...

[chaletian]

I obviously should just not got out of bed this morning.

Partly, I sympathise with that bus driver (I know; none of you saw that coming). If I were a bus driver and came to work one morning to find my bus emblazoned with advertisements for killing monkeys or sodomising the elderly (against their wishes, natch; whatever people want to do in the privacy of their own retirement home is their own business), I wouldn't be keen on driving it. However, I don't think the two are remotely comparable. I find it interesting that one of the first tenets of most religions, right up there with "be nice" and "don't be a murderer", is the sanctity of that religion itself. It's weird. You'd think some of them would be up front about it all. Y'know: this is what we believe. We believe it very strongly and think it's ace and we're all going to end up in cotton candy land in the sky. However, we feel we should point out, just for accuracy's sake, that lots of other people believe lots of other things, and really, objectively speaking, the odds of our beliefs happening to be THE ONE TRUE GREAT TRUE TRUTH in the universe are, tragically, quite slim. Let's all live with it, eh, and be happy.

Comments

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Relatively recently, there were revolting ads all over the buses here (which, coincidentally, are also managed by the grasping and inefficient First Bus) for some movie involving a woman being buried alive, and everyone seemed to take that completely in their stride. But 'there's probably no God'? Oooh, no.

Grrr.

[katie__pillar.livejournal.com]

Quite right. We must respect the rights of pensioners who wish to sodomise each other.

Afternoon. See, I didn't even have to stay out for us to not see each other until LATE FRIDAY EVENING!!!!!!!!

[r-scribbles.livejournal.com]

That story has been annoying me all day too. I wondered if you'd seen it yet.

Would people be so sympathetic if an Atheist (or otherwise non-Christian) bus driver refused to drive a bus with the Alpha Course advertised? Or a teetotaller with an alcohol advert? Or somebody who thinks promoting gambling is amoral with an online poker ad? Don't blinking think so.

Buses advertise Saw, for fuck's sake. Severed fingers and lopped-off heads a-go-go. Which is fine and dandy with the drivers, apparently.

[willowmina.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation - our Rector was ranting about the cause of these ads... not the ads themselves - he personally feels that the hellfire and damnation brigades of Christianity do a lot more damage to the religion than those who don't believe at all...

[nikkibeth76.livejournal.com]

My main reaction to this story is 'Why do we need to advertise religion (or lack thereof) on the side of buses anyway?' Whether it's Christian groups, atheist groups or any other religius group, do they really think that people are going to see an ad on the side of a bus and think 'Of course! I have wasted my life in a mistaken belief! Thank goodness I saw the Bus of Enlightenment!!!'

It'a a bit like Jehovah's Witnesses, imho. Would they really want me as a convert if I thought so little of my faith that I was prepared to change it on the basis of a five-minute doorstep conversation?

That said, if I were a bus-driver, I suspect I would be very uncomfortable driving round a giant advert for something the went against my deep-seated beliefs (much like chaletian's elderly monkey-sodomisers), so I too sympathise with the bus-driver.

[balooky.livejournal.com]

I'm going to complain cos I was on an atheist bus last week and still got leafleted by a godbotherer. It was most confusing.