US Buses to Carry Atheist Message

More than twelve buses bearing the “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone” message will hit Detroit roads on Thursday in an attempt to try and bring atheists closer together. The ads are supposed to run for a month and are sponsored by the Detroit Area Coalition of Reason, with $5,600 in funding from the United Coalition of Reason, says detnews.com.

"The buses will run in the greater Oakland County area all the way south into the central business district in Detroit," said Ruthe Milan, spokeswoman for the group's Michigan chapter. “I wanted to hit as many major thoroughfares as possible so we could have greater visibility to the public about our message."

According to Milan, that message is not about not believing in God. "We are not interested in converting people to our way of thinking," Milan said. "We are not proselytizing. This is a message coming from the heart to reach out to the atheist/humanist community; a chance for them to connect with like minded thinkers. We are not playing games or insulting anyone, but it would be a nice side benefit if we could open a dialog and have a fruitful conversation with others."

The message is printed over an image of blue sky and clouds. This is not the first time such ads have been posted, as they appeared in a number of U.S. cities, including Des Moines, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Tucson, Sacramento, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Tulsa, San Diego and Dallas.

"We're familiar with them: I think I heard about something happening last year," said Archdiocese of Detroit spokesman Joe Kohn. "These kinds of advertisements speak more about the people who take them out than to us, the ministry and the church."