THE MAGIC BUS COMES TO CANADA

TORONTO, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- A Toronto association of atheists is conducting a fundraising campaign to post ads on city public transit vehicles to advise "there is probably no God."

Chris Hammond, 22, a first-year political science student, launched the atheistbus.ca Web site this week with a goal of collecting $6,000 to run the ads on Toronto Transit Commission buses, street cars and subways, the Globe and Mail reported.

The message reads: "There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life," the report said.

"There's atheists that are out there. This will show them they are not alone," Hammond told the newspaper.

The move follows a similar British campaign spearheaded by journalist and comedy writer Ariane Sherine who raised $210,000 for a London transit ad blitz, the report said.

Rev. David Giuliano, moderator of the United Church of Canada, told the Globe he didn't have any issues with the atheists' message, although he would rather they say what they believe in, rather than what they are against.

"I think most of these ads ... are responding to a version of God and Christianity that is grounded in a kind of judgment and fear and guilt," Giuliano said. "I don't believe in that God either."

A Toronto-based group that's promoting atheism says Calgary is the next Canadian city on its radar.

The Freethought Association of Canada wants to put ads that question the existence of God on the side of Calgary city buses, said president Justin Trottier.

The ads would carry a simple message: There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.

"We're not trying to insinuate that anyone's belief system is faulty. We're just trying to make the case for ours being just as acceptable," Trottier told CBC News.

The group is currently waiting for approval to put its ads on buses in Toronto. Similar campaigns have been launched in London, England, Madrid and Washington, D.C.

Trottier said the group chose Calgary as its second Canadian target because it has received a lot of support from city residents. It hopes to launch the Calgary campaign in March.

The goal of the ad campaign is to promote dialogue among different faiths, as well as gain greater recognition for atheism, Trottier said.

Atheist Bus Ads - Christians Protest, Italy Rejects, Spain Welcomes, Toronto Is Next

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

January 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A bus ad campaign started in Britain earlier this month has caused a furor in several European countries and may be spreading to Canada.

In Britain, comedy writer Ariane Sherine came up with the idea to have the slogan "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" placed on the sides of buses, and quickly gained support from the British Humanist Association and atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins.

Recently a Christian bus driver from Southampton refused to drive a bus that displayed the ad, saying he was shocked and horrified when he saw the slogan, and walked out of his shift in protest.

"I was just about to board and there it was staring me in the face, my first reaction was shock, horror," driver Ron Heather told BBC radio.

"I felt that I could not drive that bus. I think it was the starkness of this advert which implied there was no God. I told my managers and they said they haven't got another one and I thought I better go home, so I did," he said.

An AFP report said that following the appearance of the ads on 800 buses across Britain and in London's subway system, "angry Christians have protested to Britain's advertising watchdog - the Advertising Standards Agency - asking for proof that the slogans are telling the truth."

A Daily Telegraph report said that the Advertising Standards Agency is considering whether to investigate the campaign on the grounds that it is offensive or that its central claim about God's existence cannot be substantiated.

In northern Italy, a more blatantly antagonistic slogan - "The bad news is that God does not exist. The good news is that we do not need him." - has been rejected by a billboard agency, the IGP Decaux advertising group. The ad campaign was condemned by the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Genoa, whose Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco is president of the Italian Bishops Conference.

Spain, on the other hand, has had the ads appearing on buses in Barcelona and Madrid since last Monday. Though condemned by the Catholic Church in the country, no other apparent protest is being reported in the media.

Madrid's La Gaceta said that despite “so much publicity and so much ink spilled in the media,” most Spaniards were indifferent to the ads.

“Yesterday,” the report said, “residents in Barcelona generally showed indifference to the campaign, even though every newspaper, radio and television station, both in Catalonia and in Madrid, covered it in recent days.”

The Freethought Association of Canada is planning to extend the atheist ad campaign to Toronto where it intends to buy ad space on buses from the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC).

The group's website indicates that the ad in its British format has been submitted for approval to CBS Outdoor, the firm that handles advertising for the Toronto Transit Commission, with atheist groups in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver watching the outcome in order to follow suit if the Toronto campaign is successful.