By RICHARD DAWKINS
Added: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 UTC

What is this that frighteneth us?
Can it be an atheist bus?
Yes, the dreaded “Probably
There is no God”, so stridently
Cuts through our calm like plunging knife –
And asks us to enjoy our life!
“Enjoy your life”? The dreadful scene
Disturbs the Reverend Stephen Green.
No chance that he’ll “Stop worrying”.
Instead we see him hurrying
To file his silly little plea
With the official Agency
That keeps the Standards gently rising
Of all our British Advertising.
“Probably? You cannot prove it.
So therefore you must now remove it.”


As agreed with Ariane
(Whose buses, red and partisan
Drive with insolent abandon
All around the streets of London)
And with her fellow rationalists
Among the British Humanists,
In April there’s a second wave
Of buses from the pounds I gave
Together with the gifts I matched
And also the small fraction snatched
Back from the Inland Revenue –
That’s all the Gift Aid that is due.
So now we need some good ideas
To feed the faith-heads’ darkest fears.
A slogan bright, for all of us –
Atheistes omnibus. [1]

We’ve already had some nice suggestions for the slogan for the second wave of buses in April. I said that my own preference was for “No More Faith Schools”, probably following something along the lines of the familiar (perhaps too familiar to our regulars, but not to the citizens of London) “There’s no such thing as a . . . child”, perhaps including the joking reference to “Marxist child” or “Postmodernist child”. Somebody suggested a long list of ex-Gods (Mithras, Zeus, Horus, Wotan etc), all crossed out, with Yahweh and Allah crossed out. I like that suggestion too. There are some other good suggestions that people here have made. Like “Religions: They can’t all be right. They can all be wrong”. Does anybody know the origin of “Religion: For consenting adults in private.” I wonder whether people might send in all their suggestions, to form an orderly list on this page, so that we can survey a gathered field and make a choice.
Many thanks

Thank you

Richard

[1] With acknowledgments to A D Godley (1856-1925):
What is this that roareth thus?
Can it be a Motor Bus?
Yes, the smell and hideous hum
Indicat Motorem Bum!
Implet in the Corn and High
Terror me Motoris Bi:
Bo Motori clamitabo
Ne Motore caedar a Bo –
Dative be or Ablative
So thou only let us live:
Whither shall thy victims flee?
Spare us, spare us, Motor Be!
Thus I sang; and still anigh
Came in hordes Motores Bi,
Et complebat omne forum
Copia Motorum Borum.
How shall wretches live like us
Cincti Bis Motoribus?
Domine, defende nos
Contra hos Motores Bos!

TAGGED: ATHEISM, CAMPAIGNS, RICHARD DAWKINS