Washington Post: Independence Day an Atheist Holiday
Someone get Lee Greenwood on the phone; he's going to want to know about this.
In a front-page Style section report July 5, The Washington Post breathed a sigh of relief that Independence Day gives Americans a break from those God-heavy holidays like Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving.
“The trouble with most major holidays in the United States, if you're an atheist, is that it's difficult to ignore the 'holy day' etymology,” Monica Hesse reported. “But not the Fourth of July. The Fourth is a little deity-free celebration stationed in the middle of summer for believers and non-believers alike.”
Finally, a break from those religious zealots Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Thank God.
Hesse highlighted an annual gathering of atheists in
She defended atheists as misunderstood. “The most common misapprehension they encounter is that they must be immoral – that, lacking the promise or threat of an afterlife, they have no incentive to be good,” she said. “They atheists here find this particularly offensive, as they say they believe in kindness for the sake of kindness, making the most of the brief existence they believe humans are allowed.”
What binds them together? Victimhood, according to
“Most of them have been told, at one point or another, that they are going to hell,”
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