Far be it from me to piss in somebody's chips when they're basically standing for something I believe in / stand for, but having noticed lots of posters on the Tube recently for the Humanist Association's "There's Probably No God" campaign I can't help wondering if, in trying to make it 'appealing' and 'attractive' (my emphasis) they haven't ended up saying something that's worse than banal, in that it's actually dangerous.
Let's get it out of the way - I absolutely agree with the headline that "There's probably no god"... absolutely. Totally.
The problem is the strapline that sits below it. It says "Now stop worrying and enjoy your life"...
Let's just be clear - having taken on a fundamental philosophical position about the need to believe and in the importance of showing clear blue water between the principles of faith and belief as opposed to logic and knowledge and rationality and reality - something terribly important in suggesting that you have control and responsibility, they then fob you off with a twee little pat on the head. Go enjoy yourself... Have fun...
The world teeters on a knife-edge today: it is almost entirely composed of poverty, hunger, death, imperialism, war, terror, pollution, climate change, diminishing energy and water resources - and they say "enjoy your life"...
The truth is that if there's no god to bail you out, to intervene, or for you to hang your hopes on - then more than ever you need to understand these issues, and that the way they end up resides entirely with you, the human.
Frankly it should be:
THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD.
NOW GET YOUR FUCKING ARSE IN GEAR AND SORT OUT THIS PLANET BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN ON ITS SODDING OWN, YOU KNOW. NOPE.
There is no god - and it absolutely *is* down to us.
It's a shame that the Humanist Association seems to have allowed people to abdicate that responsibility in its attempts to win them over.
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The logic of these posters completely fails me.
I agree with everything you said about it and that is just the point - when there is no God (which I'm convinced of), the responsibility is up to us, there's nobody to bail us out but ourselves. From my experience many people use the "excuse of God", so to speak, to give away their responsibility, because there is a higher power somwhere, controlling life and death and everyone's destiny is set.
If you take that away, there are no strings to hold on and nothing to make you feel safe.
And I can't quite wrap my head around the deduction that this means "Go out and have fun" and especially not "stop worrying".
It is in fact the start of all worry. Who made the world into the mess it is now? We did. So we have to sort it out again ourselves. And no higher power is there to help us.
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