What This Book
Is
All
About and Why
Faith-based holidays leave atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, skeptics, and other freethinking people out in the cold, shivering and starving for celebrations of their own. In fact, any number of comedians have joked about this deprivation, saying, “I wanted to be an atheist, but they have no holidays.” To remedy the situation, this book presents a year-round collection of events built around the lives and words of famous nonbelievers, often in memory of their birthdays. Some of the statements are lighthearted while others are deadly serious, each winding up with a celebration to brighten the occasion.
Of course, there are people so set in their beliefs, they even festoon their cars with religious doodads, a kind of dashboard idolatry. Please note this book is not necessarily aimed at changing such people’s views. It is simply meant to express the views of others. Or as President Thomas Jefferson put it, “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”