Ricky Gervais.

This dude hosted The Academy Awards a few weeks back and has been getting a bunch of flak for the things he said. He crucified everyone in Hollywood whether it was Mel Gibson for being a racist, or Lyndsey Lohan for being a drunk coke-head. But the most controversial phrase that came out of his mouth was him thanking god for being an atheist. So? What's the big deal? I don't understand what the big deal about atheism is. It's the only (dis)belief that doesn't ask anything from you. This pseudo-religion doesn't ask for weekly meetings, donations, unbridled faith, human sacrifices, it's own city, or to follow a "supreme leader" of any sort. Shit, as an atheist you get to keep all of your money, sleep in on your days off, and make all of your own decisions. Sound like what being a grown-up is all about. If anything, atheism asks its "followers" to treat people the way they want to be treated and to make decisions based on logic, and this isn't coming from some geriatric in funny bath robes with a silly hat, this is just the kind of unspoken idea that is probably going through any reasonable persons mind when asked about morality on a basic level. But why be offended? First off, the guy is a comedian. For those of you who are moderately versed in English, you should know that you shouldn't be taking advice on anything that important from a comedy bit. It would be like taking rehab advice from Richard Pryor while he was doing his skit about catching his hair on fire after smoking crack. Or taking sexual health advice from Andy Dick while he was talking about underage hookers in some small Asian country. But you dive into religion, and everybody acts like you're trying to crucify Jesus all over again. Secondly, he did what every other Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, and every other denomination do on a daily basis: he thanked God. Yeah, it was sarcastic, but he wasn't asking you to subscribe to his religious view, he was making a very ironic statement in a show for which he was paid to do, and he did it quite well. This anti-atheism crap needs to stop. We've never asked for people to commit to weekend bible burnings and denounce a faith they've practiced for a majority of their lives, the most we've asked from religious people is to stop ramming their view down the gullet of every opposing viewpoint. The next time I hear about how disrespectful someone was being for not acknowledging their god, I'm going to follow them around for the day screaming an up to date, detailed surf report for a 24 hour period, because that's what it feels like. It feels like a five year old niece or nephew just jawing away in your ear about the last episode of Dora the Explorer. We honestly don't give a shit about your awesome Jew zombie. It's as appealing and useful to us as a sweet pea soup sandwich.