Anyone else loving this as much as I am? 
Argh! Aaaarrrgghh!!
I was just about to quote that exact same section as the funniest part of the article.
I’d love to see that kind of advertising on buses here, I truly would.
We’ve discussed this before. Personally I like the idea behind it but think the slogan they’ve chosen is lame. “There is probably no God” reads like a weak affirmation that there may be one, and “now stop worrying” is condescension of precisely the type atheists are usually unfairly but in this case appropriately accused of displaying.
Opposed to the Religious condescention that comes from…
“Jesus loves you! Church of Ladder day Saints wants to save you(r soul)!”
or “Any baby can become a king, our king became a baby to save us.”
etc, etc, etc.
And looking at your location, ‘here’ would be New Zealand?
sigh so few women do.
While I understand the complaints about the weasel-worded “probably,” note that this was apparently required to comply with “British advertising guidelines:”
I’m rather curious about what the original, religious advertisements that inspired Ms. Sherine said, and how they managed to comply with this advertising code. After all, wouldn’t religious advertisements stating that there is a god be equally misleading for ‘non-religious people?’
The religious ads said “When the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)." which is pretty mild. See the original article: Atheists – gimme five | Ariane Sherine | The Guardian
I doubt that any legal consequences could flow from an advertising statement that no gods exist. No one can prove any do. The ad agency just didn’t want to piss anyone off, I expect.
Accepting that the reality was that these people couldn’t get this particular slogan on a bus without including “probably”, they should have just used some other slogan. “The sons and daughters of real men and women don’t take things on faith” or something.
You don’t gain the high ground by being as bad as those you oppose. Nor is it usually possible to persuade others of anything if you irritate them.
I want to celebrate Ladder Day.
No, they are not “equally misleading”. One is supported by evidence, while the other is a millennia-old myth with nothing to back it up.
Kindly send that memo to telemarketers, door-to-door witnessers and my girlfriend. 
I found this rather amusing:
“Downgraded himself to agnostic”? Is that like a voluntary transfer to a lower job position?
It’s neither weak nor condescending. It’s just British. I think this is very funny, and if I saw more ads like this on the subway or on buses (or huge billboards for that matter), it’d brighten my day.
No, it’s weak and condescending.
It’s weak because “there is probably no ” is a statement that reeks of (at least a small chance of) the possibility that there is a god or gods. If you really, really wanted some cheese and I said “there’s probably none in the fridge” would you think that I think there is at least some small but real chance there is some, or that my view is that I think there is really no chance whatsoever that there is some? Thought so. Weak, weak, weak.
As for condescending, the clear image is that people who might consider adopting religion are fretting snivellers. It sounds like something you might say to a wimpering child.
I don’t know about you but I’m married to an Englishwoman, and I lived in the UK for years. It is not a statement merely reflective of Britishness in my view.
That’s exactly what “probably” means, so it doesn’t reek of anything; it’s right there. According to the article, the “probably” was mandated by advertising regulations, which is pretty funny by itself. [We wouldn’t want to mislead people on the subject of religion; that’s the church’s job! :p]
That’s a harsh interpretation, but you’re responding to the same thing that makes it funny: the casual dismissal of the whole topic. That actually gets lost without the probably. It would be more stern and condescending if the wording was more definite.
I’ve seen it and thought it was brilliant, especially after seeing endless Bible quotes also plastered all over the side of buses. Anyone offended by this is the sort of person who deserves to be offended by it.
So we are in agreement on this point. So you think that it is appropriate that an atheist ad *should *reek of the possibility that there is a god or gods?
Weird.
It’s easy enough to think of slogans that steer a middle course.
Actually, I’d defend the ‘probably’ being there regardless of advertising regulations – I am as firmly convinced as I am of anything that there is no god, yet, as with anything, I recognise that I may be wrong, so the ‘probably’ is simple honesty (of a kind which, it could be argued, is seldom displayed by churches). Leaving out the probably might be more effective from a marketing standpoint, but, at least to me, that’s not what this is about.
Also, I’d tend to take the ‘so stop worrying’ in a light-hearted way, as well, though I can see the possibility of a different interpretation. To me, it’s simply more of a ‘chin up lad, I mean, on a cosmic scale, is it really all that important?’-kind of statement, the ‘worrying’ being used somewhat metonymic for ‘being overly preoccupied with questions of a largely immaterial nature’.