If the Grinch can glorify Christmas, so can atheists

Last Christmas Eve, a rumor started making its way around the dinner table. “The atheists are trying to ruin Christmas again,” the more religious of the company proclaimed. The situation, which involved a nativity scene displayed on public grounds in Santa Monica, Cal. would seep its way into the news this year. Less than a month ago, a judge ruled that atheists can display their Flying Spaghetti Monster “god” in the company of the nativity scene, a ruling that spawned the Christian community to withdraw from participating in the holiday display altogether. Christians, understandably, were furious.

What’s wrong with those atheists? Why can’t they let people celebrate their holiday in peace? Before proceeding to answer these questions, it may be appropriate to disclose that I, the writer, am an atheist. Not an agnostic, an atheist. And I, like many atheists, find myself enthralled by the Christmas season. As an ex-Catholic, I may be a little biased here, (though on that note, many of the secular-minded Jews I know are hypnotized by Christmas’s charming traditions) but I have and will always celebrate Christmas. With its presents, family dinners, and communal embracement, what’s not to love about Christmas?

In a recent interview on The O’Reilly Factor, American Atheists President David Silverman defended the battle against the nativity scene by categorizing the use of public property for religious displays as a violation of the First Amendment. While this may be true in a strictly legal sense, the offensive stance these atheists took came as a disappointment to even the most rigid atheists (me included). While  I disagree with the government funding or subsidizing religious activities, displaying a nativity scene on public property is among the most innocuous and apolitical religious activities that have been placed on the militant atheists’ agenda. In this case, the atheists chose the wrong fight, and they are all the worse for it.

The ramifications for this outcry over such a miniscule public display are disquieting.  While it’s difficult to classify atheists into a single ideological category, most atheists would agree that increasing public tolerance for non-belief in the U.S. is fundamental to gaining influence in the political arena. In other words, while I am a fan of pontificating atheists such as Christopher Hitchens who claim “religion poisons everything,” I can’t see the proclamation of such viewpoints as beneficial to the atheist community. In fact, Hitchens and the New Atheists’ agenda to denigrate the religious community has unintentionally given believers a reason to suspend their tolerance of atheists; with such wide-sweeping statements, it becomes easy for the religious community to pigeonhole atheists as vitriolic opponents of all who disagree with their non-belief.

The reality could not be further from the truth. Many atheists come to their non-belief not as a rebellion against dogmatic religion but as a passive conclusion that their faith in a higher, benevolent being has disintegrated. Others are simply raised in non-believing families and have no personal vendetta against religious institutions. It should come as no surprise that many of these atheists continue to celebrate Christmas despite a lack of belief in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ—and commercialization has made their half-assed participation easier than ever.

Like most the rest of us, atheists fear the extremists of the flock who poison the public perception of all non-believers. While most atheists can find common ground in issues such as usurping “In God We Trust” as the official motto of the U.S., it is difficult to see a pro-Christianity political agenda in public displays featuring Christmas trees and shepherds in a manger; it doesn’t help when the atheist extremists try to piss off Christian communities by ridiculing their beliefs and traditional ordinate Christmas displays. Surely there are a good number of atheists who get a kick out of the nativity scene, which, in their minds, sits alongside the harmless company of Christmas trees and candy canes.

As usual, I’m going to attend midnight mass on Christmas morning this year. I’m going to sing Christmas hymns that mention Jesus’ miraculous birth. In fact, Charles Schulz, a self-proclaimed agnostic, found it fit to include Linus’s “true meaning of Christmas” speech in the immortalized A Charlie Brown Christmas. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to drive past Santa Monica’s annual nativity scene thanks to my “comrades” in the “war against Christmas.”  You see, some traditions should survive for their own quaint delectability. As I scan the horizon of Copenhagen, I cannot help but think of the atheists (who count for around 90 percent of Denmark’s population) who continue to celebrate Christmas without altogether abandoning the recognition of the holiday’s origin. American believers and non-believers alike could learn a thing or two from their counterparts across the Atlantic.