American Atheists billboard might be backfiring

The billboard at the New Jersey portal of the Lincoln Tunnel, that declares that Christmas is a myth, might not be having the effect that its sponsors intended.

American Atheists erected the billboard for $20,000. It depicts a classic Nativity and Wise-Men's-Visit scene (with the Star of Bethlehem rendered as the Star of David, a rather strange allusion, though the story does have a Jewish origin and in fact took place in the Land of Israel). But it bears this caption:

You KNOW it's a Myth! This Season, Celebrate REASON!

American Atheists did this in order to address those who don't really believe in the Christmas story at all, though they still come to the Christmas and Resurrection ("Easter") services at their neighborhood church every year, whether they attend services at other times or not (and usually not). The theory that American Atheists relies upon is that these are better described as "closet atheists" than as "confused Christians."

But as Kathy Heyboer of The Star-Ledger (Newark) found, most observers are taking the message as a direct affront to believers who might have used the Tunnel to attend the tree-lighting ceremony last night at Times Square in New York City, and to commuters who use the Tunnel every day. So far from being merely a rallying cry to those who are going to church but wondering what they're doing there, it has become a monument to bad taste and, some venture to say, a distraction from the God/no-God debate.

For example, Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon.com writes:

It's that snotty, oh-just-face-it-you-idiots attitude, that utter certainty, that's just as belligerent coming from an atheist as it from an evangelical.

And Andrew Belonsky at Death and Taxes says:

[T]his latest campaign basically says Christians are a bunch of senseless twits. That’s no way to build good will, something in which everyone, even Atheists, should believe.

And:

Thanks a lot, American Atheists, you not only fan the flames of politicized religion, you make everyone believe that those who don’t believe are just plain jerks.

Robin Schumacher at Caleb's Path offers these two questions:

1. Why not do real good this year and instead of trying to comfort yourselves by mocking Christianity, how about spending that billboard money on helping the Haitian relief organizations that still need so much assistance?
2. I'm still waiting for your billboards that mock Islam in the same way you do Christianity. And don't forget to include your address and phone number at the bottom so the Muslims know just where to find you.

The comment space at the bottom of Heyboer's article contains similar sentiments. Some ask whether any atheist has been able to disprove God positively. (Though that would constitute proving a negative, the message of this column has always been that atheism represents a null hypothesis that rapidly becomes untenable in consideration of event after event that has occurred in the face of odds far longer than the nineteen-to-one-against that is the standard threshold for rejection of the null hypothesis.) Others ask what room an atheist has to complain against a Christian message in the public square, in a country that allows anyone willing to pay the rent to erect a billboard of the kind that American Atheists are now sponsoring.

One commenter speculated that viewers who didn't understand English might misinterpret the billboard as a good Christmas tribute. Others suggested that by erecting this billboard, American Atheists demonstrate nothing so much as an obsession with disproving everything divine. For example:

The "myth" of God and Christmas sure does bother secular humanists. Why are they so perturbed about Something that doesn't exist? Perhaps counselling would help them deal with this imaginary stone in their shoes, that isn't there, and shouldn't be bothering them at all...if It's imaginary.

(The commenter must have capitalized certain words on account of Whom he refers to, not on account of What American Atheists thinks He is.)

Nor, as many of Heyboer's sources point out, is this the first such campaign in the Tri-State region. Last year, an atheist group bought side-of-the-bus advertisements promulgating the message that God "probably" did not exist.

Heyboer's atheist sources appear sometimes to conform to stereotype. But, as one's enemies often provide the most valuable insight into one's own character, Mano Singham at Machines Like Us points out the central flaw in American Christmas observance today: that it has become excessively commercial, especially since the end of the Second World War. Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts) noticed that, and he and colleague Bill Melendez produced A Charlie Brown Christmas to protest that and call Christians to a proper appreciation of "what Christmas is all about." If American Atheists' frontal challenge will cause people to reconsider what might in fact be commercialistic idolatry, and abandon that in favor of a genuine reflection on the meaning of Christmas, then it will have had an effect definitely contrary to what they intended, and a salutary one.

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