‘Thank God For Atheists’

The Christian leader of a political party in Great Britain is countering atheist ads with his own ad campaign that draws attention to his God and his minority political party.

“[Over] the past month I have had to be at my most tolerant,” said the Rev. George Hargreaves, head of the U.K.’s Christian Party, in referring to the 149 buses he has watched pass his office bearing the words, ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.'”

The atheist ads, organized by the British Humanist Association and backed by best-selling atheist author Richard Dawkins, inspired Hargreaves to launch bus ads that say, “There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life.”

Hargreaves said according to the book of Psalms only a fool says there is no God. “Even then, such a fool only says so inwardly in their heart,” he said on his Christian Party’s Web site. “They do not spend 140,000 pounds on an advertising campaign.”

He added that the atheist campaign has provided his party with “an irresistible opportunity” to both proclaim the existence of God and promote the existence of his minority Christian Party, which he said is now preparing for European elections this June. “That almost has me saying ‘Thank God for atheists,'” he said.

According to the BBC, the Trinitarian Bible Society and the Russian Orthodox Church are also preparing bus ads.

The atheist ad campaign hit a snag last month when a Christian bus driver from southern England refused to ferry passengers on a bus prominently displaying the ad.

Last year a similar atheist initiative launched in the U.S., when the American Humanist Association (AHA) sponsored an ad campaign in Washington, D.C. ahead of Christmas that suggested believing in humanism was a better alternative than believing in God. The ads read, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.”