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I've had little doubt for a long time now that Richard
Dawkins hatred of religion is an obsession and after the announcement today that he is spending money on an atheist ad campaign I'm now sure of it.
Dawkins is supporting an ad campaign that will display messages on the side of buses stating, "There's probably no God. Stop worrying and enjoy your life". In fact at this time he will be matching the £11, 000 the campaign has risen. What an absolute waste of £22, 000. I'm not in favour of religious advertising either and feel that the money would be much better spent on helping those that are worse off and perhaps help them to enjoy their lives. You see major religious organisations try to spread their message through their actions not through advertising.
What annoys me most about this campaign is that it's basically trying to brain wash the population into thinking that believing in God, any God by the way because this is an attack on all religions not just
Christianity, will lead to a miserable life of worry. This is total rubbish. There are people in this world whose religion is giving them comfort in their lives. People who are terrified by the idea of death being the end and the image of eternal darkness fills them with dread. Do these people deserve to have this shoved down their throats when they're walking
through the city?
For arguments sake lets say that belief based advertising, because atheism is still a belief, is a good idea and tackle one last point. This is being classed as science! This is being delivered as something that has been hypothesised, tested, observed and concluded. Except it hasn't. In fact the mere fact that it says "There's
probably..." should highlight the fact that this is simply an opinion with no actual scientific backing. There are those that will now say that religion has no scientific proof either but then again it never claims to have. It's faith based. Atheism is the same just from a different angle. Dawkins can quote probability all that he wants but there's no difference between his theory of there being no God and The Drake Equation working out how many alien civilisations there are. They're both guesses. He needs to start producing the evidence or accept that what he says is simply hypothetical and has as much chance of being wrong as it does of being right.
Under UK advertising laws I'm not even sure if this should be allowed. After all you are not allowed to make false claims in UK ads and saying there is probably no God could be argued to be false since there is no evidence that it is correct.
This is extremist Atheism and I cannot see where the human race is meant to gain from following it, other than it gives Dawkins a chance build a legacy that in my opinion lies in tatters at the minute. He is a great evolutionary scientist but he is not a great or even a good philospher and is certainly not leading the world into the photons.
Perhaps religion is the opium of the people but imagine a world without that opium and try to tell me that it's a better place.
Labels: Advertising, Atheism, Religion, Richard Dawkins
