[Ottawade]

The Freethought Association of Canada tried to buy ad space on OC Transpo buses that said, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." City staffers said the ad was too controversial to run. The transit commitee split on a vote (3-3) to overturn that decision meaning the ban remains.

More from the CBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/02/19/ot-090219-busads.html?ref=rss

Although I disagree with the guy from the Humanist association that the ads aren't controversial, as it seems any public debate on the existence of God is going to be, and I also disagree that they wouldn't be considered adversarial. After all they are sending the message that what some people consider an important part of their life might have no substance is going to trigger a defensive/adversarial reaction.

With that in mind I'm not trying ignite a hot topic here on the forum, but I'm curious as to others opinions about the ads being banned.

The way I see it the ads, like any ad, were created to get attention and there probably could have been a softer message like "Some of your neighbors don't believe there is a God and they are really nice people." But even as the message stands I'm kind of disappointed in the decision. I understand OC Transpo probably has enough PR stress to deal with already that this wouldn't help their standing with many people in the community, but it seems to me an ad that says "God loves you, come worship with us" would get accepted without a wink and it causes a double standard.

What do forumers think about the ads being banned? (We can save the existence of God(s) for another thread ;) )

[d_jeffrey]

I would have probably posted on the ads:

Countries with the highest atheist numbers have the highest quality of life.

[Justin10000]

"There is probably no god, so stop worrying, and enjoy life"

That's adversarial?

Frick, even the Bible stop association says this is not controversial.

[Dado]

As always with these debates, it becomes one about the ads themselves rather than about the policy behind the decision. Then people add in a whole bunch of heated rhetoric about free speech, as if somehow the Constitution guarantees an ability to place advertisements in or on the sides of publically-owned buses (what if the City passed a no-advertising policy? would that be a violation of free speech?).

The question ought to be about the policy:

"The decision was made based on a subsection of the transit advertising policy which says that "religious advertising which promotes a specific ideology, ethic, point of view, policy or action, which in the opinion of the City might be deemed prejudicial to other religious groups or offensive to users of the transit system is not permitted. Religious advertising will be permitted if the information is designed to promote a specific meeting, gathering or event and the location, date and time of said event.""

Had the ad been about a atheist gathering, it would have permitted under this policy, just as ads for celebrating Christmas and other events are permitted (i.e. "Come celebrate Christmas by joining us for a performance of Handel's Messiah"). What isn't permitted are religious messages unrelated to an event, which, this ad is.

So do you agree with the policy or not? Should fundamentalist Christian groups be allowed to place "Repent or burn in Hell" type ads on buses? Should a Muslim group be allowed to place a message of the "There is only one god..." variety? One can hardly demand that atheist messages be permitted but religious messages not be.

What the Humanist group has failed to realize is that the religious groups have obeyed the existing policy, and they haven't. They aren't being discriminated against - they just didn't look at the policy. And they ought to know that in Ottawa of all places, we're of course going to have a policy :D .

[Rathgrith]

Last time I checked, OC Transpo needed all the money they could get. So why not let them post.

[Radster]

The key word in that ad is "probably". By having this word in the ad, it means that the ad is not implying anything, and that one should not necessarily believe in or agree with the stament at hand, it is up to the individual. Unfortunately, the religious people who are opposed to the ad who say it is controversial and insulting are failing to read every word in the ad and are reacting like a typical insecure person reacts to a statement he/she misinterprets. Interestingly, only a select few religious people are like this, and polls around the world regarding this ad show that the majority of the population in most countries has no issue with the ad whatsoever. In Ottawa, being such a conservative town that we are, with so many levels of government and red tape all over the place, I am not surprised by OC Transpo's wussy-like decision. Nothing surprises me in this town (I don't consider this a city) anymore. :rant:

[Ottawade]

Maybe they should put them on the STO! :)

[MalcolmTucker]

The government rejected them? Funny. They are running in Calgary to my knowledge.

[harls]

Maybe they should put them on the STO! :)

Yeah, but they'd have to be in French, and that wouldn't create as much a buzz with unilingual anglo Ottawans. ;)

[Richard Eade]

Apparently the ad has been accepted in Calgary, Toronto, and I believe Montreal (according to the Humanists).

In defence of the decision, Mr. Mercier said that OC Transpo had recieved 4 complaints about the ads before Transpo has even had a chance to evaluate the ad themselves. This was an indication to them that it would be "offensive to users of the transit system" and thus would not be permitted.

Personally, I agree with the refusal. As has been pointed out in this thread, the wording is likely to "trigger a defensive/adversarial reaction". This is a clear indication of offense and thus the ad should not be permitted under the policy.

Whether it is 'right' that people interpret the ad badly is not for us to judge. To those people, this is offensive. They believe that they are being told that what they deeply believe is false.

If the statement were "Darwin was probably wrong.", I'm sure there would be a bunch of folks who would consider those 'fightin words'. They would immediately bring up all the facts and figures they could find to show why they were not 'probably' wrong.

This campaign began in England where the slogan was originally "There is no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life". This was not accepted on the Tube. The slogan was changed to "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." which just squeeked in as acceptable. Once the ad was 'in' at one place, that was used to shoe-horn the ad into other places. At the Transit meeting, the first thing the Humanist delegation brought up was that the ad was acceptable in other places, but not in Ottawa. The delegate then stated that he didn't know what was wrong in Ottawa. This is an attempt at sleazy manipulation. The 'There must be something wrong with Ottawa if it does not accept the ad.' trick. The 'They do it. Is Ottawa not as good as them?' ploy.

Simply adding the word "probably" does allow for some doubt. This is how it got into the Tube. It is apparently OK to tell people that they are probably wrong, but not that they are definately wrong.

[osirisboy]

I believe translink in metro vancouver didnt allow the ads on skytrain. Its bullshit. meanwhile i see ads all the time from the church of jesus christ personally thats offensive.

[333fun555]

What to forumers think about the ads being banned? (We can save the existence of God(s) for another thread ;) )

;) Didn't see this one coming ;)

[rocketphish]

Bus ban is the answer to atheists' prayers
By Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen February 21, 2009

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Life/answer+atheists+prayers/1313780/story.html

[Radster]

Bus ban is the answer to atheists' prayers
By Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen February 21, 2009

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Life/answer+atheists+prayers/1313780/story.html



AHAHHAAHA, thanks for that rocketphish, very good article, totally made my morning! :haha:

[Radster]

In case anyone missed the news:

http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/local/article/195160