An Atheist View

Is belief in God automatic? Or is it something you achieve once you've discovered it and examined and decided that you want it?

There seems to be a disturbing yet strangely common belief. It seems some people believe that everyone is born believing in God, in particular, the Christian God.

At first I thought I was mistaken until someone asked this bizarre question yet again - "When did you stop believing in God and become an atheist?"

Huh? Did he mean to imply I was born believing in God and at some point decided to stop? I never recall believing in God. I mean it's a nice story but I've never thought of it as reality.

Human beings are born believing in the almighty milky teat and the glory of body heat, beyond that everything else it taught to us or learned in the course of our lives. Surely, we have some inborn instincts and desires such as hunger, thirst, and the need for comfort. As far as religious beliefs go I think it's tabula rasa - blank slate. Until someone writes God on it the slate doesn't have a religion printed on it. There's no stamp on a baby's ass proclaiming "product of Heaven" or "made by God tm". There's no pre-programmed belief in God that falls out of the womb with each baby.

Maybe people believe this because they were fed Jesus with their baby cereal and strained peas? Perhaps they were indoctrinated so young they have no memory of first exposure? They can't really be blamed for thinking they were born with the belief if it was instilled in them before the age of reason and before the dawn of memory.

It seems to me that a belief held simply because your parents told you it was so does not represent an exercise of free will. It is not a choice if you've never known anything else.

I don't think I heard, or more accurately, paid attention to the word "God" until I was four and required an clarification of something I'd read in a book. After listening to my Mom's explanation, I recall asking her, "They don't really think that, right? It's just make-believe like story books, isn't it?" She diplomatically told me that some people thought God was real and some people didn't. She was allowing me to develop my own beliefs without imprinting hers on my psyche before I was capable of such a judgment.

Why do people feel the need to mix up God in babies' formula instead of waiting to teach them about it when they are old enough to remember? More importantly why not wait until children are mentally developed enough to examine a belief?

I believe that morality in its most basic sense, empathy, is not just a social construct but a product of evolution as well. In extended families or tribal clusters as our ancestors must have lived co-operation would have been paramount to survival. Feeling a desire for your tribal members' survival and well-being was a survival trait of itself.

Millions of years ago our ancestors started walking upright at first moving a bit more slowly than other primates until the Achilles tendon came into the picture. Imagine you are a slow-moving, four foot tall person with very little defensive equipment in the way of sharp teeth, strong jaws or razor sharp claws. You aren't even strong enough to kneecap a lion even if you were large enough to pick up a big enough club. Your children are born quite helpless, unable to cling to their mothers' upright backs. While standing tall allows you to see predators from great distances away you really aren't as great at climbing trees as your distant ancestors may have been. You could probably yank loose a prickly branch from a thorn bush and wave it in a big cat's face but she or her family could easily circle behind you and your mama's contribution to the gene pool would end up as a light meal.

So how did something this frail and dare I say paw lickin' good survive or even evolve in the first place? Team work. The little fellows learned to look out for each other both from a budding advancement in empathy and blatant self-interest. A lone pre-human ( even a sturdy and healthy male massing perhaps as much as a young German shepherd dog ) would not do so well on the African plains amidst large predators. Every man for himself just doesn't work when every man is three feet tall and delicious.

Those little mothers also had to be very delicate with their large-headed, weak infants. Big brains made early hominids feeble, floppy fetuses even after birth. Those proto-human women had to coddle and cuddle their immature infants or they would have lost them soon after giving birth.

Everybody knows dead babies don't pass on their genes. Even early hominids likely had a long childhood requiring extra protection and help acquiring food long after most animals would have been self-sufficient. Thus empathy and even love were survival traits. As we evolved, so did our society. Survival, enlightened self interest, and love of family - even distant family - these are the roots of morality, conscience and civilization. They are part of our evolutionary makeup both from a social and biological sense (as empathy appears to be inborn). I believe evolutionary psychology explains the origin of morality quite well.

Love really is all you need.

A question thrown out often in debate between Christians and atheists is "If you can't explain the origin of the universe and the origin of life then why don't you just believe in God?" It is often followed up with, "Doesn't it make more sense to believe in God because all those questions are answered in the Bible. All science has is theories but the Bible has the Truth." I have answered this question so frequently that I decided to write an article about why the lack of complete, exact and perfect explanations of the origin of life and the universe do not make it seem logical for me to just believe in God instead of seeking the real answers.

