'Tis the season for the atheist/humanist crowd to make fools of themselves.  As millions of Americans celebrate Christmas, the American Humanist Association is in the midst of their annual membership drive punctuated by smart-aleck billboards and city bus placards that mock the existence of moral authority and belittle faith in Christ.

Two years ago, their motto was "Why believe in a god?  Just be good for goodness sake!"  Last year, they were more direct: "No god?  No problem!"  But this year, as they feebly attempt to detract from the celebration of Christ's incarnation once again, perhaps it's a fruitful exercise for our civilization to consider their overtures and weigh the merit of their message.

As far as I can tell, the mantra "No god?  No problem!" has but one minor flaw: the entire record of human history.  It is no coincidence that as German atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche boasted, "God is dead...we have killed him...must we not ourselves become gods" (which, by the way, is the entire basis of humanism dating back to the Garden of Eden), he simultaneously predicted that the 20^th century would be the most murderous in human history.

That he was right is actually of secondary importance.  Most significant is the apparent recognition Nietzsche had that man, left with no moral authority beyond his own impulses and passions, would devolve into self-destruction.

Indeed the banner slogan of "No god?  No problem!" hangs poignantly over the ovens of Auschwitz, the killing fields of Cambodia, and the trash bins of Planned Parenthood.

Though it might be more difficult to squeeze onto a billboard, the American Humanist Association needs to correct their jingle to convey the more accurate message: "No God?  No problem...except the one that even the greatest atheist thinkers have recognized: when a belief in God dies, man dies."

Moreover, the phrase "be good for goodness sake" is meaningless unless we can define what "goodness" is.  For the believer, that is a relatively easy question to answer.  Goodness is measured by the extent to which man's behavior conforms to the character and the will of his Creator.  That is why the Christian believes the Bible is an irreplaceable component of human existence - its revelation serves to guide us towards that divine will.

But the atheist/humanist has no such moral center...no fixed point of reference.  They may talk at length about the need to be "good," but in the final analysis, their presuppositions fundamentally reject any concrete basis for morality. 

That is not to say that anyone who is atheist or humanist is a murderous butcher ready to pounce.  Certainly there are a great number of nonbelievers who are benevolent, caring and kind.  But while the atheist points to these upstanding godless citizens as proof of their theory that you can be good simply for goodness sake, they conveniently ignore the cultural foundations that taught those individuals good from bad.

As columnist Jeff Jacoby observed, "In our culture, even the most passionate atheist cannot help having been influenced by the Judeo-Christian worldview that shaped Western civilization."  Put another way, the American atheist who boldly touts his morality and decency is humorously doing so only by appealing to the very Christian ethic they seek to denounce.

Though this conclusion is inescapable, the pride inherent in humanist thought forbids them from admitting it.  Consequently, we are persistently treated to their vapid musings that one must choose between religion and reason.

But suggesting that reason alone is sufficient to direct behavior is intellectually dishonest.  Human reason will always be guided by presuppositions.  That is why civilizations like ancient Rome found it reasonable to murder handicapped children while we in the Western world find that to be abominable.

Jacoby noted that Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger wrote, "'We drown even children who at birth are weakly and abnormal,'...stressing that 'it is not anger but reason'" that provides justification for such an act.  This horrific practice is the result of reason built upon a Godless foundation.  In contrast, American civilization bears the fruits of reason based on a Christian ethic that teaches submission and obedience to a transcendent Moral Authority.

That fact alone should cause the atheist to pause as he jeeringly taunts believers with signs proclaiming, "Merry X-mas."  Creating a Christ-less holiday season may seem like a worthy cause until you realize where it leads.  Civilizations torn free from the moorings of Moral Authority are not the kind anyone would want to live in...even a fervent atheist.

This column was first published at The American Thinker.

When your cockamamie theory is literally collapsing around you, it's probably best to take your plight to a higher power.  But if that isn't possible, a fake jaguar goddess could work.

According to the Washington Post, "Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered in Cancun, Mexico, noting that Ixchel was... 'the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving.'"

I'll give this conglomeration of exploiting profiteers five stars when it comes to creativity.  You can't manipulate data to produce fatalistic scenes of New York City being overwhelmed by tidal waves and Yellowstone erupting into volcanic ash without having a robust imagination.  But reason?  I think that went out the window long before they started praying to a jaguar.

The disintegration of this political juggernaut known as global warming is as imminent now as it is remarkable.  The heights from which these scientists' credibility has plunged is equaled only by the speed at which it has done so.

Consider that it was only last year when the scientific and political world was held spellbound by the deliberations of the UN Climate Change summit held in Copenhagen.  Nearly 45,000 attendees anxiously anticipated a global climate agreement that could spare us all from the imminent planetary incineration that was about to befall us thanks to the unholy alliance of SUVs, deforestation, and belching cows.  American taxpayers alone shelled out nearly $400,000 for Nancy Pelosi to lead a cadre of liberal Congressmen and staffers to attend the Warmer deliberations.

Yet now, just one year later, political leaders are staying as far away from the annual climate summit (this year held in Cancun) as possible.  Even the Congressional Warmer triumvirate of Henry Waxman, Dianne Feinstein, and Barbara Boxer skipped the festivities.  Remember it was Boxer who proclaimed not so long ago that global warming was her "signature issue."  Yet when it came time for this year's convention, Boxer merely murmured, "I'm sending a statement to Cancun."

Meanwhile, across the pond, things aren't much better for the global warming hysterics in the British Meteorological Office.  As the Met geared up for Copenhagen in 2009, they were warning of the "warmest year on record."  Fast-forward to this year, and as Britain is in the grip of yet another extraordinarily frigid winter, their admonitions are much more subdued.  Even the Daily Mail noted why: "Buried amid the details of those two Met Office statements 12 months apart lies a remarkable climbdown that has huge implications - not just for the Met Office, but for debate over climate change as a whole...for the past 15 years, global warming has stopped."

This most inconvenient truth is why, despite millions of dollars of propaganda and free marketing offered by a totally duped American media, Al Gore's climate heist machinery is dismantling before our eyes.  The defeat of climate legislation in Congress has prompted Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection to whittle its resources from 25 states down to 7 states, acknowledging, "the situation in Congress has changed."

Indeed it has.  As the Democratic Party's death grip on Congress dies in January, Nancy Pelosi's House Select Committee on Global Warming will be dying with it.  Republicans have announced that they have no desire to continue wasting taxpayer dollars on a committee whose only contribution was a proposed energy tax that would have destroyed millions of jobs in an already stagnant economy.

For its swan song, the committee held a final hearing - one so boring that according to the Washington Times, the Chairman never returned from lunch break.

So how has this environmental Goliath collapsed so quickly and so painfully?  Certainly the ClimateGate scandal that revealed the epic fraud and deceit upon which the movement was built didn't help.  Al Gore admitting his willingness to fabricate dire consequences for the sake of getting people's attention didn't help.

But ultimately it comes down to this: given time, truth wins out.  Eventually rational people realize that groupthink and demonizing your opponents as "deniers" doesn't count for evidence.  They realize that a movement so freely changing names - from Global Cooling to Global Warming to Climate Change to Global Climate Disruption - might be more about a neo-Marxist pursuit of global governance than about saving polar bears.

In the end, that is what has hastened the demise of Warmerism.  This makes the climate changers' prayer to Ixchel the jaguar goddess so very appropriate...one myth perpetuated on humanity deserves another.

This column was first published at The American Thinker.