Should atheists retain religious holidays (e.g. Christmas, etc)?

I'm all in favor of the traditional pagan observation of mid-winter.

Which is, after all, what Christmas actually is based on.

 

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They're hardly religious anymore'
God-conscious religion has been hijacked.


jan.

 

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Your views are very interesting. What does God-conscious religion being hijacked mean?

 

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Even the hijackers get hijacked...eventually...(could drift here into an entropy discussion).

...(could drift here into an elaborating discussion defining and comparing winter solstice with winter equinox, and the perceived significance to cultural rites and practices).

 

Merry Christmas to all the atheist Scrooges! A pleasant Bah Humbug to you all! Was Scrooge the founding father of modern atheism?

Why do those who call themselves rational; i.e., atheists, get so irrational about holidays like Christmas. That is not being rational. Christmas is a time of celebration, giving, good will and accounts for about 18% of the nations GNP. This is all good, but atheism gets so irrational about it, that it impulsively need to censor and be a spoiler of good times. Stalin was also an atheist, who got very irrational and liked to censor and bully. Why is censorship so important to the atheist? I thought the atheist position was secure enough, not to require complete silence to work.

The term rational atheist appears to be based of one of those liberal PC word games, which if you repeat a term enough people forget the real meaning. The irrational atheist is a more accurate in terms of the observational data of atheist behavior, especially this time of year. Maybe atheists can explain why so irrational is being called rational. Is this due to an alternate reality create by their religion?

 

You seem to be the only one getting worked up about it here.

 

Do they?
Or is this another of your fantasies?

Still plugging that stupid myth?

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Buddhism is a religion but does not make use of a god concept. It is more about the path of self enlightenment. The atheists have their own path of self enlightenment based on science and reason. The difference is the Buddhist do not get bent out of shape by the holidays of others.

Based on observational data using holidays like Christmas, there is no self reflection within atheism, about the nature of the irrationality generated, leading to the point of censorship. Is this lack of self reflection the reason why atheism is not a religion? The Buddhist would try to figure this out since you cannot achieve enlightenment being unconscious like this and calling it rational. What universe is that?

Religion is about consciousness of impulse and behavior. One technique that is used is some religions would project this need to censor, into something like devil. Although this may not be provable, this mental process does differentiate the behavior, allowing one to be objective of themselves. The censor munger would be different from them, allowing them a platform for self observation.

The atheists lack this differentiation ability since the science in these areas is not quite as solid as say the science of chemistry. The atheist become unconscious, project this onto others, calling the kettle black. Merry Christmas!

 

Atheism isn't a religion because it isn't a religion! You are an apologist for scaring children with imaginary monsters.

 

I don't care if people celebrate their holidays. Why would you think it's typical of atheists to want to censor holidays? (Whatever that means). We just don't want it as part of the government, as expressly stated in the constitution.

 

Therefore it is possible to be a Buddhist and an Atheist... So your entire argument is self defeating.

 

No. His argument [IMO] was that religion is indispensable, even for a athiest.
But that argument is false too, since morality doesn't come from relgion but is a result of our self controlled expressions of our altruism [which is of genetic origin].

 

His argument is non-sense. He seems to think that all atheist believe the same thing(s) or that there is some philosophy of atheism... But this is BS. All atheism is is a lack of belief in god(s). And that is the only thing all atheists have in common.

 

What I never understood is why they push for "Happy Holidays" when the word Holiday has a more undeniably religious meaning than "christmas". Its possible for a secular person to admire and want to celebrate Jesus' life and contribution to western civ, even if they dont believe him to be the son of God. "Holy Days" however, is harder to get around.

 

Anytime they pay me to stay home from work, it's a Holy Day.

 

Mostly employees aren't bothered at all by each others religious celebrations.
I speak of the UK.
Quite often people will bring nice edible things into work, which everyone enjoys.
(I'm not too fond of Indian sweets, but anything savoury, bring it in!)

The problem was with the corporates, who were afraid of legal actions from the odd loonies who felt they were being disadvantaged.
They also want to have rules which cover their work places worldwide.
Religion. Not profitable. Ban it.

 

Crap.
If you'd written some atheists... you'd have been more bearly correct.

Please provide links that all atheists get "bent out shape..."

That's because you're clueless.

Still wrong. You seem to think that all atheists can be lumped together for some reason. They cant.

 

Would you say that atheists have their sects, just as religious people do?

 

Sure, just like non-astrologers do.

 

Wellwisher, I am certain if i had made as ridiculously over generalising and untrue set of statements about religious people as you just made about atheists people would complain. You either are utterly clueless or you are just plain dishonest. And nice job dropping Stalin in their. He didn't do what he did because he was atheist, atheism tells you nothing about how to live your life, he did what he did to cement power. Look at the suppression of other points of view in Saudi Arabia. Look at how the religious right in the US try to legislate their views into law when it comes to teaching or health. Suppression is not an atheist tool to hold onto power, it is a tool ALL despotic leaderships use to hold onto power.

I hope you are just naive and not deliberately lying.

Edit : all bad grammar due to mobile autospell being thick as a plank.