As usual, a number of ultra-conservatives are leading the attack in asserting that there is an organized attempt to ban Christmas entirely in America, feeding on paranoia from people who already believe that atheists are dirty heathen. This year, Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter lead the charge on O’Reilly’s Fox News program, The O’Reilly Factor. To quote Coulter:
But just as a matter of tradition this is a Christian country. No matter how many times liberals tell us it’s not, it was founded by Christians. It was founded on Christian principles. America could have been discovered by the Buddhists or atheists or Jews. But it wasn’t. It was founded, it was created, the Constitution, the founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, were written by Christians.
We’ll leave aside the question of the founding fathers’ religion for the sake of this post (many were actually Unitarians or deists). Coulter’s argument assumes two things:
- Non-Christians cannot celebrate Christmas.
- The fact that some Christians founded the country sets the pace this country should follow for all eternity.
Now [2] is a logical fallacy, the argument from authority, not to mention the appeal to tradition. As such, I do not believe this thesis deserves any more attention than I have already given it, as it is patently false.
Now, as to [1], I argue that this thesis is also false. To quote one atheist’s defense of the holiday:
Having said that, why does this good atheist family cling to Santa and why is Christmas our favorite holiday? We explain this every year, because for reasons we don’t understand atheists aren’t supposed to like Christmas. But lots of us do. It’s not a Christian thing…We like Christmas for some of the very reasons so many people seem to hate it: it’s a great commercial and secular holiday that’s warm and pleasant at a dark time of year (that’s the idea, right?). We even like the commercialism. Sure it’s cynically designed to promote consumption. But encouraging people to buy things for their loved ones and friends to make them happy is not so bad. Even the religious folk can get in on the act. How can you not like a holiday whose main religious icon masquerades as The Prince of Peace? Sure it’s bogus. People routinely kill for The Prince of Peace. But a little willing suspension of disbelief doesn’t hurt one day a year. We can pretend that being The Prince of Peace is a good thing to be a prince of, right?
You don’t have to be a Christian to enjoy Christmas. And don’t worry: most of us (this writer included) have no interest in infringing on your right to celebrate the holiday as you see fit.
So, on behalf of one atheist to you and yours on this holiday, Merry Christmas!
The Skeptic Christmas Monkey wishes you a Merry Christmas as well!
