First in London, and now in D.C. The campaign to make it okay to publicly be an atheist is spreading. Now it is right in your face, on buses in two capitol cities. The London group is found at AtheistCampaign.org, and the U.S. campaign is funded by the American Humanists, via WhyBelieveinAGod.org. Both groups are receiving adequate donations in support of the program. London is up to 20 times their original target!

There are also counter-campaigns online. Such as ThereProbablyIs.com. This is mostly a user submitted list of reasons to think that God is real. They seem to come down to “because I believe“. About half cite hallucinations as proof (“he told me so himself”). Others argue from innumeracy (“because so many of my prayers have been answered”). Surely they hoped to find better reasons. Pharyngula reported that they initially tried to have an online poll about whether God exists, but they apparently pulled the poll; presumably when the results leaned too heavily the wrong way.

In D.C, the bus slogan is “Why Believe in God? Be Good for Goodness’ sake”. I think that this ad campaign slips into the cracks between rationalist and faithful thinking (as I’ve discussed here). On Christian reporting sites, they contend that without “God,” how can one know “good”? Rationalist sites take a “so there!” attitude. Neither side seems to notice that no communication is happening. By slipping into the crack, these ads will probably widen the divide more than woo the uncommitted.

Now the Dawkins school of thought is fine with that. But the result of a holy war between a billion emotional followers and a few million independent thinkers has but one possible outcome.