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Heaven can wait, hop on a bus
• THE Reverend Philip North’s objection to money being spent on the Atheist Bus campaign (Atheists on the buses, Letters January 16) would have more standing if he also railed against the vastly greater sums – billions – spent on silly, dangerous or pointless advertising, be it of yet more mobile ring tones, the latest junk foods, or warnings that milk chocolate contains milk.
Indeed, his position is a bit rich, bearing in mind the vast wealth controlled by the Church Commissioners, much of which is not used to help the needy.
Behind all this lies a deeply serious point.
Many of us – Jews, Christians, Muslims, humanists, the wealthy and the fairly well-off, governments, companies – spend money on many luxuries, while millions of people elsewhere suffer and struggle and die because of natural disasters, “just” and unjust wars, and man’s inhumanity to man. The inhumanity is often stimulated by religious doctrine. The natural disasters are, according to our reverend I assume, courtesy of a loving God.
Whatever the cause, the way many of us live demonstrates that we do not seriously act on professed beliefs such as every life has equal value and that lives must be saved at whatever cost.
We are more likely to do our best if we focus on this world rather than hoping that a heavenly world will put everything to rights.
The Atheist Bus aids that focus.
Peter Cave
Chairman, Humanist Philosophers
British Humanist Association, WC1
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