Published by Friday Books (Harper Collins)

I hate to have to do this, but there is a disclaimer that goes with this review. I am not actually an atheist. I do believe in God.There we go.

Now that we have that out of the way, I will continue with my totally objective, unbiased review.

The Atheist’s Guide To Christmas is edited by the creator of the Atheist Bus Campaign in the UK. In bright pink and orange, buses were decorated with the slogan: ‘There’s probably no god, now stop worrying and enjoy your life’. Apparently Australia was too conservative to have its own version. But that’s okay, because you can read all about it in this compilation of the ponderings of various British atheist personalities. It seems to cater to every type of atheist strain: From the “my family raised me Christian but I just couldn’t do it” to the “I’m Jewish and atheist, why am I writing a Christmas book”, also known as, ‘How to Have the Perfect Jewish Christmas’ (by comedian Matt Kirshen), to the incredibly practical ‘Things to Make And Do at Christmas’ By Josie Long.

The book is incredibly clever. Too clever, almost. Dripping with cynicism for the most part, it comes to beg the question: Why did these people feel such a need to defend their beliefs? In my opinion, atheists have everything going for them: logic, reason, vast amounts of intellect. I guess by the end of reading this, you come to realise a couple of things. Firstly, despite dominating the public sphere, which is overwhelmingly secular (and yes, I believe it should be this way), there isn’t actually a lot of respect in the world for atheism as a belief. I mean, isn’t the whole thing with God and humanity the fact that we were given a choice to believe? But I digress.

The book itself makes a lot of points that I don’t necessarily agree with, and is a little condescending at times, but maybe that’s because I’m not the target market. Overall it’s entertaining, and contains a sense of humour that doesn’t exclude itself from the firing line. And, did I mention that the love of my life wrote a chapter in the Philosophy section? I’m talking about Derren Brown, whose piece, ‘On Kindness’ is right on the money when he says that kindness is the quality we value most in others, and strive for in ourselves. It was a little funny was reading about various different writers who felt it was incredibly important to explain why it was okay to celebrate Christmas even if you don’t believe in God. (As opposed to the atheists who felt it was incredibly important to explain the relevance of Scrooge to their own Christmas motto).

The Atheist’s Guide To Christmas has a little bit of everything; at times philosophical, at other times just plain fun and silly. It’s not a book that can be read all at once. I would like to think I respect atheism as a set of beliefs/spiritual doctrine in its own right.

And, if you didn’t think Australians were that judgmental of atheists, you didn’t see the dirty looks I got from people as I read this on public transport. Yikes.