There’s an interesting campaign going on in Britain and though it touches the most sensitive issue there is — religion — it is actually all about free expression.
I have stopped engaging in religious debates ages ago, my recollection of the last one being a realization that both sides of the divide may just as well agree on what unites them rather than argue on what separates them — assuming arguendo that the antagonism doesn’t necessitate confrontation in which case a resolution of the contradiction is in order — and from that basis, work together. It is not only productive but also less stressful.
United front tactic is surely a magic weapon — and Mao would not have been more correct — especially in a society where contradictions at various levels are sharply defined. But I digress.
So the British Humanist Association launched a “No God” ad on bendy-buses to counter the “repent” and “convert” blah-blah that assaults passengers and the public everyday at every public space they find themselves in. This is not unlike the bible-toting evangelists that bug us with their praise the lord speeches at every public gathering or transportation.
Professor Dawkins said: “Religion is accustomed to getting a free ride – automatic tax breaks, unearned respect and the right not to be offended, the right to brainwash children.
Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the BHA, said: “We see so many posters advertising salvation through Jesus or threatening us with eternal damnation, that I feel sure that a bus advert like this will be welcomed as a breath of fresh air.
Yes, it is a breath of fresh air. After all, freedom of religion includes the right not to believe. Also, apart from the fact that I have no quarrel about the idea of enjoying life, I worry more about the vanishing returns and eventual non-existence of my retirement benefits before I turn 65 than the issue of existence or non-existence of God (perhaps because i have personally answered this question a long time ago.)
But apparently, some religious crusaders are not aware of this constitutional right. Said the pressure group Christian Voice “Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large.”
I wonder if a campaign of this kind would even be allowed in our country whose claim to democratic practice is matched only by its perversions of it. And shouldn’t religion make people more understanding?
The BHA executive spoke of having “difficulty understanding why people with particular religious beliefs find the expression of a different sort of beliefs to be offensive.
He added he “can’t understand why some people seem to have a different attitude when it comes to atheists.” (see full story)
Amen.
