Rule #1 of Getting People To Agree With You

Atheist sign disappears from Washington state Capitol

Text from the sign:

At this season of THE WINTER SOLSTICE may reason prevail
There are no gods, no angels, no devils, no heaven or hell.
There is only our natural world.
Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.

Gee, I wonder why this sign, which was placed directly next to the Nativity scene at the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington, vanished.

Look, atheists. Actually, while I'm talking to people who aren't here, let's throw in religious folk, environmentalists, and, well, every strain of protester out there, here's the number one rule when it comes to trying to make a point, possibly the only rule.

When it comes to persuading people, no one likes an asshole.

People will not listen to you if you're an asshole about their beliefs and opinions. Instead, they will think, and rightly so, that you're an asshole, and dismiss everything that you say on your topic out of hand. More likely than not, they'll also dismiss everyone who ever takes that same position with them again as an asshole as well, so you're not only ruining your chances of persuading someone to agree with you, you're ruining everyone else's chances for a reasonable debate in the future. Yes, it will make you feel good, that you're getting your point out there, and that smug sense of superiority will last for at least a week. However, if you insist on pursuing such ideologically self-destructive behavior, why not do something that doesn't screw it up for the rest of us. Take up trolling in Internet forums or on news article comment threads, or running head first into brick walls.

Sure, I'm not entirely comfortable with the bending of the whole implied "separation of church and state" that having a Nativity scene in a government building is (Yes, atheists, it's not in the Constitution, it was established as legal precident by the Supreme Court in Renyolds v. US and is followed because of stare decisis, go legal nerdery), but would they be making the same fuss if they had a giant Menorah and diorama of the dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem set up in the lobby? Somehow, I doubt it, and as long as the state government gives equal treatment to any religious group that requests that they have a display put up in the lobby, which is the actual meaning of the idea of "separation of church and state", I don't see a problem with it.