Posters are going up at a hundred London Underground stations today as part of ‘Thought for the Commute’, a new two-week campaign by the British Humanist Association (BHA).
The posters will encourage commuters to think about meaning in life under the question ‘What’s it all for?’, presenting views from four famous humanists: novelists George Eliot and Virginia Woolf and philosophers Bertrand Russell and A C Grayling.
Running alongside the posters will be a ‘rush hour’ social media campaign featuring a wider range of thoughts from humanist writers, as well as quizzes encouraging people to think about life. Commuters will also be encouraged to tweet their own answers to the question along with selfies with their favourite posters.
‘Thought for the Commute’ is the latest awareness-raising initiative from the BHA, and follows in the footsteps of its popular ‘That’s Humanism!’ video series starring Stephen Fry earlier this year.
Launching the campaign, BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson commented, ‘Despite over half the population in the UK describing themselves as non religious, humanist perspectives on life’s big questions are still far less available to the public than religious ones. In our state schools, religions are taught about but non-religious worldviews like Humanism are seldom given the same treatment. In our state media, the BBC, sermons and prayers are broadcast but rarely any content engaging with questions of value and meaning from a humanist point of view. As a result, many people whose beliefs are essentially humanist are unaware of the fact.
‘Most non-religious people are happy and secure living ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. To them hopefully we are just providing something interesting to think about amid the daily grind. To some others, who may feel less secure in their beliefs, we’re hopefully providing a first glimpse of a way of thinking about life that fits with their own non-religious approach, and the knowledge that their deepest beliefs, though perhaps unsystematic and implicit, are coherent and respectable and shared by many, including by the inspirational figures on these posters.’
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For further information or comment please contact BHA Head of Public Affairs Pavan Dhaliwal on pavan@humanists.uk or 0773 843 5059 or Chief Executive Andrew Copson on andrew@humanists.uk or 07855 380 633
For more information about the poster campaign visit www.TFTC.today
Humanists have long been excluded from Thought for the Day, the daily scripted slot on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 that offers ‘reflections from a faith perspective on issues and people in the news’, yet humanists and the non-religious have played an important role in shaping our laws, championing human rights and a fairer society for everyone. Thought for the Commute offers four easily accessible humanist perspectives on one of life’s biggest questions: ‘What’s it all for?’
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.