REJECTION OF ATHEIST ADS PREVENTS OPEN DEBATE ON RELIGION

Atheist Ads Mild By World Standards

Wednesday, February 18, 2009.

Can non-Christians be "good" people?

That's a question Humanist Canada would like Vancouver residents to ponder. Unfortunately, we aren't going to get the chance.

Earlier this month, Humanist Canada attempted to purchase advertising space at the Vancouver and North Vancouver SeaBus terminals. The organization wanted to put up a poster-sized ad bearing the following words, superimposed upon a cloud-dotted blue sky: "CAN YOU BE GOOD WITHOUT GOD?"

The ad would also have included the name Humanist Canada - a charitable organization that's promoted the separation of church and state since 1968 - and the organization's slogan: "beyond belief since 1968."

The ads would have been in place for a month. TransLink refused them, citing a policy of refusing any ad that "promotes or opposes a specific theology or religious ethic, point of view, policy or action."

Pat O'Brien, president of Humanist Canada, plans to appeal the decision at a TransLink board meeting in March.

"We're not a religion or a theology, and we're neither opposing nor supporting either one, so we think we have a good case for an appeal," O'Brien says. He notes that the Toronto Transit Commission had no problem with the ads, two of which will appear in Toronto subway stations next week.

The ironic thing is that B.C. is the last place in Canada - aside from the Yukon - where religion should be an issue. According to the 2001 Canada Census, 35.1 per cent of British Columbians listed "no religion" on their census form. Only the Yukon was higher, at 37.4 per cent. In Ontario, by comparison, 16 per cent ticked "no religion."

By international standards, the Canadian ads are pretty tame. Ads that ran in Washington, D.C. during Christmas asked: "Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness' sake." The Italian Union of Atheists and Rationalist Agnostics were even more blunt in the ads they attempted to run: "The bad news is that God does not exist. The good news is that we do not need him."

Websites go even further. God is Imaginary, at www.godisimaginary.com, offers "50 simple proofs" that God doesn't exist. It advises believers to try praying for an end to cancer and see what happens, and asks why it's delusional to believe in leprechauns but not delusional to believe in God.

Strong stuff.

So why all the fuss about two ads which are, by comparison, pretty mild mannered?

Likely because so many religions are founded on belief. Should doubt poke a hole in belief--be it a child's belief in Santa Claus or a Christian's belief in miracles--the whole thing might collapse like a soufflé.

Emma Goldman, an anarchist, atheist and women's rights activist of the early 1900s, was once told dancing was "undignified" and not an appropriate activity for a serious political activist. Her reply was paraphrased in the 1970s. "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."

A little more paraphrasing, and it nicely sums up my take on religion: "If I can't question it, I don't want to be part of your religion."

There are some religions that do welcome questions. The United Church of Canada, for example, welcomed the transit ads, saying they would foster religious debate.

Then there's the Dalai Lama, head of Tibetan Buddhism. I attended a talk he gave in Vancouver in 1981, in which he compared the world's religions to a smorgasbord. Any religion can be sustaining, he said. It doesn't matter which you choose to partake of, as long as it inspires you to be a better, more compassionate person.

One has to wonder. If the Dalai Lama tried to put that message on an ad at the SeaBus terminal, would TransLink shut him down?

-- Lisa Smedman, Vancouver Courier