Get on board the atheist bus

Thanks to z0r for alerting me to this article about buses in Britain that are denying the existence of God.



I've got two problems with this campaign.

First, use of the word "probably", which might at first sound like a nitpick. But a surprising number of believers are unwitting subscribers to Bayes' Theorem, meaning that even a remote chance of a fantastic outcome (heaven over hell) is worth a small amount of effort (going to church.) In order to invalidate this proposition, the "probably" has to be eliminated entirely...the remote chance must become exactly zero.

Second, the message shouldn't be "so enjoy your life", it should be "so respect the only life you have." The world doesn't need more imagery of atheists as amoral heathens, what people need to understand is that atheism is actually the peak of morality. By accepting that my life is the only one I'll get, I therefore value life - both mine and others' - above all else. I certainly value life more than someone who believes that our soul will live eternally, someone like the Catholic leader Arnaud Amalric, for instance, originator of the famous quote: Kill them all, let God sort them out.

Respect for life is the highest form of morality, while disdain for life is the lowest...this difference between atheism and religion is the single most important one, not actually the disbelief in God. By ignoring the moral difference and instead reinforcing the hedonistic "enjoy your life" message, atheists are fumbling a tremendous opportunity.

It's comforting for some, I'm sure, to take even this little step...public denials of God are few and far between, to be sure. But it's a huge mistake to allow the real message to be lost in order to take smaller, less offensive steps.

Atheism isn't just about "not believing" in God, it's about rejecting the whole concept that anything greater than life could exist. When you subject your rational decision-making to a mystical being (interpreted through earthly agents, of course), and you accept some other force as greater than life, your morality is forfeit...you have become a murderer-in-waiting. As a believer, if God tells you to sack a city and kill every man, woman, and child inside, you do it. If God tells you to climb a mountain and carve out your son's heart as a sacrifice to him, you do it. If God tells you to sacrifice yourself, by braving a furnace, a den of lions, or being nailed to a tree, you do it.

That's the true beauty of atheism: life is your highest value, not mystical instructions. And that's the message we need to spread.