DesertBeing an Atheist is not about ruining other people’s religious parties or crapping on dogma. It is not about rebelling or being different. It is not about disrespect or an urge to crinkle the noses of the powers that be.

Being an atheist is about seeing things for what they are, unencumbered by myth, opinion or ritual. Its about understanding the natural urges that live inside you, rather than denying them, it’s about using that knowledge to guide and steer our humanity. It’s about seeing the beauty that is nature and understanding the minute and varied processes that shape and create the world. To see a river running is not a static thing as God had created once and always, but a river is a changing thing, a force of creation and change.

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Creation Museum MugAlright, so I have this mug from the religious institution known as the Creation Museum. The CM is a privately funded religious indoctrination facility designed to use the stories of the Bible to interpret everything in existence, including things not mentioned at all by the Bible. The museum discredits evolution as a man-made myth and follows the idea that the Earth is 6,000 years old and was created in six days by a hand wave of the almighty, who created us in his image, except for those with bad eyesight, club feet, harelips, mental deficiencies and the innumerable other afflictions “God’s creatures” have been afflicted with as a consequence of their pre-natal sins, I assume, or to test their parents faith, of course.

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Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks in "Defending Your Life"

Regardless of individual religious beliefs, the concept of some kind of existential state after death has been a fixture of human culture since before recorded history. The most common motif in this, if I may use the term, genre of human storytelling is some approach to justice. People want their lives to have meaning and maybe just as importantly, they want to exist in a universe that has some kind of central value, a moral core that keeps everything from being chaos and meaninglessness. In the 20th century, when atheism and agnosticism became a major fixture of new philosophical thought, the concept of the afterlife didn't so much disappear as transform into a powerful narrative device. Here are three unique imaginings of life after death from some of the greatest minds of the last century.

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FruitcakeIf you want to do something a little different this Christmas season - maybe you're an atheist (like me!) or a pagan, or maybe you just feel quirky - why not celebrate Yule instead?  Yuletide is a traditional winter solstice festival, originally a pagan festival that originated in Germany.  It was later incorporated into the Christmas tradition, when everyone suddenly decided (against all evidence and logic) that Christ should take over the December holidays.

The traditional Yule or Saturnalia was all about fertility, and traditional Yule foods reflect that.  Yule festivities typically consist of a ton of food, a celebration of the harvest of the year, and a demonstration of abundance.  

Yule Log


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From my outsider perspective, I've learned two things about devout Christians. And no, I'm not talking about those moderate, everybody get along, some of my best friends are Jewish and I don't hate gay people Christians, I'm talking about the super-duper double order of Christ with cheese Christians. One: They hate sex, that universal expression of love and affection with the ability to form lasting bonds between people regardless of background and even the power to create new life. Two: They're a-ok with violence, the force that has kept people apart since the beginning of time and even has the tendency to destroy life. In Christian fundamentalism's most recent attack on sex, or at least their woefully distorted conception of sex, they've instituted the concept of the Christian Side-Hug, or CSH, with the help of a terrible, terrible rap premiered at the Encounter Generation Conference.

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The Flying Spaghetti Monster was invented in 2005 by Bobby Henderson, as a protest of the Kansas Board of Education's insistence that intelligent design be taught alongside evolution in Kansas schools.  The tricky thing about the Flying Spaghetti Monster is that you cannot prove that he does not exist.  If it were conclusively proven that the Flying Spaghetti Monster (or FSM) did not exist, then let's face it, life would be a lot simpler.


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I liken Christmas to my 4-year-old niece. In small doses it can be sweet and endearing, but it's also capable of being shrill and annoying. Since I don't really have any true obligations to Christmas, if it bothers me too much I can just ignore it. I suppose that's why I'm capable of going through what should be the most insufferable time of the year in a relative state of calm. Sure, for the first ten years of my life Christmas seemed extremely appealing, but then I realized that it's a gaudy chunk of unnecessary stress that becomes less interesting the older you get. The one part of the holiday season I always enjoy is the pointless whining about the War on Christmas. Conservative idiots like Bill O'Reilly and other drains on society who hate fun usually start jabbering in late November about how the Christiest holiday of them all has been actively secularized for the sake of money and mass appeal. That's why the fundies spend every December launching increasingly absurd campaigns to inject some extra religion into their favorite holiday. This year, it's the CHRIST-mas Tree.

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I noticed an online acquaintance the other day becoming extremely agitated that someone had referred to Christmas using the colloquialism Xmas. She felt that this was insulting, and offensive in the extreme. What she didn't realize was that Xmas as a shortened form for Christmas has a venerable, and solidly Christian, history.

The word Christmas is a compound of Christ + mass; we see it first in Old English in the form Cristes mæsse in 1038, according to the OED. The Old English form eventually evolved to the Middle English Christemasse. The word Christ is derived from the Greek word Christos, meaning "anointed," a literal translation of the Hebrew cognate of messiah.

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“Merry Christmas,” is the phrase of the season, uttered by every store clerk, parking attendant and fast food operator, and why not? With city halls spending taxpayer money (not to mention electricity) on decorating their buildings and every telephone pole the eye can see, it’s hard to believe that Christmas isn’t a secular holiday.

Schools close for it. Many people get off work for it, and most businesses close for it. But it is a religious holiday, right?

I’m not a Scrooge by any means. Celebrating Christmas is always fun with my family—particularly with my child—and I enjoy feasting, decorating, baking, and whatnot as much as the next person.

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