I accept the fact that I don't know the answers to the questions of how exactly the universe came about and how exactly, life came to be. There are many good, scientific theories supported by tangible evidence. It seems likely that eventually, scientists will come closer to answering such big questions as the origin of life and the universe with a great degree of accuracy and certainty.

Demanding an absolute answer right now is much like asking a child to explain exactly how a rocket flies to the moon with complete technical details. The child does not know the answer but it doesn't mean he never will or never can. Nor does it mean that if the child said, "God makes the rocket go to the moon" he'd be correct. As a race, we are still children; your question is just a little too far beyond us as yet. So my answer is that I accept that I am not all-knowing.

Only through reason will we find the beautiful truth. Imagination is great but it doesn't compare to reality.

The wonder and power of reality is so great I am a little saddened by those who think they already have the explanations for everything in a tidy package called God. Life isn't tidy and easily understood. It's messy and strange and mysterious. One tiny shred at a time we're figuring it out, tiny bits of truth are stacking up.

I don't think you need to know what caused the universe to exist to say "I don't believe the universe was created by magic." Historically everything people say was caused by magic turns out to have a logical explanation. People used to think that maggots just came out of raw meat and turned into flies by magic. Later we learned that flies laid eggs in the meat which hatched into maggots that turned into flies - no magic involved just flies laying eggs. People once believed that illness came from demons inhabiting the body or as punishment from God for their sins. We learned that illnesses are caused by germs, exposure to harmful elements, parasites, genetic problems and various other things unrelated to demons or gods. People used to think that lightning and thunder had something to do with Gods throwing temper tantrums, they blamed them on magic. We now know that there are rational explanations (involving no angry Gods) that explain why it thunders.

We have yet to reach the pinnacle of knowledge and I doubt there even is such a thing. We don't know everything, we probably won't ever know everything but we are learning. Just because we don't have all the answers it doesn't mean we have to accept an illogical answer like "it's magic" or "God did it." Just because there is a question there is not always a ready answer and even if there is an answer it may never be found in our lifetimes. It's OK to admit ignorance, especially when every human that ever lived shares that ignorance.

Most folks require something more than, "I can't answer all the questions in the universe" to convince them God is real. Of course we can't answer all the questions in the universe, we're only human.

I am an atheist. I don't believe in God or an afterlife. I may not believe in life after death but I wholeheartedly believe in life before death.

Life is truly amazing. Making it a good life is all the reward I need. It's a shame so many people think that this life is just some kind of dress rehearsal or test for what comes next. But I do understand why people want to believe in life after death.

I understand how the yearning for justice can make people desire an afterlife. So many people live good lives, full of kindness and compassion, full of giving and love but they suffer, often worse than those who lead lives of cruelty. So many people lead cruel lives, preying on others and reap rich rewards in this life, never seeing worldly punishment for their evils.

It seems like it would be fair that those who do good and avoid harming others would ultimately be rewarded. It seems like it would be fair that those who do harm and prey on others would ultimately be punished.

Sadly, life just isn't fair. Good people suffer and bad people get ahead in the world. A lot of that is our fault.

Much of this problem comes about because our society as a whole believes that justice will be meted out by a higher power so we spend far too little time righting wrongs and making life good for good people. We also spend far too little time intervening in the lives of people to save them from taking cruel roads and turning to evil means.

Poverty, suffering, and ignorance create a breeding ground for more of the same. Most people turn to good when treated with kindness and when their needs, physical and emotional are met. We can apply kindness and compassion to the problem of evil and achieve goodness and a modicum of justice in this life.

We can't make all life good. Chance is capricious. Bad things happen. All we can do is make the best of what we have, especially when we believe that it is all that we have.

I can understand how living in conditions that seem to hold no real world chance of hope could make a person desire something more. But there is hope in this world, and there is help in this world we just need to turn to each other to find it.

My parents raised me free to choose my own beliefs. I was allowed to investigate whatever religious options I chose. Repeated religion based attacks both physical and emotional by peers, teachers, and adults in my community gave me a cynical view of religion early on.

As an adult I am aware that religion can inspire great works of good as well as the everyday abuse and bigotry it fosters.

People often say, "It takes a lot of faith to be an atheist." This is usually followed with a statement like, "After all, you can't be 100% certain there is no God."

