Yes Virginia, Atheists Do Celebrate Christmas.

Considering the subject matter, I feel I must provide a simple preface. The following article is in no way intended to be inflammatory or disrespectful. In fact, the matter of religion plays no part in the explanation I'm about to provide. While I may be an atheist, I believe in and will defend the inalienable right to worship how you see fit. Religion is a highly personal matter. Only you can decide for yourself if belief in a higher power is something you want in your life.

As an out-of-the-closet atheist, I'm sometimes asked if I celebrate Christmas. When I affirm that I do, the follow-up question is typically...

"How can you celebrate Christmas when you don't believe in God?"

Honestly, I completely understand the reason for being confused. For someone that's had little to no interaction with a non-believer, it can all be slightly difficult to wrap your head around. While I obviously can't speak for all atheists, myself and others like me celebrate Christmas for many of the same reasons as the religious. Let me explain.

Christmas has always sat on the fence between being a religious celebration and a secular festival. Sure, you can take joy in the birth of Christ and the miracle in that little town of Bethlehem. Yet, you can also appreciate the message and sentiment of the entire holiday season. Hoping for peace on earth, doing acts of charity, trying to help your fellow man, spending time with friends and family, eating a feast with your loved ones, trading gifts, decorating a tree, stringing up lights, waiting on Santa Claus to arrive -- these are all things purely secular in nature. Belief in a higher power isn't necessary to admire and encourage these practices.

Christmas isn't just a religious holiday; it's an international ritual. Folks from all corners of the planet celebrate the season of giving, with varying religious and cultural tenets. To say Christmas can only be truly understood by Christians is massively short-sighted. Jewish people participate in Christmas. Muslims participate in Christmas. Even Shintoists and Hindus participate in Christmas. Not because it's a religious holiday, but because Christmas is an observance of all the potential good within humanity.

Few realize that the festival of Christmas has been celebrated for many thousands of years, long before it ever had that specific name. Many of the elements found within the holiday season were directly adapted from ancient Germanic feasts and the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. Yule, a pagan ritual from Scandinavia, also provided large portions of the season (chiefly the Christmas Tree). It wasn't until the Middle Ages that Christmas was even loosely organized as a religious holiday, formally adapting many of the traditions from other Winter Solstice festivals. In terms of America's link to the Christmas holiday, our nation didn't even begin to take an interest until the 1820's. It wasn't until 1885 that the US Government finally declared Christmas a national holiday.

You see, the Christmas season isn't purely relegated to one special holy day. Christmas transcends the boundaries of religious doctrine. It's a cultural phenomenon that touches everyone, believer and non-believer alike. I enjoy seeing happy children and trees covered in twinkle lights. Presents wrapped in pretty paper excite me. Christmas carols do bring joy to my heart. Seeing people be nicer to each other makes me feel a little bit better inside. Mailing Christmas cards (and yes, I send a lot of them) absolutely delights me. And yet, what I choose to believe or not believe has no bearing on any of this.

As an atheist, I celebrate Christmas because it's just as much my tradition as it is yours. When I say to someone "Merry Christmas", I'm passing along tidings of joy and hope for a better tomorrow. As far as I'm concerned, that's what Christmas is all about.

Sweet Old Lady Morphs Into Hateful Christian Fundamentalist.

There I was, approaching the entrance of Wal-Mart earlier this afternoon and acquiring a shopping basket. An older woman of diminutive stature entered just before I did. She retrieved a sanitary wipe to cleanse her basket's handlebar, then passed me a wipe out of courtesy. It was quite nice of her, I thought; I was going to get a wipe anyway.

She complimented me on the color of my red hair, to which I gracefully responded and explained that it's gotten darker the older I've gotten. Explaining further, my hair used to be a brighter shade of red than my beard is now. Carefully ruffling my beard, I pointed out that my chin hair is starting to turn white. I'm getting older!

Turning to Crystal, the granny asked if she was my girlfriend. I confirmed that she was my spouse, to which the older lady complimented her elegant beauty. I tend to agree; Crystal is gorgeous.

And then... our friendly rendezvous all fell apart.

Her next question was "Do you two have a church at home?"

I felt a lump of disappointment swell in my throat. In an effort to side-skirt the question and politely escape from her crafty claws of entrapment, I stated that there was indeed a church near our home. In this, I did not lie; there are multiple churches within a mile of my house. What followed was a frightening, uncomfortable and altogether unpleasant series of questions and diatribes.

• Crystal and I must uplift each other to better serve the lord.
• We must have children.
• Our future children must have the message of Jesus Christ DRILLED (she said this very emphatically) into their minds, no questions asked. They MUST go to church and they MUST believe, or else.
• We must not have friends whom aren't Christian, otherwise they will drag us to hell.
• Non-believers are definitely not to be tolerated and should not be allowed to live. They're a one way ticket to hell.
• Judgment day is coming, sooner than we think.
• The time for Christians to stand together and defend God from all sinners and non-believers is coming, too.
• We must spread the word of Christ wherever and whenever possible.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. She transformed from a sweet, innocent old woman into this hateful, fire-and-brimstone witness.

Now you probably know me... I'm an atheist. Typically, I'd have countered this sort of venomous hatred and put her in her place. Considering how old and frail she was, I simply couldn't do it. Honestly, I was worried that anything I'd say in response would literally give her a heart attack or stroke. Imagine how terrified of me she might have been if the nice guy with red hair turned out to be a blasphemous non-believer! The sudden shock could have sent her into cardiac arrest!

So, I bit my tongue, swallowed my pride and nodded in agreement. Slowly inching my basket farther and farther away, I finally saw an opening in her spiel and escaped with a "Have a nice day!" Boy, if she only knew the truth about who she was talking to.

