This advert ... isn't trying to threaten or harass or cajole anyone into doing anything except take a step back from their lives and think positively.
Well, unless you're equating secular thinking with the positive kind, it seems to me that this statement might equally apply to a bus ad that read 'God loves you and is waiting to receive you.' You and I would find such an ad annoying and even vaguely threatening, because what it is actually saying - which is what the secular ad says to people of faith - is that we're living our life wrong. That's not the brand of atheism I'd like people to be aware of.
religion is a constant and implicit presence in my life. I live in a predominantly Christian country
First, I have to say that I sincerely doubt you have any idea of what it's like to live in religiously-dominated society. Talk to me when you have to pass a purity test and jump through hoops in order to get a marriage license. Or when your lifestyle has to conform to a certain religious standard before you're allowed to adopt. Or when religious considerations affect everything in your life from the hours the buses run to the day you switch back from daylight savings time. And, of course, there are people in Iran and Saudi Arabia who would sneer at both of us for whining about our lots.
But more importantly, what you're saying here basically boils down to 'they started it.' It's aggravating and overbearing when advertising is used to push religion, but it's alright for atheists to do it because we're the beleaguered minority? Maybe that's true, but it's certainly not an approach I'd call positive.
I don't think the ad is trying to say "Hey! Nothing to worry about any more!" It's trying to say "Hey! One less thing to worry about!"
I really doubt that there are many people in the world who sit around worrying about whether God exists (and if there are, they probably don't have much else to worry about). People worry about tangibles - how to support their families, how to preserve their health, how to stay safe, how to keep their job - and there are people for whom the belief in God is a way of combating these worries. And people for whom it isn't, obviously, but those people aren't the ones being targeted by this campaign. As you say, these ads probably won't do any harm, but I can't see that they'll do any good either, which is why I can't help but feel that the money donated to this cause has been wasted, and could very easily have been spent on better ones.
no subject
Well, unless you're equating secular thinking with the positive kind, it seems to me that this statement might equally apply to a bus ad that read 'God loves you and is waiting to receive you.' You and I would find such an ad annoying and even vaguely threatening, because what it is actually saying - which is what the secular ad says to people of faith - is that we're living our life wrong. That's not the brand of atheism I'd like people to be aware of.
religion is a constant and implicit presence in my life. I live in a predominantly Christian country
First, I have to say that I sincerely doubt you have any idea of what it's like to live in religiously-dominated society. Talk to me when you have to pass a purity test and jump through hoops in order to get a marriage license. Or when your lifestyle has to conform to a certain religious standard before you're allowed to adopt. Or when religious considerations affect everything in your life from the hours the buses run to the day you switch back from daylight savings time. And, of course, there are people in Iran and Saudi Arabia who would sneer at both of us for whining about our lots.
But more importantly, what you're saying here basically boils down to 'they started it.' It's aggravating and overbearing when advertising is used to push religion, but it's alright for atheists to do it because we're the beleaguered minority? Maybe that's true, but it's certainly not an approach I'd call positive.
I don't think the ad is trying to say "Hey! Nothing to worry about any more!" It's trying to say "Hey! One less thing to worry about!"
I really doubt that there are many people in the world who sit around worrying about whether God exists (and if there are, they probably don't have much else to worry about). People worry about tangibles - how to support their families, how to preserve their health, how to stay safe, how to keep their job - and there are people for whom the belief in God is a way of combating these worries. And people for whom it isn't, obviously, but those people aren't the ones being targeted by this campaign. As you say, these ads probably won't do any harm, but I can't see that they'll do any good either, which is why I can't help but feel that the money donated to this cause has been wasted, and could very easily have been spent on better ones.