Madrid - Does God exist? Atheists and believers will
squabble over that passion-arousing question in ads about to be
placed on Spanish buses in Barcelona, Madrid and possibly other
cities.
The debate actually began in London, where a television writer,
the British Humanist Association and prominent atheist scientist
Richard Dawkins helped to stage an atheist advertising campaign.
Hundreds of London buses now carry ads reading: 'There's probably
no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.'
Atheist groups in the Catalan regional capital Barcelona followed
the British example, with ads showing the same text in Spanish due to
be seen on two city buses for 15 days from Monday onwards.
The campaign launched by the Union of Atheists and Freethinkers
has received more than 6,000 euros (8,000 dollars) in donations which
are expected to allow it to also plant ads on two buses in the
capital Madrid.
There are plans to extend the campaign to Valencia and Bilbao.
'We live in a free country,' said Madrid regional prime minister
Esperanza Aguirre, whose government sees no problem as long as the
ads comply with legal norms.
'The (Catholic) Church launches messages, why should we not do the
same?' asked Albert Riba of Atheists of Catalonia, one of the atheist
groups considering that the Catholic Church still retains an
excessive weight in Spain.
'Such a campaign does not hurt anyone, will bring fresh air and a
slap to fanaticism,' said Emili Vives of the atheists' and agnostics'
association Ateneo Eclectico y Liberal.
However, the Barcelona archbishop's office criticized the atheist
slogan, stressing that faith in God did not prevent believers from
enjoying life, but gave a 'solid foundation' for it.
Christian associations protested louder, with the Group of Catalan
Family Entities accusing the atheists of 'inciting hatred of
religion.'
It was Spain's Protestant minority, however, that really picked up
the atheist challenge.
'A public debate on these questions' would be welcome, said Paco
Rubiales, a pastor at the Christian Meeting Centre in Fuenlabrada
near Madrid, who used church donations to place ads on two buses in
the Madrid region.
'God does exist. Enjoy life in Christ,' the ads read.
'We are not worried about the atheists, but want to divulge our
message,' Rubiales explained.
The atheist campaign was seen as reflecting social changes in
Spain, where only 78 per cent of citizens regard themselves as
Catholics, down from 83.5 per cent in 1998, according to a 2008 poll
by the Centre of Sociological Investigations.
'Those calling themselves Catholics are so only through baptism
and other symbols,' without really practising the religion, liberal
theologist Juan Jose Tamayo explained.
Only about 30 per cent of the Catholics attend mass regularly.
Acts of apostasy have also increased, with more than 500 Spaniards
informing the church that they wanted to renounce Catholicism in the
first half of 2008.
Analysts attribute the change to growing secularism and to the
conservatism of the Catholic Church especially in sexual matters.
The traditionally dominant position of the Catholic Church has
also been challenged by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of
Muslim and Protestant immigrants from Africa and Latin America.
Such developments were reflected in a recent dispute over the
presence of crucifixes in schools, with a group of parents managing
to obtain a court order to remove them from the school their children
were attending in the northern city of Valladolid.
Non-believers needed to 'make themselves visible to prevent
religious confessions from imposing their moral norms and particular
interests to all of society,' the Union of Atheists and Freethinkers
said.
USA
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