And the word is: atheism

It was Tasmania’s Anglican Bishop John Harrower who, with critical comment, alerted Hobart travellers late December that they were about to see the message of atheism on our Metro buses. And thereafter it soon came to pass.

No doubt the bishop is about to be in an even more criticial mood on the subject because in a few days what is being billed as the biggest ever atheist event in Australian history will be motoring along – not here but in Melbourne.

The Global Atheist Convention is being held Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, but if you have the notion of attending, forget it – interest has been such that tickets have sold out, and they’ve even closed the waiting list for them.

There’s a notable line-up, such speakers as Richard Dawkins, Phillip Adams, Peter Singer, Robyn Williams, and even those ex-Chaser chaps of the ABC, Julian Morrow and Craig Reucassel.

Catherine Deveny, also one of the presenters, writing in The Age last month, said: “The number of churchgoers in Australia is about 9% and dwindling. The diversity of spiritual belief is flourishing and atheism is going off like a frog in a sock.”

I saw from the website of Sandy Bay’s Wellspring Church that its minister, David Rietveld, was to have recently debated the subject of atheism with a representative of the Atheism Foundation of Australia. It looks like the bishop is keeping his troops in touch with the subject.