Dueling Billboards

It seems that with the Christmas season beginning once again, an old argument is once again surfacing. Atheists around the country are beginning an ad campaign to voice their views against the existence (should I say non-existence?) of God and Christianity. These views are being posted in very prominent places, such as on billboards and the sides of public transportation. This seems to have provoked a firestorm of controversy nationwide, particularly from some Christian groups who are outraged. Since so many other people are expressing their views about this issue, I have decided to make a few comments here to both sides.

First, I am amazed at the Christian response from those who want to try to ban atheists from publicly expressing their views and making an attempt to convert people to them. It is as if some Christians are not aware that there have always been those who do not believe in the existence of God and have been vocal in their views. I have many friends who hold no belief in God and we disagree and have lively conversations about it with the open intent of trying to convert each other to the other side. This is a healthy thing and has caused us to respect each another and find common ground, rather than condemning. As a Baptist, I am a defender of religious liberty, and that liberty includes the right of individuals not to believe in a God and to openly express their views. These rights are protected under freedom of religion and freedom of speech. This is part of the debate of the marketplace of free ideas and when the debate is conducted civilly and with respect for opposing views is a very healthy exercise. So the attempt by some groups of Christian ministers to have these ads banned or censored is simply misplaced. This debate is as old as Christianity itself...actually as old as religion itself... and will continue as long as history continues. Is faith so fragile that it cannot withstand the light of questioning and opposing views? I hope not.

In Fort Worth, Texas atheists are running a campaign with billboards on the sides of city buses stating "Good without God." This is a legal ad and violates no city, state, or federal laws. Churches can also purchase advertising as well if they so choose. So I have no problem there. My problem is with the message itself. It implies that the heart of the Christian message is that people can not be good without God...that Christianity is really only concerned somehow with "mere morality." I agree with atheists, that in looking at some Christian groups morality could be mistaken the central concern of Christianity. Having been a philosophy teacher for more than twenty years I am well aware that moral systems about the good and the right can and have been developed without recourse to any kind of religious language and to "reason" alone. I'm also aware that there are "good" people with whom I share a strong moral base who do not believe in God. But I am reminded of the words of C. S. Lewis concerning "nice" people.

"'Niceness' - wholesomeness, integrated personality - is an excellent thing. We must try by every medical, educational, economic and political means in our power, to produce a world where as many people as possible grow up 'nice'; just as we must try to produce a world where all have plenty to eat....
For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man." -Mere Christianity, Book IV, Chapter 10, C. S. Lewis 

Christianity is concerned with more than "mere morality" and making human beings "good."  "Can't you lead a good life without believing in Christianity?" The question sounds as if it were asked by a person who said to herself, "I don't care whether Christianity is, in fact, true or not. I choose beliefs not because they are true, but because they are helpful." In fact, Christianity believes that the real universe is more like what Christianity has to say about it than other views. Christians differ with atheists about the nature of basic reality. They differ on what they believe is the truth about the very basis of that reality, God. Is there a God or not, and if there is, how does that shape my views and beliefs about the whole of reality and how life ought to be lived? Having taught philosophy for so long, I'm aware of the difficulties in "proving" the existence of God, with the debate about revelation and whether that's possible, what it is, and what it means about our ways of knowing things. These are all part of the ongoing discussion between atheists and theists and will continue to be so. But the crux of that matter simply is not whether there can be "good" people with out belief in God. The truth of the matter is that there are, and I know some of them. In fact, the sign on the Fort Worth city bus is a straw person fallacy of the Christian position.

This leads me to the dueling billboard signs in New York. They are within viewing distance of each other. One reads: "You know it's real. This season, celebrate Jesus." A short distance away the atheist billboard reads: "You Know it's a Myth. This Season, Celebrate REASON!" At the bottom it reads: "American Atheism - Reasonable since 1963."  The trouble with the atheists' sign is that it implies that if you believe in Christianity that you are not one who has or uses "reason." I take exception to this view, since I like to see myself as a person who understands "reason" and uses the processes involved in it. The problem here lies in the old adage: "He who defines the terms, wins the arguments." Atheists have defined reason in a certain way and those who do not hold to that view of "reason" are thus not "reasonable." Reason, in fact, involves discovering a set of premises, some of which amount to assumptions, and using a set of rational methodologies to reason validly or correctly to conclusions, ranging from strong to weak in their establishment. These methodologies are agreed upon methods which any can learn and use. The difficulty is in establishing premises that all agree to and can reason from, since differing premises can lead to very different conclusions. In this case a central premise is whether or not God exists. What I resent about the atheists' billboard is that it implies Christians are ignorant of all that's involved in "reason" and blindly choose to accept "Christian" views with no recourse to reason. This is patently false and since it's earliest days Christian apologists have sought to take the tools of reason and apply them to the faith that has been confessed. The billboard makes a simple and false generalization about both reason and Christianity.

Having been a Christian for my whole life, a teacher of philosophy, and an educator I am well aware of the difficult philosophical problems involved in establishing the existence of God and of religion in general, and Christianity in particular. However, my job in education has never been to indoctrinate students into believing in God, but to give to them the tools of reason and set them on the task of trying to arrive at their own answers to important philosophical questions such as the ultimate nature of reality and the consequences that come from whatever we believe about it. So, in this season where the Christian religion is in the forefront of things, let's continue the discussion with respect and dignity for both sides....and maybe arrive at some common ground to improve our lives and the society around us.