Two weeks ago, I was invited to be a participant for Center for Inquiry–Michigan in downtown Grand Rapids on their "Living without Religion" discussion panel as coverage of our new billboard. My first thought was, "hell no!" since I've been a lifetime introvert and I have pretty extreme social anxiety, especially speaking in front of crowds. But as I thought about it, I realized that I really wanted to speak on this panel and have my story heard on what it's like to live without religion as a person happy and content with being an atheist. I finally responded with a ‘yes.'

This wasn't supposed to be Tom Waits hour, but I seem to have found myself featuring him again for the 4th installment of Music Mondays. 

This is a story of an atheist. The atheist does not represent a single person but is rather an amalgamation of various atheists that I’m sure many in our community have dealt with. It is known as the, “Superior Atheist”.

The Living Without Religion campaign is a coordinated effort created by the Center for Inquiry to promote the idea that people can live happy, full, and prolific lives without religion. To most of us, it sounds like a simple, concise message. Sometimes I even get close to thinking that maybe we don’t need to be (as an entire movement of secularists) putting so much time and money into these sorts of awareness campaigns.

I was recently alerted to this video’s existence via a Facebook post by a conservative Christian associate of mine. It was created by CitizenLink, a Focus on the Family affiliate.