“No god? … No problem!” reads the advertisement featuring the smiling faces of people wearing Santa Claus hats. “Be good for goodness’ sake.”
Over the next two weeks, 270 of the ads will go up on city buses and trains in the Washington area as part of the holiday kickoff to campaigns sponsored by secular groups in cities around the country and abroad. If last year was any indication, the signs are likely to spark a theological war of words.
“We don’t intend to rain on anyone’s parade, but secular people celebrate the holidays, too, and we’re just trying to reach out to our people,” said Roy Speckhardt, the executive director of the American Humanist Association. “To the degree that we are reaching out to the godly, it’s just to say that you can be good without god…”
Elsewhere, this year’s secular signs vary in tone.
In Seattle, this year’s signs say “Millions are good without God.” In Las Vegas, signs to be put up this week will say “Reasons Greetings” and “Yes, Virginia … there is no God…”
The campaigns come against a backdrop of a growing number of nonbelievers. Fifteen percent of Americans identified themselves as having “no religion” in a 2008, up from 8 percent in 1990, according to a study by the Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford.
Overdue.
Come on Dr Dodd, the whole my God has bigger thing than your God is pretty weak. Same with the whole rise from the dead thing (at least 30 people did that in US last year – seriously), the eyewitness accounts argument (Mary Magdelaine stories vary wildly from gospel to gospel), and the numbers game (non-Christians are 2:1 over Christians and increasing everyday).
There are way better arguments for your beliefs (I’m not going to make it too easy for you) than this line.
#80: Santa, just for that, I don’t believe in you anymore. That means you don’t exist. Poof. Begone!
Xmas = Peak Judeo-Christian Buying Season !!! Christmas, Chanukah, New Years, etc … (Retailers finally pass into the BLACK – out of the RED – in the shopping frenzy on Turkey Day + 1 ! The Business of America is Business !
Somewhere I saw the term “Giftmas” starting to appear. And no doubt that will be replacing Xmas someday. As “X” still refers to somebody’s name, signed as a X. Or it’s a tilted cross. And “mas” still refers to something religious. But even devil worshipers have “mass”es. So I guess it’s Ok to retain that part of the name Christmas.
What you won’t be seeing anytime in the future, are terms like Gift-Hannaka or Gift-Kwanza. Apparently there is at least one made up minority religion that’s too sacred to screw with.
But the Urban Dictionary has some other examples.
http://urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hannaka
Humanists are not necessarily atheists, but lots of people don’t know the difference. Heck, lots of people are so freaked out by the very idea of atheists, they don’t know what to think.
An acquaintance of mine once worked in a clerical job for Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s American Atheists organization. She told me she lost count of people who asked her how she could work for those “devil worshippers.” If you don’t believe in God, chances are you don’t believe in the devil either!
On a side note, I agree with #6 smartalix, Christmas is a non-secular American holiday and I don’t see why Jews can’t celebrate it along with the rest of us — Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Ba’Hais, Sufis, Shintoists, Animists, Druids, Wiccans, etc., etc., etc. join us and have a ball!