"There's Probably No God"

So there I was standing in Buchanan Street bus station minding my own business waiting for the bus to Fife, when this bus sidled past me with the slogan on the side. You know - the one that has been paid for by the Humanist Society and Richard Dawkins.

"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

I'd heard of it - the atheist bus ad. There was a piece about it on the radio news the other morning and I know the campaign has been running in London and some Spanish cities. And I thought to myself.......is that it "there's probably no God"? Seriously - that's as hard hitting as it gets?! There's probably no God. Is that really any more controversial that the Alpha bus ad.

"If God did exist...what would you ask?"

Not sure if Christians are making a fuss about it - probably. But I think it's quite interesting for a couple of reasons.

The first thing is the statement itself - because as you say a sentence like that it almost begs for something more to be added like "There's probably no God....but then again, there might be"; "There's probably no God....but we're not really sure". I can live with that. (Actually I think it should really be called the agnostic bus ad as it seems a bit undecided.) I guess there are a few reactions that people might have to it; most atheists will really like it but might want it to be stronger; some people will pay no attention to it whatsoever; but there might be a few people who might stop to think - "but then again there might be". So for me I think it's all good.

The second part though is the thing I find really interesting "Now stop worrying and enjoy your life". That, I think, is where atheism becomes a bit of a conundrum - you see when you say something like that then what you are actually starting to do is describe the god you don't believe in. So what kind of god is it atheists don't believe in. Well clearly the god they don't believe in is a god who does not want anyone to enjoy life which is interesting given that Jesus says "I have come to give you life, life in all it's fullness"; a god who you need to worry about because clearly this god is out to get you; this god is literally a "killjoy" - what exactly is it that atheists think that you need to worry about with this god they don't believe in?

I have to say as a person of faith I really enjoy life and don't see the God I believe in as someone I need to worry about, rather the God I believe in is someone who loves, accepts and looks out for me; who knows me and says things like "don't worry about anything".

This might be a bit hackneyed but it looks like me and the atheists have a lot in common - we both don't believe in that same god!

When I spotted the bus I was interested in exactly what the slogan said - so was waiting on another bus to come along which also had the ad on the side so I was sure about the exact wording, but it seemed like that was the only one out of the hundreds of buses coming in and out of the station; there was only one with the ad. Of course the fact that the majority of the buses are owned by someone who is a Christian maybe accounts for the lack of atheist bus ads - which is kind of funny really.

Hopefully Christians won't get their collective knickers in a knot about this as on the whole I think it's interesting and hopefully will give some people the opportunity to tell people about the God they do believe in as opposed to the god they don't.