Greenpeace signs in Halifax and Ottawa warn of dangerously low cod levels in the atlantic.

I came across this interesting advertisement through a friend on facebook. Greenpeace is out to remind us that Atlantic cod levels are running so low that they are at risk of irreversible damage. Continued fishing might possibly wipe out the entire species. Not only is this problem with cod, but many other sealife species around the world.

The curious part of the advertisement is that Greenpeace has mimicked our atheist ad style to try and garner more attention.  What a great idea. They have purchased four weeks of advertising time on buses and a billboard in Halifax, and one billboard in Ottawa.

For more reading and information about the Atlantic cod crisis, please visit Greenpeace’s website here. To do your part of ensuring you are not eating endangered sea life, take a look at the seafood market redlist Greenpeace has produced.

A few months ago, you may recall that our ad was rejected by Metro Transit in Halifax due to its supposed controversial nature. You may also recall that a case was put forward under the Supreme Court of Canada with regards to British Columbia transit officials refusing to carry political messages on the side of their buses, and that this would be a guiding case for our atheist ads.

British Columbia transit officials were on the wrong side of the Charter when they refused to carry messages on the sides of their buses aimed at provincial voters, the country’s top court said today.

The Supreme Court of Canada struck down transit policies banning all political ads, saying they violate rights to free speech.

“Like a city street, a city bus is a public place where individuals can openly interact with each other and their surroundings,” wrote Justice Marie Deschamps in the 8-0 ruling.

All nine judges heard the case in March 2008 but Justice Michel Bastarache has since retired.

“I do not see any aspect of the location that suggests that expression within it would undermine the values underlying free expression,” Deschamps wrote. “On the contrary, the space allows for expression by a broad range of speakers to a large public audience.

“I therefore conclude that the side of a bus is a location where expressive activity is protected by … the Charter.”

The judgment was being watched by cities across Canada that have so far rejected atheist bus banners declaring: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

The ruling protecting political ads will be viewed as a boon to those hoping to buy bus space for their atheist message. (To continue reading, click here) – Toronto Star

This is great news for free speech but also great news for our atheist ad. Metro transit informed us months ago that they would revise their policy on advertising what some may deem ‘controversial’,  if the courts ruled in favour of the Canadian Federation of Students. We are hopeful that Metro Transit will make good on their stated intentions and reconsider our proposed advertisements with as little additional delay as possible.

More news to be posted as it becomes available, in the mean time you can sign up on our discussion board and start talking with other atheists at http://atheistdiscussion.com. Atheist Discussion began with the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign and is now the home discussion board for both the Canadian and also Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign.

*UPDATE* - July 11, 2:30pm. It appears that Metro Transit will accept our ad according to TheChronicalHerold.ca

A Supreme Court of Canada decision on freedom of speech in bus advertising means Metro Transit will run atheist ads from a national organization.

[...] “Yes, when they apply, they can . . . purchase the ads.” [said Lori Patterson] (Full article, click here)

On Monday we will be applying. Stay tuned for more details.

Below are a few videos from other atheist bus campaigns around the world. The first from the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign, who have very kindly linked to our discussion board as a place to discuss atheism. Check out their cool video below and also their website – http://inatheistbus.org.

Atheist Bus in Spain:

This video below is from a British comedy called “Have I Got News For You”. The episode aired last fall.

The next is from a show called University Challenge:

More to come soon.

To all of you that learned of our campaign through Listen Up TV and decided to check out our website, welcome to the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign! To everyone else that hasn’t a clue what I’m talking about, Listen Up TV is a television program exploring news and current affairs from a Christian worldview. Today they aired a show about us on Global TV that can also be viewed on their website.

There are a few things I wanted to address that Lorna Dueck (Listen Up TV Host) mentioned during the show but first please take note that their broadcast is fairly slanted towards a Christian perspective and doesn’t really give a fair and equal opportunity for both Atheist and Christian viewpoints. Justin and myself spent 15-20 minutes each in-front of a camera with ListenUp but unfortunately our parts were edited and cut to a small 2-3 minutes. The show in total lasted 23 minutes 25 seconds. Despite our parts being cut short, I am grateful that they gave us an opportunity to speak with them.

During Answering Atheism Lorna spoke with David Harrison and later Dave Schmelzer, both about their religious experiences and how they went from Atheist to Christian. The two discussions revolved around experience and reason. Experience is referenced as their encounter with prayer and crying out to or asking a supposed god for help and guidance. According to them, ‘god’ responded.  A website called god Is Imaginary lists 50 proofs that god is not real and the first proof is simply asking people to try praying, I encourage you to read through it for yourself and possibly test out the first proof. Try asking God why he never heals amputees and then take a look at whywontgodhealamputees.com. Dave S. and David H. both prayed and coincidentally had some sort of result that could be explained away without a divinity.

