The Atheist Bus Campaign and the Humanist Society of New Zealand are proud to announce that we’ve applied for legal representation from the Office of Human Rights Proceedings. This will take the office about a month to process. During this month we will be exploring alternative advertising options – but we will keep a significant sum aside for the buses – we have received wide ranging support for our campaign from both Atheist and Christian groups and do not believe that our campaign is “controversial and divisive”!

The Humanist Society have been great helping us collect donations and acting as trustees for the donations while the advertising issues are sorted out. If you’re keen to become more involved with other friendly atheists, then check them out and perhaps even join up! The Humanist Society is based in Wellington – http://www.humanist.org.nz/. If you’re based in Auckland then try the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists at http://www.nzarh.org.nz/.

Tim

One of the more heartwarming things that’s happened since we announced NZ Bus’s decision has been all the messages of support we’re getting to our contact {at} nogod.org(.)nz email address – from both atheists and people of religion.

We have also had a handful of companies that use other advertising media say that they’ll be happy to host our ads. These have ranged from billboards to full page advertisements in major New Zealand papers. It’s good to see that many other media companies do not think our message is controversial and divisive.

We’ve also had suggestions including t-shirts, bumper stickers, and even big magnetic signs to go on the side of cars and vans!

While we’re seriously investigating legal avenues for bus ads, we’d love your creative feedback on where you, the atheists of New Zealand, would love to see the messages. We’d even love to hear what message you think would best start discussions about the legitimacy of non-belief.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all of you out there for your words of support, and also for putting the pressure on NZ Bus to explain their rejection of the ads. If NZ Bus makes possibly discriminatory decisions like this, they need to know how many people out there disagree with their decision. The choice to use their services and the messages we send them are the best sources of consumer power in our modern economy.

There’s been a flurry of media activity over the past two days since we announced that NZ Bus is rejecting the Campaign’s ads, and thereby trying to silence a positive atheist message in public. Here’s a brief selection of the coverage…

First off we have the Stuff/Dominion Post coverage of the story, complete with poll. The poll results are rather interesting, with 93.4% of respondents (when last checked) saying that this decision by NZ Bus to reject the ads is “unfair and discriminatory” (standard Internet poll qualifications apply of course).

Next we have the Stuff/NZPA article, which also includes a link to the TVNZ Breakfast video. There’s also the TV3 Sunrise article and video which follows a similar line.

In the blog world, No Right Turn thinks the decision is “blatantly unlawful” and calls for concerned people to communicate their thoughts to NZ Bus. There’s also a great post from a fellow called Frank, an “unashamed Christian” who while obviously not supporting the exact message of the Campaign, supports our right to get it out there. And last but not least, Brian Edwards summarises the recent events and astutely notes “the sure and certain fact that nothing can draw more attention to a commercial than banning it.”

Example ad image from the UK Campaign (thanks Jon Worth)

The NZ Atheist Bus Campaign, which late last year raised in excess of $20,000 from public donations, has met a set back in their plans. Nationwide bus company NZ Bus, who had tentatively approved the campaign’s ads on buses in major city centres, have now rejected them.

NZ Bus stated that they have received a number of complaints from the public about the proposed ads, which read “There’s probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

Spokesperson for the Atheist Bus Campaign Simon Fisher says “It’s concerning that peaceful atheist messages are not allowed on buses while religious messages are often seen on buses and in public. Messages of atheism are rare in New Zealand and we aim to raise awareness for the one-third of New Zealanders who are unconvinced by the claims of religion.”

Organisers of the Campaign tried to reach a resolution with NZ Bus, and later attempted mediation sessions through the Human Rights Commission. NZ Bus refused to participate in these mediation sessions. Because they are refusing to discuss the matter and reach an agreement, the organisers of the Campaign are now investigating the possibility of taking this case to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.

Simon Fisher says “we’re disappointed at the response from NZ Bus and plan to look at options going forward. We owe it to the thousands of Kiwis who have supported this campaign with donations and messages of support.”

Advertisements with identical wording ran in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Spain. Similar campaigns also ran successfully in Croatia, Finland, Holland, Italy, America and across the Tasman in Australia.

“We are gravely concerned that in New Zealand we’re unable to present an atheistic message, showing that we do not have the same practical freedom of expression as in other first world countries. It highlights why this campaign is so necessary.” said spokesperson Simon Fisher.

The Campaign will continue to accept donations for advertising, see http://www.nogod.org.nz for further details.

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…

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone from the NZ Atheist Bus Campaign! Below are some reflections on the season from Tim, another person involved in the campaign…

I just got wished a merry Dawkins-Mass from a Christian friend. This got me thinking – what do atheists actually celebrate at Christmas. We do not celebrate the birth of Christ. We also certainly don’t celebrate the birth of Richard Dawkins (or Charles Darwin for that matter).

Looking at the history of the festival, Christmas is actually not the date where most Christian scholars believe Jesus was born. The date for Christmas was originally based on an ancient festival – the winter solstice. This is a celebration of the days stopping getting shorter and starting to get longer. An indication of the coming of summer, the ending of winter, or the light at the end of the tunnel. Many cultures use the solstice to mark the life and death rebirth cycle of their deities.

Given we’re in New Zealand, and are at the summer solstice, this makes Christmas for Kiwi atheists doubly strange – neither of the two traditional reasons for the holiday are meaningful. So what do we celebrate?

Christmas has always been a time for family and friends to get together, eat good food, and drink good wine. It’s a defined time where everyone has time off work. Time to make the effort to come to a shared place. Do we need a reason beyond that?

