Spaghetti Monsters, Ctd   A reader writes:  Your atheist readers
make the classic move of pretending to be the referee when in
fact they are just another player on the field. They are
treating it as an intellectual puzzle rather than what it
actually is for every last of us: a lived commitment. This is
why the term "Atheist" itself is so misleading. You're an
atheist, fine.  I'm an A-Vishnuist, and an A-Buddhist, and an
A-Teapotist.  Telling me what you don't believe tells me very
little, but it's a really cool way to get into the conversation
in such a way that everyone has to defend their positions except
you -- you get to attack.  This would be valid were this merely
an intellectual exercise. There you can usefully indulge the
distinctly modern prejudice that doubt is more reasonable than
belief. But you can no more avoid making a positive choice about
the source of meaning in your life and the universe than you can
avoid living in some country. You can talk about which country
is best to live in, but the