Tis the season to discuss a very, very non-controversial subject.

First let's set the right mood. Pour yourself a glass of Sacramental wine. Cut yourself some freshly baked bread. Light some incense. And turn up the soothing sounds of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Right, let's begin.

As a committed atheist, I'm rather agnostic about this new, upcoming outdoor campaign from the Centre For Inquiry in Canada.

Don't get me wrong. I totally agree with the sentiment. And kudos to any and all atheist groups for having the courage to stand up on behalf of reality.

I just wonder if this is the most effective way to spread the word. Something tells me that reducing a conviction shared by billions of people around the world to that of a "kooky" belief isn't exactly a conversation starter.

(Allow me to digress, as well as nitpick for just a second. I do wish the creators of the ad were a little more imaginative and used kookier examples of extraordinary claims like say the Birthers. Or the ongoing love affair between Ernie and Bert. Or the notion that Sarah Palin is qualified to be president.)

But back to the issue at hand. Why give the "war on religion" fanatics more ammunition with which to spew their whiny posturing.

No doubt proof and existence gets to the heart of what atheism is all about. Check out www.godisimaginary.com a website that started a few years ago and is dedicated to debunking the existence of god.

And yes I'm fully aware that www.godpoop.com would have been a better name, but they weren't prepared to pay the million dollars.

However it seems to me there is a more pointed way to get at the heart of the matter. Rather than attack the actual existence of god, how about de-legitimize the reasons that "compel" people to believe in the first place.

For instance, if you listen to the believers then apparently without god to guide or strike fear in us we'd all be a bunch of immoral savages killing and whoring and thieving and stabbing one other in the back.

And you have to admit that apart from minor exceptions like the Crusades, the Borgia's, the Spanish Inquisition, the Saint Bartholomew Day Massacre, the Salem witch hunt, the Irish civil religious war, Al Qieda, the Ku Klux Klan, Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, Catholic priests and their penchant for little boys, history would seem to back them up.

Okay I jest. Religion is probably responsible for most of the wars and bloodshed in the history of mankind. Yes, even more than the Germans. Not to mention scandalous hypocrisy. Yes even more than the Republicans. Surely here is the fertile ground with which to make the atheist case.

Ah, someone's been listening. Check out this from Humanist Canada, a charitable organization that promotes the separation of church and state. Unfortunately the ad was banned (yes even in Canada they ban things), but it asked, "Can you be good without God?"

Provocative question, no? Rather than mock the believers doesn't it seem far more effective to question their ownership of goodness. If one can be good without god, then why the need to believe.

It certainly could lead one to conclude that perhaps god isn't there to be a moral compass, but rather a convenient permission to sin twice as hard knowing absolution is at hand. A neat invention indeed, a bit like guilt-free chocolate.

Then there's the lingering matter of the end of life. Maybe you're frightened of death and need desperately to believe in the afterlife.

I know I've spent a few sleepless nights in bed trying to imagine the end knowing that the day will come when death will finally turn to me and say, "Go to sleep. Now."

Of course it still hasn't sent me running into the arms of the all mighty. Perhaps that's why I was struck by this outdoor offering by The British Humanist Association. Think of it as the "Just do it" for secularists.
 

Finally there's this from the Italian Union of Atheists and Rationalist Agnostics. Their ad, also banned eventually, proclaims, "The bad news is that God does not exist. The good news is that we do not need him."

Short. Sweet. And given the swift and remarkable progress of science since the dawn of man it's a claim that's pretty much already been proven.