As I have already suggested the atheist Bus ad campaign has somewhat played into the hands of the Christian community. The December edition of Christianity magazine reports on the clash between a committed life and self affirming philosophy and the inevitable non-committal nihilism of atheism as follows:
Christian Thinktank Theos made a £50 donation to the campaign. Paul Wooley, director of Theos said “We donated the money because the campaign is a brilliant way to get people thinking about God. The poster is very weak – where does ‘probably’ come from? (Editor: I told you they would probably laugh at ‘probably’!). Richard Dawkins doesn’t ‘probably’ believe there is no God. And telling people to stop worrying is hardly going to comfort those who are concerned about losing jobs or homes in the recession, but the posters will still prompt people to think about life’s big questions. Campaigns like this demonstrate how active atheists are often great adverts for Christianity.
Rev Jenny Ellis, spirituality and discipleship officer said “We are grateful to Richard for his continued interest in God and for encouraging people to think about these issues. This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life”.
Like the probabilistic agitations of quantum mechanics which abhor utter emptiness, the restless human psyche probably cannot unthink the God concept and therefore God, if he probably doesn’t exist, is conspicuous by His apparent probable absence. The true atheists are those who are utterly unconscious of the putatively probable absence of God, as perhaps animals are. Likewise we aren’t aware of the blind spots in our eyes because there are simply no neurons in those spots to complain about the absence of input and therefore there is no consciousness of the retinal hole. Christians will therefore welcome a group of people who are so conscious of the cosmic sized “God shaped hole” that they shout loudly about its probableness from the sides of buses traveling around London! No wonder Christians are not merely probably financing the project but have actually put some money in! Hahahahahaha!
My advice to all good atheists is: get religion and then you can really get in there and start exposing the irrationalities of religion from the inside. Christianity and religion in general, is a self-affirming crowd phenomenon where belief, commitment and vibrancy are their own evidences. Atheism by definition cannot attempt to emulate this. As the Christians of old said “We can out think you, we can out live you and we can out die you!” The atheists probably can't do that!
Christian Thinktank Theos made a £50 donation to the campaign. Paul Wooley, director of Theos said “We donated the money because the campaign is a brilliant way to get people thinking about God. The poster is very weak – where does ‘probably’ come from? (Editor: I told you they would probably laugh at ‘probably’!). Richard Dawkins doesn’t ‘probably’ believe there is no God. And telling people to stop worrying is hardly going to comfort those who are concerned about losing jobs or homes in the recession, but the posters will still prompt people to think about life’s big questions. Campaigns like this demonstrate how active atheists are often great adverts for Christianity.
Rev Jenny Ellis, spirituality and discipleship officer said “We are grateful to Richard for his continued interest in God and for encouraging people to think about these issues. This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life”.
Like the probabilistic agitations of quantum mechanics which abhor utter emptiness, the restless human psyche probably cannot unthink the God concept and therefore God, if he probably doesn’t exist, is conspicuous by His apparent probable absence. The true atheists are those who are utterly unconscious of the putatively probable absence of God, as perhaps animals are. Likewise we aren’t aware of the blind spots in our eyes because there are simply no neurons in those spots to complain about the absence of input and therefore there is no consciousness of the retinal hole. Christians will therefore welcome a group of people who are so conscious of the cosmic sized “God shaped hole” that they shout loudly about its probableness from the sides of buses traveling around London! No wonder Christians are not merely probably financing the project but have actually put some money in! Hahahahahaha!
My advice to all good atheists is: get religion and then you can really get in there and start exposing the irrationalities of religion from the inside. Christianity and religion in general, is a self-affirming crowd phenomenon where belief, commitment and vibrancy are their own evidences. Atheism by definition cannot attempt to emulate this. As the Christians of old said “We can out think you, we can out live you and we can out die you!” The atheists probably can't do that!
If you do just a little research you will find out why 'probably' was included in the ad.
ReplyDeleteThis is probably the worst blog entry in the world.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be obsessed with the word 'probably' but in your struggle to appear erudite and witty you come across as a muddled-thinker and a bit neurotic, actually.
Hahahahahaha? Calm down, for crying out loud.
The blunt fact is you have to connect to people’s emotions to get a reaction. The blog entry is a somewhat tongue in cheek satire that attempts to emulate the high passion and combative tone of the theist/atheist and also the ID/evolution debates.
ReplyDeleteActually I am not nearly as polarized and passionate as this post suggests. I once said of myself I’m a tentative theist: my opinion is a conjectured one and also I’m not a natural atheist basher myself: Given the human predicament the atheist position is at least plausible and deserves some respect and consideration, especially as much of the religious world is not only crackpot but is so horribly blighted by a mindless bullying hegemony But that’s too bland to get an atheist's emotions going*. One needs to be much more black and white and combative it seems. ‘Trolling’ I think some call it. As I always say:
Polarization passion breeds. Passion polarization feeds. Polarization is passion’s cause for crusade and holy wars
I’ll be returning to a more measured tone for a bit. So from the worst blog entry the world, I’m returning to writing the most boring blog entries.
BTW: Kevin – I treated the atheist poster from the spectators “as seen” perspective, but I’d be interested to know what the ad creators thought they were conveying with the word ‘Probably’. Any links?
Thanks for the visits - it’s nice to know that somebody cares.
Footnote:
* I actually dared to venture publishing these comments on a Christian web site.
But frankly I couldn't help smirking just a little bit: here are a set of clever atheists who are perceived by some Christians as doing their job for them: namely publizing the God shaped hole! All publicity is good publicity as they say! Now isn't that just typical of the perversity of religion: you try pouring cold water on it, but you might as well dowse it with petrol!
ReplyDeleteI have moved in religious circles long enough to realize that sometimes it's like fighting the India rubber man.