tree_and_leaf | Amusing, in a headdesky way, or headdesky in an amusing way?

Dawkins and Sherine back bus ads reading "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

.... yeah. Atheist says: stop thinking and take my word for it!

(Actually, that's a little unfair, because the ads are intended as a response to a series of evangelical ones threatening non-Christians with hell-fire. All the same, the fear of hell is not exactly integral to the faith of most of the religious people I know†, and I cannot say that a sudden loss of my faith would improve my enjoyment of life; quite the reverse.)

On a side note, buried in the article is the information that Dawkins supports a Tory humanist group. I didn't know he was a Tory, but for some reason I'm not entirely surprised. (ETA: see comment from

lizw below; this appears to be a misunderstanding.

† The only sense I can make of Hell is total alienation from God, and therefore all that is good, of becoming lost in myself and in hatred, which does indeed scare me quite a lot, but I suspect that's not the sort of thing Dawkins et al think I'm scared of.

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Although being called a worrier is a lot less insulting than some of the comments directed at atheists that are very commonly heard without objection*. Which it appears the point of the campaign. Speaking as an atheist who has in the past been called damned, evil, and a whore (and that's just in person, let alone in print - one memorable incidence of the latter by someone who actually thought I should be flattered that to be told if I weren't an atheist slut he's ask me out), my heart doesn't bleed for anybody who is momentarily discombobulated.

[ETA: And that's why they're reductive. They're not meant to persuade. They're meant to make people double-take and think "why is that advert weird". If they were complex, they wouldn't be much of a parody.]

*And routinely expected to be. As Radio 4 put it, a complaint against Thought for the Day doesn't stand if the offending language is "grounded in scripture". I am waiting for the day they excuse racist argument on these grounds as opposed to misogyny.

Point taken - the problem with always being sensitive towards any potential insult to any group is that the first in the queue gets all my attention.

"who actually thought I should be flattered that to be told if I weren't an atheist slut he's ask me out"

So much for compassion, then. I'm sorry to read this.

thought I should be flattered that to be told if I weren't an atheist slut he's ask me out

Clearly someone who never understood why Elizabeth turned Darcy down the first time around...

Indeed. Not to mention someone who deserved a slap.

*uses Slope icon for his spectacularly awful attempt at proposing*

As he was at university, presumably he could read. But perhaps he simply preferred the "Left Behind" series.

I had to google the "Left Behind" series to find out to wot you was alludin', and I now owe you a vote of thanks for greatly enriching my day.

Slacktivist's deconstructions of them are pretty brilliant.

OH GOD DON'T MENTION LEFT BEHIND!

'Twas in the very same student bedroom that I first beheld them, as D. wrapped one to give to a friend on her birthday. I looked curiously and - in possibly a new access of maturity - refrained from comment.

I could live with the sexism, the heresy and the dodgy politics, but the fact that they're so damn boring is unforgiveable...

Does history relate what the friend thought?

Urgh. That's vile, and I'm sorry to hear it.

I'm not insulted by the ads or anything; I just think they're a bit glib. But you're right; the militant fundamentalists have said things that are worse, often.

It was quite funny afterwards, but it was probably a good thing that I never met the chap in question once I'd had the time to come up with an answer.

As a text, it is a bit lightweight - but on the other hand a lightweight text might mean that the publicity has a chance of getting on to talk about why the advert is there, rather than getting stuck in a dissection of the particular argument.

Come to think of it, I'm sure there's a verse in Ecclesiastes that says something very similar....

if I weren't an atheist slut he's ask me out

To which the response probably ought to be 'Even if you weren't the kind of uptight intolerant prat who gives religion a bad name, I wouldn't touch you with someone else's ten-foot bargepole'.

Or, indeed, just your icon...

Well I'll certainly know what to say next time.

Ah well, perhaps there is hope for him yet, given the presence of the guide dog indicating that he must have been admiring me for my intellect.

Amusing, in a headdesky way, or headdesky in an amusing way?

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