Progress Update
2.02.10 | simon | 
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This is a brief announcement to say that we’re still here, and we’re still committed to getting atheist ads on buses!
We are currently in negotiations with the bus and ad companies, and the administrative side of things is taking longer than expected. We hope to be able to tell you more details in the near future and provide a solid time frame for the buses.
Thank you again for your ongoing support. The many positive messages we have received from New Zealanders have been a great confirmation of the worth of this project. We can’t wait to get the actual ads out there!
Stay tuned…
February 9th, 2010 at 4:44 am
When do you expect the ads to begin appearing?
February 18th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Still eagerly looking forward to this.
February 20th, 2010 at 12:40 am
Wouldn’t that be a lark: if this entire thing was a scam run by a christian. I would laugh, then I’d cry.
February 24th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Hi, as a firm believer in God I am really sorry that you have been stopped. Free speech is only fair, this is not hate speech, and it opens up a dialogue.
February 24th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Sorry to hear that the bus company declined to display your adverts. I am a Christian and think your adverts do heaps to encourage intelligent. I for one don’t want to believe a lie whether it be regarding God’s existance or otherwise. I must say that the fact that the statement includes the word “probably” is somewaht ironic and places your supporters in the camp of agnosticism and shows up atheism for the irrational, bigoted, philosophy that it is. Keep up the good work, you are doing the Lord s favour!
One other thing, some of you may wonder why God doesn’t make himself more visible. If he were to do so, we would have no alternative but to believe and would thereby be deprived of the very thing that makes us fullyy human, – our freedom and autonomy. In my view, if you want to find evidence to support God’s existance, you will find sufficient to convince you of the truth of your position. If you chose not to believe, you will find evidence which seems to support your position. As for me and my house, we choose to believe in and serve the Lord. Have been doing so for 38 year and it is the best decision I ever made. I still have doubts, but hey, that goes with the territory, and to be honest, I don’t have enough faith to be an agnostic little alone and athiest.
July 13th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
“probably” is the joke man. There probably is no tea pot in orbit around mars. There probably is no giant turtle roaming the universe. There probably is no weirdo in the sky watching/threatening/curing cancer but not restoring wasted limbs. 38 years spent sucking up to some figment of insecure man’s imagination. I could almost say that’s probably a waste. But I won’t. It definitely is!
July 13th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
@Richard Goodwin
On top of what Stephen has said – I’m pretty sure that if God was shown to exist, my very first reaction would be to blush for a while, because that’s how my traitorous body reacts whenever I’m proven wrong about something.
After this, I’d pretty much carry along. Business as usual. The existence of God would have some profound effects on my ontology – but as for my daily grind? Not so much.
So I struggle a bit with the theological proposition that God hides his existence to preserve our autonomy. I don’t think it’s necessary. It’s just more of the same tired old petitio principii rubbish that theologians have been churning out since the birth of their profession.
Step 1: Assert the existence of God (P1)
Step 2: Find something that at some level contradicts (or seems to contradict) the existence of God (P2)
Step 3: Use logical-sounding rhetoric to connect P1 to P2 in a way that seems superficially plausible (P3 – Pn)
Step 4: Conclude P2
Step 5: Deflect or dismiss any accusations of petitio principii with your fallacy of choice:
* Ad Hominem: You’re an arrogant, closed-minded atheist, and the Bible said that atheists are fools, so I don’t have to listen to you.
* Red Herring: Yes, but you haven’t considered that all the charitable works that are done by religious people. You don’t want them to stop, do you? Wanting them to stop is clearly wrong, and since I’m wanting them to keep going, I must be right.
* Fallacious Argument from Authority: You don’t have training as a theologian, so you obviously can’t be expected to understand the refined nuance of my argument – so I don’t have to listen to you.
* Or whatever suits your fancy.
Step 6: Publish and get your position adopted and repeated by believers that don’t know how to recognize ‘begging the question’ or why they should care if they could. Encourage them to use your work as an example of why P2 ‘actually proves the existence of God, contrary to what mean-spirited, angry, closed-minded atheists say!’
Step 7: Keep a straight face as whilst greasing up to Universities and religious organizations to try and get tenure.
Step 8: Repeat Steps 1 to 5 until retirement.