“Sure, I know I sound like a reincarnation of a flower child, but really, do we have to be so crass during the Christmas season?” — Roland Martin

I’ve kept silent up until now regarding the apparent controversy of preferring “Happy Holidays” to wishing “Merry Christmas” to the odd passerby, choosing instead to grab a front-row seat to Bill O’Reilly’s yearly frothing about the “War on Christmas” and other such nonsense. Frankly, I find the phrase useful since I encounter many people from varied religious backgrounds on a daily basis, as we all do. For example, if I know someone is an observant pagan, Jew, Muslim, or Christian, I will tailor my greeting accordingly, but one can hardly feign such intimate knowledge of the random strangers we encounter; “Happy Holidays” both conveys the spirit of “Merry Christmas” while acknowledging the existence (and validity) of a great many other religious holidays occurring around the same time. Thus, I find that those who take issue with this greeting are themselves going out of their way to be offended — not the opposite.
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Filed by Trevor at 6:24 am under Religion, Atheism, UU, Social Issues, Pop Culture, Fightin' Words
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It’s not like I’ve been slacking. Really. I have not had a day off in WEEKS. And between the fact that I’m never home and the fact that when I am, I’m in the midst of a very moody, angry depression brought on by grief, I’ve not been much in the mood to write about anything. My cats have even noticed. They are cuddling more with me than usual. But maybe that’s just the fact that it’s getting cold.
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Filed by Devon at 12:03 pm under Atheism, Damn Hippies, Love
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“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own — a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.” — Albert Einstein

I grew up thinking everyone needed to go to church. Not just for community, not just for spiritual nourishment, but mainly to keep one from going to hell. Believe it or not, this was a viewpoint I held at least in some form until a little over a year ago — maybe even less. At that time, I was driving 110 miles round-trip to attend a Unitarian Universalist church in Orange County, dogged by the irrational fear that we were all headed straight for hell due to our collective non-belief. But I still went, perhaps out of some greater motivation to find just where all of this was leading, but more for the growing hope that I had been seriously misinformed. And soon, the vestiges of my rotted Christian outer layers fell like so many skin cells sloughed off our bodies. I finally began asking questions, getting into heated discussions, connecting the dots into my own original ideas; in short, I stopped accepting religious ideas wholesale. I had a wonderful place to belong, to give of myself — hence why leaving was so difficult for me.
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Filed by Trevor at 1:57 am under Religion, Atheism, UU
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I go through these weird cycles where I’ll get up at some ridiculous hour of the morning and, for lack of a better occupation at 2:30 a.m., stare at Homestar Runner and drink green tea for an hour or so before swiffering my floors for the umpteenth time. These are the days I enjoy the most, actually — the ones where I’ll look up from my work and notice it’s only 11:00 when it really feels like 5:00 in the afternoon. As I’m writing this, I still have a kitchen full of dishes left over from my birthday dinner, empty wine glasses on my table, and a disconcerting amount of dirty laundry that’s found its way to my living room; every so often the air fills with the sound of the clanks and thuds of the heaters kicking on all over the building. It may be free, but I doubt I’ll ever get used to the sound of the metal casings surrounding the radiators bowing and flexing as they heat up.
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Filed by Trevor at 5:59 am under Religion, Atheism, UU
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[NOTE: the purpose of this post was meant as a lead-in to a clip from Julia Sweeney’s (of SNL fame) one-woman show Letting Go of God, but it morphed into something else entirely. Nevertheless, I encourage you to have a listen, regardless of how you define your faith. As these past few months have seen considerable change in my religious worldview, it is a relief and comfort to me to hear echoes of my own struggles in her words; I’m interested to hear your opinions on it.]

It should come to no surprise to even casual readers of this website that I’ve been courting atheism for the past couple months; I’m finally at a point in my life where the last of my unchallenged religious beliefs are finally being held to light, one by one, and examined closely for what they truly are. It’s heartbreaking in a way, really, because I was raised to genuinely love Christ and God the Father, and even now as I write this I can still see past the haze of fundamentalist nut-cases to the heart of Jesus’ message. A message, frankly, that I’ve seen made manifest far more sincerely through my participation in a church that doesn’t claim to worship him at all than all my years in the Nazarene faith.
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Filed by Trevor at 1:38 am under Religion, Atheism, UU
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Pay attention, kiddos.

Filed by Trevor at 12:20 am under Religion, Atheism
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Pat Condell is a wonderfully articulate comedian with some of the most astute observations on religion and modern society since Eddie Izzard. Have a look:

Yet another sign that modern atheism seems finally to be shedding the angry, bitter vestiges of Madalyn Murray-O’Hair and more toward the world of snarky intellectualism. His entire stable of videos can be found here; I spent a good hour this afternoon watching and re-watching each of them. I can’t say I share all of his viewpoints or even — and I can’t believe I’m actually writing this — all of his cynicism, but that’s the wonderful thing about thinking for oneself, isn’t it?

Filed by Trevor at 1:39 am under Religion, Atheism
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I performed at the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council’s National Day of Prayer Breakfast this morning at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. As part of a two-member Unitarian Universalist delegation, it would seem, as my minister apparently opted to sleep in. Oh well. I was impressed by the diversity and sensitivity of the occasion; they even had the chafing dishes of bacon and sausage clear on the other side of the room from the eggs and potatoes out of respect for the Jews and Muslims in attendance. I was also impressed by the presence of a local imam, particularly by his quoting of the Holy Qur’an, as the current state of world affairs behooves us all to increase our awareness of the true Islamic faith. I mean this sincerely — I have next to zero knowledge about that particular religion and even less about its holy book. Finally, I was glad to see a significant Mormon presence, surprising to me as they’ve been conspicuously absent from most of the other interfaith activities I’ve attended. But maybe that was just a fluke.

I had planned to remark on the requisite lack of atheist representation this morning, but it’s becoming clearer to me that the Unitarian Universalists are essentially the atheist — or failing that, deeply cynical agnostic — presence at the interfaith table. And how fitting that only two of us showed up! While neither Beth (my Music Director, who played piano with me today) nor I are atheists, we sat there unconsciously muttering corrections under our breath during the keynote address, given by Peter Vidmar, a former Olympian and active Latter-Day Saint. Not out of disrespect or even irritation — more out of habit than anything else. All things considered, it was a good way to start the day. It even made me forget the fact that I’ve got to drive back down this afternoon and do it all again.

Today is the National Day of Prayer; in this time of war, make the observance of this day a priority. Regardless of religion — you too, atheists and pagans — please contact your local blood bank and give blood today. Get off your knees on and on your feet, and let your actions be your prayer.

Filed by Trevor at 10:53 am under Shameless Plugs, Religion, Atheism, UU, Social Issues, Activism
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The National Day of Prayer is on May 3rd, and Atheist Volunteers are spearheading an alternative campaign; whether theist, pagan, or otherwise, I encourage you to get behind this.

Filed by Trevor at 9:05 pm under Religion, Atheism, Social Issues, Activism
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I’m energized by speaking to rational, intelligent individuals with worldviews completely opposite from mine. Similarly, I find myself drawn to objects — whether fine arts or otherwise — that are simultaneously beautiful and grotesque, or even terrifying. To my delight, on Sunday I got two handfuls of both.
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Filed by Trevor at 11:21 pm under Religion, Atheism, UU, The Arts
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