This morning's "Thought for the Day", a daily 5 minute mini-sermon by one or other major faith (no secular/atheist thoughts allowed, worse luck) on the UK's BBC Radio 4 had Reverend Somebody-or-other's thoughts on the ads.
He starts off by expressing amazement that the slogan ("There's probably no god, so stop worrying and enjoy life.") keeps open the possibility that there is a god.
Yes, Rev, it's called intellectual honesty, AKA keeping an open mind, and acknowledging that even overwhelming evidence of there being natural causes for things is not the same as conclusive evidence there is no such thing as the supernatural. It's kind of the opposite of thinking you, your sources, or your interpretation of them is 'infallible'.
He then likens belief in God to being like a "good detective" in a crime novel, who - despite all the evidence pointing to a likely suspect - follows his instincts and identifies the true culprit and events.
Right, because lots of court cases are won by the detective taking the stand and saying "I knew it was him as soon as I saw him, it was a 'gut instinct'!"
Quite oblivious to the irony, he says how fond he is of this analogy, despite the fact that he is comparing belief in God to how things work in a fictional universe. Here in the real world, it takes meticulous, and rigorous, investigation to build a case. You need to have your facts straight, and you need to have them solid enough to stand up to being picked apart by a defence attorney.
But by far the funniest part was when he said that religion "wasn't about enjoyment". No sh*t, Sherlock!
He trotted out the old line of people with religious beliefs being happier, backed up (he claims) by "psychological studies". I know of one such study, by an economist and a sociologist, that says this, but equally, there are studies showing that people turn to religions more when they feel frustrated or worthless, i.e. less happy.
He wasn't particularly fundie, but it made me laugh anyway.
