Bus drivers with deep religious convictions, who are employed by Helsingin Bussiliikenne, which operates public bus lines in Helsinki will not be taking any action against an international advertising campaign by the non-religious.
Last week, the prospect that they would have to drive buses with advertisements proclaiming “There probably is no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”, caused a stir among religious drivers, some of whom had threatened to refuse to drive vehicles with the slogan.
The campaign, sponsored by the Freethinkers Association, and the Finnish Humanist Association is part of the international atheist bus campaign.
The leader of resistance by religious bus drivers, Tapani Mäkinen, said that there were few legal ways for Christian and Muslim drivers to refuse to drive buses with the offending ads and still keep their jobs.
The drivers asked their shop steward if it was possible to refuse to drive a certain vehicle out of religious conviction.
“We hit a dead end. Something like that would be seen as a refusal to work”, Mäkinen said.
There was also a petition that was to have been sent to the bus company. Mäkinen said that more than 80 signatures were collected, from Pentecostal, Orthodox, and Muslim drivers.
“We gave up, as it would not have been possible to stop the ads.”
The atheist ads will be on the buses for two weeks. The advertising campaign will also take place in Turku and Tampere, although the wording of the slogan was toned down a bit.
Christian groups are also planning to take a public stand on the question of the existence of God. Two Lutheran congregations in Helsinki, as well as the Finnish Bible Institute are planning a summer event in August with a slogan: “God exists. Don’t worry, enjoy life”.
Timo Junkkaala, the executive director of the Finnish Bible Institute insists, however, that organisers came up with name before the international atheist bus campaign was launched.