I'm atheist and I celebrate Christmas as well. There are so many parts of the christmas holiday that's taken from much older religions, it's like hollywood reusing old movie ideas in a new way. (Looking at you space Dances with Wolves aka Avatar).

There can be "good" believers. There can be "good" non-believers. I put that in quotations because what makes a person good can sometimes be subjective. The problem is, the religious texts (irregardless of whether it's the Bible, Torah, Quran, etc) promotes horrible violence, bigotry, misogyny, and in many cases says…

When I was in Japan, it seemed the Shinto roots you speak of were now more attributed to tradition than due to an actual belief system. Many of the christian families I met there still visited shrines and things because it is part of their culture, not because it's something they believed in. Most of the people I knew…