Christians have Christmas, Jews have Hanukkah, Muslims have Eid al-Fitr.

But what if you’re an atheist?

Well, they have ask-an-atheist day, and that, whether you know it or not, is today.

So, what do you ask an atheist, and how do you spot one, anyway? It’s not like they have traditional dress or congregate in an atheist church.

I talked to Chance Parker, the president of Campus Atheists and Agnostics of IPFW. You’ll be able to spot him and others like him at the pavilion outside the Walb Memorial Union at IPFW from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., where they’ll be fielding questions and otherwise enjoying their freedom of speech.

In a country where most people regard themselves as religious, being an atheist does carry a stigma, Parker says, even though surveys show that 6 percent to 9 percent of Americans call themselves atheists.

"I’m hoping people will stop by and chat," Parker said. "The main idea is to put faces on the label" and show that they’re not bad, they just don’t believe in any god.

"We’re not aggressive," Parker said.

He said he understands that there was another atheist group on the campus a few years ago that was aggressive, and it made a lot of enemies.

So the current organization tries to be more laid-back.

"We’re not out to make more atheists," he said. "We’ve had to deal with people trying to convert us," and it’s distasteful, Parker said.

Their goal is just to hand out some literature they got from the American Humanist Association, he said, and perhaps let other atheists know they’re out there.

It’s not the first time the group has had a display at the school. Earlier, IPFW had a fair promoting various student activities. The atheist group had a booth at that event. Some people gave them "lousy looks," but others with similar views were happy to see them, Parker said.

Christians, of course, are taught not to hide their light under a bushel, so Parker expects to be challenged and to have people ask him questions.

"But discourse is good," he said. "Nothing is better for your beliefs than to have them challenged."

Parker is right about that. A lot of people have beliefs because that is what they have been taught. Challenging those beliefs can cause people to examine them more closely, think about them in more depth and even study them more carefully.

The result, often as not, is that people’s beliefs are strengthened.

Some people might take some umbrage at the notion that an atheist organization could set up a booth in the middle of the campus, but Parker is confident that any discourse will be cordial.

Let’s hope it will be and that it doesn’t descend into an anti-religion event.

The inevitable question does come up, though. What if a religious, instead of an areligious, organization tried to set up a similar booth on campus?

Well, the university has more than 100 organizations on campus, and about half a dozen are religious, including one that looks at paganism. So there’s equal time.

Frank Gray reflects on his and others’ experiences in columns published Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. He can be reached by phone at 461-8376, fax at 461-8893, or email at fgray@jg.net. You can also follow him on Twitter @FrankGrayJG.