believe in "God" and don't believe in a bearded old man who lives in the sky.
Yet that's not the point. What is to be accomplished with these billboards? It will not have people "second-guess" their faith nor will it make religion go away; it will only piss off a bunch of people with no useful outcome.
Perhaps these billboards will give voice to the non-believing voiceless out there. I miss the Seinfeld nihilism of the 1990s; in case you hadn't noticed, people "of faith" have been pretty dominant now in media and public life for the better part of the last decade. And it's making me sick. Hooray for the billboards.
As for the legal issue, case in point, sir, case in point. The ad men know the believers will be breathing fire down their necks if they dared run a billboard proclaiming there is no God. Yet, no one raises a stink about billboard that promote the invisible cloud being in the sky.
And, while I'm on the topic, as far as "Happy Holidays" versus "Merry Christmas" goes...HH is perfectly legit greeting given that New Year's is a holiday, too, and has no religious connotation whatsover. So, hope you all had 'happy holidays', and got rip-snorting drunk before the eyes of God.
I kind of like the inclusion of the word "probably". I'm an atheist myself, but don't see atheism as a religion... more like a logical conclusion. If I should ever meet God, I'll just kind of shrug my shoulders and say "well how about that?" Atheism isn't about being passionate about being right like religion seems to be, and it isn't even an ideology or a philosophy or a belief system. It's basically just, "yep, there's probably no God." There's a tone of indifference to it which I find appealing. It's almost humourous. "You know that idea you're so excited about? I'm not on board. But I don't really care that much. Waste your own time with it if you want. I'll be busy trying to make the most of my time here, instead of hoping that something better will come when I die."
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