Everyone around them is in the Holiday spirit, singing "Silent Night" , putting up a tree and having hot apple cider and people are making merry and shopping for presents to give to each other to bask in the warmth and glow of the virgin birth. And then there are Atheists... They must be pretty depressed.

Why tho? It's not like they're Jehovah's Witnesses... THAT would be depressing...

Signatures are for fags

I celebrate the once-again lengthening of the days.

Sometimes I pay homage to ancient ancestors in Northern EUrope and put up a tree with lights and decorations like they did to celebrate the lengthening of the days.

Do you live in some sort of hermetically sealed glass dome of christianity? Were you home-schooled?

"Christmas" started out as a Roman Catholic holiday, but it is pretty much a universal commercial holiday that people celebrate regardless of its religious origin.

Some jewish people celebrate it, mixed-religion families, atheists, agnostics, general non-believers, people who are against religion, even some muslims celebrate it.

Do you even know the origins of Christmas? Holidays have existed around the winter solstice well before Jesus was even born. Christianity just adopted that time and declared it the date for Jesus' birth.

Sounds like you live a sheltered, narrow life where you only know about the immediate experiences of you and your own religious cohorts. Expand your view of the world, it's a lot more interesting than just that tiny bubble of christian communities.

It's the most wonderful time of the year. There'll be McRib's for everyone.

Do you live in a vacuum? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do you live in some sort of hermetically sealed
> glass dome of christianity? Were you
> home-schooled?
>
> "Christmas" started out as a Roman Catholic
> holiday, but it is pretty much a universal
> commercial holiday that people celebrate
> regardless of its religious origin.
>
> Some jewish people celebrate it, mixed-religion
> families, atheists, agnostics, general
> non-believers, people who are against religion,
> even some muslims celebrate it.
>
> Do you even know the origins of Christmas?
> Holidays have existed around the winter solstice
> well before Jesus was even born. Christianity
> just adopted that time and declared it the date
> for Jesus' birth.
>
> Sounds like you live a sheltered, narrow life
> where you only know about the immediate
> experiences of you and your own religious cohorts.
> Expand your view of the world, it's a lot more
> interesting than just that tiny bubble of
> christian communities.


yeah... but out of all those traditions and other ceremonies and shit, only christianity is right. the rest is wrong

Well, I can't speak for all atheists, but Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus being born or any of the other christian nonsense.

It's all about waiting for Santa to deliver lots of presents.
Attachments:

You know what we need? A serial killer that dresses up as Krampus that only kills on Christmas Day.

OP is wondering what atheists do around Christmas, which is actually the Pagan holiday of Saturnalia.

All of the trappings of Christmas have little to do with Christ -- Santa Claus, Christmas trees, gift-giving, caroling... All of this was the holiday of the Roman Empire. When Christianity became the state religion, the holiday became a celebration of the birth of Christ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia

I enjoy my pagan holiday in the same hedonistic way that the ancient Romans did.

Athiest here.

I enjoy everything there is to enjoy about the holidays.
The gathering of family, the good food, the parties.

You don't need the mumbo jumbo to try to be a nice person and to love.

I go to an Indian buffet then get super drunk. It's a pretty solid day.

SoulStirrer1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Everyone around them is in the Holiday spirit,
> singing "Silent Night" , putting up a tree and
> having hot apple cider and people are making merry
> and shopping for presents to give to each other to
> bask in the warmth and glow of the virgin birth.
> And then there are Atheists... They must be pretty
> depressed.

If an full-grown, educated adult still believed in Santa Claus, would you think that is a rational, respectable belief? What if this person went around trying to convince others that a man named Santa actually did live at the North Pole? Would that be reasonable? You'd probably think he was a looney.

I'm an atheist and I like Christmas. I even like nativity scenes, they're part of the mythology. But you don't have to actually believe in the supernatural aspects of the holiday in order to enjoy it.

Santa/Satan coincidence? I think not

We don't delude ourselves.

But seeing that the Jews upped the prominence of Chanukah, and Kawanza et al.
Festivus for the rest of us?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2012 07:26AM by Atom.

We do the same thing that Christians do:

Enjoy the parts of Christmas that appeal to us, and ignore the rest.

Do you live in a vacuum? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do you live in some sort of hermetically sealed
> glass dome of christianity? Were you
> home-schooled?
>
> "Christmas" started out as a Roman Catholic
> holiday, but it is pretty much a universal
> commercial holiday that people celebrate
> regardless of its religious origin.
>
> Some jewish people celebrate it, mixed-religion
> families, atheists, agnostics, general
> non-believers, people who are against religion,
> even some muslims celebrate it.
>
> Do you even know the origins of Christmas?
> Holidays have existed around the winter solstice
> well before Jesus was even born. Christianity
> just adopted that time and declared it the date
> for Jesus' birth.
>
> Sounds like you live a sheltered, narrow life
> where you only know about the immediate
> experiences of you and your own religious cohorts.
> Expand your view of the world, it's a lot more
> interesting than just that tiny bubble of
> christian communities.


I realize it started out as Pagan- but I'm talking about the real Christmas. Like the "O Holy Night" Peace on earth and goodwill to men, Christmas tree Christmas we have, and all of that. Christmas trees actually were not Pagan, they came around 18th Century Germany. Even if the holy-day were Pagan in origin, Atheists would not be Pagan celebrating either.

Ito Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons
> /thumb/2/2c/Polidoro_da_Caravaggio_-_Saturnus-thum
> b.jpg/357px-Polidoro_da_Caravaggio_-_Saturnus-thum
> b.jpg">
>
> OP is wondering what atheists do around Christmas,
> which is actually the Pagan holiday of
> Saturnalia.
>
> All of the trappings of Christmas have little to
> do with Christ -- Santa Claus, Christmas trees,
> gift-giving, caroling... All of this was the
> holiday of the Roman Empire. When Christianity
> became the state religion, the holiday became a
> celebration of the birth of Christ.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia
>
> I enjoy my pagan holiday in the same hedonistic
> way that the ancient Romans did.

Yer talking about Winter Solstice which is December 21st. Christmas is December 25th. Paganism is still not Atheism. Duh.