Toronto’s atheist community is taking its message to the street. Make that the streetcar. The blasphemous blitz—which will plaster TTC vehicles with ads reading “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”—is the work of the Freethought Association of Canada. We spoke with Justin Trottier, the org’s 26‑year-old president, to get the goods on all this godlessness.

Your campaign got a lot of support here. Is Toronto a hotbed for non-believers? I think every big city is. I knew there were a lot of us—around 20 per cent of the population—but I never expected this level of response.

What do you have against God, anyway? I don’t think he exists, so I’ve got nothing against him. Steven Wein­berg, the famous Nobel laureate, said he hates God the same way he hates Iago: he doesn’t believe he exists, but he still doesn’t like his personality traits.

Which are? He’s judgmental, arbitrary, pompous. Look at the Ten Commandments: love me and no one else.

If you’re anti-religion, what do you believe in? Money, politics, Santa? My world view is informed by science and reason. I’m an atheist, an agnostic, a humanist.

Isn’t an agnostic just an atheist with commitment issues? No, agnostics believe in following the burden of proof as far as it leads. With God, that burden has not been met.

Maybe not, but couldn’t we all use a little faith in these gloomy times? It’s too bad people want to rely on myths to get them through hard times. The correlation between societal collapse and levels of religiosity says a lot about the truth of religious faith.

You must have felt gratified by Obama’s shout-out to non-believers in his inaugu­ration address. That was good to hear, although he also says he wants to expand on Bush’s faith-based initiatives.

Still, now must be a good time to be an atheist. Better than, say, 15th-century Spain. In the Western world, yeah. There are a lot of atheists coming out of the closet demanding equal rights.

We have to ask: what do you think happens when we die? I hate that question, and the idea that life is meaningless without heaven. The campaign is about emphasizing the value of this world.

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