Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Another Atheist Cock-Up
The atheists have screwed up again. Having had one of the great dumb ideas of our time - the atheist bus - they produce what is, in fact, an agnostic bus. 'There's probably no god.' Can't these people do anything right?
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
bloody buses! ah, transhumanist vs. humanist?
ReplyDeleteI dunno, you wait for one Atheist Bus, and then... an agnostic bus turns up.
ReplyDeleteIf we are going to live far longer the buses will mostly be Shearings.
ReplyDeleteFunny that, many years ago there was a small bus operator called Dawkins & Son.
Well Bryan at least they are not fundamentalist on the issue.
ReplyDeleteProbably best driven with a brawny Irish nun at the wheel. I doubt she'd take any nonsense when people get on board claiming they probably already have a ticket.
ReplyDeleteThis sort of brings to mind those ads Nietzsche put on 19th century German beer-wagons: "God is very, very sick."
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the last time I laughed this hard!
ReplyDeleteIncluding "probably" is integral to the message. Had they not: "There is no god." They would have fallen into the same trap that fundamentalists do every time they arrogantly assert their personal knowledge of god. We cannot KNOW, but nor can they KNOW. It would be wrong to suggest otherwise. However, one side of the argument holds far more logical, rational, and scientific evidence than the other. Atheists are not the ones with the exaplining to do.
ReplyDelete"This sort of brings to mind those ads Nietzsche put on 19th century German beer-wagons: "God is very, very sick."
ReplyDeleteI think that's much better.
Actually its an advert for The National Spiritual Autism Society. Their helpline can just be made out in the bottom right-hand corner.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing necessarily agnostic about it. Most atheists are atheists precisely because they believe that there is probably no god (they calculate that the probability is minute). I am sure you think it very, very unlikey that if you leap out of a tenth floor window you will float gently to the ground. But you can't know. You just have an idea of the probabilities. I doubt you think yourself agnostic on the subject of gravity though.
ReplyDeleteRobert and John:
ReplyDeleteYes, yes - but why would you pay money to put that on the side of a London bus?
I mean, London? Talk about preaching to the unconverted.
"I mean, London? Talk about preaching to the unconverted."
ReplyDeleteGood grief, which part of London do you live in (don't tell me, I can guess). Come saarf of te river some time for an education in the grip of Christianity in its more lurid forms on he lives of Londoners, or head east and see how many steps you can take without passing a mosque.
Personally I am unconverted but the messsage on the bus still cheers me up and provides something of an antedote to the endless bus-side propaganda of the god botherers with their dismal warnings of pain to come.
So a bus with an athiest (oh all right agnostic) message is a 'bad thing'? But all those posters at train stations telling me that Jesus is the way, the truth and the light that I've had to put up with all my life, they're absolutely fine are they?
ReplyDeleteJohn/Anon
ReplyDeleteDid you ever hear the one about the atheist, the agnostic and the farmer's daughter?
Peter, I am all (well, largely) agaog.
ReplyDeleteAre you now, or have you ever been anything to do with hovercrafts, by the way?
Good grief, which part of London do you live in (don't tell me, I can guess).
ReplyDeleteI live in Bristol, which for Americans is in the west part of London, and for Londoners is a little village over there somewhere...
Are you now, or have you ever been anything to do with hovercrafts, by the way?
ReplyDeleteNot so as anyone would notice. But back to the post, what is with the "Don't Worry" message? Whatever happened to the heroic atheist staring into the terrifying abyss of meaningless and nothingness? What would Nietszche, Sartre and Camus have said about how their message for philosophical titans would be reduced to promises of guilt free scoring in pubs and making a pile on derivative commissions without being nagged by irksome televangelists?
Also, the purposefulness of these heathens is really quite alarming. One imagines oneself enjoying a quiet hour in an easy chair contemplating the Eternal before calling it an early night, only to be accosted by a gaggle of Dawkins Disciples and frog-marched rudely into the bedroom to enjoy one's sex life.
"But back to the post, what is with the "Don't Worry" message? Whatever happened to the heroic atheist staring into the terrifying abyss of meaningless and nothingness? "
ReplyDeleteWell, they were all believers who were losing the faith, weren't they? It must seem terribly frightening and/or exciting to walk out of a church that has told you all your life that the penalty is fearsome beyond imagination; but those who have never bothered to walk into one in the first place just see it differently and in a more relaxed, well balanced way. I'm with the second lot. Being frightened is not necessarily a sign of depth. It can just be a sign of, well, being frightened. Poor old Nietszche was scared of his own shadow, which is why (I suspect) he made such a fetish of personal courage.
No Bryan, an agnostic bus would say something along the lines of 'we can't know whethere there is a god or not'. What it actually does say is far more atheistic in tone.
ReplyDeleteThe stupid, it burns.
but those who have never bothered to walk into one in the first place just see it differently and in a more relaxed, well balanced way.
ReplyDeleteYou find that too, do you, John? I know my views on things I know nothing about tend to be very relaxed and well-balanced. It's the ones that I actually invest time learning about that make me all confused and agitated. Bummer.
"You find that too, do you, John? I know my views on things I know nothing about tend to be very relaxed and well-balanced."
ReplyDeleteOh I know all about it, I have just never been under the authority of a priest, so I find the threats just don't work on me. That means I can look at it like I look at any other superstition, and needn't get all het up. I am sure you know enough about astrology, for example, to have an informed view on it without ever worrying about whether ot not Uranus is ascendant in your third quarter. Or not.
Of course God exists.
ReplyDeleteDavid Aspden said: "Of course God exists."
ReplyDeleteThen demonstrably and repeatably prove it already. Pretty please?
Philippe van Nedervelde
ReplyDeleteAs it’s before the world and language can I?
I can say: behold the world.
I can say: consider the intrinsic value of the Cosmos.
http://pogsurf.blogspot.com/2008/10/scoop-thoes-upgrade-atheist-bus-from.html
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that the "probably" issue was partly to do with the Advertising Standards Authority, but maybe that was a joke.
ReplyDeleteAlmost as stupid as trying to get everyone to refer to atheists as "Brights"...
ReplyDeleteGood grief, which part of London do you live in (saç ekimi don't tell me, I can guess) karin ameliyatlari. Come saarf of te river some time for an education in the grip of Christianity estetik in its more lurid forms on he lives of Londoners, or head east and see how many steps you can take without passing a mosque karin germe.
ReplyDeletePersonally I am unconverted but the messsage lazer epilasyon on the bus still cheers me up and provides something of an antedote to the vajina daraltma endless bus-side propaganda of the god botherers with their gögüs küçültme dismal warnings of pain to come. Not so as anyone would notice. gögüs estetigi But back to the post, what is with the "Don't Worry" message? Whatever happened to the heroic atheist staring into the terrifying abyss of meaningless and nothingness? gögüs büyütme What would Nietszche, Sartre and Camus have said about how their message for philosophical titans would be reduced to burun estetigi promises of guilt free scoring in pubs and making a pile on derivative commissions without being nagged by irksome televangelists? estetik
Topics are explained very beautiful. but required a little more detail.
ReplyDelete