Humanist ad campaign: “No God? No problem!”

The American Humanist Association has launched an ad campaign just in time for the holiday season. They’ll be posting ads inside buses, rail cars and on the sides or tails of buses in Washington over Thanksgiving weekend. Ads in New York, Chicago, LA and San Francisco will appear in early December.

This ad below reads: “No God? No Problem!” and then in smaller print: “Be good for goodness sake. Humanism is the idea that you can be good without a belief in God.”

We were talking about this concept in class recently, and a couple of students couldn’t past the idea that people need the promise of a reward (heaven, a better rebirth, etc.) or the threat of a judgmental being or at least a set of divinely-given rules in order to behave well. I think a lot of folks think that way, and I can see why these ads are necessary …. if only to introduce the notion that you don’t have to believe in a supernatural entity to be a good person. Maybe that will lead to a more robust discussion. One can hope.