Blog

As many of you know, I am an atheist. Not only am I an atheist in the broad sense of the term, which is “an absence of belief in the existence of god(s)”, but I am an atheist who has an affirmative belief that there does not exist a god.

Everyone is a hypocrite in some way. I personally try to minimize my own level of hypocrisy. This is difficult for an atheist to do in a Christian country. We encounter Christianity and religion every day. Through the use of phrases, belief in a god becomes assumed among everyone. It is amazing how difficult it is to remove certain religious habits from my daily practices. For a few years now, I have been trying my hardest not to say “bless you.” Instead, I say “salud”, which means “health” in Spanish, and is the customary equivalent to “bless you.” Just changing this one phrase in my vocabulary has proved extremely difficult. Maybe ten years from now I can stop saying “God damn it” and “Jesus Christ!” as exclamatory remarks.

As difficult as it is to change your own behavior, I would imagine it would be much more difficult to change others’ behavior towards you. We are approaching the winter holiday season. As we get closer to Christmas, I can expect to receive at least a few Christmas cards. Additionally, I will hear “Merry Christmas!” directed towards me quite often. Unfortunately, Christianity is something that is placed upon you by default in this country. It is something you have to opt out of. Another unfortunate trend is that one seems to have a limited number of choices. Unless you are outwardly a member of another major religion, you become Christian by default to almost everyone.

So now the question becomes – How do I protect my own identity? There is a fine line between protecting my identity and avoiding confrontation with those close to me. I think I will make a conscious effort to kindly inform at least some people that I do not celebrate Christmas if they are to wish me a merry Christmas. But will I do the same with my own family? That is not likely to happen this year. I can only remove so much of my hypocrisy at a time.