Atheist bus banned in Genoa

January 19th, 2009 by Monitor

The bad news is that God doesn’t exist. The good news is that we don’t need him.

That was to be the Italian atheist bus ad slogan in Genoa, before it was cancelled after pressure from the Catholic church.

The Archbishop of Genoa is an ultra-conservative biscuit-muncher called Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco. He was said to be “furious” about the proposal to advertise on local buses. So he urged officials to write to the bus company and advertising firm to voice their objections.

For some reason, the bus company and/or advertising firm listened to them.

UPDATE: (30 Jan) The atheists have been given the green light after changing their slogan to

The good news is that there are millions of atheists in Italy. The best news is that they believe in freedom of expression.

This compromise was deemed by the church to be “not offensive, but debatable”.


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