O'Reilly Bashes Atheists as "Small Fanatical Group"

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O’Reilly Bashes Atheists as “Small Fanatical Group”

Filed on December 3rd, 2008 in The War on Christmas ⋅ ⋅

Bill O’Reilly’s defense of his culture war continues, as he once again takes on the “war on Christmas” in a recent Talking Points on The O’Reilly Factor.

Here is O’Reilly bashing atheists and the “war on Christmas” on Dec. 2.

If you read this site, you know that I am an atheist, but also a conservative. I also have no problem with Christmas being celebrated in this country. So I take offense when people bash atheists as Christmas-hating liberal godless scumbags. Just as you wouldn’t lump all Muslims into the extremist category, and you wouldn’t call all Christians fundamentalists, it is not fair to call all atheists fanatical. In my disgust at this segment, I fired off the following email to Mr. O’Reilly:

Bill,

Since when are atheists “fanatical groups?” Believe it or not, many of us atheists completely support and celebrate Christmas. I say “Merry Christmas” with no regrets. I do this because Christmas is not a religious holiday anymore, it’s a consumer driven celebration that is simply fun and harmless.

And how is it inappropriate for an anti-religious sign to be posted next to a Nativity scene, but it’s not inappropriate for a Nativity scene to be on federal property?

Your comparisons of Jesus and Dr. King are just plain bad logic. We honor Dr. King’s birthday, but we don’t celebrate “Kingmas,” do we? Dr. King is not the basis of a religion, he was a man who followed one. There are huge differences between the celebration of the birthdays and your comparison of the two is simply idiotic.

Also, your use of the phrase “small fanatical group” implies that we atheists can simply be bullied away because we are in the minority. This will never happen. Sure, there are some atheists who are more “fanatical” (to use your word) than others, just as they are in every religion. Would you call all Christians a fanatical group because of what one Christian, or group of Christians says? Of course you wouldn’t. Atheists are no different than you, Bill. They simply don’t believe in a god.

Do you believe that Zeus is watching over you? No. You are a non-believer of every religion in history, except one. I just don’t believe in that last one that you do. There is nothing extreme or fanatical about that.

I, an atheist, have never been to jail, never been arrested, never even gotten a speeding ticket. I am highly educated and I’ve voted Republican in every election in my life. You and I agree many issues in the political world. The only difference is that I don’t believe in a god. In fact, the majority of educated people do not. It’s not because we’re trying to fight you in a culture war, it’s because we believe what we see and what the evidence shows us. My lack of a religious belief has had zero impact on any other decisions in my life. It does not affect my morals or my decency as a human.

Perhaps if you were willing to have a little faith in human beings you’d see that they’re not all the same. Learn a little bit about atheism and you’ll find out that it’s not so scary.

Perhaps if atheists were treated like equal citizens, instead of constantly insulted and stepped on, we wouldn’t have to fight for attention in such “offensive” ways.

There are more atheists and agnostics than there are Jews and Muslims, but you wouldn’t dare call all Jews in America a “small fanatical group.” Have some respect for your fellow Americans. There are millions of us hard-working atheists that go to work everyday like everyone else. Atheists are policeman, soldiers, salesmen, firefighters and store clerks.

Other than the fictional culture war, I enjoy the show. But please cut the atheist bashing. The majority of us (like any group) are good people.

Merry Christmas.