Evolution, Richard Dawkins, and the London Rioters

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atheist BusTwo girls who took part in Monday night’s riots in Croydon, a town in South London, England, have boasted that they were showing police and “the rich people that we can do what we want.” They said it calmly and matter-of-factly. Has Richard Dawkins contributed to a change in moral philosophy among London’s youth with his atheist bus campaign?

London buses have been outfitted with the following banner ads: “There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Life.”[1] The sponsors hope the postings will get people to question the existence of God: “This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think — and thinking is anathema to religion,” the promoters argue. “[Richard] Dawkins said that as an atheist he ‘wasn’t wild’ about the ad’s assertion that there was ‘probably’ no God.”[2] He wanted them to say, “There is no God.”

If there is no God, then who gets to say what constitutes enjoying life? Are there any restrictions on enjoying life? If there are, then who gets to set the restrictions and why?

Now people are being robbed. Businesses are being burned. Reports on Twitter claimed some people were being stripped, while another shocking video shows a bleeding teenager being robbed in broad daylight by lawless thugs who pretend to help him to his feet. Here’s how one newspaper headline describes what’s going on: “‘Mob Rule’ as London Rioting Spreads.” It seems to me that it’s nothing more than evolution’s “survival of the fittest” in action.

There’s no God, Dawkins and his fellow atheists have been telling Londoners, so stop worrying and enjoy life. The rioters are enjoying life at the expense of others, and who are you or anyone else to say that they shouldn’t be enjoying life this way?

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Notes:
  1. See Gwynne Dyer, “The Atheist Buses” (February 8, 2009). [↩]
  2. “Atheists Plan Anti-God Ad Campaign on Buses” (October 23, 2008). [↩]

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  • AZJEFF1963

    I'm so glad i live here in AZ so i have the right to defend my family against these ignorant youth's.

  • Brian Westley

    Why should I pay attention to the opinion of someone who deliberately uses a post-hoc fallacy?

    By the way…
    "ignorant youth's"

    Funniest thing on this page.

    • The Godfather

      Not all post hoc arguments are fallacious. There may be more immediate causes, but the "no god" argument offers justification.

      • Brian Westley

        The only "justification" is the post hoc fallacy itself, and unsupported assertions about atheists.

  • dechs

    Somehow I find it hard to believe that it's solely atheists rioting. In fact I'm pretty sure they're a minority.

    • Bob

      Yours is an absolutely ignorant and untrue remark – do you think these are Christians in a socialist sewer where only a tiny minority are actually practicing Christians? It is obvious that most of these people are not muslims. What does that leave but atheist degenerates like the imbecile dorkins?

    • Weasler

      Nevertheless, it's good we suppress the atheists. From Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot on down, they have been the_biggest mass murderers in history. They're nothing but trouble. And Dawkins is a jerk.

      • Geoff

        Sorry, could you repeat that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of the "new crusader" Anders Brevik shooting people in the name of christianity.

        But hey, no point throwing salt in new wounds, how about some old ones? Hitler was a devout christian, and the Nazi's were a christian organization. Their motto was "god is with us." Then there's the crusades and the inquisition. You're well ahead of us in terms of total murderers, and though Pol Pot, Mao, and Stalin all supposedly followed atheistic ideology, their motivations for murder were purely political and had nothing to do with their own religious beliefs. The individuals I've listed, on the other hand, were all acting on fervently held beliefs. Though atheists have committed atrocities, nobody has EVER committed an atrocity in the name of atheism.

        • David Floyd

          Atheism IS a religion of it's own. It take a grat leap of faith to say there is no God. It has no boundaries, no right or wrong. It offers no hope no morals. Total opposite of Christianity.

          Hitler was not a devout Christian. Nazi party members were not Christian. The Nazi Party was not Christian. Makinga claim to be a Christian does not make anyone a Christian any more than you making a claim to be the King of England would make you to be the King of England. The very word Christian was given the early followers of Christ by the Romans who occupied the Holy Lands back in the day because thye imitated teh life of Christ even unto death. The word Christian means "Christ like", and no part of Nazism nor Hitler's behavior were like that of Christ. Christ taught living in harmony with fellow man, love your enemies, do good to those who mistreat you, there are bondaries of bahavior you should not cross, ie do not steal, do not covet, do not commit adultry, there are penalties for transgressions, obey civil law provided it does not cause one to disobey God's law. I would be so bold as to say that were the world acting like Christ, indeed, mankind would benefit greatly.

          • Bombardier

            There is absolutely no faith required in becoming an atheist it simply requires an understanding of the real world around us. Science absolutely and irrevocably proves that the Bible and all other faiths are a sham.
            Do you believe that nuclear weapons are real?
            If not you are delusional.
            Nuclear weapons absolutely prove that the world is billions of years old as the core principles in their manufacture and detonation require that one accept the laws of nuclear decay. Those are the same laws used to date the Earth to 4+billion years old.

    • On my knees praying

      Not 100% atheists, but the concept of atheism which allows people to consider acting in selfish ways is a contributing factor. If there is no God, there are no rules. And you saying there are is just as valid as me saying there aren't.

      • GodIsEvil

        You are insane. Are you telling me that your belief in God is the only thing keeping you from raping and pillaging? If so, continue to take your medication and please continue to believe in a world where your God's rules have never ever ever led to evil acts.

  • NANCY

    We have flash mobs over here. Just has crazy and what are the police going to do about that???? Something needs to be done now before they turn this into big riots or another Rodney King incident all these youths are loosing there minds thinks to our socialist Government trying to get this race war started. Put a stop to it now.

