In his final New Rule of the night, Bill Maher disputed the idea thrown out by some that atheism is a religion. It’s a refrain you hear from people who can’t stand both groups and believe that dogma is dogma, plain and simple, but Maher argued that treating atheism like a religion would be like saying “abstinence is a sex position.” After all, when was the last time a non-believer ever claimed to see the silhouette of Christopher Hitchens on the side of a tree?

After successfully baiting conservatives with his profane Christmas Eve tweet, comedian and Real Time host Bill Maher continued his Twitter mockery of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, including sending Twitpics of himself “Tebowing” in front of a Kim Jong-Il lookalike, and striking the iconic pose in a tree, or “Treebowing.”

Before his death last week, writer Christopher Hitchens sat down for a final interview with fellow atheist Richard Dawkins for British publication New Statesman. Obviously, their skepticism about faith came up frequently in the conversation, but they also touched upon a variety of other subjects that Hitchens took on over his life.

The editorial sphere has encountered a challenge in remembering Christopher Hitchens. Not because he’s slipped away from our collective memory, but because, really, he hasn’t. Hitchens’ comments, ideas and observations — long at the forefront of many a discussion or holiday brawl with family — make the man terribly difficult to place into a box. [...]

A Wisconsin based group of Atheists called the Freedom From Religion Foundation have asked a town in Texas to take down a nativity scene that is set up on public property. Last night, a spokesman for that atheist group Dan Barker appeared on Fox Business Network’s Follow the Money, and engaged in a spirited discussion over religion, Christmas and Jesus Christ with host Eric Bolling, which ultimately led to Barker’s abrupt dismissal from the show. It was a “War on Christmas” miracle!

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly has created an ongoing discussion on his show, devoted to something akin to the exposure and analysis of an atheist agenda. Previously, he spoke with atheist author Richard Dawkins about his book for young people and, on Wednesday night, O’Reilly invited writer and lecturer Deepak Chopra to, in a sense, help him “take on” atheism.

On Wednesday night’s The Factor, host Bill O’Reilly spoke with atheist author Richard Dawkins about his latest work, The Magic of Reality, which is “partially aimed at children,” as O’Reilly described it.

During their conversation, O’Reilly summarized the book’s aim as encouraging its readers to focus on science (which the host applauded) at the expense of God and religion — an assessment with which Dawkins took issue. “No, this is a book about science,” said Dawkins. “It doesn’t talk about God.” O’Reilly wasn’t buying it. “It mocks God,” he said. “I looked at it.” But Dawkins insisted that the book includes no mockery of the sort.

One year ago, Florida pastor Michael Stahl wrote a short blog entry about an idea for a new site we’d like to think of as “Atheite:” an online registry of atheists, organized by city and state. Stahl’s vision would ideally include photos of each atheist as well as his or her place of business, so that concerned Christian citizens can choose to either boycott that business or show up and proselytize. Now, that idea is gaining steam around the internet. South Florida’s “The Daily Pulp” reports that Stahl’s post “got tons of hits from angry people after somebody discovered he’d just recently posted a link to the old post on his Facebook page — which he’s since had to delete.”

And here’s a weird one. In Austria, a man named Niko Alm has gotten a license he first applied for three years ago. Why did it take so long? Well, Alm asked to be photographed wearing a pasta strainer on his head. The reason? His religion requires it.

Radio and TV host Thom Hartmann cut against the popular misconception that liberals are “godless” by taking on Rick Wingrove, Virginia State Director for American Atheists, on Tuesday’s edition of The Big Picture. At issue was a 4th of July campaign that involved airplane banners that said “God-less America” and “Atheism is Patriotic,” a campaign which Hartmann sees as “evangelical,” and part of a pattern that, he argues, is no different than any other religion.

Predictions of tomorrow’s Rapture — those specifically originating from an 89-year old California based preacher who has only been wrong about the world ending once before!) — could be a really good thing for Atheists. No, I’m not just talking about them being a boon for snarky jokes on Twitter and Reddit. I mean that this could be a perfect opportunity for Atheists, one of the most hated minorities in America, to show that you don’t need God to be a good person.

Conservative author Ann Coulter has a new book coming out soon called Demonic and in case anyone needs a reminder of her take-no-prisoners approach to political commentary, she appeared last night on Fox Business to try and lay to rest another allegation about President Obama. Coulter wanted people to know that Obama is not a Muslim, no, she said “I think, like all liberals, he’s an atheist.”

A few weeks ago, O’Reilly Factor host Bill O’Reilly was the subject of round derision for an exchange with American Atheists president David Silverman, in which O’Reilly used the clockwork regularity of the tides as evidence of the existence of God. O’Reilly critics took this to mean that he was unaware of the Moon’s involvement in the tiding process.

Recently, O’Reilly answered those critics, in a web-only video response to a question from an “O’Reilly Premium” member, by asking, “Where’d the Moon come from?”

For everyone who didn’t feel like spreading the message of state’s rights this holiday season with the Tea Party coloring book, but still wanted your kids to spend Christmas coloring people purple and adding in dinosaurs (or whatever the heck it is kids do with coloring books), the weekend hosts of Fox & Friends are presenting an alternative: The Atheist Christmas Coloring Book! Some of you are probably wondering how connecting atheism and Christmas could possibly make any sense. Well, just remember, it makes about as much sense as connecting atheism to Fox & Friends.

A new billboard is causing a bit of a stir in New Jersey. The ad, which appears on a highway that leads to New York City’s Lincoln Tunnel, features a nativity scene stamped with an unexpected message: “You know it’s a myth. This season, celebrate reason!” As the bottom of the billboard reveals, the space was rented by American Atheists. Today, the president of that organization, Dave Silverman, stopped by America Live to talk about religion, free speech, and the “war on Christmas” with Megyn Kelly.

Early this summer, prolific writer and provocateur Christopher Hitchens revealed that he has terminal esophageal cancer. Since then, he’s been remarkably open about his condition—he even sat down with Anderson Cooper to discuss the disease in August. During that interview, the atheistic Hitchens also gave his opinion about the numerous people who have said that they would pray for him.

This week’s Real Time round table was a little less political than usual. Bill Maher had John Avlon, S.E. Cupp and Newark mayor Cory Booker on the show to talk about a variety of topics, but somehow Elena Kagan‘s nomination of the Supreme Court became a much more metaphysical topics as Maher challenged Cupp, who is openly atheist, to call all people of faith “delusional,” which she refused.

The latest book from a conservative pundit takes aim at the media and praises Christianity…but with a twist. It’s written by an atheist.

S.E. Cupp‘s Losing Our Religion came out last week, and we talked to the frequent FNC and CNN guest about how the media covers religion, how Pres. Barack Obama handles Christianity and why an atheist would pick this topic to cover.

The ad appears to have vanished from this Daily Beast article on atheist “recruitment,” but we’ve kept it for posterity. Could “holy” and some of the religion-themed words be linked by some algorithm? It gives the odd impression that Atheism can be countered with antioxidants and a 1960s Batman-like exclamation: “Holy Health!” Screenshot after the jump: