Credo: Ariane Sherine
Creator of the Atheist Bus Campaign, 28
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Your support makes all the difference.I believe...
The campaign has gone beyond anything I could have imagined. I just thought people would say, "You are a ridiculous human being."
We're becoming more enlightened as a society. As science and technology advances and we discover more about the world, the more incompatible our findings seem with irrational ideas.
Faith schools effectively divide children in terms of race. As a mixed-race person, that's a little worrying. That's the last thing our society needs.
The attitude of a lot of people in this country is: "I'm not going to go to church, I'm not going to really believe, but if there is something up there, I don't want to get into trouble with it."
Having parents with different religions [Unitarian Universalist and Zoroastrian] meant I could believe in neither. And that caused me to reject the whole thing.
"Where are you from and what religion are you?" were the first things anybody would say to me growing up. I could never answer either adequately.
It's really important that race and religion are never confused, because one is a choice and the other isn't.
If you put out a strong viewpoint, you expect a reaction. Our slogan ["There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life"] has been lambasted for not being strong enough. But there is no certainty. It's OK to say that there probably isn't a God, but I wouldn't go beyond that.
Every time you put something out there in a national paper, it's this amazing opportunity to have people think about something that you've said. I never imagined I'd be able to do that.
The campaign has taken on a life of its own and gone global. There are people from around the world saying, "How can I do this in my country?" I feel a little bit responsible. I do worry a lot. I'm quite a nervous person.
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