Earlier tonight, our friend and American Atheists President Dave Silverman appeared on The O’Reilly Factor to discuss — what else? — the War on Christmas.

The most amazing part of the conversation may have been O’Reilly’s retort to Silverman saying the government shouldn’t be promoting religion: “Christianity is not a religion; it is a philosophy.”

You know what the appropriate reaction to that has to be:

Later, O’Reilly claimed that a Christmas tree was a secular symbol, not recognizing the hypocrisy in that statement. (Silverman pounced on it, though.)

Then, there was this classic exchange, after Silverman argued against the idea of Christmas as a federal holiday:

O’Reilly: You and your merry band of fascists — Silverman: Fascists?! Fascists. O’Reilly: You get [Christmas] revoked! Silverman: You called me a fascist!? O’Reilly: Absolutely! Silverman: I am a patriot, sir! O’Reilly: You are a fascist. Silverman: I am a patriot who is taking the crazy notion that everybody in this country is equal and that the government has to treat everybody fairly. That’s fascism?!

Silverman handled that brilliantly. O’Reilly had his arrogance thrown right back in his face by a supposed bogeyman who ended up looking like the only reasonable person in the conversation.

***Update***: American Atheists’ Teresa MacBain has something to say about whether or not Christianity is a religion:

I’m a former pastor, who served many churches for over 20 years. I would consider myself somewhat of an expert. Trust me; Christianity is a religion by any modern definition. According to my theology professors, Christianity has been and always will be a religion. Every priest, every pastor, every Sunday School teacher, choir member, deacon, usher, and pew sitter will tell you that Christianity is a religion. So where did Mr. O’Reilly come up with this idea? Oh! I know! The tides told him.



