A complaint has been filed with the government over a series of advertisements posted on buses that suggest God doesn’t exist, demanding proof of the statement in order to comply with federal truth-in-advertising laws.
Officials with the Christian Voice in the United Kingdom have brought the issue of the truthfulness of the “no-God” ads to the attention of the Advertising Standards Authority, which regulates ad statements across the nation.
It’s just the latest skirmish in a long-running dispute over such advertisements: statements by the Christian Voice have in the past been targeted by those who want proof there is a God.
According to the Christian Voice, it is raising questions now about ads that state, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
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Spokesman Stephen Green has suggested the ads break the ASA’s requirements for substantiation and truthfulness.
“Advertisements are not allowed to mislead consumers,” said a statement on the organization’s website. “This means that advertisers must hold evidence to prove the claims they make about their produces or services before an ad appears.”
Green continued, “According to one national newspaper, ‘some atheist supporters of the campaign were disappointed that the wording of the adverts did not declare categorically that God does not exist, although there were fears that this could break advertising guidelines.’
“Well, I believe the ad breaks the Advertising Code anyway, unless the advertisers hold evidence that God probably does not exist,” he said.
“The ASA does not just cover goods and services, it covers all advertising. The advertisers cannot hide behind the ASA’s ‘matters of opinion’ exclusion, because no person or body is named as the author of the statement. It is given as a statement of fact and that means it must be capable of substantiation if it is not to break the rules.”
He said there is ample evidence there is a God: “from peoples’ personal experience, to the complexity, interdependence, beauty and design of the natural world.”
But, he said, “there is scant evidence on the other side, so I think the advertisers are really going to struggle to show their claim is not an exaggeration or inaccurate, as the ASA code puts it.”
Published reports said the advertisement is being carried on about 800 buses in England, Scotland and Wales as well as on the London Underground in a $200,000 month-long campaign supported by the British Humanist Association and atheist Richard Dawkins.
The “no-God” campaign was prompted, the organization said, by comedy writer Ariane Sherine.
“Apparently, Miss Sherine saw a red London bus in June 2008 with a Bible quote and the URL of a website. When she visited the website (www.jesussaid.org.uk), she was told that non-Christians would burn in hell for all eternity,” Christian Voice said.
“This so upset her that, with the help of prominent atheist Professor Richard Dawkins, she started a campaign which raised a massive amount of money for what amounts to an agnostic evangelistic crusade.”
Green said there shouldn’t have been an issue for Sherine.
“If she does not believe in a final judgment, what is her problem? And if she does believe in an afterlife, where does think she is going to spend it? She won’t like heaven, because God is there,” he said.
He said his own organization also is under investigation for an advertorial it placed in the New Statesman, following a single complaint about its commentary.
It said: “There is a Biblical principle that we reap what we sow. It applies to nations as well as to individuals. What politicians sow, the people reap. When politicians sow evil, the people reap misery, and the poorest reap it the worst.”
It then described the damages from government policies in society, and said, “But now we have the disaster of teenage infertility. Every government initiative, including the HPV vaccine, will increase it, but as all the targets revolve around pregnancy, no-one in power knows how many young people they are making sterile and nobody cares.”
Detractors demanded “robust, scientific evidence that the HPV vaccine caused infertility in teenagers,” but missed the point “that it is the encouragement of promiscuity in government teen sex initiatives which spreads the infections which to the damage,” the organization said.
It was just a few weeks earlier when the same government agency banned an ad campaign by a Presbyterian church explaining the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior.
According to LifeSiteNews, the campaign by Sandown Free Presbyterian Church included an ad denouncing behavior at last year’s “gay pride” march in Belfast.
The ads pointed out that sodomy is described in the Bible as an “abomination.”
The report said even though such statements merely repeating the Bible, the ASA prohibited future publication.
The report then said Ian Paisley, one of the church founders, confirmed the order would be ignored>
“We believe the Bible is the written word of God – the infallible word of God, and it has to be obeyed, so we will obey God rather than men, and if it means there has to be court proceedings, if it means even that we are going to be jailed for holding on to this, then that’s a price we have to pay, and we are prepared to pay it,” he said.
“It is a good job the Advertising Standards Authority was not around when the Old Testament was written, or we would be missing half the Christmas story. The ASA would have wanted Isaiah to substantiate his claim that ‘a virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son’ (Isa 7:14). They would have demanded ‘robust, scientific evidence’ that virgins can conceive,” said Green.
“The prophet’s predictions of the fall of Jerusalem and of Christ’s crucifixion would have gone the same way. As for nations beating swords into ploughshares, and the wolf dwelling with the lamb, the ASA would have banned him from ever repeating such an unsubstantiated claim,” he continued.
“But you don’t need to be an Old Testament prophet to see that teenage pregnancy has risen as sex education and the distribution of condoms have gathered pace.”
Green also said he wasn’t concerned that a complaint about the atheistic ads would prompt further complaints about Christian statements.
“I am sure many of them have complained about Christian advertising already,” he said.”
Christian Voice describes itself as a ministry for “those Christians who are fed up with the way things are, who have had enough of secularist politicians imposing wickedness on the rest of us and who are not satisfied with trying to get ‘Christian influence in a secular world’ because they know ‘The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”
