Yeah, you'd like Canada way better, Mrrzy. At least half the young people I grew up with here were atheists. Maybe more than half. Heck, I was an atheist then too. It's not at all unusual here, and it carries no stigma.

Look, you can't control other people in a society around you and make them as you would like them to be, so why be in combat with all this stuff? Why not just happily be what you are and ignore the stuff that you choose not to be?

(I do appreciate your concern about school pressure on your children, though....when I was about 6 my mother sent me off to the local Sunday school. We were atheists, but she is the kind of person who is quite insecure and deeply afraid that her neighbours might be offended if she doesn't do what everyone else is doing, and all the other kids were going to Sunday school, right? Heh! Well, I went, and I was shocked at the Bible stories they were telling, because it went totally against anything believable as far as I was concerned. I'd already read some scientific stuff, and I believed in evolution. So I went home and complained to my mother, "They're telling these incredible fairy tales about Bible stuff that can't possibly be real! I don't want to go there!" She never asked me to go there again.)

As for respecting other people's "myths"...well, yes, I think it would be wise to at least show outward respect for their myths in a general sense (depending on the situation). I do. That doesn't mean I subscribe to their myths, it just means that I respect their right to subscribe to those myths if they want to. If it makes them happy. I don't bother them about it.

If I cannot disprove a "myth", then I have no business hassling people about it.

And to them, it's not a myth. It's 100% real to them, and absolutely precious to them. So if you show lack of respect for what is sacred to them, they are definitely going to be disturbed and offended. And so would you be in their place.

If, on the other hand, you are teaching a science course...then I agree that (most) Bible stories are not appropriate for people to interject into the discussions there....they have no place in a science course.

I agree wholeheartedly that Black History Month is a racist concept. However, there are probably some people (black, white, or otherwise) who think it's a wonderfully progressive and terrific idea that helps black people. I can't change that. Neither can you. My reaction would be just not to pay any attention to it (shrug), and instead to focus on something I like.

Egypt, as you say, was civilized one hell of a long time before the Common Era. So was China. And India. The only reason our timelines are dated in reference to Jesus' birth is that a tremendously powerful Christian church arose in Rome and Byzantium. They were professing to represent Jesus' life and his teachings (A presumption on their part which I question!)...and that church dominated the culture and civilization out of which arose the European and English-speaking worlds...out of which North America as we know it now is an aftereffect.

So people are used to a calendar built around Jesus. It's a custom, a tradition. One that was put in place by the military and trade prowess of the European civilization over a period of a couple of thousand years. To try to alter that calendar habit now is to try to change the established mindset and unconsciously automatic habits of more than a billion people. Good luck. ;-)