Reflection- atheism

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as

atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships.

The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for

maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be

it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four

Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty

much anything else you worship will eat you alive.

If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in

life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the

truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always

feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths

before they finally grieve you….Worship power, you will end up feeling

weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb

you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will

end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.

— David Foster Wallace, Commencement Address to Kenyon College