Why Must Atheists Fight Christmas Displays?

This post is not going to be about christians, jews or any other religious groups. Today we are going to talk about a subgroup of atheists and why they are wrong to support the religious and their continued abuse of public property to bolster their religious beliefs.

I'm seeing quite a few atheists out there who are making absurd arguments that we should just let christians go ahead and put up their christmas displays on public property. One argument, which I can't believe that atheists are using in the first place, is “it's tradition”. Another is that by fighting these displays we are deflecting funds and efforts from other things that are more important. The last common argument is that fighting this fight “makes us look like dicks”. Lets look at why all of these arguments are fallacious and misguided.

First, let's look at the argument that “it's tradition” so we should just let them keep doing it. The first problem with this is that it's a logical fallacy, one of the more common ones that the religious use themselves to try and get past the unconstitutionality of government supporting these religions traditions. This is nothing more than a version of the appeal to common practice. Basically, the atheists and religionists are arguing that it's always been done this way so we should just let them keep doing this.

My response to this argument? WHAT THE FUCK??? Are you kidding me? Are atheists really going to use an excuse that they would otherwise fight against in almost every other case. If we are going to use this reasoning, we should just let mohels continue sucking penises after circumcision, spreading disease and putting babies health at risk because “it's tradition”. Heck let's just give up the fight against all genital mutilation by varying ignorant belief systems because after all, “it's tradition”. This argument of “it's tradition” has been used to perpetuate far too many wrongs, big and small, in the past, so how can atheists justify using it to allow the religious to perpetuate the position of privilege that they have usurped in our society? How can they justify allowing the government itself to prop up one religion over all others on public property and essentially establish support of that religious belief system. It's absurd, to say the least that they are using the tradition argument to support anything the religious do in order to maintain their position and status, no matter how trivial that thing may be. I guess it's OK to fight the “tradition” of having the 10 commandments posted on public property, but put up a display that says the government supports the virgin birth myth and that's just fine. Wake the fuck up and realize that they are the exact same thing.

Let's move on to the argument that we shouldn't be deflecting funds from other things. Wrong, this is the exact same fight as the 10 commandments on public property fight, which I guarantee you those same atheists who are arguing this is deflecting money and effort from more important things supported. The only difference is people who don't follow religion may not be displaying the 10 commandments in their house, but they still celebrate the holidays in their homes for either sentimental reasons or because “it's fun for the kids”. Yeah, we do celebrate in our household this time of year, but we don't have a manger scene included in the house because we don't worship that myth. Hell, I don't even do the santa thing in our home because I firmly believe that lying to kids about those myths makes it a heck of a lot easier to set them up for to believe the big myths for the rest of their lifetime. In our house it's running joke when the kids talk about fake santa. They know it's a myth and that's what they have always been taught. They don't wait for a fat man to come down the chimney on xmas, they try to catch us in the act of putting the stuff out. It becomes a spec ops stealth mission for Mom and I to to set up stuff for the next morning without getting caught.

But I digress from the point. Just because we also celebrate in our own way does not mean that this gives them justification for wasting public money and using public funds to support on religion over all others at this time of year. Yeah, it's not a permanent placement like to 10 commandments monuments and other religious nonsense that atheists fight when they are on public property. But the reality is t is still another case of the government allowing and perpetuating the myth that religion has a place in the public arena and has aright to be openly displayed and supported on public property. Like it or not, allowing them to have a display and not requiring equal placement for ALL other belief systems and groups that also celebrate during the solstice is a violation of the establishment clause and worthy of fighting.

As for the last argument of “it makes us look like dicks”? Who gives a fuck? Of course the religious right are complaining that we are ruining their “fun”, but that doesn't make us the dicks. It's the religious who are being dicks by forcing their nonsense onto public land. There are plenty of churches, private property owners and other places that are happy to allow them to freely to legally setup all the nativity scenes, crosses, depictions of torture and whatever other religious bullshit they want to put up. The reality is that their “fun” is religious in nature and has no place on public property- end of story. Their “fun” is insulting to those who don't believe in their religious beliefs and who don't think that this time of year belongs solely to christians and theirs is not the only holiday based upon the winter solstice and axial tilt. Their “fun” is all about them rubbing their unearned privilege in the rest of our faces and that makes them the fucking dicks here, not the atheists who want to see the constitution and laws of the land upheld, no matter how trivial the matter may seem.

Next time someone uses one of these ridiculous arguments or you think about using them, you really need to remember that this is about more than some silly decoration being put up. It's about the reality that religious traditions have no place on public property or being endorsed by the government that we are all a part of. This is about more than just keeping stupid displays off public property, it's about getting religion out of all aspects of our government so that we can truly live in the secular nation that our founding fathers intended. No fight should be considered to small or petty, especially when it comes to something as important as the separation of church and state. Every little inch and concession we give these people does nothing less than empower them to try and push their agenda a little further into public life and that is some that we absolutely must fight to prevent.