Humanists launch a godless holiday campaign

As the calendar goes, December tends to be a winning month for God.

Christians celebrate the birth of Christ. Jews mark the story of Hanukkah. Muslims this year will observe the start of Al-Hijra, the Islamic New Year.

And the American Humanist Assn. has decided to join the festivities with an alternative celebration in mind.

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!"

Humanist leaders say the $40,000 ad campaign, funded by contributions from association members, 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.

Morality, the humanists argue, is possible without faith in a higher power.

"It's OK to not believe in God," said Roy Speckhardt, the association's executive director in Washington, where ads began appearing on 220 buses and in 50 rail cars over the Thanksgiving holiday. "There shouldn't be a stigma that those folks aren't going to be upstanding good citizens."

But some faith groups see the "No God? . . . No Problem!" message as an assault on religion. Others say they are disturbed by the campaign's timing during the holy weeks leading up to Christmas.

"Why didn't they choose the summer solstice?" asked Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, a civil rights organization that puts up a Nativity scene every Christmas in New York's Central Park.

"I guess they have no other time of the year to get out their message except to crib off someone else's holiday," Donohue added.

Religious scholars said they supported the humanists' right to assert their views, but they called the campaign and the anti-religious approach misguided.

"They are depriving themselves of some really rich resources for moral insight," said Rabbi Elliot Dorff, a philosophy professor at American Jewish University in Los Angeles.

The stories, proverbs and laws contained in religious traditions, Dorff added, "give you a sense of what kind of person you should be and what kind of society you should strive to create."