the season for the reason?

The upcoming holiday season can be a difficult time for many Americans, particularly those who find themselves not seeking answers to life’s big questions.

Fortunately, organized atheists across the country are reaching out to these not lost souls with messages that seek to reassure them in no uncertain terms:

“Yes, you are alone.” 

From Denver, Colorado to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to right here in our nation’s capital, those who are deeply passionate about the things they don’t believe are putting up billboards and other high-profile ads in the belief that it is vitally important that people understand the things they don’t understand.

Of course, most atheists non-practice their lack of faith in the privacy of their own homes, but there appears to be a vocal minority of atheists who feel compelled to spread the lack of word, as if driven by some equal authority from on over.

What makes some atheists feel they must make it clear to others that there are things they don’t believe?

Many atheists believe they are the target of discrimination and harassment.  To be fair, those with religious beliefs can find atheist traditions strange and threatening, including the ritualistic “did you see this nonsense?” slapping of the daily newspaper, to their mysterious Darwin Fish symbols, to the compulsive need to engage in elaborate public displays of secularism not steeped in any tradition to speak of.

Organized atheism can also be powerfully attractive, as there are many common principles and goals that bind the community together.  So many, that sometimes you’ll find it difficult to make it through all the principles and goals (personally, we didn’t make it past “To cultivate in ourselves — and others — a sense of responsibility to, and compassion for, human… zzzzzzz……”)

Where the heck is the sex and violence?

From whence does this mysteriously fervent non-faith spring?

There are many paths to non-belief. Some say that God didn’t come to them in a dream.  Ever.  Others point to a specific instance, say, dropping a slice of toast buttered-side down and muttering, “yeah, right, there’s a God.”

Of course some atheists aren’t particularly devout in their lack of spirituality, they simply adopted the lifestyle out of habit.  Perhaps their parents didn’t regularly attend church, so they find themselves, more out of routine than anything else, getting up every Sunday morning, and heading to Dunkin’ Donuts. 

Regardless of whether you are religious or not, whether you believe in God or some higher power, or reject such belief as little more than superstition, it is clear that there is one universal principle that binds us all together as a people, that unites humanity as nothing else:

The unshakeable belief that others care what you think.

J.