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anne_mariesamp
anne_mariesamp
07 January 2009 @ 11:32
In the Economy We Trust  

Just before I left work yesterday I read in the Telegraph that the atheist bus slogans had now been placed on 800 buses around Britain after an unprecedented fundraising campaign. I’ve probably mentioned this campaign before, but yesterday it didn’t fail to bring a smile to my lips, but probably for the wrong reasons. At least they will probably see it as the wrong reasons, and when I say ‘they’ I mean the people who are backing this project.

So, there probably isn’t a God. That’s good to know, adverts have very helpfully told me a number of things over the years… probably. “Carlsberg, probably the best lager in the world” for example. What is interesting though, is that the two sentences on the bus advert, when put together seem to suggest that believe who believe in God worry and don’t enjoy their lives. An interesting thought certainly, but not necessarily any more true than Carlsberg declaring that if they made housemates/holidays/takeway/pub football teams they would probably be the best in the world.

I believe in God and I enjoy life, in fact belief in God has probably made me enjoy life more because I actually have some appreciation of what I have rather than living for what I want, which is what the credit crunch is all about. A lot of people are in debt partly for wanting what they can not afford, rather than being happy with what they have.

But back to the bus campaign. For those of you who don’t know, the slogan says this: There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy life.

Personally I think this is one of the worst times to run this sort of advert. In a time of crisis and uncertainly, telling people to stop worrying and enjoy life can be seen as somewhat insensitive. It might have worked a year ago when life was fine, but a lot has happened in 12 months, just ask people who work for Lehman’s Bank, MFI or Woolworths. I spoke to a lady yesterday who works in shipping and her company has made redundancies and have reduced the working week to 4 days. House prices dropped by nearly 16% last year, Marks and Spencers are to cut 1200 jobs it’s been announced today, and the immediate future looks bleak with the recession deeper than the Government had once thought.

Ironically that in itself is almost biblical: “Eat, drink and be merry. For tomorrow we die.” One of those wonderfully misunderstood, misquoted lines from the Bible. In this case, from 1 Corinthians 15.32 (I think, it’s hard to find out since I’m at work and web pages deemed religious are banned and/or blocked). From what I can gather, Paul was quoting Ecclesiastes and basically saying that if there is no resurrection, or afterlife, if there is no God, then we might as well eat, drink and be merry, for death is the best we can hope for. Good adage for out modern times. But we’ve had the “eat, drink and be merry time”, so maybe now it’s time for death – physically or metaphorically. On the other hand, this could also be the seven years of hunger after seven years of plenty, except without the foresight to store for the future.

Either way, I now feel so much better to know that if there’s no God then we don’t have someone to blame but ourselves, nothing to hope for other than more of the same, and nothing to fall back on when our little self built delusional worlds collapse around us. And there is nothing more delusional than the concept of capitalism; that selfish people with selfish aims could possibly benefit the majority of the world. But that’s okay, because in money we trust.

So, there is no God. That’s nice to know. However, considering the current economic climate I feel as if the slogan is just part of a much longer statement which wouldn’t fit on the side of a bus:

Capitalism is in crisis, the economy is crashing, unemployment is rising, debts are crippling, the ice caps are melting, oil is running out, knife crime is growing, and there is no such thing as society. But on the bright side, there’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy life.




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[info]sacrephill.wordpress.com on 7th January 2009 12:23 (UTC)
Great post, Anne-Marie. Religion - sorry, scrub that - Christianity gives people hope. So if you are having a really bad time of it, then you have the hope that this isn't it - that this world will end and all things will be made new.

In other words, Christianity gives us a reason to keep on keeping on - even if you're going through a dark time. Saying "stop worrying and enjoy life" seems trite and ultimately meaningless. It also seems to ignore various studies where people who have religious conviction are shown to be generally happier than those without ;)

Oh, as for the "Eat, drink and be merry" quote - I always thought that came from the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21). Certainly a very apt parable at the moment. Strangely enough, the next section is entitled "Do not worry" ;) Which kind of epitomises everything you've been saying, A-M. You could make a sermon out of that. (Actually I might nick your idea and blog about it :P)

Ah, just looks up 1 Corinthians 15:32 - you are dead right, except for the "and be Merry" bit. (At least in the NIV). But Paul was quoting from Isaiah, not Ecclesiastes. Although that is quite an Ecclesiastes-like thing to say :)
anne_mariesamp: sheep[info]anne_mariesamp on 7th January 2009 15:28 (UTC)
Glad you enjoyed the post, Phill. It ended up going places I didn't expect it to. Hope is a very powerful thing, in fact, it's no coincidence that "The Shawshank Redemption" was voted best film of the 90s. Now is a bad time to be taking hope away I think. "Tho I walk though the valley of the shadow of death" and all that.

Feel free to blog away. I look forward to reading it.

I've done a little digging, I think the Ecclesiastes bit comes from 2:24-25, at least that's what other people have pointed to. I've struggled to find it online since most the pages are blocked but I think it's something like:

"There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?"

That's a very old translation, but I figure it means, eat, drink and be merry, but if there is no God what enjoyment will you get out of it.

I'll have to see what the Isaiah passage says. Guess this shows how well Paul knew his scriptures.
[info]sacrephill.wordpress.com on 7th January 2009 15:54 (UTC)
It could be that Paul was referring to that passage as well - the Isaiah one was footnoted on BibleGateway. Looking at the ESV study Bible (they have an online version, which you have free access to it you purchase a hard copy), they don't actually mention verse 32! It's sort of subsumed within a larger section.

The cross reference puts it alongside Isaiah 22:13, Isaiah 56:12 and Luke 12:19.

Aaaanyway, I agree with your sentiment - hope is not a good thing to be takinga way at the moment :)
(Anonymous) on 7th January 2009 12:26 (UTC)
I note that the atheists arn't even sure there is not God. A strategic use of the word "probably". Nice.

HJ
anne_mariesamp: sheep[info]anne_mariesamp on 7th January 2009 15:29 (UTC)
Yeah, I like that too, but I think it has something to do with advertising standards. They can't prove there is no God so they have to put "probably". Of course, what it draws attention to is the fact that actually, the could be wrong.
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