So...would it be hypocritical for a tea-totler to attend "Oktoberfest"?
Do atheists celebrate on religious festivals?
- Thread starter S.A.M.
- Start date
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Atheists don't celebrate Christmas like Christians do, they just do it to have a good time. Probably childhood memories and habits have something to do with it..
Atheist families celebrate Christmas as well..
Besides, Christmas nowadays has more in common with the old pagan celebrations than it has with Christian beliefs.
Atheist families celebrate Christmas as well..
Besides, Christmas nowadays has more in common with the old pagan celebrations than it has with Christian beliefs.
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I celebrate social festivals is that the same?
how religious is cristmas is it the birth of little baby jezus? Is it mine? is it one of the other many pagan gods? The winter equinox? Consumption? the fact that it's fucking cold and you need a reason to invite a lot of people to get semi drunk?
Many festivals are older then the gods.
snake river rufus
Registered Senior Member
I celebrate the yule season but not easter.
xmas is a tradition. we celebrate that the sun (and christ) is born. traditions and myths are just religions that have become old. christianity is starting to get old too.
people also celebrate at summer, but not so much. but long ago people (like the vikings) celebrated all the 4 elements and seasons. to keep the wheel of life (zodiac) spinning...
the wheel spins slower today because we only celebrate winter and summer...
people also celebrate at summer, but not so much. but long ago people (like the vikings) celebrated all the 4 elements and seasons. to keep the wheel of life (zodiac) spinning...
the wheel spins slower today because we only celebrate winter and summer...
I think there's a secular version of christmas and a religious version. At most christmas parties I imagine the beliefs underlying the events are very submerged and pass unnoticed. I don't remember going to christmas parties with my family and ever hearing religious ideas invoked.
Hilarious!
Hilarious!
Still on this religion=theism kick, I see.SAM said:
I not only join with my friends and family and neighbors in the traditional celebrations, but I allow theists to take them over and ascribe all kinds of nonsense to them without really complaining, as long as they don't spoil the party - in fact, I sometimes help them set up their rituals.
Theists are often very good cooks. If they want to devote part of the New Year and Solstice celebrations to an anthropomorphised birth of their Loving God, I'll save any objections I have for some time when the au gratin potatoes are not within easy reach.
My family's conception of Christmas is only peripherally linked to religion. Our Christmas celebrations are more a time for the family to get together, to exchange gifts, to have a good meal and a chat, etc.
Religious festivals are often an excuse for a more general social occasion. This is not unique to Christianity or any other religion. In many countries, public holidays are declared to coincide with religious festivals. For the believers, that is convenient. For the non-believers, they are an opportunity to take a break and maybe catch up with family and friends.
Religious festivals are often an excuse for a more general social occasion. This is not unique to Christianity or any other religion. In many countries, public holidays are declared to coincide with religious festivals. For the believers, that is convenient. For the non-believers, they are an opportunity to take a break and maybe catch up with family and friends.
Is it safe to say that the majority of atheists (according to this poll, 100% of them) love to mooch off theists and their religious festivals? Judging by everybody's sentiments, I'd say that's a fair assessment to make. By the look of things, atheists pillage religious festivals by stuffing their faces with delicious grub and vittles, washing it down with expensive wine, grabbing handfuls of mints and dashing for the door like a bat out of hell.
Kadark the Volatile
Kadark the Volatile
At my job, I receive Christmas day and the day after Christmas as a paid holiday leave, that doesn't count against my vacation time. My company never asked me if I believed in the divinity of Christ...they just gave me the time off. Why shouldn't I spend that time with my family, and eat 3 different kinds of dressing, and find out how cousin Mathew's cattle business is going?
I believe in holidays. If my government has arranged a nation wide public holiday them I'm taking it and spending it how I like. I choose to spend it eating too much and drinking too much with family and friends. These people are important to me and I see them rarely.
Any resemblance to celebrating a religious festival is purely coincidental.
Any resemblance to celebrating a religious festival is purely coincidental.
I don't celerate but I like the day off. In reality they should really be removed from the calendar and substituted by something else. Fishing Day, Pizza Day or Atheist Day
are a few of my nominations.
are a few of my nominations.Does what apply ?SAM said:
I like having celebrations and getting together with friends and family, especially around the time-honored age-old breaks in the agrarian year, and I don't mind if theists take the occasion to commemorate something important to them. I'll bring a little stuffed donkey for the manger diorama, if it needs one, and watch the oven while the Christian ones go to church on Christmas Eve. I'll help set up the bottle rockets on the 4th of July (and I really dislike bottle rockets), make sure nobody gets hurt falling off the dock. It's a good time. I'm not following your difficulty with this concept.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
It's having a good time with family, not free food and booze.. :bugeye:
with only 10 or so public holidays a year and one of those days being insulting to a fair proportion of the country (Australia day) and another being a day of reflection (ANZAC day) your dam right that Athiast's celibrate christamas and easter. For alot of families (like mine) Christmas is the only day you can actually see your family apart from funerals. Easter tends to be a time for imidiate family and lots of families go camping because its a 4 day weekend
Hmmm...the celebration of religious holidays...soooo touchy. Why celebrate religious holidays if you don't believe? Is it hypocritical? I'm not sure. Family is certainly an important part of holidays and many an athiests families are surely religious. I have a Christian friend who requested that I go to church with her around christmas time and being Pagan I found this request rather undesirable...but I went. And what did I find there? Her youth-group leader spent the entire time bitching about non-christian people singing religious christmas carols...something I've done all my life because not only is most of my family christian, but I just love singing and celebrating with my family. I felt like a total outcast and hypocrite. I may not be christian, but fuck it, I'll celebrate with those I love, just as they celebrate my holidays with me. Whatever. Does it truly matter? Family matters...not differences in religious beliefs.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
It isn't touchy at all, it's just SAM that seems to have a problem with it.
I have never heard any Christian complain about me celebrating Christmas..
In fact some sociaties demand adherance to religious festives from those who dont belive it. Two examples would be the forced closure of ALL buiness good friday and chirstmas day. A funny story about that, most families go away good friday, the state goverment of victoria passed a law forcing all buinesses with over 100 (i think) employee's to close that day but they didnt think about the laws properly. That ment that petrol stations which are atached to oil companies like shell and BP were ALSO forced to close. We had the strange site of the premure on TV and radio TELLING petrol stations to break the law and that they would fix it retrospectivly as soon as parliment went back.
this is also shown in indonesia where no food stores are alowed to open in most of indonesia during daylight hours during rumadum
this is also shown in indonesia where no food stores are alowed to open in most of indonesia during daylight hours during rumadum