It’s that time of year again.  The gloriously hedonistic annual jaunt through that labyrinth filled with religious land mines called XMAS.  As I get older I have noticed that I loath xmas more and more each year. I find that as soon as the turkey is all gobbled up, my mind begins an old internal struggle.  Should atheists ignore xmas or celebrate It? I know that many do generally because they always have and don’t want to change....

    The pledge of allegiance was written by the socialist minister and magazine editor Francis Bellamy in 1892 for a nationwide public school celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s landing. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country.  Bellamy was a well-known ”Christian Socialist” whose beliefs involved some pretty unsavory bents.  I will leave you with one of...

The summer of 1993 was a wonderful time for me. Having finished high school the year before this was the first real summer spent knowing I did not have to go back to school if I didn’t want to. I worked almost my entire high school career so working my job was no big deal. It would have been just another part of life had it not been for the friends I made at my job. One friend in particular made my job almost magical. I will be the first...

It’s been a while since I posted anything regarding my beliefs.  By and large I have really tried hard lately to be supportive and understanding of my fellow man’s need for intervention by a higher power.  I don’t like it when that desire crashes headlong into my day, but I try not to get mad over it anymore.  It’s a losing battle.  That’s the way you start to think when you get older and (hopefully) wiser.     Normally...

   Nothing major tonight its been a while since I blogged.  I had a pretty bad run in with death the last few weeks.  Had a co-worker’s husband pass away and one of my best friends lost their father.  Attending funerals are never easy but it was tolerable because in times of hardship we try to focus on the good times we have had with out loved ones.     This made me wonder what it would have been like at the funeral of a...

    Religious zealots complain about the increasing tendency of the popular mind to make the association between Halloween and secular or pagan imagery.   What is really amusing is the utter seriousness with which they disregard the fact that Halloween predates Christianity by thousands of years.  The Halloween we celebrate today is drawn mostly from the pagan parts, the Jack-o’-lanterns, the dressing up as ghosts, witches, etc....