It's that time of year again. The winter cold is settling in, the decorations are up, and the holiday season is setting in. It's an annual tradition that impacts nearly everyone in the Western and Non-Western world. It is the time of the Christmas holiday, a holiday which is deeply steeped in modern culture. It is a festive time when people celebrate the season through family, faith, and gift-giving.

Now this time of year is special to me personally. As a non-believer who does not believe in the Christian god or the miracles of the bible any more than any other claim in mythology, many assume I'm left conflicted. This isn't necessarily the truth. Growing up I always loved Christmas, even before I was a devout Christian and before I became a non-believer. Some of my fondest memories are of Christmas. My family has always made an extra effort to make Christmas special and I've carried on with that tradition.

While I understand that Christmas is strongly tied to the story of Jesus's birth and is deeply steeped in Christian tradition, I never associated the holiday exclusively with religion. To me religion was a part of it, but it wasn't the only part. I always focused on the charity, good-will, and humanity aspects that Christmas evoked. To me these were and still are strongly associated with the teachings of Jesus Christ. He more than anyone embodied the spirit of Christmas in his teachings. Even a non-believer can respect those teachings and appreciate the holiday traditions.

Now that I am a non-believer, Christmas has taken on a slightly different context. But the meaning has never changed. I still put up a tree. I still wrap presents. I still decorate my house and spend time with my family. There just isn't a religious subtext to it anymore. I do it out of tradition and culture and I still enjoy every bit as much as I did when I was a devout Christian. Even my friends who are religious appreciate this and I wish them good will regardless of my non-belief. Even though Christmas has always been special to me, this time of year routinely evokes the usual War on Christmas in the media.

A lot of people think that because I'm a non-believer I'm on the side of the politically correct crowd when it comes to Christmas. They're dead wrong. I'm against pretty much everything the politically correct crowd stands for and that includes Christmas. I don't believe "Happy Holidays" should be mandated to be sensitive to other faiths. I don't believe nativity scenes should be banned or Christmas carols should be censored. This is a free country and these things are part of free expression. Nobody has a right NOT to be offended and if they don't like seeing this sort of thing that's their problem. They can move to a place with less freedom if that'll make them happier. It certainly wouldn't be in the spirit of the season.

Some of the more extreme atheists go so far as to twist Christmas into this secular holiday with none of the traditions that make it special. This is where I disagree. Christmas, like it or not, DOES have religious undertones. It always has even before Christianity. To take that out of it in the name of secularism is to miss the point of the free society. Christmas is not something the far left crowd should regulate. This is a tradition steeped in culture and in free societies cultures are free to express their traditions so long as they don't impose on anybody else with force. I find it embarressing for rational and reasonably minded non-believers when some atheist spokesperson tries to make a bold statement about Christmas in the media and utterly misses the point. They may claim that Christmas needs to be overhauled, but they cannot do that without infringing on the rights and traditions of others. Regardless of what anybody does or doesn't believe, that's just plain wrong.

The War on Christmas has become a joke. On one side there is fear that some crusading atheists will destroy the holiday and on the other side there is fear that some crusading Christians will use the holiday to impose their beliefs. Both are foolish and do the holiday a great disservice by politicizing it into this struggle between one group of people and another. That isn't what the spirit of the holiday is about. Even the most dogmatic crusader of either side can understand how ridiculous it is to use the holiday as a means to push an agenda.

What's important about this time of year is that humans have been celebrating it in good spirit for a long time. Even before the birth of Christ, this time of year evoked many celebrations. The Winter Solstice when Christmas occurs has long been a special time of year in many cultures. It stems from mankind's obsession with predicting and understanding the seasons, winter being one of the most important. It is when the days stop getting shorter and the nights stop getting longer that mankind feels a sort of kinship with nature and celebrations will inevitably follow. Every culture from pre-Christian pagans to Native Americans to Buddhists have some holiday associated with this time of year. It is only fitting that everyone has a chance to enjoy it without politics making an agenda out of it.

The Holidays of the Winter Solstice

So this year as every year, I look forward to celebrating the holidays as I always have. I still say Merry Christmas and not Happy Holidays. I still give gifts, spend time with loved ones, and reflect on the past year. It is a wonderful time of year and I have no desire to see it politicized. So for the sake of humanity and in the spirit of the season, I call for a treaty to end the War on Christmas so we can all celebrate peacefully.

With this in mind I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday.

Regards,
Godless Patriot

It has often been said that it is impossible for a society to have freedom of religion without freedom from religion. Therefore, it is the responsibility of a free secular state to actively avoid religious discourse in public places. This seems contrary to the notion of free speech, another pillar of the free society that the free secular state is responsible for protecting. So at which point does one intersect with the other? Where do the lines form?

The answer is simple. There are no lines.

Freedom of religion and freedom of speech are the same thing. They are two sides of the same coin. The freedom to express one's religion in any way they see fit is no different than the freedom of one's right to speak out. The same rights and responsibilities apply. So long as it is peaceful, not obstructing the life, liberty, and property of another individual, it is entirely protected by the free society. But some do not make this distinction. Some consider religious expression to be it's own category of expression and thus the state needs special powers to police it. This has led to an erosion of the ideals of freedom espoused by the founding fathers.

Take for instances the famous court cases McCollum vs. Board of Education Dist. 71 that banned religious instruction in public schools or the Engel v. Vitale case that banned prayer in public schools. These cases all used the same reasoning to ban religious displays. It violated the establishment clause of the constitution which states that the government cannot support any one religion over the other no matter how dominant it may be. It's a good principle for a secular state, but in these cases it was pushed beyond the limits into the realm of censorship. There's no way around it. By banning discussion of religion in schools, that is censorship. It may offend atheists at times, but in this country there is no right not to be offended.

