Atheism

Taking a lead from the successful, publicity generating atheist bus campaign in London the Big Apple Coalition of Reason (a group of free thinkers in New York) is set to launch a poster campaign on the New York subway this Monday.

Rather than the “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” slogan the British Humanists eventually went with, they have opted for “A million New Yorkers are good without God? Are you?”.

These words are part of a coordinated multi-organizational advertising campaign designed to raise awareness about people who don’t believe in a god. The prominent ads will go up Monday, October 26, in a dozen Manhattan subway stations. Placed by Big Apple CoR, the New York City Coalition of Reason, with funding from the United Coalition of Reason, the ads feature an image of blue sky and clouds with the words superimposed over.

“The point of this $25,000 subway ad campaign is to reach out to the million or more humanists, atheists and agnostics living in the New York metropolitan area,” explained Fred Edwords, head of the United Coalition of Reason. “Nontheists sometimes don’t realize there’s a community for them because they’re inundated with religious messages at every turn. So we hope this will serve as a beacon and let them know they aren’t alone.”

Reaching out to nontheists isn’t the only goal of the subway campaign. “We want everyone to know that people can be good without religious beliefs,” said John Rafferty, a spokesperson for Big Apple CoR. “There is a lot of misinformation out there about us. But we humanists, agnostics and atheists are part of society. We’re your friends, neighbors coworkers and family members.”

I have to say I think I prefer this slogan, not because the London one wimped out with the “probably” when “almost certainly” would have been standing their ground a little firmer but because this one raises a point that is often used to attack atheists in almost any debate about religion. That point being “where do atheists get there morals from if not from God/The Bible?”, which suggests that all atheists are on the verge of a killing spree, lacking in the morals that religion provides.

Personally I’d be more worried about someone who chooses not to kill me because their deity tells them not to than someone who chooses not to because they think it’s a bad idea. I don’t get my morals from religion and I’m sure most religious people don’t either, rather they filter their religious teachings through their already held morality. Morality which seems to be the natural result of society and emapthy, rather than the whims of a capricious creator.