What is this campaign?
Various associations of Atheists in UK decided to advertise their viewpoint (just like the church does - exhorting the faithful to follow religious rituals) by purchasing advertisement - space on municipal buses in London. Appeals were sent out to non - believers to coin interesting slogans and also to individually contribute whatever little they could, to finance the campaign.
Richard Dawkins - the famous biologist, admirer of Charles Darwin, author of the best seller "The GOD Delusion" and a self proclaimed "campaigning atheist" announced a matching contribution to the money that was collected from the public. The fund raising had a modest target of Pounds 5000 through public donations. What followed surprised everyone including the organizers. A collection in excess of Pounds 1,00,000 was a clear pointer towards a chord that the appeal had struck. Instead of carrying out the campaign on 40 buses, it was eventually carried out on 200, much to the chagrin of the church who opposed the idea tooth and nail. The church even complained to the advertising authority about how the campaign was in bad taste and would hurt the religious sentiments of many. The adjudicating authority rejected the complaint saying "freedom of expression" was more important. For your information over 80% of the population in UK comprises of believers. (The figure is close to this in USA where in addition, over 90% of the population believes in "miracles". Do you know that USA is the only country which prints "In GOD we trust" on their currency notes?)
We have to give credit to our present government about the way it has handled (till now) the issue of "gays"and section 377. It appears that we as a nation are finally 'coming of age" - but I am sure that if this bus campaign ever comes to India, no municipal corporation would ever take the risk of their buses getting burnt because of such blasphemy.
What were the Slogans?
The two slogans used till now are as follows:
[1] There is probably no god! Now stop worrying and enjoy yourself.
[2] You can be good without god.
The campaign has now spread to USA (Chicago), Canada (Toronto) and threatens to enter Europe and Australia in spite of bitter opposition from the church and local governments.
Thinking logically, the campaign should be welcomed by Hindu majority India because Hinduism is one of the very few religions in the world that officially accepts atheists in its fold (Brahaspati is the presiding deity of atheists, according to Hindu mythology).
Can I have a prediction from all of you about the fate of such a campaign, if it indeed comes to India?
10 comments:
Please continue sending fundas to me. I am very interested in such themes.
You need to fully experience life to understand the need to take refuge in faith !!
To everyone his own. You cannot take away the pain and the happiness from those who have experienced miracles in faith. Also nobody is interested in stealing away the disillusion about faith from the atheist.
Extreme behaviour such as the Bus campaign comes about when society displays extreme behaviour at the other end of the scale. Its like a see-saw. Too much of faith related pressures like sermons, rituals, and religious compliance based on threat will only make the non believers to rebel.
To me the Bus campaign is as normal and ordinary as the azaan call and the arati bells. I thinks most of the world citizens including Indians feel the same.
Do I see a streak of "East or West Foreign is best" in this blog?
i am amongst the very few people who were brought up in an atheist family, so atheism came very naturally to me. infact i have grown up wondering why people are so eager to prove existance of miracles when everybodys life is very much influenced by scientific research. it is like wanting to have the cake and eating it too. People seem to take safe refuge under "faith" instead of asking tough questions. i think it is better to accept that we dont know answers to mind boggling questions yet and look for reasonable, logical answers that assuming them to be miracles and setting them aside.
Dear Prakash
Nice to hear from you after a long time. Of course I have been viewing your blog. Nice effort & I admire not only the views expressed but also the time you manage to spend to pen your thoughts.
Must say your posts are quite interesting and nicely written. Also well thought-out. Keep it up
Each person is entitled to have his faith or disbelief as the case may be. Extremists exist on both sides to push thier views down other people throats.
Respected sir,
I am Vaishali Rohankar from SIPNA coet Amrawati studing in final year.
Sir i m thankful for the blogs you are sending me and request you for more.
Seems a welcome campaign!
The Western world is truly rational and secular! They do not ban books or writings as India does with the drop of a hat!!
As rightly pointed out by you rationalists, agnostics and atheists can proudly claim to be Hindus!
Bobby Srinivas
Dear Prakash,
Unfortunately, India is no longer a tolerant country. Plunder and arson at Bhandarkar Oriental Institute in Pune, and the sacking of Marathi Sahitya Sammelan President Anand Yadav for allegedly defaming Sant Tukaram are evidences enough that certain elements in Indian society do not tolerate views challenging traditional beliefs, though they may be based on reason. These two incidents have happened in the so called progressive state of Maharashtra, not UP and Bihar!
I feel that India is not ripe for campaigns. Rationalist Associations should carry on their work cautiously, judiciously gauging the mood of the society.
It would be approriate to narrate here an incident from the life of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj:
Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj was a great social reformer and one of his healtfelt desires was to emancipate the depressed classes by educating them. He started a number of boarding schools in his kingdom. Surprisingly, he started a separate boarding school for each caste!
Some of his admirers questioned him about the reason for doing so- Maharaj, you are a promoter of free intermixing of all the castes. What have you done so?
He replied- The society is not yet ripe for accepting these reforms. People from lower castes are still averse to intermixing and interdining with people from other castes, whether high or low. If my boardings permit intermixing, these people will not send their children there and the children will be deprived of education. I do not want that to happen.
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