OK, let's start off with one of the facts of my life; I'm an atheist.  You might be able to tell by the title of this blog.  I can't help it.  A guy up in the sky with the power to create all in the universe is silly to me, and it was so even when I was a 6 year old growing up in a house full of people who deluded themselves about belief in a God.  My stock question to people is, if God created the universe and all that is in it, who created God?  They tell me, "That's where faith comes in."  Faith or blind belief?  I'm a guy who believes that if you can't touch it, smell it, yadda yadda, it doesn't exist.  Having made the outrageous statement that I don't believe, (many people can't comprehend such an untenable position) I will now state that I unequivocally support your right TO believe, as granted by the laws of the land, (I'd have written our Constitution instead of laws of the land, but certain people who have read my blog find my belief in the founding documents to be antiquated and pedantic so I'll not enrage them) and I will in fact fight to the death for your honest, heartfelt right to believe in God.  BUT, allow me NOT to believe.  That's the give and take, and another thing that many people can't deal with.  I do ask that you not be phony and, as my dear friend Jeff says, pray to God on Sunday but live like hell the rest of the week.  I guess that my philosophical take on God is that it is a chicken and egg argument.  We'll put that aside now.

  This morning, with the last vestiges of an early week ice storm melting in a light  rain, I read the newspaper as I have every Sunday morning from the age of about 8.  Since moving into my house 13 ½ years ago, every Sunday begins the same; start the coffee, go out to the end of the driveway to get the paper, sit in the chair at the dining room table nearest the window with a cup of coffee, and read.  Living in the Reading PA area, I now read the Reading Eagle, a fine medium circulation newspaper.  Growing up in Battle Creek MI, my father and I used to read the Battle Creek Enquirer and Detroit Free Press on Sunday mornings, and when I moved back east it became the Philadelphia Inquirer.  Upon moving to the Reading area, I added the Eagle to the mix. Some years ago, I became disillusioned with the liberal whining of the Inqy, so I dropped it from the regimen, and now just read the Eagle.  In today's paper, there was a column by John Forester Jr., who writes a weekly opinion piece (and is by the way a VERY well thought out guy) that really struck home.  The piece is entitled "Display battles make Christmas merry for lawyers". http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=73450  He takes on the annual drudgery that ACLU types and the atheists that give us atheists a black eye subject the populace to; whining about Christmas displays.  Forester cites the usual types of stories on the subject, complete with Wicca references, and heaps some abuse on one of the great plagues of our society; lawyers.  Why do these people care so much about this subject?  Are we really in any danger of losing our freedom by allowing a symbol of what the vast majority of people allegedly believe in this country sit in the public square?  Is it so offensive to you to have to walk by?  Are you that thin skinned?  Or are you merely so selfish?  As I read, I had a realization, an Epiphany, if you will.  You know what people who complain about Christmas displays are really doing?  Attempting to draw attention to themselves in this media crazed, fifteen minutes of fame world we live in.  They are, in essence, holding up a sign and screaming, "Look at me!! Look at me!!  I'm so damned enlightened and you're so damned stupid that I need to protest this!!"  It is the ultimate in narcissism, and sickening to no end.  Howard Stern has a great analogy that fits this situation.  He says that in every synagogue there is one guy who has to buck the system and be a Jews for Jesus guy, which goes against the basic teaching of the religion.  It's another way to say, "Look at me." 

  It shames me to be linked in some small way to people like Michael Newdow of "get rid of 'In God We Trust' on coins" and remove "under God from the Pledge of Allegiance" fame.  (As a Boy Scout, I just omitted "under God" while reciting.  Isn't that simple?)  Don't these people understand the concept that it takes all kinds to make the world go around?  Don't they understand that they're not ALWAYS right?  Don't they get that people should be allowed their beliefs and the symbols thereof, just as they are allowed theirs?  Can't they just get over life always being about THEM?  Most of these people are very far left politically, and they must see that they're obliterating the basic liberal philosophy of inclusion, right?  Apparently not.  So there's a manger scene in the town square.  GET OVER IT.  Walk by it without looking if it so pains you.  But that symbol brings joy to a lot of people, so allow it to be without your petty protestations and sickening whining. 

  My aforementioned friend Jeff tells me that this philosophy of inclusion makes me an "enlightened atheist".  He tells me that I get it.  That makes me feel good. 

  So enjoy your holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa or Happy/Merry whatever you subscribe to. (Festivus?)  But let others enjoy theirs as well.  Won't that make the world a better place if we allow people to be happy instead of complaining about how they're infringing upon us?

  I think so.