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Atheists - Do you celebrate Christmas?

Atheists - Do you celebrate Christmas?


  • Total voters
    56
  • Poll closed .
While I believe that the universe is an "artefact" of some.kind, i can't believe the entity called jahweh had anything to do with it.

The observed universe is wondrous.

Jahweh is a petty deadbeat dad. Went out for smokes a couple thousand years ago and nobody has seen or heard from him since. And sent bears to tear up children for making fun of a bald priest when he WAS around.

That I believe.
 
My wife is a strong Catholic. She loves Christmas. It is important to her and it is important to me to see her enjoy Christmas. I even endure Christmas songs, which I have never liked. But I am not a Scrooge. If people are having fun what's not to enjoy?

I don't "Oooo" and "Ahhh" well. My joy is contrived but I feckin try. No matter, I truly enjoy seeing my wife have fun. That counts and I look forward to it.

I will admit to enjoying Episcopal High Mass if forced to attend a religious service. It's been a long time since I've been to one during Christmas.

It's been a long time for me too, but I have attended and sung some beautiful ones. The liturgy--the music! The instruments!

The holidays are a terrible struggle for me, period, and on one level to (secretly) be grimly gotten through. But I was a magpie in a former life and love all that glitters and sparkles and remain almost as thrilled as an adult as I did as a kid by the lights. I so appreciate the people who are into this and create such spectacular displays!
 
It's been a long time for me too, but I have attended and sung some beautiful ones. The liturgy--the music! The instruments!

The holidays are a terrible struggle for me, period, and on one level to (secretly) be grimly gotten through. But I was a magpie in a former life and love all that glitters and sparkles and remain almost as thrilled as an adult as I did as a kid by the lights. I so appreciate the people who are into this and create such spectacular displays!

Hi Nota. Happy Holidays to you and yours! If you like Christmas songs, I highly suggest you youtube Pentatonix's version of 'Little Drummer Boy' if you've never heard/seen it. absolutely awesome, as well as many of their other Christmas tunes.
 
"Tainted"? So your family gatherings are merely prayer gatherings?

As that is nothing remotely akin to what was stated I will take that as the hyperbolic waste product it is.
 
Hi Nota. Happy Holidays to you and yours! If you like Christmas songs, I highly suggest you youtube Pentatonix's version of 'Little Drummer Boy' if you've never heard/seen it. absolutely awesome, as well as many of their other Christmas tunes.

I prefer this:
 
I wonder if the Atheist religion has any holidays of their own, or they just bitch about others? It's almost like the Muslims and the Jews, without the bombs.
 
Hi Nota. Happy Holidays to you and yours! If you like Christmas songs, I highly suggest you youtube Pentatonix's version of 'Little Drummer Boy' if you've never heard/seen it. absolutely awesome, as well as many of their other Christmas tunes.

I love Pentatonix!

But I struggle with the music. I feel it too deeply.

 
I wonder if the Atheist religion has any holidays of their own, or they just bitch about others? It's almost like the Muslims and the Jews, without the bombs.

We celebrate every fifth Tuesday with Pasta and breadsticks at the Olive Temple....there is at least one in almost every major U.S city....and everyone is welcome after paying the menu tithe.
 
I wonder if the Atheist religion has any holidays of their own, or they just bitch about others? It's almost like the Muslims and the Jews, without the bombs.

Actually if you look in the beliefs/skepticisms and theology forums, it is the theists of various religions and denominations within those various religions that do most of the bitching and moaning about those various religions and denominations within those religions and toss stones at each other, as well as condemning each other to eternal hellfire....not the religious skeptics, so you stand corrected on your fallacious claim.
 
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Most Christians do not practice the true meaning of Christmas -- including those who get annoyed with people not saying Merry Christmas.
 
I wonder if the Atheist religion has any holidays of their own, or they just bitch about others? It's almost like the Muslims and the Jews, without the bombs.

