Heathen's Greetings?!?!?!?!

Atheists are making a strong push to help "free minds" this holiday season.  It sounds like something out of The Matrix movies.  The Co-President of FFRF (Freedom From Religion Foundation), Annie Gaylor, appeared on the O'Reilly Factor last night to talk about the controversial billboards that are going up across America.  Signs that read "Heathen's Greetings" and "Yes, Virginia, there is NO God!"  Gaylor goes on to say confidently that there has never been any evidence of a God, so to teach this to you children would be indoctrinating them.  Gaylor wants children to make up their own mind and be freethinkers.  So I guess that she would suggest to parents never to teach their children anything, right or wrong, because it would be indoctrination.  I guess also, we should not tell our kids to put their coat on when it's cold outside or not to run in the middle of the street, or even put their tongue on the flag pole when it is 10 degrees outside because that would be indoctrination.

FFRF says that they're only trying to help free minds.  Question: Is there such a thing as a free thinker?  Can anyone truly be a free thinker?  The answer is no.  EVERYONE is influenced by someone else.  If someone decides that they will be an atheist, it is because they have been persuaded by other atheists.  If someone says that they want to be a free thinker, it is because they have influenced (indoctrinated) into thinking that is the way to go.  "Free thinkers" is just a phrase they use to try and show how religion traps you into living and thinking a certain way.

What Atheists celebrate this time of year is the Winter Solstice (Day with the least amount of sunlight for the year).  Gaylor claims that people have been celebrating the Solstice longer than Christians have been celebrating Christmas.  While I have no evidence to prove that is wrong, it seems that FFRF is not celebrating the Solstice but rather trying to keep people from celebrating Christmas.

Here's my thoughts:

1. Job 38:19-21 - I would like to ask Gaylor, "Surely you know who made it so that we would even have a 'darkest day of the year' and how the whole earth works.  I'm sure you were there when it all began...oh wait you weren't.  The only one who has answers is the One who has been there from the beginning...God."

2. Psalm 19:1 - The one thing that they are celebrating is the exact evidence that there is a God.  As the atheists are looking to the heavens this Winter Solstice, let's pray that they see the glory of God.

3. Ecclesiastes 1:9 - These arguments and beliefs have been here before.  They like to think that they are starting some new belief system, but they are not.  "There is nothing new under the sun."

I'll make a Christmas analogy to help us think through how to deal with this new form of atheism.  This is like getting the same thing for Christmas only it is wrapped in different packaging every year.  One year it is given to you in a plastic bag.  That's easy enough, just untie the bag and you're in.  Another year, you know it's the same gift, only this time it's wrapped up with wrapping paper.  This is a little tougher, it takes a little big of tearing and ripping, but the gift is still the same.  This year, it is put in this fancy bag.  You think it's going to be easy, but as you pull it out you find that there's a box that is covered in duct tape.  You'll have to break out a knife for this one, but the gift is still the same.

This is a new form of Atheism.  These new Atheists are more proactive in getting the word out there (i.e. witnessing) so that other people believe the way that they do.  There is a new book that is out written by Dr. Albert Mohler called Atheism Remix: A Christian Confronts the New Atheists.  I have not read it, but Dr. Mohler usually does a good job at dissecting the culture through a Biblical lens.

How would you share the Gospel with an Atheist?