No, we will not "continue to believe in science."

Great article, thanks for posting it. Long live free-thought and reason!

Of all the things the anti-religion groups need to really go after, they should just leave Christmas alone. Fight the calls for prayer in school, creationism education, etc. Society has turned Christmas from a religious celebration to a over-hyped commercial enterprise, that even non-practicing Christians are going to get their knickers in a knot over. They've got the right idea, just the wrong time to fight the battle. The religious right are going to spin this as an attack on Jesus and Christmas. If the atheists did this in the middle of July, there would probably be a lot less drama in the media. (I did say less, not none at all)

Yeah, I see Christmas as mostly a retail/do-something-nice-for-people holiday and most of the decorations have nothing to do with religion.

There are 364 other days of the year to squabble over beliefs.

Maybe It would work better as an attack on Santa. That Jolly Fat Man has had it to easy for two long.
Actually learning the truth about Santa is often a child's first lesson in Skepticism. My daughter faked it for a year fearing that knowing the truth, she would now get no presents.

I agree with that in principle, but doing it at this time of year gets a lot of media attention. If it was done in the middle of July let's say, it's doubtful the media would be putting as much of a spotlight on it as they do now.

That's my honest belief as to why the Atheist organizations choose to put it out there now

Oh, I get the strategy behind choosing the season/holiday. I just don't agree with it for another reason.

I really enjoy the Christmas season because in general, people seem to be less shitty to one another - regardless of their belief systems. Families make time to spend together (whether that's good and/or bad), and random strangers seem to greet others a little more frequently than other times of the year.

In a world with such a lack of unity, I appreciate the small window Christmas gives us where everyone whether Jewish, Christian, agnostic/atheist, Muslim, or whatever can say, "Hey, hope you are enjoying this time of year" in spite of the fact that the message may be said as, "Merry Christmas," "Happy Hanukkah," "Happy Kwanzaa," or "Happy Holidays."

I'd just rather not fuck that up and overshadowing it with a belief war.

Yes, atheists are "good" sometimes, like the rest of us. But it is mysterious where the concept of good came from. I imagine the radical Muslims who cut off people's hands for stealing think they are doing good. Even though they are doing what Westerners see as wrong, they honor the idea of good and try to abide by it. C. S. Lewis starts from this puzzle in one of his books in defense of religion. Read it; see what you think. The book is either "Surprised by Joy" or "Mere Christianity."

In parts of the world where winters are cold, people almost always have a festival at Equinox. Apparently, that festival serves an important emotional need. If you abolish Christmas to get rid of Christianity, you'd be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Yeah, commercial interests have attached themselves to Christmas, but it wasn't always so; and it will not always be so.

Perhaps you could do away with the false assumption that these groups wish to "abolish Christmas." For the most part, atheist groups also do not wish to "get rid of Christianity." For the most part, they just wish that Christians wouldn't attack them for things that are irrelevant, false, or illogically applied.

...and it's really not at all mysterious where the concept of "good" comes from. Humans evolved as social animals, needing each other and needing to do things for each other. Humans that engage in such behavior in a society (not stealing, feeding orphans, etc.) are considered "good," whereas humans that engage in behavior such as stealing are considered "bad."

Your off-the-cuff (yeah, right) example of "radical Muslims" is not, for the terms of your argument, people "doing good," but rather people exacting punishment against those who have done bad. Every society punishes those who do bad deeds, and it is entirely subjective (as you are attempting to argue around) from culture to culture exactly where "good" ends and "bad" begins.

All of this.

Why not go after Easter? It's way more bullshit than Christmas.

Does anyone really care about Easter, apart from the seriously Christian? In the UK it's pretty much just a double-size long weekend.

I love Easter. Halloween's candy is pretty good, but I can't get enough of those Cadbury eggs.

Personally, I can't stand Christmas anymore. The older I get the more of a facade it seems to be. I wouldn't abolish it, or anything, but I do everything I can to get away from it.

It's one thing to discuss one's atheism forthrightly when people ask you about it, make incorrect assumptions about it, or otherwise bring the discussion around to matters of faith or lack thereof. It's another matter to go around proselytizing, and I for one think it's uncalled for. The single most irritating thing a person of faith can do, in my book, is try to sell me on their faith unprompted, -especially- absent context, such as approaching me randomly at a bus stop and trying to give me pamphlets. I don't believe that atheists should stoop to such tactics, and I'd rate bus ads and billboards among them.

Babies are easier to attack than Zombies.