TheChronicleHerald.ca is reporting that a recent Harris-Decima survey from The Canadian Press is showing that Canadians are “indifferent” to the atheist bus ads. This is as opposed to the strong negative reactions to the ads in America and also Britain, which is more surprising than the American reaction considering that Britain is commonly considered much more secular. There has been opposition from religious groups, such as the United Church of Canada, who have run their own counter bus ads. There has not been outrage in the same way as in America and Britain, though.
From the article:
The poll found 32 per cent of respondents opposed the ads, 20 per cent supported them and 43 per cent didn’t care one way or the other.
Support for the ads was strongest among respondents in British Columbia and Ontario, with the highest opposition in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Support also varied by age and income, with younger respondents and those making more than $60,000 a year more likely to favour running the ads.
Some nonreligious activists might see this as a failure. This is understandable; the more controversy they create the more visible they are and the further their message spreads. I don’t see it this way. From the beginning, organizers of the various bus ads have asserted that they are not meant to be insulting to the religious (although many do see anything contrary to their beliefs as an insult), nor are they specifically geared towards creating controversy, although they certainly do want attention drawn to them so that people know they exist. They ads were created mostly to let the nonreligious know they are not alone in a world dominated by the religious, and to let others know that we exist and we will demand our place in the public discourse, no matter how forcefully the bigots try to quiet our voices.
As far as getting our message wide attention, that has succeeded. The fact that a survey was conducted and reported on in the news shows this. The print news is driven by what the people are interested in reading about, so clearly even without major controversy people are interested. With every article about the ads, the message spreads wider.
As to the message itself, if even one atheist has been reassured that there are others out there like him or her, the ads have been a success. If it has caused at least one person of faith to just think about their own beliefs a little deeper, or see that we do exist and will not let the anti-atheist bigots keep us out of the public discourse anymore, the ads have certainly succeeded.
Canadians, religious and nonreligious alike, should be proud of this survey’s findings! It suggests that maybe, in opposition to America and Britain, Canada is more respectful of the rights of people to hold different religious beliefs and opinions, or none at all. That is how it should be everywhere. Atheists publicly promoting their viewpoint should be no more controversial than the religious views openly promoted throughout western society.
We don’t ask for tolerance of beliefs and ideas. Any beliefs put out into the open should be questioned, and that is exactly what many active or “militant” atheists do. No one should be attacked personally for simply having or expressing these views, though. Many religious people claim it is us militant atheists who attack them for simply believing, but as a whole this is untrue. These people see any criticism of their beliefs as personal attacks; they cannot tell the difference between valid criticism of a claim and attacks on the people making the claims. Meanwhile, it is the nonreligious who receive the brunt of the bigotry. We are told that we don’t even have the right to express our views at all, or that we are immoral for simply being honest about what we do or do not believe.
I hope this means that Canada is on the right track, because America certainly isn’t.
