Question by XenonEmeritus: Why are so many atheists on this forum obsessed with the Pagan history behind Dec.25 & various Yule customs?
Why do they worry about the fact that Christians celebrate the birth of Christ on a day that happens to have a pagan history…….and enjoy various traditions which have roots in ancient pagan practices. Why shouldn’t anybody care (especially them, if they don’t believe God exists and therefore pagan vs non-pagan wouldn’t matter to them.)
And for that matter, why aren’t they just obsessed that Christians use pagan names for the days of the week, such as Thursday and Friday. Who cares?? Do they believe that once a pagan has named or been associated with a particular day or date, that that somehow taints or dishonors that day/date forever?
I just don’t get it. Why should anybody obsess about the history?
PAUL B: How does your answer make any logical sense? How does that answer the question? Did you read what I wrote? Are you then saying that any day that has a pagan past cannot be used by Christians? (Does that mean that you believe that Christians can’t speak the names of the days of the week.) Someone would be tempted to conclude that many people who Christians concerning these issues just aren’t logical thinkers.
I’m fascinated by the fact that many of those answering my question never read my entire premise–so they simply repeat many of the points I made.
Also, I’ve not noticed all of these alleged case of Christians complaining about pagans celebrating Christmas. I’m just surprised that I haven’t see them.
Even so, I STILL don’t understand the logic of many of the replies. The vast majority of Christians in the U.S. are well aware of the pagan history of many aspects of the Christmas date and traditions. (Who cares about the exact date when Jesus was born? Christians don’t care. Why should anyone else? Indeed every Sunday is a Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ. So what? And who cares that Easter is a reference to Ishtar, a pagan goddess of sex. (Actually, it is kind of cute when people who have just learned a “fun fact” lecture Christians on such things. And yes, it also drives me nuts when some clueless minority of Christians do likewise. Idiots abound on all sides.)
Thanks. Your replies have provided the material I had hoped to collect for a project.
PURPLE MOOGLE: You complain about people failing to investigate what/why atheists believe/say what they do. But isn’t ASKING A QUESTION (of atheists & non-atheists) an excellent way to investigate? Your protest sounds rather disingenuous because it is illogical. It is like you want to have it both ways — so for others it looks like, “Damned if we do & damned if we don’t.” (Or is it inherently wrong to investigate by asking a question? OK. Right. I get it.)
Best answer:
Answer by Harry Pothead 2
I like black tea, no sugar or cream. You can’t beat the full bodied tea flavor of Irish Breakfast. I’m gonna make me another cup right about now.
What do you think? Answer below!
If your religion is the true one, why the need for pagan holy days?
EDIT: sure it makes sense. The bible is god’s word, and is therefore sacred – why aren’t god’s dates sacred? They appear to be interchangeable (in fact, christianity appears to have encompassed paganism – would your god really condone such a dilution of his teachings with such heathen beliefs?). That makes no sense.
“Jesus was born on 25 December” is a lie, isn’t it? How does that fit in with the purity of the Word?
Dude, it’s not “obsession” – it’s stunned amazement at the arrogance and hypocricy of the church.
++
you should know all about obsession…you obsess about the bible, right?
It has been brought up here as a reply to Christians asking “why atheist celebrate Christmas
because no one is really celebrating the birth of christ. its all about getting a tree, being with your family and presents! even though im a christian, the only reference to jesus is when we sing “silent night”.
Harry pothead 2 you can beat that with a cup of earl grey a little honey and some lemon.
Because Xtians trash and belittle Paganism, blaspheme our gods, burn our villages and destroy our crops!
Em….I’m not. I don’t care.
I’m just really annoyed when Christians deride those who enjoy secular offshoots of Christmas.
because history repeats itself??!!
Because atheists live to prove God wrong. They are not satisfied until they’ve had the last word.
We do??
