Betting Against God - The Atheist Bus Part II

‘Hey Nat, this is Mat,’ the voice on the other end of the phone sounded excited, ‘can you be ready in ten minutes, got an exciting event happening?’

‘Ten minutes, why always such short notice?’

‘Oh stop whining, you need to be there so hang up and get moving,’ Mat snapped.

I hung up and sighed.  ‘Mat’s more into this than I am.  Still, he sounded excited so maybe it will be something impressive.’

Five minutes later Mat was outside laying on the horn.

‘You’re early,’ I said closing the door behind me.

‘Well, you look ready, so move your shell; we don’t want to be late for this.’

Before I could reply Mat’s acceleration pushed me back into the seat and I closed  my eyes to avoid the fear induced by his reckless driving.  We stopped abruptly and Mat shouted, ‘We’re here.’

I opened my eyes, ‘The Bus again,’ I said seeing the red double decker atheist bus parked half a block away.

‘Not exactly,’ Mat chirped and ran ahead.

I caught up with him by the bus and noticed it had a new sign which read, “There’s Probably No God, Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life.”

‘Hey Ary, What do you think about our new sign?’ Mat yelled across the street.  ‘He’s one of those Christians,’ Mat whispered to me as Ary crossed to us.

Ary read the sign twice, once in a whisper and then a bit louder.  ‘I don’t get it,’ Ary said.

Mat’s smile faded and he stamped his foot impatiently. ‘You Christians are so dense but your time is finished!  Atheists are taking over and this is our opening attack.’

‘But  – There Probably is no God –seems pretty weak as a declaration of war -  ‘not much conviction,’ Ary said.

‘Some wanted it to say,  There Almost Certainly Is No God,’  Mat replied.

‘That isn’t much more definite.  It seems to me you are just rolling the dice that there is no God.  Almost Certainly, or Probably, what’s the difference?  What probability are you talking about anyway? 99/01 or 51/49?  The latter one doesn’t seem to allow much of a margin for error.  Not what I would call betting odds you know?

Mat was red-faced.  ‘We can’t lie. Even though we’re atheists we can’t say for certain that there is no God, and besides, if we said there was No God we might get complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority here in Britain.’

‘So, you’re declaring war on Christianity by encouraging people to consider atheism, but you’re worried about complaints and admitting that you really aren’t sure that there is no God?’ Ary asked.

Ary and Mat faced off for a moment before Ary smiled, ‘Well, good luck to you.’  He started to turn away then stopped, ‘My ministry might be interested in sponsoring some buses.  Seems like it would get people thinking.’

Mat and Nat watched Ary cross the street back to his church. 

‘Are we going to ride the bus around town now,’ Nat asked.

‘Shut up and get back in the car. I’m taking you home,’ Mat snapped.