The CUSP

Steven: "The bus company was supposedly allowing for the fact that an Atheist ad would likely be vandalised not that Christians would likely vandalise an Atheist ad. The difference is subtle but important. Most vandalism of this nature is intended to provoke a reaction. I strongly suspect that the people that paint flying spaghetti monster and Harry Potter slogans on churches are the same people who paint pro God messages on Atheist billboards. They don't really care about religion or atheism they are just trying to piss people off. They are the same as internet trolls."

I had a response to this because I don't think it's right. Firstly, the bus company was presumably allowing for the fact that an Atheist ad would be vandalised more than a Christian one, otherwise they'd be charging Christians the same amount no matter what the base level of vandalism is. Secondly, of the vandalism trolls he mentions, he gives us no reason to believe that they would proportion the vandalism more to Atheist ads. Without evidence to that effect it seems reasonable to assume that the amount of vandalism done would be proportional to the amount of advertising regardless of message. Maybe you could justify it by saying the Atheist ads have more public scrutiny and thus get a bigger reaction but I'd want to see some evidence before buying into that particular post hoc justification. In particular have other ad campaigns under public scrutiny also been charged the extra? Thirdly, we know that Christians vandalise other Christian advertising thanks to the Anglican ads that were vandalised about a year ago, the God was a hard act to follow ones. Why would we suspect that Christians wouldn't vandalise Atheist ads as well? Are there likely to be non-Christians vandalising the ads for a reaction? Sure. But it doesn't follow that Christians won't also vandalise them on top of the background rate of vandalism.

Although at the end of the day I actually think the bus company just didn't want to run the ads and was coming up with excuses.