As an atheist, I can say that it has never taken me any faith at all to be one. Saying that being an atheist requires faith requires one to accept the idea that everyone thinks God is real, when in fact many people (called atheists) do not. It is the very definition of atheism. Atheists are people who don't think God is real.

The average person doesn't think the Chupacabra is real. How much faith does that take? It's an unlikely creature which can't be seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched by those who look for it. It hasn't been caught on film. All information about it comes from legend; all reports of its doings come from speculation and lack of real explanations. The things people attribute to its actions can generally be traced to natural phenomena. The modern-day accounts of it come second hand from people who deeply wish or fear that it exists.

Does that indicate something that you need to have faith to not believe in?

That is how I, as an atheist, see God. To me, it's not 100% impossible that some kind of superior being or universe creator exists, it's just extremely unlikely. In my opinion, it is even less likely that God exists than that the Chupacabra does. After all, we've actually seen an amazing variety of life forms, speculating that another might exist isn't going quite out as far out on a limb as speculating that a being, the likes of which we've never seen anything even remotely similar, may exist.

So, no, I'm not one hundred percent certain that God doesn't exist or one hundred percent certain that the Chupacabra doesn't exist but I'm not going to take that lack of certainty to mean that either God or the Chupacabra must exist.

To me, both concepts are just colorful stories from ancient cultures which persist today; thousands of years after the original storytellers have turned to dust. Simply because these myths have lasted so long and because so many believe in them it does not indicate that they are realities. It only means that humans are similar to each other in thought as well as in form. Myths and legends are fascinating insights into the human mind, to those things we have in common. They don't represent literal reality but the nearly boundless creativity and sense of wonder shared by members of the human race.

So while I recognize that the concept of God is part of our rich cultural heritage, I don't think that God is something real, and that takes no faith at all.

Finding life without an afterlife pointless or depressing is as silly as going to an amusement park and becoming so depressed that your visit will end that you sit down just inside the entrance and cry your eyes out. How about running through the gate flushed with excitement and trying to ride all the rides and see all the shows before the amusement park closes for the day? Eat cotton candy until you puke and enjoy your day at the park until the security guard pulls you kicking and screaming out the gates when your day is done.

I believe that what we do is all that matters. Bad will hit you, good will hit you but your measure is how you ride the waves. With luck and hard work and the love of your brothers you can build a good strong boat.

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Many Christians and other theists will insist that atheists are immoral people who have decided to become atheists so they can behave immorally without guilt. I don't believe this to be true but I have a few ideas as to why some Christians and other theists believe it to be so.

First, there seems to be some confusion about what atheists are. Atheists don't believe in God but more than that, they don't think that God is real. So being an atheist really isn't a choice, once you don't think something is real you can't really believe in it.

Until or unless something occurs to change your mind such as evidence or a personal epiphany you simply can't believe in things you do not think are real.

You may think that an atheist can just decide to believe in God because it wouldn't hurt anything if they just believe in God and it turns out that belief is wrong. It just doesn't work that way. Some atheists want to believe in God at some point in their lives. God is such a lovely concept, what with the afterlife and unconditional love, so who wouldn't want to believe in God? The problem with that is that for most atheists, belief is not about what they want but about what they think is true and not true. Most atheists are people who only believe what they think is true and real.

Since atheism really isn't about what an atheist wants but what an atheist believes is true it's not really likely that a person who thinks God is real could just decide to be an atheist. If a person thought God were real, they would still worry about the consequences of disobeying God. A believer cannot decide to stop believing in God unless they first stop thinking of God as real or suspect that God is not real.

Some Christians and other theists will argue that atheists don't need to behave with compassion or ethics because they have no fear of burning in Hell forever. I really don't think that religious people behave morally and compassionately because they believe in God. I think they behave morally and compassionately because they have emotions like empathy and they have the power to reason. Atheists also have emotions like empathy to guide them to do what is kind and the power to reason to guide them away from that which is harmful.

Both atheists and theists are products of a society which has thousands of rules, spoken, and unspoken which they are trained to obey to get along from the time they are children. These rules embody a structure created through thousands of years of trial and error. If morality were immutable and all who followed God were moral, society would not have changed so drastically and become so much more humane over the centuries.

