George Meyer(II)

Harvard Lampoon editor. Editor of "The Harvard Lampoon Book of College Life" (Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1978).

I'm a thoroughly virulent atheist... I was agnostic for most of my adult life, but then ["The Simpsons" writer] Mike Reiss started giving me grief about it. He said, "Oh come on. Dive in. Go all the way. Be an atheist. The water's fine." I guess I started to realize that being an agnostic was such a wimpy position. I don't know what the universe is all about, but to me, nothing is gained by slapping a God sticker on it. It has never been a comfort to me to believe there's an all-seeing eye in the sky. And I don't like the antagonism that most religions have for science and freedom and, frankly, individuality. I do like the Dalai Lama.

... I have wonderful friends who are religious, and I don't want to say that they're dimwits. They should certainly be able to pursue what works for them. I'm just saying that it doesn't work for me and I don't want to pretend that it does.