Julia Sweeney (born October 10, 1959) is an American actress and comedian best known for her roles on Saturday Night Live, especially as the androgynous character "Pat." She has written and performed, In the Family Way and Letting Go of God, the latter explaining her atheism.I was a Christian by default, and I didn’t take it seriously enough for it to cause me any real trouble. Bob says that the most well adjusted Christians he knows are those that don’t take it seriously. (Whether they are exactly conscious of this or not!) And I think that was me. I think I was well adjusted. But that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t also stunted in my maturity by the side effects of benignly believing in the Christian stories and the childlike idea of a loving God who was pulling all the strings.
From Sweeney's Foreward to Robert M. Price's,
The Reason Driven Life
That Sweeney is an atheist, is "something she brought to light in a one-woman show entitled Letting Go of God. In it, she discusses her Irish Catholic upbringing, early religious ideology, and the life events and internal search that led her to the belief that the universe works fine without a God in charge of it.
"She began performing the show live in Los Angeles. In May 2006, she performed the piece in Austin, Texas, at the Paramount Theater. The Austin show was followed by a half-hour discussion between Sweeney and Ira Glass (host of This American Life). An excerpt of the show subsequently appeared on This American Life in an episode entitled Godless America. Letting Go of God was released on CD in 2006.
"In 2006, Sweeney was awarded the Richard Dawkins Award and the American Humanist Association's "Humanist Pioneer" award, and joined the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America. She also does commercials for the Freedom From Religion Foundation on Air America Radio."
Fuller Biography at Wikipedia
It took me years, but letting go of religion has been the most profound wake up of my life. I feel I now look at the world not as a child, but as an adult. I see what's bad and it's really bad. But I also see what is beautiful, what is wonderful. And I feel so deeply appreciative that I am alive. How dare the religious use the term 'born again.' That truly describes freethinkers who've thrown off the shackles of religion so much better!
Freedom From Religion Foundation
More at Celebrity Atheists
Sweeney's Website
Sweeney's Blog
Sweeney's Discussion Forum
Audio Excerpts and More
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