Atheists' national holiday?

Atheists from England to the state of Washington are stepping up their efforts this year to make a bigger antagonistic splash on the Christmas scene.

A London campaign put signs on city buses saying, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Secularists in Washington, D.C.. followed suit with a similar campaign on buses, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness sake."

Atheists in Colorado are posting signage on billboards that echo the '60s John Lennon music mantra, "Imagine no religion."

And, all over the news, an atheist group was given permission to display its sign alongside a nativity scene in the capitol of Washington (and now in Wisconsin and Illinois). The message reads, "At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell." It then obliterates political correctness by ending with the following hate language, "There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

Please don't misunderstand me. I am a patriot, and I believe that atheists are free to believe, speak and post whatever they want. This is America – and that's their First Amendment right. But, to do so with harassment and hatred under the guise of free speech is despicable. An anti-religious poster filled with spite is in no way equated with a religious symbol like a nativity. Where are the politically correct police when Christians are the victims?

If such words were written against any social minority group, protests would be ubiquitous. But anti-religious (and particularly anti-Christian) bigotry is in vogue these days. But I, for one, am neither amused by intolerant verbiage nor passive about my politics. There is absolutely no justification for these atheists' written revile. And if they want to keep using hate-filled language against theists and particularly Christians, then they shouldn't be surprised when they meet up with a yuletide (verbal) roundhouse kick.

Anyone can spew religious disdain, but is that what America's founders created our rights for? Just because they post such verbal vomit, does that demonstrate intellectual superiority or the type of moral decency our founders hoped we would perpetuate?

What profit would there be if I posted a claim that atheists were un-American, because they try to suppress theists' freedom of religion by a false notion of the separation of church and state?

What profit would there be if I posted a heckling that atheists had no vital part in the founding of our country? As Benjamin Franklin noted in his 1787 pamphlet for those in Europe thinking of relocating to America: "To this may be truly added, that serious religion, under its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected and practiced. Atheism is unknown there …"

What profit would there be if I posted a sign that said atheists are like pacifists, in that they are able to be so because those who oppose them have sacrificed and laid a foundation of freedom for their liberties?

What profit would there be if I posted the accusation that atheists are foolish, because they exhaust too much time trying to convince everyone else of the absence of a being that doesn't exist?

What profit would there be if I posted a retort that atheists are igmos, because they try to replace Christmas with winter solstice celebrations, which are ancient pagan festivals entrenched in polytheistic religions?

What profit would there be if I posted that atheism hides behind a false pretense that it is scientific, when eminent scientists like Paul Davies, the renown British-born physicist, agnostic, professor of cosmology, quantum field theory and astrobiology, once said to Time (in the column "Science, God and Man") that no one can say with any certainty that there is no God? His actual words were, "Agnosticism – reserving judgment about divine purpose –remains as defensible as ever, but atheism – the confident denial of divine purpose – becomes trickier. If you admit that we can't peer behind a curtain, how can you be sure there's nothing there?"

What profit would there be if I posted that atheists were totally blind to the pristine beauty and ordered complexity of creation, so that they cannot see the hand of a Creator? As the Bible pointed out 2,000 years ago, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

What profit would there be if I posted the fact that atheists denigrate every religion and religious prayer that has ever been offered throughout all of time? For to say God in no way exists is to say every religious leader in any age was delusional at best. And not one prayer, not one cry to God in crisis, offered by theists or even desperate agnostics or atheists (in fox holes) on any continent in any era of human history has ever been answered. Not one! Atheists must conclude that billions and billions and billions of so-called alleged answered prayers throughout history were not real – but wishful thinking, coincidences or something else. For, if just one answer were a result of divine intervention, God would exist and atheism vanquished. Is that reasonable? Rational? That premise alone rules atheism preposterous and foolish.

Finally, what profit would there be if I were to post an agreement with my friend Mike Huckabee, who said on his book tour via Fox News, that atheists shouldn't be fighting for a holiday in December when they already have one – April Fool's Day? (A holiday also grounded in sacred scripture, "The fool says in his heart there is no God.")

We all know I would be labeled as an extremist, irrational and a bigot, if I were to post any of the preceding ideas. Yet atheists do, and get away with First Amendment murder. I would remind our nation that it was only a short time ago when leaders like Ronald Reagan freely spoke for the majority by explicitly and passionately conveying belief in Jesus Christ during his presidential Christmas addresses. Compare his Dec. 23, 1981, speech to our time, when the very term "Christmas" is being erased from every corner of culture.

As long as the capitol in Washington is allowing variance of religious opinion to line their corridors like Christmas potpourri, let me posit this last idea as a final pre-Christmas posting. At the base of the bust of George Washington (which stands between the atheist's winter solstice sign and the nativity in the capitol), I suggest a push for one more sign containing the wisdom from Washington's Farewell Address: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens."

(Note: In the spirit of Christmas, Chuck is giving away a free chapter from his Christian cultural manifesto and New York Times best-seller, "Black Belt Patriotism." To get yours, go to ChuckNorrisNewBook.com. "Black Belt Patriotism" makes a great Christmas gift!)