I guess this is the right deparment for this

[sean 0]

http://gothamist.com/2010/11/28/athiest_bi..._nativity_a.php

[realitycheck44 0]

Please don't start a thread with just a posted link. Quote from the article, and let us know what you think about it. There are lots of articles I agree or disagree with, but I don't bother typing out a response for each one. Let us know what you think, and we'll be more likely to respond.

That said, I think this is stupid. Christmas is a great secular holiday, and I think there is rational value for atheists to celebrate it.

[Carlos 0]

Encouraging individuals to refrain from celebrating Christmas because they aren't Christian or because they don't believe in the Nativity Myth is itself ignorant, because the secular individuals themselves are believing and furthering the myth that Christmas is a Christian holiday.

"Christmas" is a hybrid holiday, resulting from the mixture of customs common to winter celebrations of European pagans with the Nativity Myth of the Middle Eastern religion Christianity. Winter Celebrations occurring on-or-around the Winter Solstice were very common the in pre-Christianized, Pagan Europe, and involved many customs that we would find familiar today.

So Christmas does not belong to Christianity, it was stolen by Christianity, and has been mistakenly been assumed by subsequent cultures to be part of the religion.

You have to realize that we (Western Civilization) are a European pagan culture that had a Middle Eastern religion artificially tacked on during the medieval era. Holidays such as Christmas and Easter have nothing to do with Christianity, and have roots going back thousands of years before some Jewish carpenter thought he was the son of god.

Cherish your cultural holidays; casting them aside will merely grant Christianity one more victory in its history of wiping out other cultures. Historically we are a pagan people, so be merry and enjoy your customs