it is everything I can do....

It is everything I can do during the last half of November and all of December to not growl at every human being around me. I want to buy the tee shirt from NorthernSun that says, "Do not assume I'm Christian." But I would rather have one that says, "Don't assume I believe in a creator god or other religious delusions."

For all the argument I get when I say this, it is still true. Thanksgiving is a christian holiday. It is not a biblical holiday, but it is christian, nonetheless. And everything associated with christmas, including the crass commercialization, is christian or plays on christian "values."

If you believe something is true, then for you it is true regardless of any contrary evidence. Tthat does not make it true for anyone else.

Just because a lot of people believe something is true does not make it universally true. Just because a lot of people believe something is a "sin" does not make it universally wrong. Just because a lot of people believe in a god does not mean there is a god.

I don't believe. Further, I have a lot of trouble dealing with people who seem to think that I should. Do not wish me a merry christmas. I have about all of christmas as I can stand without it. And "happy holidays" isn't any better.

I know that there is some mechanism in the human machinery that makes belief in god(s) more or less automatic and natural. We don't really like unsolvable mysteries so we assign the unexplainable to an unexplainable god then say that this god loves us and has a plan for our eventually happiness.

BULLSHIT.

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Fear of death

When I was 20ish, I would say, when asked, that I was afraid of pain, but not of death. Mostly this didn't get much reaction, but when it did, the reaction was "just wait 'til you are old."

Well, for those who said that too me 40ish years ago, I'm old. I no longer fear pain. I don't like it, but I don't fear it.

A great side effect of being atheist, is that I see death as a complete end of me, my thoughts, and feelings. All done. Nothing going forward from that point. Not the absence of something or a difference in my existence. Just an end. Nothing to fear there. No boring heaven or heated hell. No better life or worse life. Nothing.

I don't recall ever being afraid of nothing. :)