Instead of getting on the bus, a Christian bus driver from Southampton, England, flat-out refused to get behind the wheel after he discovered the bus’s atheist-themed advertisement.
The slogan, “There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life,” is sponsored by the British Humanist Association, reported the BBC, after launching their transit campaign earlier this month.
“I felt that I could not drive that bus,” Ron Heather, the bus driver, told BBC Radio Solent. “I told my managers and they said they haven't got another one and I thought I better go home, so I did.”
Highlighting his abject “horror” to First Bus supervisors, Heather and the company reached an agreement that he does not have to drive the buses, unless they are the only available alternative.
“As a company we understand Mr. Heather's views regarding the atheist bus advert and we are doing what we can to accommodate his request not to drive the buses concerned,” a First Bus statement read.
The advertisements, featured on 600 total vehicles throughout Great Britain, have earned the contempt of religious groups, such as Christian Voice, that criticize its effectiveness. However, the Methodist Church appeared somewhat eager about the ads as they indicated “a continued interest in God.”
Heather’s exception has yet to signal a trend, but for Hanne Stinson, the chief executive of the British Humanist Association, the bus company’s decision to cave to their employee’s demands is a telling sign.
“I have difficulty understanding why people with particular religious beliefs find the expression of a different sort of beliefs to be offensive,” Stinson told the BBC.