  • MrSubtle

    The premise of this would seem to be that the belief in God is the only reason why people aren't rampaging in the streets, murdering and stealing things all over the place. Where do people get this nutty idea? I don't believe in God and I have never had any reason to go on a violent killing spree. Am I missing something? Was there a key insight that there not being a God means I should go on a rampage? Did I miss the memo?

    Interestingly enough, there are plenty of people around the world both today and throughout history who BECAUSE they believed in a God they have gone on murderous rampages. It happens all the time. Atheists are of course a minority but I don't think that we have fulfilled our quote of murderous rampages to keep up with the religious.

    Another interesting implication of this way of looking at things is to consider that even if there's a God, the vast majority of religious people don't believe in him. What if God is Jewish? Or Mormon? Or Catholic? Or Baptist? Or Hindu (OK, then, Gods)? Or Buddhist? If so then most people believe in some God other than than the real one(s). So even if you are a theist you have to agree that most religious folks don't believe in a real God. Do you think that matters?

    • Weasler

      Atheists Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot have killed FAR more than Crusadem, Inquisition, witch hunt, or even Jihad COMBINED. Look it up._

      • Ray

        You do realize that Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot didn't kill people in the name of atheism? It doesn't even make sense; atheism has no dogma. Whereas the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch hunts and martial Jihad were/are commited BECAUSE OF and IN THE NAME OF religion.

        Next time, please activate your second brain cell before repeating idiotic sound bites from the Jeezus crowd.

      • http://twitter.com/DrW_Qass @DrW_Qass

        Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot also didn't collect stamps. Perhaps that is the reason they killed all those people? The fact they weren't stamp collectors. Yeah, that is it!

      • Brian Westley

        If Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot killed in the name of atheism, there ought to be incidents where someone about to be killed said "Hey, don't kill me, I'm an atheist!" and they were spared. Know of any? I don't.

    • David Floyd

      Atheism IS a religion unto itself. It requires a belief system just the same as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, et al but of a different faith. It offers no hope, no guidance for living with one's self or others, no boundaries on behavior or penalties because there is no mis-behavior under atheism. It takes more faith to say "there is no God" than to accept that God is. Mathematically it is impossible for something to appear from nothing. Even eyeglasses require a maker. I'll personally go with the belief in a Supreme God of the Judeo-Christian world.

      Just because people do something in the name of a religion does not make them an adherent to that religion. Christianity teaches against violent behavior, to live in harmony with one's neighbor, faithfulness to one's spouse and family and more. The term "Christian" implies being "Christ like" in actions and deeds. Were we to act more Christ like indeed, the world would be better. I have noting against atheists. I always celebrate the one day annually set aside for them: April 1st.

  • Quadratus

    The concept of God is powerful, even if the true God isn't worshipped. When the concept of God goes, then there follows with that, the general departure of restraint. Doesn't apply to everyone, but it does affect the mob mentality.

  • Barbara Lowe

    I agree with Quadratus above – I do believe in God and I am a Christian – I believe that most people in the US, even if they don't believe – at least acknowledge that for those who do, it is a right to be respected. When there is no believe in God, who makes the rules?
    Barbara

    • Ray

      Who makes the rules? Are you serious? Society does.

    • Bombardier

      What about the 99% of the the human timeline before we believed in a Biblical god?
      Humanity rose above the other animals in the plains of Africa partly because of our societal rules. We still couldn't speak back then so we certainly weren't making up junk about gods.

  • http://twitter.com/eagle2758 @eagle2758

    There is an answer – Smith & Wesson.

  • http://twitter.com/Psieve @Psieve

    When you bring this up, there's always one or two who knows a well-mannered Atheist, who may even be a better person than some Christians they know. Yes, there are ones with generically good principles by nature and/or nurture. For every one of those, there many who are looking for a reason to do what they want and they're not really happy and are very capable of making many not happy, either, whether that's their intention or not. Meanwhile, those who've truly followed any meaningful religion are happier, with Catholic saints being the happiest, because they almost completely and actively emulated the Prince of Peace.

    • Karel

      And these statistics are based on what other than your own personal beliefs about Atheists?

  • Diode

    Oh yes, an ad campaign on the side of a bus caused these riots. Not the shooting of a man against police protocol. No, not at all.

  • Charlotte

    I’m a young atheist living in London, and spent Tuesday morning helping other voulenteers to clean up after the riots and support those in the community needing help. But thanks for implying we’re all evil, looting yobs, that’s just great.

  • Adhater

    You've made the fundamental misunderstanding of evolution that a lot of evangelical christians make, namely in interpreting 'survival of the fittest' as 'survival of the meanest, most merciless, badass'. It doesn't mean that at all.

    Survival of the fittest means survival of that creature most adapted to it's environment. Humans have adapted to pretty much every environment on earth (except underwater, but hey come back in 1 million years and we'll see). That's why we're so successful. Nothing to do with belief in supernatural deities or lack thereof, or moral character, or lack thereof.

  • BeReasonable

    After reading this article and some of your comments. Its almost like your saying God and Christianity hold your moral values together and that's the only thing. So your basically saying as a religious person if there was no god you would go and start committing senseless acts of crime? Ask yourself that. If you say yes then wow, if you say you wouldn't then that means religion or god doesn't have to reflect your moral values, you as a person need to reflect your moral values. Im agnostic/atheist and I have't commited one crime. Hell, iv'e done community service as well.

  • guest

    Nice idiotic way to link riots about cost of living an youth anger as a frame for your creationist argument. Do you even have any shame , you claim to be christians but to be honest you just come off as wankers.