Winter Solstice Offering

I think I can marry atheism with my love of religion. As Richard Dawkins says, scientists have that same awe in the wonder of existence as religionists do, but they don't need to believe in a supernatural being as the cause of it - the amazingness of the world is enough. So I've typed up a little atheistic prayer to the world.

World, you’re a good place. Look how amazing you are.
I love your trees, dirt and water.

How is it that you hold yourself up in space?
Thanks for the food.
Humans can be horrible, but at other times very nice.
Look at all the wonderful, evocative things they have produced.
I like animals too, our siblings (even though we often eat them).
When I look up, away from the land, I see sky.
Cosmos, you make me cower in terror - in a good way.
I fall over with vertigo at your vast incomprehensibility.
I’m glad to be here, to look at all this.

I think I can incorporate religious ritual gestures as well, and still be true to atheism, lets see... As a modern Pagan I could define my ritual space with salt water and the words "In the beginning we climbed out of the sea"; then I could cense the area with perfumed smoke while saying "I burn the blood and sex of plant life for its fragrance"; next I could plunge a dagger into a cup and say "Sex is amazing"; I could dance round in a circle (or ellipse) shouting "The orbits of celestial objects move like this!"; and I could go on a spirit journey inside myself and chant "I'm a microscope of the inner sea." Why should I even bother to express my awe at Nature in a ritual way? Because it is boring to go around not taking notice of this wonderous place in which we find ourselves and ritual is a pleasing artistic expresion of the relationship between ourselves and the orders of existence with which we live. I think I'll go do all that now. Happy Winter Solstice.