in the beginning, man created god

the british humanist association has decided to broadcast their viewpoints and for that they have purchased advertising space on the buses that sway through the streets of london. now, to their viewpoints - atheism. the 'atheist bus campaigns' have spread to usa, canada and other parts of europe. the campaign started with 40 buses and a target of 5000 pounds and has now crossed 200 buses with a collection of 150, 000 pounds. the church complained to the advertising regulatory that the ads would hurt religious sentiments but the complaint was rejected on the right for 'freedom of expression'.

slogan of 'you don't have to believe in god to be a moral or ethical person' was met with 'there definitely is a god. so join the christian party and enjoy your life'. the transport authorities made a lot of moolah. the atheist associations have achieved their objective and if the church should dare the church to authenticate their claims, the church will be challenged to prove their case. phew!!!

what surprised me was - 80% of the british and 90% of the americans are 'believers'. the usa is probably the only country that proclaims its faith on its currency - it is imprinted on the dollar - 'in god we trust'. then how did the campaign get to be success. is religion losing its glamour??

the thought that scared me - what would happen if this campaign came to india? there won't be any buses left on the streets. the buses, bus stations, workshops, transport corporations and even the transport minister would be castrated.

but then, india is the birth-place of three religions that deny the existence of god. gautham buddha asked his followers not to accept even his teaching if it failed to pass the test of reason. buddha's argument was that, if god is omnipotent, why is there so much evil all around? jainism, following the teachings of mahavira propound the concept that 'god is a mithya'. mahavira believed that the universe had no beginning and so, no creator. hinduism accepts that atheists can continue to be hindus with brihaspati being the presiding deity of the atheists.

so, basically all the religions that sprouted out of india were tolerant and gave importance to atheists, but the followers of the 'atheism-supporting' religions are not tolerant.