Kate Cohen talks about her journey from privately knowing she was a non-believer to writing We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (And Maybe You Should Too). She discusses how being an atheist and a commitment to honesty informed how she raised her children, and how being forthright about her lack of belief in social interactions has simplified her life. We also talk about some of the challenges associated with being an open atheist.
Kate is a Washington Post columnist and some of the articles she references in the conversation are below.
- A Car Ride with Lena
- In America you have to opt out of religion in public life. That's backwards.
- America doesn't need more God. It needs more atheists.
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As Richard Feynman said to his future wife when they were first dating, in response to why she said she went along with pretending to believe to get along: What do you care what other people think? She then repurposed that line throughout their relationship whenever he balked at participating in one of her zany projects for fear of ridicule, and got her way every time!
ReplyDeleteI have found that living a good life as a known Atheist gives even the religious permission to question how they live theirs. After all, if Bog/Gob hasn't smitten me, maybe they can risk dropping some of the voodoo even they find ridiculous?