Christians and other theists may consider atheists immoral because some atheists may indulge in activities not prohibited by law but proscribed by their interpretation of their own religion. Even by this measure, atheists are no less moral than theists. Religions and religious beliefs are so incredibly varied that the range of behavior atheists indulge in which some Christians and other theists consider amoral are considered perfectly harmless or moral by other theists' and other interpretations of religious beliefs. These religious beliefs vary so greatly that even in the Christian religion alone there are intense disagreements between denominations as to what is moral, what is a sin.

Atheists can't help but seem immoral to some people. There are so many religious rules that any given person, religious or not, is breaking one or more at any given moment. Rules such as believing in a certain God or tithing a certain amount of one's income to a particular church are automatically going to be 'broken' by atheists and other people not of that particular religion. Just try to remember, that right now, you are immoral by someone's standards.

To me, "faith" is a belief without proof that none are allowed to question much less disagree with. I know that isn't the literal definition, but that is what I often see in practice as an atheist in America.

I've heard it far too many times, I think, the assertion that to be an atheist a person must first think God is real and then hate, or deny God.

By the logic that a person must first believe in something to think it isn't real every fundamentalist Christian believed evolution occurred before they denied it. That's not very likely; the fundamentalist Christian never believed evolution happened in the first place. People walk around every day not believing in things they've never believed in. I'd say it's far rarer to find someone who once believed in unicorns than to find someone who has never believed in unicorns.

Perhaps this misunderstanding comes in because some religious people think they were born believing in God. Rather, I think they were taught that God was real before the age of memory and reason and simply don't recall their instruction in the matter. Most people can't recall being taught to use the toilet, but it's a well known fact that no one is born with that skill. I've never thought God was real.

Another possibility is that believers in God can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to believe in God as they do. The idea of a loving God is sweet. The idea that a person will never truly die and will someday be reunited with every soul of everyone he's ever held dear is incredibly desirable. The idea of never being alone, always having someone who loves you is enchanting. As you can see, I don't hate the idea at all. Who wouldn't want that? I know I would. But the problem is this - wanting something, no matter how much, doesn't make it real. Nor is wanting something enough to make everyone believe in something or to think that it is true.

Believers may say that belief in God comes from faith but I don't think so. I think that belief in God comes from thinking that God is real. Otherwise, if believers didn't think God were real, why would they have faith in something they thought was make-believe?

On several sites I am well known as an atheist writer though I write stories and articles about a wide variety of topics. I write how-to articles about fish care, floral design, cooking, and sex. I write editorials and memoirs. I also write fiction, poetry, and erotica.

You'll see where this becomes relevant soon, I promise.

I have been repeatedly messaged and occasionally emailed by readers for (what seems to me) a very odd reason.

In my fiction, poetry, and erotica I sometimes use the words God, Jesus, demon, devil, Jihad, soul, spirit, ghost or other words which refer to supernatural concepts either as literary devices or in dialog. I have been told by a number of readers that the use of such words means that I can't possibly be an atheist, that it means I must believe in God. I even got one such email regarding an erotic story in which a character moans, "Oh, God, yes, (bleep) it!" After I stopped laughing uncontrollably, I paused to ponder what thought processes are behind such reasoning.

To me, the use of words relating to belief and supernatural concepts is just part of fiction writing and their use falls under the umbrella of poetic license. These words evoke strong and complicated emotions in readers. It would be a waste to not play with them in creative writing sometimes. I find the idea that the use of such words in fiction implies belief to be strange. One does not need to believe in something to include references to it in fiction, otherwise fantasy novels would be nearly non-existent.

Our culture is saturated with supernatural words and references, to cut them out completely would affect the natural flow or feeling of normal conversational English. Also, 90 some odd percent of Americans believe in God - spiritual references are bound to come up in dialog unless, for some reason, I decided to only write stories about atheists, specifically atheists who are not spiritual.

I've written faux Native American myths and fantasy stories with mythological beasts as characters. Obviously, I don't believe in mythological beasts or aboriginal magic and no one has suggested that I do. However, I'm not sure why that would lead people to believe that I believe in God.

Any thoughts on why people would come to the conclusion that anyone who includes words pertaining to the supernatural in their writing must believe in God?

Evolution is just a process by which change occurs in nature. The process of evolution was deduced by interpretation of evidence that holds up to empirical scrutiny. Evolution is like many other natural processes which are deduced by interpretation of evidence. A couple of other processes we have deduced from evidence found in the natural world are erosion and eutrophication.

