Is Nothing Sacred?

My question is prompted by an article in the IHT of January 7 entitled "Atheists send their own message, on 800 buses”. The article refers to an an advertising campaign on London buses sponsored by the Atheist Bus Campaign.

"There's probably no God," the advertisements say. "Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

I would like to subject the campaign and the accompanying article to a bit of analysis.

First of all, the IHT’s rendering of the message is not entirely accurate because the actual text on the buses is subtly different: “THERE’S PROBABLY NO GOD. NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY LIFE”. By putting the message in block capitals the advertisers have cleverly and rather shamefully shirked the thorny question of whether to write “God” or “god”.  I write shamefully, because if they had written “god” they would probably have incurred the wrath of, say, those of the Islamist persuasion. "There's probably no Allah…" would have been a much braver (and altogether more incendiary) advert.

Secondly, it’s interesting to compare the reactions of the two passers-by quoted by the IHT: "I think it's dreadful," said Sandra Lafaire, 76, a tourist from Los Angeles, who said she believed in God and still enjoyed her life, thank you very much. "Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I don't like it in my face." On the other hand, “Sarah Hall, 28, a visitor from Australia, said she was happy to see such a robust example of freedom of speech. "Whatever floats your boat," she said.” Could this be a question of insurance? At 76 one is obviously thinking of one’s retirement pension, but at 28 the question of life insurance scarcely warrants thinking about.

Lastly, if the atheists wanted to be really brave, they could have written “THERE’S PROBABLY NO FATHER CHRISTMAS. SO GROW UP”. Which just goes to show, there is something sacred after all!