Religion or no?

I really want to know... what is the problem? Why is there so much animosity between those who believe this, that or the other thing, and those who do not?
Yes, I am an atheist, and yes I would very much like it if those around me stopped believing on those gods and churches they do? I say "gods" because, in the case of catholic christianity for example, I do choose to see god, Jesus and the holy spirit as three separate entities. For the record, I capitalize the name Jesus because I see that as a name. "God" and "holy spirit" are in my mind titles, and not necessarily proper nouns.
Anyway - why do I care what religious people believe? Why does it bother me that my family had to wait for me to sit down in order to carry on with their prayer at thanksgiving dinner? Yes, it bothers me a great deal when people tell me that I should say, "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays." I personally find this attitude to be offensive.
While I am talking about christians here, I would like you to understand that my remarks are also about persons and groups belonging to most other faiths as well. It is merely that christians seem to be the most vocal group in the United States, and in the media. I generally hear very little of Jewish opinion and Muslim opinion on these matters. While I know that Jews and Muslims do have an opinion on these matters, I cannot really speak to persons whose attitudes I am not familiar with.
There is a great campaign in the political right that is based on the belief that there is a war on christmas. The very idea seems insane to me. I agree with every secular humanist and every atheist who wants to see religious displays removed from government sites, including state houses, courtrooms, federal office buildings and schools. I believe that there is a very bug difference between wanting the government to cease honoring any god at all, and asking individuals to cater their own expressions of faith, or their own manner of worship, praise and celebration. No one that I know of wants to stop anyone from praying, or even congregating for religious purposes. No atheist that I know of cares if you want to praise Jesus, light candles in honor of Hanukkah, or if you want to prostrate yourself while facing Mecca at a certain time of the day.
I certainly don't care about these things. I never have. Nevertheless, I do care when the government sponsors or hosts this type of activity. This seems like preferential behavior, and whether the religious recognize this or not, I think allowing these behaviors in what are not private or religious settings is a form of pressure, especially in schools. Children are impressionable, and I don't know that anyone will deny that. To allow religious activities to become routine in a classroom is a form of social pressure. I think this is true for many people when it happens in the classroom.
There is a movement in some places to have non-religious displays placed next to religious displays in government locations during religious times. I do not think this is really wise, either. I think that the religious displays should be removed, but I also think that having atheist displays placed there for the holidays next to the religious ones is a shallow compromise.
But this is just my opinion.
On the other side of the question, I can't really comment much, but I can state what it seems to me that others are thinking and feeling.
It seems to me that some christians are offended by atheist placards in the state house, and by signs and billboards saying that some people do not believe in god. They [the christians] seem to think that simply saying, "If you do not believe in god, you are not alone" is an affront to them and an attack on them. They [the christians] seem to think that implying that people can be good without believing is god is an affront and an attack. I do not understand this attitude.
It seems to me that christians want to keep a power in this country that they sort of had in the past, but didn't really. It is largely religious groups who have led the charge against stem cell research, the teaching of evolution, the Arts, women's productive rights, gay rights at every stage, climate-change related regulation, and a plethora of other issues. Of course I recognize that it is not all religious persons who do this, and indeed not even all christians. Many religious people of all stripes are on both sides of every issue, regardless of how vocal they might be.
That being said, I really just want to find out why. In several churches that I have had the pleasure and honor of being involved with, there is a clearly stated movement to encourage others to say Merry Christmas rather than, "Have a nice holiday!" I hear this from many people every year.
In my mind, this is nothing more than an attempt to force other people to support your own religious views. Atheists don't do this. They will argue with facts, and data, and experiments, and logic to support their opinions, but they do not try to stop anyone from disagreeing. We may try to get people to defend their beliefs with facts and evidence, but that is in part because people are trying to get us to belief in what seems like nonsense without any evidence.
And by evidence we do not mean revelation (people have used that with me personally, so don't pretend it doesn't happen,) nor do we mean testimony. We mean evidence - repeatable and verifiable.