Registered? Please log in below.
New? Please register.
Here are some reasons why.
Register
User login
Poll
Recent comments
- Anonymous (not verified)
- WResonance (not verified)
- Eddie (not verified)
- Anonymous (not verified)
- Wry Mouth
- Khabalox
- Wry Mouth
- Khabalox
- RobbL
Active forum topics
Recent blog posts
- We swear, we had NOTHING to do with this...
- Alexander Aan: 'God Does Not Exist'
- 'Should Californians be allowed to register and vote on election day?'
- 'Mad Men' and the infantilization of America
- D-Day
- Earl Scruggs Was The Coolest Man Ever
- Remember, Remember...
- Five Perfect Collections of Outtakes
- Jerry Brown for President
- Turns Out, Californians May Not Be the Craziest Voters in America
Who's online
There are currently 0 users and 16 guests online.
Navigation
Credits, etc.
Monkey logos by Katherine Roe
(who had no part in the color design)
Hosting graciously provided by Oliver Fross.
Happy (godless) holidays
Mon, 12/07/2009 - 12:46 — Ben
Duke Hefland of the L.A. Times has a predictable story today about the American Humanist Association's campaign to promote secularism during this month of religious holidays. I say "predictable" because, of course, such "offbeat" and contrarian features are more likely to get into print than articles about this or that denomination's efforts to minister to the sick, the homeless and the lonely during this season. According to the story:
The group, consisting of atheists and others who say they embrace reason over religion, has launched a national godless holiday campaign, with ads appearing inside or on 250 buses in five U.S. cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco starting today. The placards depict smiling people wearing red Santa hats with the slogan: "No God? . . . No problem!"
Just as predictably, some religious organizations think the atheists' $40,000, five-city ad campaign amounts to... (sigh)... "an assault on religion." Hefland does his best to sample the reactions of Catholics, Jews and Muslims. I found myself wincing at the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, nodding at Rabbi Elliot Dorff, and feeling my eyes widen at the pronouncements of Imam Muzammil Siddiqi.
Now, Joel and I tackled the "war on Christmas" for the Scripps-Howard column a couple of weeks ago. "All most people want is to say "Merry Christmas" without a bunch of politically correct Grinches and litigious Scrooges getting bent out of shape," I wrote. "We've traveled a long way to reach this absurd point in American life."
Indeed we have. But the American Humanist's ad campaign doesn't bother me one bit. First, because it doesn't seem to be aimed at anyone other than co-relig... er, fellow skepto-agnostic-Americans. They're preaching to the converted, for the most part, and trying to reassure the faithless that doubt is indeed safe. (As if there was any doubt about that.)
Second, because the ads betray a certain insecurity. As the Times story notes, "Humanist leaders say the... ad campaign... is meant to counter a barrage of religious messages during the holiday season, letting free-thinking atheists and agnostics know that they are not alone." Well, no kidding. Is the American Humanist Association worried that 30 days of incessant department store sales, 987 covers of "Jingle Bells" and "Silent Night," and the odd broadcast of "It's a Wonderful Life" will lure their members into the embrace of monkish superstition or evangelical Christianity? Dawkins forbid! Seems like the opposite would be more likely.
Although my own faith isn't what it used to be -- and that may well be an understatement -- I've never understood the weird, embattled sense of entitlement espoused by some atheists and agnostics. Is it the idea that so many people believe "nonsense" that grates? As if secularists aren't prone to irrational flights of fancy. I realize that it's impossible to simply "live and let live," but the Christmas season was so much more pleasant and peaceful when people swallowed their personal grievances for a flawed but nevertheless greater good.
If the holidays are supposed to teach anything, regardless of whether or not you are a person of faith, it's that it isn't about you. If you drop the "faith," you're still left with "hope" and "charity" -- and two out of three ain't bad.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Trackback URL for this post:
http://blog.infinitemonkeysblog.com/?q=trackback/6896
- Ben's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Comments
Let me put in my devalued by inflation 0.02.
Personally I'm not very religious. However, I grew up in Southern Florida where Christianity was not the primary religion in my school. There was never just Christmas, but Chaunakka as well. We all got along just fine. Then I moved to Texas, where Christianity was the major form of religion. I remember in middle school that just the thought of mentioning Chaunakka was unheard of. People were not just opposed to it, but violently opposed to it, and it often manifested itself with the the Jewish kids in my school getting pummeled and the teachers/coaches looking the other way. You should have seen what they did to the two muslim kids during Rahmadan.
Hey, embrace all the religion you want, but don't beat the other guy to a pulp because he doesn't believe in the same deity you do. We have a city here in Colorado where they are putting up a display of all major religions, and an athiest holiday display. People went crazy. It seems sometimes you have the right to believe in a religion, but not the right to opt out. You have to check one of the above religious boxes or you don't get a voice.
