Reason is the Reason for the Season

Secular humanists are getting in on the holiday spirit this year. Sort of.

The American Humanist Association and similar groups are plastering up billboards and running TV ads about leading a good life without God. One billboard, a copy of which was defaced in Idaho recently, states "Millions of people are good without God."

In time for Christmas one will go up outside New York picturing the nativity and reading "You know its a myth. This season celebrate reason." I am reminded of Mr. Costanza's festivus, where the merry tree was replaced by a boring pole.

As drab as atheism, especially the Baby Boomer variety, has always seemed I can't say this campaign is so terrible. That is, as long as it really inspires all those good Cartesians who only believe in themselves to behave as best they can.

The thinly veiled truth is these groups are seeking converts.

The good thing is billboards and ads rarely work for all us crazy God-fearers so I don't think they will work for the secular humanists either.

I often think of modern atheism as a sect of Christianity as it seems most (not all) of its adherents come out of churches in the West. What would atheism and agnosticism be without the faith it rejects? Joseph Bottum has some good things to say about that.