No, it has no holidays, holy books, spiritual leaders, dogma, or anything else that a religion has, because it's not a religion. If atheism is a religion, you have to admit that theism is a religion. Are you ready to go that far? There are atheistic religions and theistic religions, but neither theism nor atheism are religions of themselves.

I mean, I see how nasty you "christians" treat muslims and people of other religions, so I can't imagine the utter hate you have bubbling inside you for people like me who refuse to play the game in the first place.
 
I doubt progressives celebrate Santa because he uses slave elf labor.

I am an atheist and I celebrate Xmas, my reason is because I love watching the innocent children on Xmas morning and their delight brings happiness to all. Nothing to do with I being religious or not.

By the way Christmas is a pagan holiday that original celebrated winter solace and the return of the Sun God. The so-called son of god was supposedly born in early spring during tax collection of the Romans.

Leftists support Santa Claus because he symbolizes free stuff. One need look no further than healthcare to see if leftists support slavery. If healthcare is a right, then doctors are slaves.
 
??? -- How is "I believe God is a fiction/fictitious being" (or something akin to that) not a belief?

Atheism is most certainly a belief system; it just happens to be, well, an atheistic, rather than theistic, belief system. It's on par with the other two main cosmological belief systems:
  • Atheism --> Unequivocal belief that supernatural beings (gods) are fictional. I'm not exactly sure how atheists resolve (do atheists even broach a positive answer it?) the cosmological question, but that's another matter...Nonetheless, they are confident that the answer isn't a deity.
  • Agnosticism --> Unrelentingly equivocal belief that they don't know what's believable and what's not as go answers to the cosmological question.
  • Theism --> Unequivocal belief that a deity is the answer to the cosmological question.
Adherents to each system of belief regarding answers to the cosmological question structure and live their lives in accordance with their system of belief. For example:
  • Atheists --> Burial rites are about mourning the loss of a loved one and/or consoling other bereaved individuals.
  • Agnostics --> Burial rites may be partly about something having to do with theistic catechism and it may also be simply about mourning their own loss and consoling others.
  • Theists --> Burial rites are as much about the afterlife, the soul and other elements of a theology's catechism as they are about mourning the loss of a loved one and consoling others.
Other "pivotal" moments in one's life -- birth, marriage, personal achievements, personal strifes, etc. -- are marked in accordance with one's system of belief.

I think it quite safe to say atheism is exactly what the term indicates: a non-theistic belief system. Sure, it's a system that exogenously, with regard to the existence of an external frame of reference, that frame being theism, professes nonbelief; however, that in a comparative context it seems not a belief system does not make it endogenously a system of belief with its own set of tenets. When one considers atheism in terms of the positive, rather than negative, assertion it makes, it's a lot easier to see that it is indeed a belief.


Aside:
One of the observations I've taken from my tenure on DP is that many folks are given to relativist ways of viewing the world, ideas, policies, people, etc. That relativist "stuff" is, IMO, what allows folks to forbear all sorts of stuff that, when one considers the "stuff" in its own right and not vis-a-vis other similar/related "stuff," it become far clearer whether that "stuff" has merit, value, "probity," etc. After all, the character virtue of princely manhood does not develop and firmly insinuate itself when one practices to see and choose the lesser of two evils.


Your problem is, of course, that you falsely start from a position that a god might exist without even bothering to give a good reason as to why. Your ramble here could be condensed to the few words of, bold is a hair colour.

Your so called cosmological bias is nothing more than saying let's create an imaginary creature and then demand we consider it to be real. Atheists do nothing more than question the dishonesty of that tactic. Questions are not a belief.
 
As that is nothing remotely akin to what was stated I will take that as the hyperbolic waste product it is.

Well, I'll just quote what you said: "I am an Atheist who Celebrates Christmas, because many Family members expect it and we pretend for our Christian members to avoid problems. It is a major pain to do so and I do feel rather hypocritical but feel this is a small price to keep the peace. It is unfortunate to have what should be a pleasant time tainted by religion but, there it is."

