All across the country, the United Coalition for Reason is sponsoring billboards to promote and encourage its atheistic sentiments.  But for an organization touting itself as part of the greater “community of reason” (according to its own FAQ page),   I find these billboards anything but reasonable.  In fact, both the implicit and explicit reasons purported by these ads are fallacious, arbitrary, and inconsistent, as we shall see…

First, let’s consider the explicit rhetorical appeal of this ad to defend its professed atheism:  “Millions are.”    Such an appeal to the majority–the supposed “millions” of unbelievers–is a textbook logical fallacy called ad populum or bandwagon appeal.  Do you see the irony in a coalition for reason basing its persuasive strategies on an obvious error in reasoning?  The popularity of atheism is completely arbitrary:  what does it matter if millions, billions, or even the whole world decides to stop believing in God?  The majority or minority of a position does nothing to establish the veracity of a position.  We could just as easily change the billboard to read:  “Are you cheating on your spouse?  Millons are.”  Would such an appeal validate infidelity?  Of course not!  Let me ask you this:  If the whole world decided Hitler’s plan to exterminate people groups and usher in the Third Reich was good, would that have condoned Hitler’s actions?  Granted, I am not  saying that atheists are in line with Nazis, but to illustrate a point I chose an extreme example.  Simply put, majority does not rule when it comes to truth.   So much for being reasonable…

If the blatant use of logical fallacies were not problematic enough for the Coalition for Reason, consider the implicit contradiction undergirding this ad.  “Are you good without God?”  See if you can spot the philosophical tension here between what the atheist-free-thinker-humanist claims to believe and what this coalition actually says to persuade.  The first definition of the word “good” is “morally excellent.”   Now we have a problem because the atheist’s beliefs do not comport with his claims.  An atheist does not believe in a supreme being; therefore, the atheist has no rational basis for anything being morally excellent; i.e., “good.”  On what then, dear CoR, are you basing your claim of being good without God?  This begs the question:  Can you be good without God?  I don’t mean that you cannot be a good person:  I know there are plenty of atheists who live decent lives.  But why do they?  Why bother being good–morally excellent–if there is no absolute morality, no absolute standard of goodness by which to call anything good?  The cry for relativism does nothing to shield the growing self-refuting nature of these billboards.  After all, there is no such thing as relative morality because a belief that morality is relative is, in effect, an asbolute morality and thereby self-refuting.  If we all have our own concept of good, as some might suggest, then there is no such thing as “good” upon which these so-called millions of unbelievers can agree.  All you would have is just millions of isolated perspectives and interpretations of “goodness” with no reasonable, logical, or rational basis for any kind of “community”.

As a Christian, I have no problem with someone or something being “good” or “morally excellent.”  The Bible tells us “there is none good but one, that is, God” ( Mark 10:18).  To call something good, then, is in essence to recognize its similarity (or lack thereof) to being like God, or being morally excellent, as God, the just and holy one is.  Goodness, evil, morality, make sense in a biblical worldview.  But how does this notion comport in a random universe of mindless matter and energy?  Would you call baking soda “good” for reacting with vinegar?  Then why would you call yourself good if you believe we are nothing more than stardust reacting according to unguided natural processes? Your billboard says something that is incompatible with what your beliefs dicate.  In the end, this sign does nothing more than display the self-refuting and irrational nature of atheism.

Ultimately, the question comes down to why, CoR, is it good to be good without God?  If you are going to stand on reason, then you must know that, to be rational, you must have a basis for your beliefs.  If you do not have a rational justification for calling yourselves or anything else good, why flaunt your defiance toward your creator by wasting time, money, and manpower to put up a sign that raises only one question:

Maybe now you can appreciate why the Bible says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalms 14:1).