I find it strange how so many people accept this sort of activity as acceptable. Let's swap the roles in this encounter. Pretend I was the one who used a friendly opportunity with a stranger to spread the 'word' of atheism. I'd be held before a judge for disturbing the peace, chastised by the local news and practically run out of town. Thankfully, I can discuss such matters on the world wide web without fear of persecution.

Who really exists behind the mask?

Consider all of the unknown people whom we walk by every day. While out shopping, eating lunch, visiting the library, at school, at work, at the dentist -- how many of those people are Christian? How many are Jewish, Hindu or Muslim? How many are agnostics or atheists? There's a disturbing facade of normalcy that provides refuge to monsters and marauders of free thought from all walks of life. Yet, their particular brand of reality makes it all okay.

I tell you what... I'll never look at another sweet old lady again without wondering if she's a vile fundamentalist whom would rather see me dead.

Oklahoma: Atheists and Gays Not Welcome.

There's some outrageous bigotry going on in Oklahoma, but that's no surprise.

A stone monument depicting the Ten Commandments

sits outside the Oklahoma State Capitol Building.

House Bill 1125, which essentially bans atheists from being married, recently passed the Oklahoma State House of Representatives. It is now headed to the Senate, where it will most likely be approved.

How does it work? Well, it's like this. For any new marriage to be recognized, a member of the clergy must approve any and all marriage licenses. Judges and magistrates would have ZERO say in the matter. That means that the power of the legally binding contract of marriage would be solely under the discretion of priests and other respective church leaders. Of course, conservatives, Republicans and religious organizations are jumping for joy over this bill. If approved, it would mean that any clergy member whom did not see fit to wed a couple (meaning homosexuals and atheists) would not have to.

This is a crafty work of legalese meant to circumvent the potential for homosexuals to receive the same marriage benefits as heterosexual couples. They're essentially tacking it onto the backs of atheists as a way around any forthcoming federal legislation. In essence, they get to kill two birds with one stone.

One of the chief supporters of the bill, Republican Dennis Johnson, has been quoted as saying...

"Marriage was not instituted by government. It was instituted by God. There is no reason for Oklahoma or any state to be involved in marriage."

I find it ironic that Mr. Johnson wants to prohibit the bounds of marriage via legislation, but finds that government has no place in the matter. I wonder if he can see the total hypocrisy in that? Have the supporters of this bill even considered that, without a legally binding marriage license, many couples (gay or straight, religious or atheist) would lose health benefits, death benefits, access to community property and child custody? Obviously not.

Perhaps more troubling is the immense power that would be granted to non-elected religious officials whom would act as de facto magistrates of the state government. By officiating the state law in a method that's clearly filtered through religious doctrine, they'd be blatantly violating the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Should House Bill 1125 be passed by the Oklahoma legislature, it will surely make its way to the Supreme Court.

Oklahoma -- a great place to live... unless you're not a heterosexual Christian.

Whatever Happened to Rebecca Vitsmun?

On May 20, 2013 a gigantic EF5 tornado struck the city of Moore, Oklahoma. The tornado did massive amounts of damage and directly caused the deaths of twenty-four people. In the aftermath of the tornado, an unlikely resident of Moore by the name of Rebecca Vitsmun garnered international attention. Rebecca had the following highly overproduced and staged (per information revealed later on) interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on live television.

As you can see, Wolf essentially painted Rebecca into a philosophical corner and forced her hand. He repeatedly brought up the concept of being blessed, even going so far as to ask if she thanked the lord multiple times. If you pay attention to Rebecca, you can tell she was trying to be nice and continually dodged Wolf's assertions. But, at the end, Vitsmun finally had to respond to Wolf's incessant badgering... so she did. On live television, she outed herself as an atheist. Even her own family was not aware of her position, much to their surprise. It took a great deal of bravery and fortitude to make such a statement on air for the whole world to see. But... the story did not end there.

Soon after the interview went viral on the internet, the insightful and witty comedian Doug Stanhope decided to help. He created a crowd-funding project with the website Indiegogo to help Rebecca and her family. This project, which initially just started out as an affront to the hypocrisy of organized religion, soon morphed into a massive campaign. When the funding project finished, it had raised a whopping $125,760 from 4,475 donors! In fact, I was one of the donors to the campaign. As a fellow atheist; it was the least I could do.

At this point, most would ask...

"Whatever happened to Rebecca Vitsmun? Where did the money go?"

I recently found a podcast that Stanhope recorded in March of 2014. He finally had the opportunity to speak at length with Vitsmun after the donations had been awarded to her. During the course of the interview, she revealed that her family (husband Brian and son Anders) moved away from Oklahoma as soon as possible. Thanks to her insurance coverage, she spent a year in nearby Norman, Oklahoma getting her family's affairs in order. From there, they purchased a home in the Tacoma, Washington area with the money that was raised. Vitsmun has since become a compassionate voice within the atheist and humanist global community. She has also profusely thanked everyone whom helped her family.

It's stories like this that reflect the good that atheists can do. It highlights a few key points that I greatly appreciate.

• Religion isn't necessary to lend a helping hand.
• Having faith does not automatically equate to having compassion -- they are NOT mutually exclusive.
• You never know who might be an atheist in your life. Many atheists are closeted out of fear from persecution -- usually from their own family.
• Atheists are not devil-worshipers, Satanists or evil. They're no different than anyone else.

I commend Rebecca for being honest with the world. The atheist community owes her a debt of gratitude. She makes us all look a little bit better.

For more information about helping others in the capacity as an atheist / humanist, please visit Foundation Beyond Belief.