This Season Celebrate Reason

Signs are going up around the country urging people to come out of the atheist / non-theist closet.  Atheists have finally learned that strength in numbers is the only way for us to gain credibility and shed the imbecilic prejudice against horrid “godlessness.”  One of the signs, at the New York Tunnel, reads, “You Know it’s a Myth. This Season Celebrate Reason.”  One television station contacted some Catholic official who said that he wasn’t impressed.  Like the billboard was targeted at him.

Apparently some Catholics did care.  One of our nation’s most prominent lunatics, William O’Donohue of the Catholic League, bought a sign of his own:

“I wanted to make a statement, because 80 percent of the American population is Christian, [and] 96 percent of the American population celebrates Christmas,” said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. “We don’t need people trying to counter with their anti-messages in December.”

Campaigns like this one and one by the American Humanist Association are targeting closeted non-theists.  The organizations have stated that.  Explicitly.  Repeatedly.  Yet most theists think we’re trying to convert people.

Religious people think that everyone sees the world through religious eyes.  We’re not trying to convert anyone.  That’s what they do.  We’re just talking to people out there who think as we do and are afraid to be ostracized for it.  This holiday season belongs to all of us.  It’s ancient human culture – whether you call it Chanukah, Christmas, Solstice or Saturnalia.  It’s the same message that I give cultural Jews at the High Holidays or Passover:  You don’t have to believe in God or anything supernatural to celebrate because it’s your culture and your holiday, too.

Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and Good Solstice to All!