The Atheist Playground May 15, 2010

The Atheist Playground

By Guest Contributor
May 15, 2010

Is there a War on Christmas? Nope.

Are atheists trying to take over public schools? Of course not.

Do atheists dominate local governments? Not even close.

And yet, many Christians complain if atheists make themselves known in even the smallest way…:

(via Atheist Cartoons)

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What Are Your Thoughts?leave a comment

  • My war on Christmas every year is fought by putting up my lovely tree and placing gifts underneath it… It’s quite a battle over here.

  • I was discussing this with my brother recently and he put it well: “I think many Christians are confusing ‘loss of religious freedom’ with ‘loss of preferential treatment in mainstream society.'”

  • Alex

    Atheists poison their fountain of youth or rather their fragile fantasy of eternal life.

  • Nakor

    I love the “War on Christmas” lol. The fact is atheists are generally all in favour of Christmas. Oh, we might not listen to the more religious carols or set up nativity scenes, but most atheists I know like having a holiday where we can celebrate family and friends and have a big meal together and so forth. We call it Christmas too, because that’s what nearly everyone calls it; “Merry Winter Solstice” just doesn’t roll off the tongue.

    The only difference is, we’re not offended when someone says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. Because we just don’t care what it’s called.

  • AJPIII

    The inherent drama of being related to a quasi-warrior faith has many a wee bit too “persecution” hungry as the struggle of “tribulation” blows the trumpet in alarmist pseudo-crisis that declares “g*ds” coming and fits well with that level of brain development. Also being hypersensitive to signs, portents and all manner of brazen relatedness places their equally inherent *apophenia alongside of their tendency to flirt with martyrdom. Dumb!
    *Apophenia
    One aside; whatever it’s called from Yuletide to Kwanzaa if it is a declared holiday it is always a good time to gather, check on each other, spread warmth and cheer to stave off the dark and cold…

  • I fight the good fight everyday. I keep my personal beliefs to myself and promote questioning and curiosity in my children.

    Like I recently told one of my Christian friends when she was kinda offended we Heathens were celebrating the ‘holy Christian holiday’, Eostre (Easter):

    We celebrate St. Patrick’s day, even though we aren’t Catholic or Irish, we celebrate Cinco de Mayo even though we aren’t Mexican and we celebrate Hanukkah even though we aren’t Jewish…

    She actually understood that better than I thought she would.

    We are a global community and we all should be teaching our children truth. It just seems like they get mad when the truth I teach my children at Winter Solstice/Christmas and Eostre isn’t their ‘truth’. Some of my Christian friends get offended if someone wishes them ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’. It’s like dealing with a spoiled child who has gotten it’s way for way too long…

  • sarah

    ““I think many Christians are confusing ‘loss of religious freedom’ with ‘loss of preferential treatment in mainstream society.’”

    Bingo!

  • There are some battles that are worth fighting (separation of Church and State) and some that just don’t matter in the grand scheme of things (Christmas). My favourite (sarcasm) religions person (not sure what fable she believes in) gets all up in arms that I celebrate Christmas. Well when I tell my family (of which she is apart) to not buy me gifts, they do anyways. And if I try and not attend Christmas dinner, I get told I’m ungrateful. (head-desk, head-desk…)

  • fritzy

    Xtian’s “good book” tells them that they will be persecuted, so they have to seek out persecution where they can find it, whether it be a well meaning Wal-mart employee who doesn’t use the right name for their high holy day, a skeptic making a joke or making an observation about the ill logic of their magical beliefs, or the perception that society is becoming more secular and refusing to cowtow to their beliefs by disallowing government sanctioned religous displays. None of this even resembles persecution.

    The problem is that when the bible predicted that xtians would be persecuted for their beliefs, they truly were. They were hunted, tortured and killed for their beliefs. In light of this, having the National Day of Prayer deemed unconstitutional in our secular democracy can hardly be deemed “persecution” in any sense of the word. Claims of persecution in this case are laughable and petty.

    Athiests in this country, along with most religious moderates and liberals of other faiths have absolutly no interest in persecuting xtians. Claims of such are egotistical non-sense and should be treated as such.

    Incidentally, I love and celebrate Christmas. I can’t recall the last time I said “Happy Holidays.” The “war on Christmas” has a bellicosity somewhere between a thumb-war and the card game “war.”

  • muggle

    Happy Winter does roll off the tongue and that’s what we celebrate but it really doesn’t matter if you say that or Christmas. The best way to fight and win the stupid, imagined war on Christmas is to just go on celebrating it and screw them. Let them be the Scrooges too wrapped up in imagined persecution to enjoy the day. Living well (i.e., having fun in the middle of winter celebrating life with others) is the best revenge.

    Yikes, with that cartoon, though. Don’t give them ideas. It’s perfectly well and fine for a church playground to look like this (I’m surprised one of the megachurches hasn’t done it) but let’s not give them ideas about ones where the Atheist and other non-Christian children will be playing.

  • Boudica

    When a Christian complains about atheists celebrating Christmas, remind them that they were the ones who allowed it to be commercialized and secularized instead of keeping it a holy and sacred holiday.

  • I enjoy Christmas.

  • War on Christmas indeed. We could take the fat guy easy and his little elves too.

  • Deiloh

    Good portion of my family is JW or Sabbatarian. These Christians do not celebrate Christmas. For some reason, these groups are not brought up during the “war” talk. Just them rotten atheists.

  • Great cartoon. And it makes the point perfectly.

  • Jason

    That cartoon scares me. Could you imagine your children playing on equipment shaped like an ancient torture and execution device? That seems pretty inappropriate. I suppose almost as inappropriate as wearing and proudly displaying an ancient torture and execution device on a chain around your neck.