Your belief offends me...

[sawyl]

This is a total doosey: God botherers of all demonimations are claiming to be offended by the Atheist bus adverts. According to Stephen Green of Christian voice, the statement that, "There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life", fails because:

"It is given as a statement of fact and that means it must be capable of substantiation if it is not to break the rules.

"There is plenty of evidence for God, from people's personal experience, to the complexity, interdependence, beauty and design of the natural world.

"But there is scant evidence on the other side, so I think the advertisers are really going to struggle to show their claim is not an exaggeration or inaccurate, as the ASA code puts it."

Um, proof of God's existence? Proof good enough to convince the Advertising Standards Authority? Really? On the basis of his two examples — personal experience and the tedious argument from design — I suspect he's going to struggle. And so to do the British Humanist Association. Their response to the complain seems to be "bring it on, baby!":

Hanne Stinson, the chief executive of the British Humanist Association, which launched the campaign, said she "pitied the ASA if they are going to be expected to rule on the probability of god's existence. However, if they do investigate we will be very happy to respond".

But what really intrigues me about the whole religious complaint is the idea that it might be possible for me to complain when I next spot an odious religious advert on public transport. I'll admit that I hadn't thought of doing so until now because, y'know, free speech and all that, so instead I've taken to glowering in irritation at banners that tell me I need to accept a religious truth — in the two thousand years since Pilate posed his question, we still haven't got a decent answer, or at least, one that might convince the ASA, so I think I've probably got pretty strong grounds — but, inspired by the religious lobby, I think that, next time I find myself offended, I might just fire off an email complaining about the rudeness of it all. After all, you never know what might happen...