National Atheist's Day

In the world, there are many religious, and there are many holidays for each religious to express their faith and join to their community. Atheism is person who believe that God does not exist. Atheism is not a new invention. Psalm 14:1, written by King David around 1,000 B.C.E., refers to atheism: "The fool says in his heart, there is no God." Recent statistics show an increasing number of people claiming to be atheists, up to 10 percent of the population worldwide.

Christmas. Basant. Diwali. Eid al-Adha. Easter. Yom Kippur. Vesak. Hanukkah. The holy month of Ramadan. Every year, there is no shortage of religious holidays held because everyone tends to join their community. According to recent studies, there are about 7.1 billion people currently living in this world, 31% of them are Christians, 23% of them are Muslim, 13% of them are Hindus and nearly 7% of them are Buddhist. There are also millions of others who follow religions such as Judaism, Jainism, and Divinity.

But what about those of us who don't believe in a god or gods? So why aren't they on holiday? Just because 142 million people don't believe in God, doesn't mean they don't want to have a good time, right?

Therefore, Atheist Day is celebrated every year on April 1st for the community of people who do not follow any religion.

History of National Atheist Day

The origins of National Atheist Day can be traced back to a fake story published on the internet in 2003. The original Atheist Day was about a fictional case of an atheist who decided to sue the government. The reason for the fictitious lawsuit was known very simple — there was no day for Atheists like all major religions, which the judge held April 1 (i.e., April Fools' Day) to be their holiday. The story spread quickly although this case was just a hoax and the story was actually accepted as fact. In fact atheists have also declared the day for themselves, although this day is best known as an occasion for pranks. And then they did something in their style: they decided to declare that it doesn't really exist!

How to Celebrate National Atheist Day

In fact, there is no definite way to celebrate National Atheist Day, although many people use the occasion to express their lack of faith and/or spark theological debate. Since Atheism is still a controversial topic in some places, this is an opportunity to raise awareness of the whole topic. Religious debates have a bad reputation for tending to get out of control and easily turn into arguments, but it's time to change that anyway.

Religion is a fascinating subject, filled with ancient wisdom and history, so if you are truly an atheist you could take some time this day for an in-depth conversation with a religious friend or family member to find out something what they believe in and why. What they have to say is make sure to give you plenty of food for thought. On the other hand, if you are a religious person, you can spend time chatting with your atheist friend or family member and learn their reasons for seeing the world the way they do.

People who decide to leave behind their religion, a part of their life that could have been a big and important religion in the past, often have many reasons to make that decision. There's no need for either side to try to convince the other, because that probably won't work anyway. However, a discussion between a believer and a non-believer has the potential to become an insightful and informative discussion that will motivate all participants in the discussion to entertain some ideas and thoughts that they may not have had before. And expanding one's worldview has never hurt anyone!

Either way, share your opinion about Atheist Day with your friends or your classmates to discuss and share them on social media with hashtag #NationalAtheistDay.