Atheists come up short in British bus battle

LONDON — A band of atheists warring with Christians over advertising space on London’s traditional red buses have lost their fight because of a lack of financial pledges.

A monthlong campaign led by British political activist and self-proclaimed atheist Jon Worth was triggered by fury over religious ads posted on the buses by a Christian-oriented group known as Proclaiming Truth in London. Particularly irksome to the atheists was one of the Christians’ ads that read: “When the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Worth’s campaigners had their own slogan ready — “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and get on with your life” — but needed to raise nearly $50,000 to buy a two-week slot on just one vehicle. They planned to raise the sum online through $10 pledges from sympathetic atheists, but to little avail, as it turned out. With the campaign now over, the nonbelievers have amassed less than $9,000, and their signs were down before they were ever put up.