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Here's another one from the vaults; a subject I meant to talk about some weeks ago, and never got around to. And it is about a subject near and dear to my heart: public, outspoken disbelief in religion. Our culture is so steeped in religion. And we non-believers are expected to respect and tolerate anything said or done by the religious.
It is not uncommon for agnostics like me--a gay one to boot--to be told with authority that I'm a sinner, that I'm going to hell, and that I'm going to burn forever. I'm expected to think that "In God We Trust" on the money, "One Nation, Under God" in the pledge, and countless other overt mixtures of church and state are just the way it is. And I'm supposed to shrug off the fact that religious people donated millions of dollars to have my marriage nullified. At the same time, I am to expect no deference or respect for my lack of beliefs. In fact, the religious are allowed to hurl insults and invective at me for my sexuality and my lack of belief with near impunity.
So it is heartening to see a little in-your-face activity from my side for a change. Even if it is in Britain. Can you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if this bus advertising campaign was going on in the states?
[Excerpt]
Atheists Send a Message, on 800 British Buses
The advertisement on the bus was fairly mild, just a passage from the Bible and the address of a Christian Web site. But when Ariane Sherine, a comedy writer, looked on the Web site in June, she was startled to learn that she and her nonbelieving friends were headed straight to hell, to “spend all eternity in torment.”
That’s a bit extreme, she thought, as well as hard to prove. “If I wanted to run a bus ad saying ‘Beware — there is a giant lion from London Zoo on the loose!’ or ‘The “bits” in orange juice aren’t orange but plastic — don’t drink them or you’ll die!’ . . .
