Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada

WonderCafe is joining the dialogue raised by the "There's probably no God" ads, launching a campaign of its own encouraging people to join the discussion on the question of God.

WonderCafe's print and on-line ad campaign, which will be launched on Saturday, Jan. 31, welcomes the public discussion on the existence of God raised by the atheist bus ads, and sees it as an opportunity to delve deeper into what it really means when Christians say they believe in God.

Emerging Spirit executive director Keith Howard told the Toronto Star, "God has been 'co-opted' by many causes, from football to starting wars, Howard said, "and I think it is time we had a really good discussion about what we mean by God, what God's priorities might be and how that impacts how we live our lives.

For ways you can get involved, click here.

More:

Letter from the Moderator on the ad campaign.

Click here to see a larger version of the United Church response ad.

From the Toronto Star:

A provocative bus campaign questioning the existence of God will launch in Toronto in two weeks.

But a religious group will be stealing a bit of its thunder by incorporating its content into a campaign of their own, due to launch tomorrow.

The atheism campaign is already causing a stir in England, where it began this month.

Justin Trottier, co-founder of the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign, is arranging to have the message "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life," placed on TTC buses as early as mid-February, with subways to follow. Details can be found at atheistbus.ca.

Trottier, president of the Freethought Association of Canada, said the ad is intended to create discussion and debate about religion.

The campaign and its headline-grabbing message are spreading like wildfire – or hellfire, depending on whom you ask – prompting the head of a Christian college in Toronto to call it a bigoted attack on religion.

In anticipation of the bus campaign, the United Church of Canada is rolling out an online response to the ad today and a national print campaign tomorrow.

The United Church ad, created by Toronto-based Smith Roberts Creative Communications, encourages readers to choose between the original message and theirs, which reads: "There's probably a God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Rev. Keith Howard, executive director of the church's Emerging Spirit Campaign, said the United Church wants to encourage conversations on religion as well as direct people to wondercafe.ca, the United Church's online discussion site.

In the past, the church has launched campaigns with controversial images, including a bobble-headed Jesus, to stir up similar discussions on faith.

The original bus campaign was the brainchild of British comedy writer Ariane Sherine, who was troubled by bus ads instructing riders to accept Christianity or burn in hell, according to the Washington Times.

Trottier and co-organizers plan to expand the campaign to Calgary and Halifax. It has received more than $30,000 in donations in two weeks, most of it from Toronto.

Trottier said atheism rarely, if ever, gets a place in religious debate and the campaign was overdue in a country as progressive as Canada.

"The whole point is just to open the door to a discussion and it does that."

(More - Keith Howard argues for the bus ads, Charles McVety argues against.)

(Added: List of media coverage for WonderCafe's response to the atheist bus ads.)