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Now I understand the nature of the particular reaction in the article. "Atheists are going to hell" isn't a message I can ever accept as compassionate concern, obviously.
But the ad response doesn't sit well with me either. "There probably is no God" is a message that is potentially hurtful to a number of people, whether or not the statement is more or less valid. Valid statements, of course, aren't necessarily meant to be communicated wholesale. For example, how would an ad go over in public that read, "Your mother will probably die either violently or of an incurable disease, so you should call her more often. [Insert telephone company logo]." This message is more or less valid, but not very sensitive.
An atheist response I would more likely approve would be one akin to what Willravel suggested: "Some religion isn't harmful, but some is. Think for yourself." Something along this line, anyway.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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