To the Editor:
“Atheists Send a Message, on 800 British Buses” (London Journal, Jan. 6) discusses the reaction to signs saying: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
Tim Bleakley, managing director for sales and marketing at CBS Outdoor, which handles ads for London buses, is quoted as saying the ad “would have been misleading” if the word “probably” had been omitted.
It may be inconsistent for advertising standards authorities to make nonbelievers acknowledge the chance of being wrong by adding a qualifier, while religious organizations don’t need a disclaimer that they can’t prove the deity’s existence.
Have the campaigners considered the implied corollary for the unsure: “There may be a God. Worry”?
Edward Tenner
Plainsboro, N.J., Jan. 7, 2009
Note from KBJ: This was my thought as well, although I didn't express it when I linked to the story the other day. None of my Christian friends is the least bit "worried." All are confident that they shall spend eternity in heaven, in the company of a loving god. It's we atheists who have reason to worry, since there may, for all we know, be a wrathful god. As for whether I am worried, the answer is no. I have said before that I couldn't believe in God any more than I can believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. I trust that God, if God exists, acknowledges the truth of Kant's dictum that "ought" implies "can." Since I can't believe, it's not the case that I ought to; and if it's not the case that I ought to, then God can't be mad at me if I don't; and if God can't be mad at me, even if I'm an atheist, then I have nothing to worry about.
