How atheists celebrate Christmas....

[Undecided]

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http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/atheist.holidays.irpt/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

[Mornac]

“Atheists Celebrat(ing) Christmas” is an oxymoron.  Atheists may be celebrating something this time of year, but it certainly isn’t Christmas. If it were, they wouldn’t be atheists.

[Undecided]

I agree.  But that was the title of the headline link on the CNN site that led to the article.

But it's a matter of convenience, really.  "Christmas" is such a pervasive name for the holiday season that it has become a quick, generic, name for the season to a large extent, much in the same way "Kleenex" means any facial tissue.

As atheists, my own family regularly refers to the holiday in a casual fashion as "Christmas".  We just understand between ourselves that we are talking about a purely secular holiday that is used to bring joy and light to the darkest time of the year, and in no way are we referring to any religious aspect of the holiday.

[Mornac]

I guess that makes a certain a mount of sense.

Merry Christmas Undecided.

[Case_Closed]

Seems hypocritical to me.

[Mornac]

It may seem hypocritical because it looks as though they are hijacking our holy day for their own secular pleasure fest. But if you look at it from the atheist viewpoint, I don’t think they are doing it with intention to harm anyone. They’re just taking advantage of an opportunity.

[Undecided]

It may seem hypocritical because it looks as though they are hijacking our holy day for their own secular pleasure fest. But if you look at it from the atheist viewpoint, I don’t think they are doing it with intention to harm anyone. They’re just taking advantage of an opportunity.

Thank you for trying to understand it from another point of view.  In historical terms, however, it was the pagan celebration that was hijacked by other religions.  We don't hold that against the Christians though, too much.  

Most cultures have had some sort of celebration during the time of the winter solstice, the darkest, coldest, time of year.

Merry Christmas to you.

[Case_Closed]

They’re just taking advantage of an opportunity.

That's the selfish AND hypocritical part.

[Mornac]

You have to consider that “selfish” is an aspect of morality. The atheist is free to make up his own morals based on whatever he wants.  Ultimately there is no right or wrong for him because there is no ultimate consequence for his actions after he dies. When he sees something from which he can derive pleasure, he sees nothing wrong with helping himself. Given these circumstances, can you really say that atheists are hypocritical for pleasing themselves in whatever manner they see fit? On the contrary, I find it to be entirely consistent with their philosophy.

[Case_Closed]

You have to consider that “selfish” is an aspect of morality. The atheist is free to make up his own morals based on whatever he wants.  Ultimately there is no right or wrong for him because there is no ultimate consequence for his actions after he dies. When he sees something from which he can derive pleasure, he sees nothing wrong with helping himself. Given these circumstances, can you really say that atheists are hypocritical for pleasing themselves in whatever manner they see fit? On the contrary, I find it to be entirely consistent with their philosophy.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Kinda like not being invited to a birthday party, crashing it, eating all the cake and then leaving the dirty dishes wherever they want.

[ivanm]

You have to consider that “selfish” is an aspect of morality. The atheist is free to make up his own morals based on whatever he wants.  Ultimately there is no right or wrong for him because there is no ultimate consequence for his actions after he dies. When he sees something from which he can derive pleasure, he sees nothing wrong with helping himself. Given these circumstances, can you really say that atheists are hypocritical for pleasing themselves in whatever manner they see fit? On the contrary, I find it to be entirely consistent with their philosophy.

There are two Christmases, the religious one and the secular one.  So the atheists celebrate the secular one.

For that matter, was Jesus Christ really born on December 25, or was it months later? Wasn't it  the Romans that decreed December 25 to be Christmas?
The following article says the early church chose Dec. 25 to replace a pagan Roman holidahy.

http://powertochange.com/discover/culture/jesusbirthday/

[dustup]

....The Mystery Of The Pagan Origin Of Christmas: Jesus Was Not Born On December 25th But A Whole Bunch Of Pagan Gods Were.........

Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th?  Most people assume that it has always been a Christian holiday and that it is a celebration of the birth of Jesus.  But it turns out that Jesus was not born on December 25th.  However, a whole bunch of pagan gods were born on that day.  In fact, pagans celebrated a festival involving a heroic supernatural figure that visits an evergreen tree and leaves gifts on December 25th long before Jesus was ever born.  From its early Babylonian roots, the celebration of the birth or "rebirth" of the sun god on December 25th came to be celebrated under various names all over the ancient world.  You see, the winter solstice occurs a few days before December 25th each year. The winter solstice is the day of the year when daylight is the shortest. In ancient times, December 25th was the day each year when the day started to become noticeably longer.  Thus it was fitting for the early pagans to designate December 25th as the date of the birth or the "rebirth" of the sun.

The truth is that thousands of years before there was a "Santa Claus", there was another supernatural figure who would supposedly visit a tree and leave gifts every December 25th.

His name was Nimrod.

The celebration of December 25th goes all the way back to ancient Babylon.

According to ancient Babylonian tradition, Semiramis (who eventually became known as the goddess Astarte/Asherah/Ashtoreth/Isis/Ishtar/Easter in other pagan religions) claimed that after the untimely death of her son/husband Nimrod (yes she was married to her own son), a full grown evergreen tree sprang up overnight from a dead tree stump. Semiramis claimed that Nimrod would visit that evergreen tree and leave gifts each year on the anniversary of his birth, which just happened to be on December 25th.

This is the true origin of the Christmas tree.

OnBibletools.org, Mike Ford describes this ancient pagan tradition about Nimrod this way....

----

After Nimrod's death (c. 2167 BC), Semiramis promoted the belief that he was a god. She claimed that she saw a full-grown evergreen tree spring out of the roots of a dead tree stump, symbolizing the springing forth of new life for Nimrod. On the anniversary of his birth, she said, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts under it.

More here: http://unexplainedmysteriesoftheworld.com/archives/the-mystery-of-the-pagan-origin-of-christmas-jesus-was-not-born-on-december-25th-but-a-whole-bunch-of-pagan-gods-were

YAHUSHUA/JESUS WAS BORN ON SUKKOT (THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES)	Small | Large

[Mornac]

For that matter, was Jesus Christ really born on December 25, or was it months later?

--I have no idea when He was born. In any case, the December 25th of the Julian Calender would have occurred on a different day than it does in the Gregorian calender that we use today.

Wasn't it the Romans that decreed December 25 to be Christmas?

--It was the Church that designated December 25th as the Feast of the Nativity.

[Case_Closed]

I have no problem with pagans worshiping their FALSE gods on December 25.

[Undecided]

BTW, I'm sure there are more hard-core atheists out there, just was there are Christians, who refuse to use the name "Christmas" at all, under any circumstances, sand who are probably even offended by it.  I'm not one of those.  I'm pretty easy-going, and if I can reasonably go along to get along, I usually will.  I have more important things to worry about in life.

In our society, with something like 85% of the population climbing to be Christian, it's just the easiest route to take.