Perhaps you can explain how your family gatherings are tainted by religion if I have misinterpreted.
 
"I believe God is a fiction/fictitious being" is not a requirement for atheism. You're trying to turn it around on its head and make it an active thing. Anyone who does not currently believe in god, for any reason, is an atheist. A baby coming out of the womb has no idea what a god even is, therefore he does not believe in god and is an atheist. Not believing in something is not an action. You don't believe in unicorns on neptune. That doesn't mean that you go around every day denying the existence of unicorns on neptune, you spend no time thinking about it, you simply don't believe in it.

Atheism is a religion like not playing sports is a sport.



Well stated and quite accurate. Not believing in something is not a belief, it requires no action.

Red:
Of course, it's not a requirement for atheism. It's the central positive assertion of atheism.
 
No, it has no holidays, holy books, spiritual leaders, dogma, or anything else that a religion has, because it's not a religion. If atheism is a religion, you have to admit that theism is a religion. Are you ready to go that far? There are atheistic religions and theistic religions, but neither theism nor atheism are religions of themselves.

I mean, I see how nasty you "christians" treat muslims and people of other religions, so I can't imagine the utter hate you have bubbling inside you for people like me who refuse to play the game in the first place.

^^^^ this = thread winner
 
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Red:
Of course, it's not a requirement for atheism. It's the central positive assertion of atheism.

No it's not. You can be an atheist without making a positive statement that there is no god. I'm an agnostic atheist, so I don't believe in god and I don't think it's possible to know. A gnostic atheist would say it's possible to know and he believes there is no god.

You're trying to redefine words and meanings in order to paint what you deem as your philosophical enemies with a broad brush. Instead of informing yourself about the other person's beliefs you lump them all together before listening then tell them what they all must believe. Your nonsense contradicts the philosophical definitions and is rejected.
 
Well, I'll just quote what you said: "I am an Atheist who Celebrates Christmas, because many Family members expect it and we pretend for our Christian members to avoid problems. It is a major pain to do so and I do feel rather hypocritical but feel this is a small price to keep the peace. It is unfortunate to have what should be a pleasant time tainted by religion but, there it is."

Perhaps you can explain how your family gatherings are tainted by religion if I have misinterpreted.

Unless you are unfamiliar with the Christmas Holiday season in America your question is inane and baiting.
 
No it's not. You can be an atheist without making a positive statement that there is no god. I'm an agnostic atheist, so I don't believe in god and I don't think it's possible to know. A gnostic atheist would say it's possible to know and he believes there is no god.

You're trying to redefine words and meanings in order to paint what you deem as your philosophical enemies with a broad brush. Instead of informing yourself about the other person's beliefs you lump them all together before listening then tell them what they all must believe. Your nonsense contradicts the philosophical definitions and is rejected.

Red:

rotflmao.gif



 
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Atheists, if you celebrate Christmas in any way: put up a tree, exchange gifts, make special food; go ahead and tick that yes box.

Well, no. You see here in Sweden it's still called Jul as it was a thousand and more years ago. Just like Christianity never happened.
 
I wonder if the Atheist religion has any holidays of their own, or they just bitch about others? It's almost like the Muslims and the Jews, without the bombs.

Atheism is not a religion. Look up the definition of the word atheist.
 
Did any of the christians here think that others didn't do the christmas presents family thing?

Were any of you surprised at the result?
 
Atheism is not a religion. Look up the definition of the word atheist.

True, but it pisses them off. but their beliefs are strong, strident, and they defend them. They are not political because their arguments are (anti) theology. BUT, like a Holly Roller, they will argue witn you to try to get you to change your beliefs.

I dont really care. They only place I encounter them is on line and one devil worshipper I met. But I dont think that qualifies as atheist. Just one more odd ball.

I suppose we could watch the “prove it” vs “trust me” factions fight it out!
 
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