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'Why Believe in a God? Just be Good' Ads Set to Run Next Week Through Christmas On D.C. Buses
Tuesday , November 11, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.
Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday.
In lifting lyrics from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square and the meaning of Christmas.
"We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you," said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group. "Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion."
To that end, the ads and posters will include a link to a Web site that will seek to connect and organize like-minded thinkers in the D.C. area, Edwords said.
Edwords said the purpose isn't to argue that God doesn't exist or change minds about a deity, although "we are trying to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people's minds."
The group defines humanism as "a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of value to self and humanity."
Last month, the British Humanist Association caused a ruckus announcing a similar campaign on London buses with the message: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
In Washington, the humanists' campaign comes as conservative Christian groups gear up their efforts to keep Christ in Christmas. In the past five years, groups such as the American Family Association and the Catholic League have criticized or threatened boycotts of retailers who use generic "holiday" greetings.
In mid-October, the American Family Association started selling buttons that say "It's OK to say Merry Christmas." The humanists' entry into the marketplace of ideas did not impress AFA president Tim Wildmon.
"It's a stupid ad," he said. "How do we define 'good' if we don't believe in God? God in his word, the Bible, tells us what's good and bad and right and wrong. If we are each ourselves defining what's good, it's going to be a crazy world."
Also on Tuesday, the Orlando, Fla.-based Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal group, launched its sixth annual "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign." Liberty Counsel has intervened in disputes over nativity scenes and government bans on Christmas decorations, among other things.
"It's the ultimate grinch to say there is no God at a time when millions of people around the world celebrate the birth of Christ," said Mathew Staver, the group's chairman and dean of the Liberty University School of Law. "Certainly, they have the right to believe what they want but this is insulting."
Best-selling books by authors such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have fueled interest in "the new atheism" — a more in-your-face argument against God's existence.
Yet few Americans describe themselves as atheist or agnostic; a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll from earlier this year found 92 percent of Americans believe in God.
There was no debate at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority over whether to take the ad. Spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said the agency accepts ads that aren't obscene or pornographic.
Ok to start with I am agnostic. I find this ad repulsive. Just like most people don't want to have religion shoved down their throat, I think that having ads saying "Don't believe in God" are just as bad.
We live in America, where we have freedom of religion. Your beliefs most likey are not the same as those you sit next to in church. We have the freedom to our beliefs. These attacks only ever seem to be on Christianity and Judaism. Muslims seem to get a pass. This false premise of a separation of Church and state is false. Whether people like it or not this Country was founded on Christian principles. We are allowing our identities to erode when we let businesses and government redefine our heritage.
Renaming Christmas Trees to Holiday Trees, not allowing nativity scenes on government property. Don't even get me started on the crap our schools pull.
I have arrived at my beliefs after a lifetime of study and reasoning. It is mine. I don't push it on anyone, but I do discuss it with many when they ask. Though I don't agree with most religions, I have studied them and I understand why they have so many followers. I also will defend the rights of everyone to believe how they see fit. An attack on religion is just an attack on all of us because it becomes an attack on the right to believe in anything.
Tuesday , November 11, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.
Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday.
In lifting lyrics from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square and the meaning of Christmas.
"We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you," said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group. "Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion."
To that end, the ads and posters will include a link to a Web site that will seek to connect and organize like-minded thinkers in the D.C. area, Edwords said.
Edwords said the purpose isn't to argue that God doesn't exist or change minds about a deity, although "we are trying to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people's minds."
The group defines humanism as "a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of value to self and humanity."
Last month, the British Humanist Association caused a ruckus announcing a similar campaign on London buses with the message: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
In Washington, the humanists' campaign comes as conservative Christian groups gear up their efforts to keep Christ in Christmas. In the past five years, groups such as the American Family Association and the Catholic League have criticized or threatened boycotts of retailers who use generic "holiday" greetings.
In mid-October, the American Family Association started selling buttons that say "It's OK to say Merry Christmas." The humanists' entry into the marketplace of ideas did not impress AFA president Tim Wildmon.
"It's a stupid ad," he said. "How do we define 'good' if we don't believe in God? God in his word, the Bible, tells us what's good and bad and right and wrong. If we are each ourselves defining what's good, it's going to be a crazy world."
Also on Tuesday, the Orlando, Fla.-based Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal group, launched its sixth annual "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign." Liberty Counsel has intervened in disputes over nativity scenes and government bans on Christmas decorations, among other things.
"It's the ultimate grinch to say there is no God at a time when millions of people around the world celebrate the birth of Christ," said Mathew Staver, the group's chairman and dean of the Liberty University School of Law. "Certainly, they have the right to believe what they want but this is insulting."
Best-selling books by authors such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have fueled interest in "the new atheism" — a more in-your-face argument against God's existence.
Yet few Americans describe themselves as atheist or agnostic; a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll from earlier this year found 92 percent of Americans believe in God.
There was no debate at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority over whether to take the ad. Spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said the agency accepts ads that aren't obscene or pornographic.
Ok to start with I am agnostic. I find this ad repulsive. Just like most people don't want to have religion shoved down their throat, I think that having ads saying "Don't believe in God" are just as bad.
We live in America, where we have freedom of religion. Your beliefs most likey are not the same as those you sit next to in church. We have the freedom to our beliefs. These attacks only ever seem to be on Christianity and Judaism. Muslims seem to get a pass. This false premise of a separation of Church and state is false. Whether people like it or not this Country was founded on Christian principles. We are allowing our identities to erode when we let businesses and government redefine our heritage.
Renaming Christmas Trees to Holiday Trees, not allowing nativity scenes on government property. Don't even get me started on the crap our schools pull.
I have arrived at my beliefs after a lifetime of study and reasoning. It is mine. I don't push it on anyone, but I do discuss it with many when they ask. Though I don't agree with most religions, I have studied them and I understand why they have so many followers. I also will defend the rights of everyone to believe how they see fit. An attack on religion is just an attack on all of us because it becomes an attack on the right to believe in anything.
Love for love's sake, hunger for hunger's sake, stupidity for stupidity's sake? Drivel worthy of a childrens song, at best. I believe in God and will explain why to those who ask. IMHO, goodness, absent some faith in One greater than ourselves, is too rare a commodity to stake on itself.
