A new advertisement is hitting buses and public terminals in Washington DC paid for by The American Humanist Association. The organization dropped $40,000 into their campaign to convince people that there is no God. One of the ads features someone dressed up as Santa Claus (Saint Nick?) and the ad says "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake."
Where do we begin?
Well, let's turn the ad around and see if we can clarify the message. Suppose the ad had said, "Why believe in a god? Just be bad for badness' sake." Would we have any reason - that is - would we have any reasonable grounds to argue against someone who asks "why not be bad for badness' sake?" What is wrong with being bad if there is no God? What does "bad" even mean if there is no God? Who decides what is good or bad? When we go back to the original ad then - what's right about being good if there is no God?
Being good for goodness' sake has absolutely no meaning. You can make such nonsense phrases with any noun: be friendly for friendliness' sake; be blue for blueness' sake; be mean for meanness' sake; be dead for death's sake; be greedy for greediness' sake. It makes no sense! What is goodness then that we should be it? If we cannot connect the idea of goodness to something greater than ourselves, to something eternal, to something which gives us the idea of goodness in and of itself - then "goodness" as a word has no more meaning than "treeness" or "sadness". Being good has no value if there is no eternal good. If there ever was a reason in the history of the world for being good it has always been a religious reason. Being good for God's sake makes sense because God is good, he is goodness.
If you are simply good for goodness' sake then you get to make up what good means - maybe my good is your bad. Maybe stealing your money this Christmas is my way of being good for goodness' sake - I'll be wealthier, which is good. I can buy more presents for my family, which is good. With your money in my pocket, I won't have to work as much and can be home with my family, which is good. Yeah, I think I'll steal your money this Christmas for goodness' sake.
The advertisement also forgets and dismisses the extremely obvious idea of Original Sin. Humans don't tend towards goodness. The course of human history could not be summarized by the idea that human beings generally tend toward goodness and religions prevent them from achieving it. History can be better summarized by the idea that humans tend towards evil and religions try to prevent that. Emerging from our ancient civilizations are law codes forbidding this or promoting that - but they are religious law codes. These law codes form the foundation for our civilization. The Ten Commandments were law codes - and they didn't just happen to be connected with the God of Israel. The God of Israel was the very reason for following the Ten Commandments. Christ commands us to love as he loves us. The reason for loving each other is not for love's sake - but for Christ's sake, since he has given us the example of how to love. Christmas recalls that love of a God who did not deem it below himself to become one of us, to suffer, and to die for us. That is a reason to be good. That may be the only reason to be good.
Putting the divine in the proper place in our conception of the universe makes being good a worthy thing to do. If we strip the universe of the divine and all influence of the divine - then we no longer have that spark of divinity that makes us different than the animals. We are no longer humans made in the image of God, but merely animals. Try telling a lion to be good for goodness' sake - he will still eat you. If we reduce ourselves to the level of animals without knowledge of God, "goodness" has no meaning.
Fred Edwords from the Association which sponsored the ad explains that "there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion." Imagine that - holidays, that is holy-days, being associated with traditional religion. How did holidays ever become associated with religious stuff? Jeez.
Perhaps this ad would have done the trick too: "Feeling lonely for the holidays? Well, it gets worse: there is no God, so we are really alone. And Christmas is a sham. But be good for goodness sake."
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