Evolution has no moral bias, any more than erosion or eutrophication do. Evolution is an explanation of a process which takes nothing into account but the physical evidence and only that evidence which holds up to careful scrutiny. The process by which scientific theories are arrived at and supported has much in common with crime scene investigation. Data surrounding the thing being investigated is collected and examined as scientists compare it to other known quantities and try to puzzle out how the event happened. Any evidence which doesn't hold up to rigorous empirical investigation is discarded.

The theory of evolution is a similar set of deductions used to postulate what may have happened to cause the existence of myriad life forms on our planet. Like a crime scene investigation, none of the evidence was purposely left for the investigators. In the case of evolution, the events or circumstances happened so long ago and on such a slow scale that by the time we began investigating it, much of the evidence was dust. Our "crime scene" was old, contaminated, and had millennia of wear and tear before we even realized we ought to be looking at it.

A group of crime scene investigators might not piece together the exact story of what happened with 100% accuracy. Perhaps Mrs. Potter didn't kill her husband with a napkin holder in the basement and stuff him in a dryer, maybe he wasn't dead when she stuffed him in the dryer but died inside it of the wounds Mrs. Potter inflicted with a napkin holder. However, the basic facts are correct - it was Mrs. Potter who killed Mr. Potter and she did use a napkin holder to fatally wound him and did stuff him in a clothes dryer. The same lack of 100 percent accuracy of every tiny detail that may have occurred applies to the natural scientists that have pieced together and interpreted the evidence to suggest evolution via mutation and natural selection over the course of millions of years. However, neither group would "take the case to trial" if the evidence wasn't compelling.

My point is that evolution isn't a philosophy, it isn't a religion, it isn't a disproof of the existence of God, it has no moral bias. Evolution doesn't make people into Atheists any more than climate changes, global warming, or sedimentation do. Evolution is simply a reasonable, scientific deduction based on analysis of the evidence available. I have no understanding why people have chosen to feel threatened by evolution - it's as bizarre as feeling threatened by erosion or euthrophication or any other natural process.

A few months back I got a message from a reader who was upset by one of my atheist articles. In it he said, "Are you that atheist (censored) from TIBU*?"

At first, I was a little upset. But then, I decided that at least it meant my writing had been memorable. That was when I decided to name my atheist blog That Atheist (Censored).

*A now defunct writing website on which I had previously posted atheist relevant articles.

At the Thanksgiving Holiday many will suggest that atheists are somehow unfortunate because we can't thank God. Just because we don't believe in God, it doesn't mean we can't be thankful. Atheists can easily be thankful to our fellow human beings who've loved us, nurtured us, taught us, grown our food, collected our garbage, fixed our cars, and thousands of other things.

Just because we believe our food came to our table by the loving hands of friends and family, grocery store employees, truckers, processors, and farmers it does not diminish the goodness of it. Atheists are just as thankful for things as religious people are - we just direct our thanks at the people who provided them rather than at a God.

Some may say that being appreciative of our resourceful, inventive, hard-working, and compassionate fellow humans means we are ingrates. I don't agree.

There are many things I'm thankful for but I've composed a list of ten very important things which many may not stop and think to be thankful for this Thanksgiving - and human beings are responsible for all of them.

Spoken Language - Spoken language gives us the ability to communicate with each other, to ease our loneliness in this world, to form relationships and friendships and to share knowledge. Spoken language also gives us the ability to share our thoughts and lives with others.

Agriculture - When people were hunter gatherers they roamed around seeking food wherever they could find it or hunt it down. The development of agriculture allowed us to settle down and have permanent dwellings. Not to mention we got to eat more regularly! Not only did agriculture lead to permanent dwellings it led to commerce and commerce led to written language!

Permanent Dwellings - Permanent dwellings let us sleep in the same place night after night in comfort with no need to seek shelter somewhere new. This gives us a sense of security and the concept of home.

Written Language - Written language gives us the ability to communicate across time and distance. We can see the thoughts of long dead or far away people. We can also record our thoughts to share with many others and even ourselves as time passes.

The Wheel - Wheels move us and serve us in many ways. With the invention of the wheel came potter's wheels, wagons, and later gears in machines. The invention of the wheel was indeed one of the great cogs in the development of civilization.

Democracy - Democracy gives us the ability to have some say in our society and to be (theoretically) treated equally under the law.

