...I think you could quote nearly any Christian philosopher positing the hypothetical non-existence of God.
Which is a bit different in aim.
This doesn't really go any further than that. And it certainly could, if getting Christians fired up was the goal.
I didn't advance that theory. I said it was tasteless and needlessly confrontational, but the point seems more to drum up free publicity and not only without regard for the nature of the month and the people who celebrate its religious significance, but angled to use that very thing to its advantage.
It didn't even refer to "[G/g]od" as a proper noun, which grammatically implies that it isn't referring to a specific one.
I noticed. But you can't have it both ways. If it's about comfort in a time where some feel more alienated then it's aimed. If it's not about that then the timing would support the other advance. Either way it's problematic. Using the general g could be viewed as either a clever way to meet the desired and inevitable press with, "What? We weren't talking about any specific. See how those people are..." except they know where they were placing the signs and who would mostly be exposed to it.
I think, if I were so inclined, I could have come up with a message that would be far more likely to get that kind of attention. As could almost anyone else.
But that's not really the whole point. Complaints were coming late. Before Christmas it would have done precisely what it was meant to do along with the added benefit of allowing them to use the above answer while tweaking the nose of those being used to get the attention.
All in all a pretty neat, smart bit, happily thwarted by...coincidence or providence. Either way, a happy ending.
If only Christmas were just one month long anymore...
It is in my house. And a lovely month at that.
Well, it's not meant as a slight against the state. It's 86% of the state's demographics. And I've heard it expressed from atheists in the Deep South that they are frequently surprised to meet any others.
One of the Hitchens' debates was held in a fine old Southern school in this very state. A lot of thinking, curious and less than hostile Christians can be found here...but all I said was people have all sorts of suppositions about the state. Most of them, especially from those to the north who haven't spent time among the people here, are mistaken to one extent or another.
I've been all over the United States, except to most of Dixie.
Then you've missed a good bit of fun, missed the mix of cultures that gave the larger part a rich trove of art and the only original art form we've produced. It's a damnable humid, measured, frequently cordial and generally warm place to visit in the best sense.
That's not intentional so much as a matter of opportunity, but if it's east of Texas and south of Virginia, I've mostly never been there. I am going to change that at some point, but there hasn't been much reason for me to go down there.
Great food, literature, music, architecture, etc. Spend a week living out of the Garden District in New Orleans. Hang out in the Keys of Florida or listen to great musical acts sitting on the white sands of Gulf Shores...and I haven't even touched on the mountains to our north, Savanna and so much more.
But a warning, many start on that trek and never leave us.
