The Most Wonderful Time of the Year to Be an Atheist

As the Christmas season revs up and starts to emit all the usual exhaust - the relentless commercialization, the charming decorations, the Wingnuts' now-annual rants about "banning Christmas," the real delight that kids get from it - I'm reminded once again just how odd it is to be an atheist in America. I'm also affirmed in my decision to never wish anyone "Merry Christmas" - I'm going strictly with "Happy Holidays," even I have to punch Bill O'Reilly to say it. And but so, it's good to read why Penn Jillette is an atheist:

I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more.

Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something.

Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.

Hear, hear! And happy holidays!