Be Good for Goodness Sake?

There is an agnostic or atheist group that has taken out ads on Busses in one of our major cities. The ads say, “ Why believe in God? …. Be good for goodness sake”.

If this was not so pathetic it would be humorous. It became more pathetic when one of the organizers of the ads was interviewed and stated that it is a harmless ad that was intended to promote their values.

Here is the problem as I see it. First of all, a lack of values is not a value. Having no God would not be a value. Having a no God mind frame would promote a “might makes right” mentality because ultimately we answer to nobody but ourselves. If indeed we answered to nobody but ourselves then we need only justify all and any actions to ourselves. This is quite easy to do.

Secondly, it is impossible, without God, to know what good is. Good and bad are comparative words. In other words, they need something to compare to in order to be understood. If I said I had a good steak at the restaurant down the street I am obviously comparing that steak to some other steak I had at home or some other restaurant. If I said I feel good today, it would be a comparative statement involving how I felt yesterday.

In each example given, you would really have no idea what I am talking about. You would have no real idea of what the steak tastes like or what I am actually feeling like. Those are safe statements because they cannot be refuted. Whoever came up with this ad campaign has made safe statements that they think cannot be refuted because, after all, how could anyone disagree with being good just for goodness sake!

Well, I really have no idea what they are talking about because they have taken the only benchmark, God, out of the picture. It seems to me that these people have more money than they know what to do with and the bus company should be grateful for their sillyness.


Dave Wager
theomegaforce.org

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