By the way, I'm not at all opposed to the Christmas Tree or any holiday really. I do find it funny that Christmas trees, mistletoe, and yule-tide log, and even the date of Jesus's birth are all actually derived from the pagans, the Roman Saturnalia, the British Druids, ancient Saxons and the like. It all predates Christ and Christianity. I'd like to stop hearing these blowhards tell us leaving out a Christmas Tree is an war on religion, unless that religion is the pagan winter ritual of the ancient Saxons.
I'm pointlessly rambling. Maybe I just wanted to see if I could write a comment nearly as long as this blog post. Who knows
Although, come to think of it, I don't get many holiday cards from Druids anymore. Go figure.
Personal Blog - http://www.thebigklosowski.com
My Photography - http://www.k2photostudio.com
Merry ? from Question Mark & the Mysterians
" Is it the idea that so many people believe 'nonsense' that grates?"
In a way, it is. I have read articles by the Dawkins crowd, stating that Isaac Newton may have been okay as a scientist, but that his religious beliefs and pursuits were obviously irrational.
Yeah; that Isaac Newton sure was an irrational fellow! @.@
What haunts the modern, wealthy, young atheist is that eon-upon-eon of people of different faiths and times and nations -- uncountable hordes of others -- have embraced belief in God. One can't blame them for feeling a trifle put-upon.
Like the Big K, I (so firm in my belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Those Other Guys that I frequently wonder if He will have anything to do with me) have no qualms about atheist displays of faith in humanism and materialism, over-and-opposed to displays of faiths in God. K's observations are spot-on about Christmas being modified by the Christians (it is likely Jesus was born in Spring, for example), as that is what Christianity does best: take a given person or culture, as they stand, and modify them from that point forward.
Entitlement?
I'm not sure I understand what you think the non-believers think they are entitled to. Equal air-time? Absence of religion in public spaces? I don't get that from an ad campaign. *shrug* Are you sure you're not conflating the (stereo)typical "liberal" entitlement with agnostics and atheists (which most likely skew liberal)?
For me, I don't need public reminders to secure my lack of faith. I agree that it does seem a bit silly, "preaching" to the converted (hah!), etc. I no longer equate this time of year with religion - it's all about consumerism - so I'm not bothered by it on that level. I don't particularly care for holiday music. You don't hear many religious carols outside of churches anymore, and even if I did, it probably wouldn't bother me too much more than listening to any other repetitive soundtrack. What really bothers me is the incessant push to buy, and the ridiculous number of toys every one is suckered into asking for or buying (especially new grandparents - good grief am I going to be busy on 12-24). I saw Christmas displays before Halloween this year. That is ridiculous. When I wonder why the terrorists hate us, I can't help but think of what we've done to the most (or 2nd most) sacred Christian holiday.
Getting it from both sides
I suspected when I posted this yesterday that I would satisfy nobody with it. I've received some... well, what would you call it? Rude? Irritated? Annoyed? Anyway, I've received some less than enthusiastic comments from some of my more devout relatives on Facebook. (My friends have probably just thrown up their hands, I don't know.)
I thank Allen for his comment, and I'm glad to see him popping up again a bit more frequently. (Two years next week, Allen. Can you believe it?) I agree completely that people should be free to embrace as much or as little religion as they like without fear of discrimination or violence. But this discussion is a bit different. The atheist holiday display in Colorado (and elsewhere) is example of what I like to call "pissing on the fish." Sure, it makes you feel good. And you might even have some justification for it. But all you're really doing is creating a disruption, and needlessly so. "People went crazy." Well, of course they went crazy. What did anyone expect would happen?
By "entitlement," K, I have one person in mind in particular: Michael Newdow. But there are others just like him, everywhere in the United States. He's a buffoon.
I don't completely disagree with your second paragraph, and find I share many of your sentiments. I do like holiday music, however, and if I'd had a better year freelancing, I'd be spoiling my kids rotten. Of course, that would be true any other time of the year, too.
Pissing
Come on, it's fun to bait the straights sometimes. I don't do it as much as I used to -- and I was never that into it -- but it can be a real blast. One of these days I really will order my own Darwin fish, or maybe just something from the Pastafarians.
Propaganda
The ads are mere propaganda that answers to an argument that no one has made. The claim is not that atheists lack of morals but lack of moral premise, lack of ethos.
It is also a reprinting of their ads from last year:
http://atheismisdead.blogspot.com/2008/11/another-atheist-charity-huge-s...
Yet again, during a time of the year when people are generally more inclined towards charity—peace on earth and good will towards non-gender specific personages—atheists are busily collecting hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars during a time of recession not in order to help anyone in real material need but in order to purchase bill boards and bus ads whereby they seek to demonstrate, to themselves, just how clever they are—need any more be said?
2 Years!
Man, time is flying. I firmly believe if we had begun building our empire on more solid ground we'd be kings by now. Oh well. Onward!
Personal Blog - http://www.thebigklosowski.com
My Photography - http://www.k2photostudio.com
Two years
It really has gone fast, hasn't it? I try not to think too much about RBA. For a few months, it was the best job I ever had. It changed my life. But it's gone.