*tag* back to Simon…

I don’t think we do need a reason beyond that. Certainly coming together as family and friends to share, celebrate and strengthen relationship bonds is a great reason. Just as Christianity has redefined the festival to meet its needs, the increasingly secular population has done, and is continuing to do, the same. Christmas is just as much, if not more, a secular holiday/festival in 2009.

I’d like to end with the wise words of the talented Derren Brown, as he reflects on ‘being good for goodness’ sake’…

As ever, the journey is the thing, and should be enjoyed accordingly. To forgive purely because it is nicer to forgive, and to do so when it’s a tough call; to try to speak only kindly of those we know because it is preferable to do so; to enjoy the successes of others because living thus is more enjoyable than the stress of living resentfully: such kind things make us better, lovelier people. And to try to live this way for its own merits, without invoking a supernatural reason for doing so, is to celebrate our humanity and to give kindness back its teeth.

I wish all readers out there a very merry Christmas and, since we are in the southern hemisphere, hope that you can all enjoy drinking white wine or orange juice in the sun with family and friends.

Due to questioning of the use of ‘probably’ in the slogan, we thought it wise to write a blog post to explain the idea further. The use of ‘probably’ is a strength of the campaign. No one can say for certain that any gods exist or don’t exist – that would require blind faith.

You can’t disprove unicorns, the tooth fairy, Zeus, or any gods but what you can say is that there is no solid evidence to think they exist. This campaign uses ‘probably’ to say that although you can’t disprove things like unicorns and fairies, you can say there’s not a shred of evidence for the thousands of gods that humans have ever worshipped.

Atheism is a positive statement about the limits of knowledge. Rather than taking a religious-like leap of faith and saying that there definitely is a god or definitely isn’t a god, atheists just say that there’s as much evidence for the Christian God as there is for Zeus or any other supernatural thing. That is, zilch.

Theists on the other hand think they know the one true god out of the literally thousands that have ‘existed’. And, in fact, they often refer to this god as their Personal God – one personal god for everyone. This is interesting as a recent study has shown that peoples’ own personal beliefs tend to align very well with what they think God thinks.  Of course there’s no reason to think that God exists in anything more than a person’s imagination.

The NZ Atheist Bus Campaign is one step closer to placing atheist ads on buses, with their fund raising target of $20,000 having been easily reached in less than a week.

Launched just last week, hundreds of Kiwis have supported the campaign by donating to promote the idea that it’s OK to not believe in a god, and that one can certainly be good without god through advertisements on buses reading: “There’s probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

The original target of $10,000 was met in less than 36 hours, and so the decision was made to double this to the revised target of $20,000.

“The tremendous support in donations and positive messages has really reinforced the worth and importance of a positive atheist campaign like this” said campaign spokesperson Simon Fisher.

The Campaign was launched in part to reach out to the significant number of New Zealanders who are unsure about the idea of god. For example, those who grew up in religious homes and feel anxiety, or even fear about threats such as hell, or choosing the wrong religious path.

The campaign organisers have been inundated with hundreds of personal stories about the effect religion has upon New Zealanders, from being labeled “sinners” to family pressures of conformity. One message read “It got me thinking that I might not be as crazy as I first believed.”

“I am pleased with the majority of the responses from religious groups, even if I disagree with their arguments against the message and intent of the campaign. They have mostly been positive and supportive of the campaign due to its ability to raise discussion of the issues of belief in god and religion’s role in society” continued Fisher.

The campaign has started a healthy debate about the topics of god and religion and what role they play in our lives as individuals and as a society. This debate will no doubt continue once the advertisements go live, and people will be encourage to think deeply about these topics.

Organisers of the campaign are currently planning when and how the ads will be rolled out onto buses across the country. Donations beyond the $20,000 target will still be accepted and will be put towards future atheist advertising campaigns.

“We have plans for future phases – possibly different slogans, and different mediums. We thought this a better option than just closing donations, allowing those who might have missed out the first time to still have the chance to donate” explained Mr Fisher.

More information about the campaign is available at the website: http://www.nogod.org.nz/

Today we have reached our target of $20,000 to put atheist messages on buses in the main centres of our fine country!

This is of course a direct result of the hundreds of generous individual donations and the thousands of supporters out there. You know who you are – thank you so much for getting this campaign on the road, literally.

We launched this campaign because there are lots of people out there who are unsure about this idea of god. Perhaps they grew up in religious homes and feel anxiety, or even fear, about threats such as hell, or choosing the wrong religious path. All of your donations will support this campaign to promote and reinforce the idea that it’s OK not to believe in a god, and that certainly one can be good without God. After all, more than 1.5 million Kiwis aren’t convinced by the claims of religion.

The campaign has also already started a healthy debate about the topics of god and religion and what role they play in our lives as individuals and as a society. No doubt this debate will continue and more people will come to think deeply about these topics.

We are currently planning when and how the ads will be rolled out onto buses across the country. News will be released here as soon as we have confirmed the details.

The donation system will remain live for the time being. Any donations beyond the $20,000 target will be put towards future atheist advertising campaigns. We have plans for future phases – possibly different slogans, different mediums. We thought this a better option than just closing donations, as to allow those who might have missed out the first time to donate still for the future.

Thank you all, you guys rock!

This morning (a little surprisingly early) I had an interview about the campaign on Kiwi FM…

Following this I also had a chat about the campaign on the Breakfast Show with Spanky on Christchurch’s RDU station…

Breakfast With Spanky – Atheist Simon Fisher

RDU 98.5 FM