Toronto church leader denounces atheist 'attack ads'
by Globe and Mail
JEFF GRAY
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
January 29, 2009 at 4:24 AM EST
A prominent evangelical leader says atheist ads suggesting there is no God - now headed for Toronto's transit system - are "attack ads" and should not be approved.
The Toronto-based Freethought Association of Canada won approval yesterday from the Toronto Transit Commission to place ads on buses and inside subway cars that read: "There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
Charles McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition, which fought against the legalization of same-sex marriages, said his group has not decided whether it will formally complain about the ads once they appear.
"On the surface, I'm all for free speech. ... However, though, these are attack ads," Dr. McVety, president of Canada Christian College in Toronto, said in an interview yesterday.
"These ads are not saying what the atheists believe, they are attacking what other people believe," he said. "And if you look at the dictionary definition for ... bigot, that's exactly what it is, to be intolerant of someone else's belief system."
The ads coming to the Toronto transit system are identical to those used in a recent campaign in Britain. After raising more than $26,500 in donations in just a week using a website called atheistbus.ca, the Freethought Association now plans to use the funds to place the ads on buses in Calgary and Halifax.
Katie Kish, the Freethought Association's vice-president, denied the ads are an attack on religion. She argued that they are meant to inspire dialogue.
"It's not meant to be any sort of rude or inflammatory thing toward people," said Ms. Kish, a York University student with a radio program heard on campus stations. "It's meant to grab attention, and then, from that attention, comes discussion. And that's what we want out of it."
She also said the website, which raised much more than the campaign's original $6,000 goal - more than $5,000 rolled in yesterday alone - has also generated its share of hate mail, including two death threats and several warnings that the group is hell bound.
Brad Ross, a spokesman for the Toronto Transit Commission, confirmed yesterday that staff have decided the ads do not violate any of the TTC's rules. But that decision could be reviewed if complaints arise.
"Disallowing the ad may be a violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code and potentially a violation of the Charter ... so we have to look at it from a legal basis," Mr. Ross said. "We don't feel that there's any grounds to disallow the ad."
FREE SPEECH OR BIGOTRY?
Ads similar to these will be found on TTC buses and subway cars:
"It was, of course, a lie, what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I don not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
Albert Einstein
THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD.
NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE.
"I'm an atheist and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people."
Katherine Hepburn
THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD.
NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE.
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
Douglas Adams
THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD.
NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE.