How The Atheist Stole Christmas, Video

FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor:                                                                                                                                       “We nonbelievers don’t mind sharing the season with Christians, but we think there should be some acknowledgment that the Christians really ‘stole’ the trimmings of Christmas, and the sun-god myths, from pagans.”

Atheists Set Up Anti-Christmas Nativity Scene in Madison, Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda

Mon, November 26, 2012 Madison Wisconsin:

The nativity scene depicts the infant Jesus in the manger where he was traditionally believed to be born. This is a common fixture in front of churches and under Christmas trees. It includes Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the three wise men, and usually some sheep or goats to give it that barnyard feeling.

According to Opposing Views, the Freedom from Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin set up a different kind of nativity scene.

It has a banner that reads “Celebrate the Solstice: The Reason for the Season.” Inside it has figures of Emma Goldman, the goddess Venus, the Statue of Liberty, Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, and a baby girl in place of Jesus.

Is it still wrong for Atheists to still celebrate Christmas or is it a kind of hypocrisy? Jen states the modern Christmas has little if anything to do with Religion, and more to do with Capitalism.

An Atheist would actually probably say “The case for a god or gods has not yet been evidently proven by any scientific means”.  By this, Atheism is entirely possible.

United States of America

Nativity scenes have been involved in controversies and lawsuits. In federal court pleadings in the United States, for example, the New York City, school system defended its ban on nativity scenes by claiming the historicity of the birth of Jesus was not fact.

The judge in the case upheld the ban, noting that the ban on nativity scenes is not discriminatory while permitting Jewish menorahs and Islamic star and crescent displays because the latter two have secular components while nativity scenes are supposed to be purely religious.

In another instance, a suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, school banned a nativity scene while permitting a menorah display. The school’s principal stated, “Judaism is not just a religion, it’s a culture.” 

In 1969, the American Civil Liberties Union (representing three clergymen, an atheist, and a leader of the American Ethical Society), tried to block the construction of a nativity scene on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C

When the ACLU claimed the government sponsorship of a distinctly Christian symbol violated separation of church and state, the sponsors of the fifty-year-old Christmas celebration, Pageant of Peace, who had an exclusive permit from the Interior Department for all events on the Ellipse, responded that the nativity scene was a reminder of America’s spiritual heritage. 

The United States Court of Appeals ruled on December 12, 1969, that the crèche be allowed that year.  The case continued until September 26, 1973, when the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and found the involvement of the Interior Department and the National Park Service in the Pageant of Peace amounted to government support for religion. 

The court opined that the nativity scene should be dropped from the pageant or the government end its participation in the event in order to avoid “excessive entanglements” between government and religion. In 1973, the nativity scene vanished. 

In 1994, at Christmas, the Park Board of San Jose, California, removed a statue of the infant Jesus from Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park and replaced it with a statue of the plumed Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, commissioned with US$ 500,000 of public funds. In response, protestors staged a living nativity scene in the park. 

In 2006, a lawsuit by the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian group in the United States, was brought against the state of Washington when it permitted a public display of a holiday tree and a menorah but not a nativity scene.

Because of the lawsuit, the decision was made to permit a nativity scene to be displayed in the rotunda of the state Capitol, in Olympia, as long as other symbols of the season were included. 

From “The Savage Nation” (Monday, November 20, 2012 edition)

Santa Monica, CA Nativity Scene Tradition Snuffed Out.