Response to LUT’s The Wrap which discusses ‘3 Reasons/Tests to Believe in God’

Response to Listen Up TV's "The Wrap"

First Test according to Lorna: “the test of reason – everything has to have a starting point, it’s the law of thermodynamics. All matter has a beginning, and if it began, it has to have a cause. Science and theology relate to that. The test of reason for belief in God is not afraid to explain origin, irreducible complexity, and cause”

There are three laws of thermodynamics. The first law of thermodynamics is that energy is never created or destroyed, it only changes form. For example: the energy used during the combustion phase of a four-stroke engine is not lost, it simply is changes form. A large portion of that energy is turned into heat, kinetic energy, and some turned into sound, but none of that energy is ever lost- it simply changes form. The second law simplified states: “It is impossible for a process to have as its sole result the transfer of heat from a cooler body to a hotter one”(About.com). The third law implies that it is impossible to cool down a system all the way to exactly absolute zero.
Apparently this is the test of reason to find God. It somehow implies a beginning and an end, doesn’t sound like it to me though.

But lets give Lorna a break, let’s suppose that everything has a beginning and an end, after all she is taking Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) five argument for the existence of God and compressing it into a dozen words. Aquinas basically argued that everything is the result of a cause before it, for example a billiard ball is moved by a cue, you move the cue, and there is a chain of movements before that leads up to that movement, or, every action is a reaction from an action before it. Aquinas believed that there was a first mover, something that originally set motion to the chain of events in our universe. He calls this first mover God. Unfortunately for Aquinas and other Christians that follow this school of thought, no one could ever prove how the first mover related to Christian theology or any theology. In other words, ’so what’ if there was a first mover because there is nothing to imply that the first mover was the Christian god or a god of any other religion. For all we know the first mover could have been a bunch of fairies moving things, or the first mover could have moved the universe and then dropped dead. There is no evidence at all to support a first mover as the Christian god, and if there was a first movement, there’s no evidence to support it was any god of any type.

As for irreducible complexity.. that argument was debunked and disproved years ago. Michael J. Behe couldn’t ever get the scientific community to support his argument about the eye, flagellum, and mousetrap all being a complex system that would fail if one part was removed. In sum, Behe said that these complex systems would fail if a single part was removed, the removed part would render the systems useless and unable to have evolved from earlier simpler systems. His theory was largely debunked during the Kitzmiller v. Dover case when Intelligent Design was ruled out of Dover county school system.  Watch Dr. Kenneth Miller debunk irreducible complexity on YouTube here.

Second Test according to Lorna: “Test of experience, we know we experience an innate sense of right and wrong, a sense of universal moral law. Why is love the highest law of this moral code? Where does that experience originate from?”

The answer is in the words evolution and empathy and I highly recommend you read this four page PDF on “The Evolution of Empathy” from Berkley University. In this document Frans B. M. de Waal shows us how our evolutionary history suggests a deep-rooted  propensity for feelings of emotions of others.

Third Test according to Lorna: “Take the test of practice. Is belief in God and what that requires, something a person can actually consistently live with? People do practice christian doctrines in error, that explains past religious wars [...] but when Christian truth is applied correctly, does it past the test of practice. Can you live with it, day in and day out. In a way that brings you joy, peace, and improves who you are?”

Is practice of Christianity really what we want? Godisimaginary.com has created a great YouTube video titled “The Bible Is Repulsive“, it explains how according to the Bible we should be stoned and put to death if we work on the Sabbath day, that non-believing towns and inhabitants should be destroyed, and a few other shocking details about the bible that most Christians don’t know about simply because they haven’t read the bible all the way through. EvilBible.com is also a great resource to show all the horrible parts in the bible that are often overlooked. Belief in God is something we can consistently live without and there’s a popular saying that that “[...]good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things — that takes religion.” — Steven Weinberg Nobel Prize in Physics (thanks to Galen for the comment giving me the correct quote).

We are working closely with the advertising agency that manages OC Transpo’s ad space. Within the next couple of days our contract should be finalized. If all goes well, Ottawa will be seeing our pretty pink, red, and orange banners next week.

Below is a video that discusses the dispute with Ottawa City Council, OC Transpo, and our advertisement disapproval and then approval. The interview is with David Burton, the Director of Humanist Association of Ottawa.

The song below is at the end of the video above. It is by Paul LeClair and was created as part of the protest against the OC Transpo’s attempt to censor our ad. To listen to the full version please visit his website.