In recent years, the humanists had some cute ads that featured everyday folks in Santa hats and the slogan: "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness's sake."

"For the most part, we are reaching out to nontheists, to atheists who thought they were alone and now realize there is a way to connect with like-minded folks," Roy Spekhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, said of the goodness campaign. "But this will also give those people on the fence something to think about."

The market might be growing. In a recent American Religious Identification Survey, the number of people who claim no specific religious affiliation grew to 34 million, 15 percent of the American adult population.

These are not atheists but people whose minds might be open to a less judgmental, stringent and prescribed religious vibe.

They are religion's equivalent of a swing vote. And the humanists want them on their side.

I think of the woman with the big lunch bag and even bigger Bible who was sitting next to me on the Orange Line the other day, surely finding the strength to slog through another grueling day in the well-worn pages of that book. How would she react to seeing the humanists' take-down of her faith?

And I wonder if such a harsh attack is, well, humanist?

"Humanists believe in and value love, equality, peace, freedom and reason - values that are comparable to those of moderate and liberal religious people," Spekhardt said.

But, I ask him, to what aim is the in-your-face ad campaign this Christmas?

"We definitely want to grow the movement," Spekhardt told me.

So let's say you're sold. You're buying the peace and love thing. Now what?

That is a question posed even by fellow atheists, who love the ad campaign but are hungry for a next step. Where do you go if you want to become a humanist? What do you do?