An official complaint to the Advertising Ethics Council has been made by a private person over the religion critical bus adverts in Helsingfors/Helsinki.

The adverts which carry the text “There is probably no God – Stop worrying and enjoy life” are part of a campaign by organised by the Free Thinkers and Humanist Association. It has attracted criticism of both Christian churches and Muslims in Finland.

The complainant has argued that the advertisements are hurtful towards all those that believe in a religion.  The decision of the relavent authorities in this matter should be an interesting one to watch. Presumably if it is ruled to be considered false advertising, some proof that there is a God would have to be offered to counter act the false claim. If the complainants manage to come up with this, I expect we can see this story very soon as the top story on all newspapers and tv news channels. Until then, perhaps it is best just to allow freedom of speech to take its course. After all, it brings the subject of religion towards the top of the agenda. And this is surely a good thing for not just the atheist campaigners – but also the churches, who are given column space in newspapers to defend their position. All publicity is good publicity, so they say.