Take a step back from these cases and approach them reasonably. Was the government acting through force? Did beauracrats on local, state, or federal levels impose the teaching of religion or prayer in the schools directly? Or was it something that was decided by the school itself or the local parents? If it is the case that the government is directly forcing schools to teach or condone specific religious themes over another, then that is unconstitutional. But in many of these cases, it was the schools themselves and the communities that wanted these religious themes in their schools. And why shouldn't they be allowed? So long as nobody is forcing them and it is done peacefully, what right do the courts have to force them to stop? In the strictest constitutional sense, they don't.

So what about the atheists or the non-believers like myself that go to these schools? Well so long as the schools do not force prayer and teaching on the students, there should not be a problem. If school officials were doing this to atheists as a form of harassment, that would be a violation of rights and the courts do have a right to punish those who do this. But to make a vast, broad judgment that bans these practices across the board is an abuse of power and an affront to the free society.

But it isn't just non-believers who abuse these privlidges. Religous groups are just as guilty. The best case has to do with creationism. Take cases like Edwards v. Aguillard that overruled a law in Louisiana forcing schools to teach creationism alongside evolution. The key aspect of the law was force. Schools had to push creationism by law. And not just any creationism like that of Native American or Hindu stories. They had to push the strict interpretation of Genesis in a science classroom. This was a clear case of the government using force to favor one religous group over another. As such, it is unconstitutional because it abuses the powers of the state. It was later verified again in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case in 2003 that banned the teaching of intelligent design for the same reasons.

Now how is this not censorship? It's simple when one takes context into account. Creationism was being pushed in science classes as an alternative viewpoint of the truth. But in a free society, certain ideas cannot be propped up by the government just because certain groups really believe in them. Creationism and Intelligent Design failed in the marketplace of idea. They were proven to be false by science and as such, they were dropped from science classrooms. But certain religous groups didn't like that. So to make up for the fact that their dogma was not verified by science, they got the government to force it upon the people. That use of force is a clear violation of liberty, religous and non-religious alike. Now if creation stories were taught in a religious class or in literature, that's a different story because that's a different context. So long as the state doesn't force this upon students as truth, then it is perfectly fine in a school.

The Founding Fathers were for freedom and religous liberty equally. The idea of a free society harkoning back to the enlightenment was that free expression and the free exchange of ideas allows ideas and beliefs to stand on their own merits. So if certain ideas like creationism do not stand enough on their merits, they are rejected. As such, the government cannot prop certain ideas up over others. When it comes to religious, the key is for the state to stay out of the affairs of the chruch and allow religious groups to thrive on their own merits. If one is more dominant than others, let them be dominent so long as they can persuade their people that they are a good group to be a part of. And if they wish to leave that group, let them. So long as force is not involved, the freedom to practice any religious or no religion at all is warrented in a free society.

As an atheist, most assume I am for eliminating religion from society. I'm not. I am an ardent believer in allowing people to follow their own spiritual path. If some wish to be Christians, that's okay. If some wish to be Muslim, that's okay too. If some wish to worship Satan, that's just as valid. So long as none of these groups harass me or force me to take part in their customs, I'm okay with it. The free society comes before my own spiritual beliefs or lack thereof. I am and always have been for a free society where the state does not interfere with the church and people and communities are allowed to follow their own path.

Anybody who would make the claim that the less intelligent people are the more religious they are will draw condemnation and ire from religious people everywhere. They will point out that some of the smartest men in history were devoutly religious such as Netwon and Keppler. While it's true there are some very smart men in history that were religious, that alone doesn't disprove the notion that the less educated and intelligent someone is the more religeous they tend to be.

In 2008 a study was conducted by Helmuth Nyborg at the University of Aarhus in Denmark to identify possible correlations between religious devotion and intelligence. While not definitive, the study did yield some interesting results. The following is an excerpt of the abstract:

The present study examined whether IQ relates systematically to denomination and income within the framework of the g nexus, using representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY97). Atheists score 1.95 IQ points higher than Agnostics, 3.82 points higher than Liberal persuasions, and 5.89 IQ points higher than Dogmatic persuasions. Denominations differ significantly in IQ and income. Religiosity declines between ages 12 to 17. It is suggested that IQ makes an individual likely to gravitate toward a denomination and level of achievement that best fit his or hers particular level of cognitive complexity. Ontogenetically speaking this means that contemporary denominations are rank ordered by largely hereditary variations in brain efficiency (i.e. IQ). In terms of evolution, modern Atheists are reacting rationally to cognitive and emotional challenges, whereas Liberals and, in particular Dogmatics, still rely on ancient, pre-rational, supernatural and wishful thinking.

In order to view the full article you can check it out at the following link:

The intelligence–religiosity nexus: A representative study of white adolescent Americans

Believers can make of this what they will. There will surely be those who condemn and assail anyone who even hints at the notion that atheists may be smarter than believers just as surely there are athesits who would condemn any notion that believers are more moral. But science does offer some valuable insight into the nature of human psychology and social dynamics. It does make sense that someone who strongly adheres to irrational or supernatural beliefs that they would be less likely to think and understand issues in a more reasonable context. This does not mean the value of religious people are any less or more than that of non-believers. But it is a telling notion that irrational beliefs can affect the psychology of a society.