Flush toilets - At some points in history no common sense at all was used in regard to sanitation. People used bowls to catch their waste and then dumped it somewhere, sometimes just right out their windows. Flush toilets keep our cities clean and comfortable.

Antiseptic and Antiseptic Procedures - Since the invention of antiseptic procedures shortly after Louis Pasteur released his germ theory surgery survival rates have increased dramatically, infant mortality has plunged, and injury has become far more survivable. With the invention of antiseptics and antiseptic procedures surgery began to have less and less in common with butchery.

Antibiotics - Since penicillin hit the scene thousands of antibiotics have been invented. Millions of lives are saved or improved by the use of antibiotics every year.

Anesthetics and Pain Relievers - Pain hurts! Before the invention of anesthetics simple procedures such as minor dentistry were hideously painful. Today, most surgery is relatively painless due to the use of anesthetics.

Just as Christians have adopted many pagan traditions of the winter festivals such as decorating trees, giving gifts, feasting, and singing door-to-door some atheists also choose to adopt those pagan traditions and celebrate Christmas, much like many Christians do.

Since many Christians are upset when Atheists celebrate Christmas (or use American currency with "In God We Trust" on it) I propose that Atheists create their own version of the Christmas celebration. Christian Christmas uses such icons as reindeer, mistletoe,
Santa Claus, snowmen and pine trees. The traditional Christian Christmas also lays specific claim to December 25th as the day Santa comes down the chimney. Since these are all respected religious tenets of Christianity I propose that we, as atheists, should avoid co-opting them for our own Christmas celebrations.

Few would deny that the most commonly celebrated American Christmas includes giving gifts, reconnecting with family, expressing brotherly love to all mankind and putting up decorations to offset the mid-winter gloom. As none of these things are the exclusive privilege of the Christian church it looks like we Atheists are allowed to participate in activities of that sort.

Oh, dear, I've forgotten one more thing - Christmas contains the word 'Christ' which I do believe Christians own the copyright to. They also lay claim to the word 'mass' as well. Since almost no one pronounces the 't' at all anyway and few say the word with an 'a' sound at the end, I suggest we then spell the word as it sounds, leaving out the Christian copyrighted words.

Now, on to how to celebrate a very Atheist Crissmiss!

Our first priority should be to choose a day of note. I would suggest choosing the winter solstice. After all, seasons are caused by the axial tilt of the earth, including the Crissmiss season. Now, this gets a bit tricky. The winter solstice lands on different days in different
years, between December 20 and December 23 in the Northern hemisphere and between June 20 and June 23 in the Southern hemisphere. Don't despair, it just means Atheists get two Crissmisses! We can use winter solstice as it doesn't land on the 25th of December in either hemisphere.

In celebration of this event, we can put up lovely pictures of earth which depict its axial tilt. Other decorations which may be meaningful to Atheists might include representations of the Darwin fish or (for you trail blazers out there) even displays of the Flying Spaghetti Monster done up in sparkly lights. Traditional Christian fertility displays such as mistletoe kissing balls should be avoided. Atheists may use a candy dish full of condoms or simply a cozy loveseat with a warm winter throw atop it as their own invitation to lustful displays.

For traditionalist Atheists I would suggest a sumptuous platter of spaghetti with plenty of meatballs as the centerpiece for their Crissmiss feast. Exclusively Christian foods such as turkey, ham, and sweet potatoes should be avoided. Green bean casserole made with French's onions, however, is completely acceptable, as we all know the French are a bunch of godless heathens.

Children should be encouraged to make Atheist Crissmiss cookies. Since the Flying Spaghetti Monster is far too ornate for most children to carve from dough, children can be encouraged to make His meatballs instead. Coincidentally, the same shape can be used to represent the tilted earth. Other lovely Atheist Crissmiss cookie shapes could include pink triangles, blue donkeys, and rainbow flags which represent other groups many on the Christian Right consider godless. Babies are also great, as Atheists are known to enjoy eating babies.

When it comes to giving gifts, Atheist Crissmiss gifts should either be handmade or purchased with a credit card or check so as to avoid offending Christians by spending their money with 'In God We Trust' on it. Charity donations should also be made via check or credit card.

In short, Atheists can also celebrate the diluted pagan tradition many call 'Christmas' without disrespecting the religious traditions of others.