“I no longer needed a reason for my existence, just a reason to live.”

I know this has been going around a bit this week, but this para­graph stood out for me:

Wow. No God. If mum had lied to me about God, had she also lied to me about Santa? Yes, of course, but who cares? The gifts kept com­ing. And so did the gifts of my new found athe­ism. The gifts of truth, sci­ence, nature. The real beauty of this world. I learned of evol­u­tion -– a the­ory so simple that only England’s greatest geni­us could have come up with it. Evolution of plants, anim­als and us –- with ima­gin­a­tion, free will, love, humor. I no longer needed a reas­on for my exist­ence, just a reas­on to live. And ima­gin­a­tion, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer and pizza are all good enough reas­ons for living.

[From A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I’m An Atheist – Speakeasy – WSJ]