THE Atheist Bus Campaign, which was launched in the UK then spread to many other countries, is about to hit Finland – despite opposition from a group of drivers with a religious bent.
Leader of the group of dissenting bus drivers is Tapani Mäkinen, who conceded that there were few legal ways for Christian and Muslim to refuse to drive buses with the offending ads and still keep their jobs.
A Barcelona bus bearing the atheist ad
The group, according to this report, handed in a petition to Helsinki bus company Helsingin Bussiliikenne bearing 80 signatures, but after discussions with their union they:
Hit a dead end. Something like that [a boycott] that would be seen as a refusal to work. We gave up, as it would not have been possible to stop the ads.
The campaign, with the slogan There probably is no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life, is being sponsored by the Finnish Union of Freethinkers, and the Finnish Humanist Association.
The atheist ads will be on the buses for two weeks. The advertising campaign will also take place in Turku and Tampere, although the wording of the slogan was toned down a bit.
Christian groups are also planning to take a public stand on the question of the existence of God. Two Lutheran congregations in Helsinki, as well as the Finnish Bible Institute are planning a summer event in August with a slogan:
God exists. Don’t worry, enjoy life.
Timo Junkkaala, the executive director of the Finnish Bible Institute insists, however, that organisers came up with the slogan before the international atheist bus campaign was launched.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
June 25th, 2009 at 9:35 am
"God exists." "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." (Exodus 20:5). "Don`t worry, enjoy life."!!
June 25th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Although, presumably, those same bus drivers would have no compunction about driving a bus with a poster on it which exhorts me to worship their vile, bronze-age, desert deity, or suffer an eternity of torture?
June 25th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Timo Junkkaala should consider going to confession, I assume lying is still a sin.
June 25th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
There is a mistake in the slogan and that is the word probably.
June 25th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Not if you`re "Lying for the Lord" !!!
June 25th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
"God exists, so stop thinking and GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND BEG FORGIVENESS!"
Has a kind, optimistic human outlook doesn't it?
June 25th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I quite want to be
Pony trekking or camping
Or just adopting a rational, post-Enlightment worldview
June 25th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
What about refusing to pay our BBC licence because of the oceans of bullshit that drenches us every day and especially Sundays. I am told that the boss of the BBC is paid £800,000 a year. Why? More than Willie Walsh doing a great job at British Airways and being slagged off and lied to for his pains. I heard a lying, diabolical load of shite from that Ryan Air twat with hardly a query from the BBC interviewer.
June 25th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I think your verse has lost something in tanslation, valdemar! How about this?
A bus-driver (quite round the bend)
Had had a long talk with his friend:
"We made a big fuss
re the sign on the bus;
But we seem to have hit a dead end!"
June 25th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I think your verse has lost something in translation, valdemar! How about this?
A bus-driver (quite round the bend)
Had had a long talk with his friend:
"We made a big fuss
re the sign on the bus;
But we seem to have hit a dead end!"
June 25th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Broga, I agree that the BBC has no right to put religion in so prominent a place in its schedules. I hate Sunday mornings because of all that dreary hymn singing instead of something I can enjoy. It's a misuse of the license fee.
Erm, you're not Willie Walsh, are you? If so, Ryan Air is indeed run by a bunch of bastards. And so is Virgin.
June 25th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
No – they are quite correct to say that in their ad, as that is their opinion, and it cannot be proved beyond doubt! However, as for the zealots` statement "God exists": do they have any advertising watchdog in Finland?
June 25th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
valdemar. How did you guess? Nope, I jest. My son is a pilot who flies for Willie and has grown to respect him. BA get slagged off something diabolical. You wouldn't know 7,000 staff have taken a voluntary pay cut, another 700 plus have offered to work a month for free and many, my son included, are taking unpaid leave. He shares your views on Virgin – a right publicity hound, Branson. Ex public school, silver spoon in his mouth, Marlborough, I understand.
On one flight they had a major problem. Plane thrown all over the place: big turbulence. Plane gets landed in strong crosswind, really tough, and all three pilots atheists. This is long haul into USA from Heathrow. Then Minister, or pastor, sends up a note. Could he say a prayer thanking the good Lord for saving them all from death and proving yet again that he was caring for his flock.
Answer: No you can't. And couldn't the good lord have proved his goodness without scaring the shit out of them all. And who was flying the plane?
June 25th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
As I understand it the atheist bus campaign was started by an atheist who was annoyed by "you're gonna burn in hell" bus ads. I don't recall any atheist bus drivers refusing to drive buses with this drivel on the side. Someone, it would appear, is a little insecure about their beliefs, or are they perhaps worried that this god that they are not worried about might smite them?
June 26th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I like it Barrie!
June 26th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
"And couldn't the good lord have proved his goodness without scaring the shit out of them all"
LOL exacty!!! But then, the 'good' lord has never really been one to be good anyway has he? He's never happy unless he's murdering or torturing and in any case, scaring the shit out of people is what he does to gather his flock is it not? Worship me or burn in hell for all eternity!!!
"And who was flying the plane? "
You're no doubt aware of the same "it was god what did it" garbage that was spouted after that plane landed in Hudson Bay. "No matter how you try to rationalize it, you just can't. It was a miracle!" one of the passangers said. Yep must have been a miracle, even though tthere were pilots on board who flew the thing and carried out an excellent crash landing on water, saving everyone on board. Nope, miracle it is then.
Godless not gormless
June 26th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
GNC. Yes, I had heard. I have also heard that the landing was one hell of an acheivement and so far has not been able to be repeated in simulators. (If I am thinking of the right one.) The plane had to be landed after the hydrolics had gone and landing that was a miracle: but not of the divine kind.
June 27th, 2009 at 5:45 am
I always ask this question when the over-exciteable "meeja" start gushing about "miracles": were the people involved LUCKY to escape this disaster with their lives, or UNLUCKY that it occurred in the first place? Of course, there`s no answer to that, and it just shows up their total lack of rational thought!!
June 28th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
In situations like this, I lways ask the question: "What would Reg Varney have done?"