Be Good for Goodness' Sake

Associated Press

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.

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."

Not a bad little ad to reach out to fellow freethinkers. But predictably, some of the wackier fundamentalist Christians are incensed. Here's some American Family Association nut's take on it:

"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."

*face palm*

And here's a guy from the Liberty Counsel who went to Liberty University, famous for its outstanding biology curriculum:

"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."

Yep, atheists exist, even during the Christmas season. How unbearable for you.

For fun, I looked up what these guys do during the holidays. The AFA bullies around companies that dare say the dreaded h-word instead of Christmas. And the Liberty Counsel is doing their 6th annual "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign". Sound vile? That's because it is vile. They basically just intimidate and harass people all season long. Here's a pretty typical example:

In December 2005, Liberty Counsel issued a press release accusing an elementary school in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, of changing the lyrics of Christmas songs to make them more "secular" and threatened to sue the school district "if the district does not immediately remedy the situation." In fact, the school was putting on the play "The Little Tree’s Christmas Gift," written by Dwight Elrich, a former church choir director. The Dodgeville school district attempted to seek a retraction and apology from Liberty Counsel, as well as reimbursement of $20,000 spent in personnel, security and attorney fees to fight the baseless accusation. Liberty Counsel's Staver refused, asserting, "There is nothing to apologize for or retract." Source News report

These people really think they're vessels of God's Love, too. It's amazing.

Everyone, please be good for goodness' sake. Because if you don't, you might have to be a fanatic for God's sake, and no one in their right mind would want that.