From mediawatchwatch I learned today that an early day motion was posted on Monday in the parliament against the atheist bus campaign, with the rationale that:

this causes concern to Christian and Muslim people, many of whom feel embarrassed and uncomfortable travelling on public transport displaying such advertisements [... and] to seek to remove these religiously offensive and morally unhelpful advertisements.

Woah! Christians and Muslims are offended by something?!? That’s new! And that’s tough: this is the freedom of speech^*. If they are offended by reality then that’s too bad (for them). Get over it. They have been advertising and proselytizing for centuries without a single hint of evidence for their supernatural magical fairy tales.

Also, I am irritated (only rarely offended) by:

• The numerous Christians, Muslims, Scientologists, Jehovah witnesses, etc. that distribute leaflets, go door-to-door and annoy people, and preach in public places, and try to convince me that if I do not worship and glorify their favourite magical deity, I will burn and suffer in hell forever. What kind of psychological terrorism is this? And they complain about an ad that says “There is probably no God”? Oh, the irony!
  
  
• The intermediaries of each religion (the clergy, the priests, the rabbis, etc.) and their money-making organizations, the tax-breaks and funding they get for providing absolutely no service to humanity; for living parasitically off the proper members of our society; for terrorizing and proselytizing innocent children; and for preventing the advances of our species through the only reliable method we have devised: science.
  
  If one wants to believe in a supernatural deity, that’s fine. But it is supposed to be a personal thing. No need for the intermediaries who have distorted and exploited the (anyway ambiguous) meaning of religion. And no need to impose it on others. And learn to live in a society where people will not necessarily share your beliefs and opinions.
  
  
• The “Jesus Said” and similar advertising campaigns that amplify the terror of imaginary places like hell and purgatory, and freely provide baseless claims of how Jesus loved us, how Jesus died for us (what?), and how we now must accept him in return or we will F**KING BURN FOREVER!
  

If they are seriously considering banning the atheist ad campaign then they should start considering the aforementioned items as well. Also, they should start re-evaluating their stance on significant issues related to the freedom of speech, the freedom of and from religion, and the logical circuitry in their brains.

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Footnotes:

1. * Would they take down an ad saying that “There are probably no unicorns” because the Friends of Unicorns Society members would be offended? [↩]