Kirkepiscatoid

Tip of the had to MadPriest...

It all started when the American Humanist Association paid for advertising on 230 buses in Washington DC to say, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake."

Well, then that's when all the phone calls and nasty e-mails and "advertising competitors" showed up. A bunch of folks claiming to "stick up for God" showed up on the talk show circuit, the Internet, and the TV, some of them not really, in my opinion, "Being good." So THAT's a little confusing. The humanists want to be good without needing God to lean on them. Some "Christians" become snippy and nasty in the name of "defending God."

Here's a radical notion. I suggest that anyone who wants to go out there and "be good for goodness' sake" to have at it! I encourage it. There is not enough good in the world, and people out there wanting to do good are a blessing to this world.

Frankly, I don't want to ascribe to the notion, "Be good or God will kick your ass." That's simply not a very good reason for doing good. People who are being good for that reason make no sense to me. As a theist, I would much rather believe that, when I do good, it is because "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," and I realize the good I do has an intrinsic value beyond my religious views--that most of it IS "goodness for goodness' sake."

In fact, maybe the opposite happens if you are a person who is seeking and questioning the existence of God. You go out and do some goodness for goodness' sake. You realize it is NOT easy. You realize it is, in some ways, a part of human nature that runs counter to a fair bit of human nature, like the need to care for oneself, the need to protect oneself. Doing good makes you vulnerable.

In the center of that vulnerability might come the notion, "Hey, the nature of this good seems a little beyond "just me" and my skill set. Maybe there is something deeper to this good." Now, maybe you'll ascribe this eventually to what you see as your representation of God. Maybe you'll see Jesus in it--real Jesus, not three-syllable "Jay-EEZ-UZ". Maybe you see Buddha in it. For all I know, maybe you think it's the result of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But the minute a person connects to that notion that the whole of "good" is beyond one person's abilities, you have, in effect, joined the ranks of theists.

Then again, maybe you never get there. But you are out doing good in a hurting world, and in that act, you are part of my covenant with my God, and that's ok by me!

So, to borrow a common thing angels say this time of year in the Advent stories, I say "Fear not!" to these ads!