We’re merely pointing out the flaw in the argument of Christians when they say atheists shouldn’t celebrate Christmas, or else when they say atheists saying “Oh god” implies anything about the beliefs of atheists.
What we are saying is, your Jesus was not a real person and that is why he did not have a birthday. Then when the christian leadership looked around they picked a holiday of the Pagans for Jesus ‘ birthday because it was already a well known holiday. The same applies to Easter, and our point is that christians stole those days. Why did they not use days not is use by others. We do not think that days used by Pagan are tainted, but we do think that Pagan days stolen by christians should be discontinued as christianity has tainted those days.
Since most are enemies to Christianity it is only natural to point out the contradictions in commercial Christianity, claiming to be spiritual while celebrating the most commercial materialistic holiday of the year because of peer pressure that has been conditioned since childhood (parental lies about the fat man from the north pole).
I think maybe they are like me.I am a Christian though but since the devil is the father of the lie How can we as Christian justify all the lies associated with christmas? People say over and over its the birth of Christ knowing full and well the Bible does not say that any where.I have studied scriptures for twenty years and I am sure I would have seen it or else been shown it had I missed it by now. Its not there .So why call yourself a Christian if really your just a liar making up what is not in the Bible in the first place.As a Christian I feel the Atheist are simply pointing out the lying and the hypocrisy of it all. Christians are not supposed to lie not to each other or their kids.That’s why this world is so screwed up.As far as I am concerned if you celebrate christmas you have no business calling yourself a Christian.Really your just selling and buying lies.
It’s good for Christians to be challenged concerning our beliefs. In their deluded minds the atheist and the ungodly think they are tearing down our faith, but they are only building it up. How many Christians have left off teaching their kids about Santa because of the facts brought out by our detractors. That’s why Jesus said to love our enemies. They are doing us good.
They Aren’t!
Some people here just post crap trying to cause trouble. Some of them even claim to be an atheist. People who do this sort of thing aren’t really atheists.
Real Atheists are not against religion. We just don’t believe in yours. We don’t criticize your religion, we do not fight against it, we do not demonstrate against it. But we do defend our right to live peacefully without religious people trying to start fights with us, trying to preach to us constantly, trying to make us feel bad for not believing. Many Christians say this doesn’t happen, but it happens all of the time. We have just as much right to not believe as Christians have to believe.
Once I politely tell a Christian that I am an atheist and ask to be left alone, I feel like they start a never-ending series of “attacks”. Constantly knocking on my door, leaving materials about things they already know I don’t believe, and harassing me because I won’t join their church. Christians don’t have a right to harass people just for not wanting to join their church and/or religion.
“atheists saying “Oh god” implies anything about the beliefs of atheists.”
Thank God I’m an Atheist!
The reason we nag the s*** out of you about Christmas is because you guys think that it is a christian holiday. Christmas celebrations of today steal far more then a date. Do some research.
Actually if you looked up questions posed by believers to atheists telling them “how dare they celebrate christmas or anything to do with Dec 25 when it’s the celebration of their lord and savior” you’ll find that most atheists will bring up fact about HOW the origins of xmas came about. When people are screaming ” JESUS WAS BORN ON THIS DAY AND YOU CAN’T CELEBRATE IT” well it shows the askers ignorance more than anything. Or being asked “atheists don’t think you are hypocrits for celebrating or partaking in christmas?” and the like, so as you can see, atheists aren’t the ones obsessing, but more we are the ones being asked.
This atheist doesn’t worry. Having family members of different beliefs, it’s interesting to see how we all can drop the religious nature of the day and just enjoy time with each other.
Seasons Greeting to you and yours.
Take care 🙂
Probably because so many Christians say “Jesus is the reason for the season” without dealing with the fact that it’s very unlikely that he was born any where near December 25th.
This time of year was chosen to substitute a Pagan ceremony for one honoring Jesus instead. Most people say that it’s likely that Jesus would have been born in September or April, depending on what calculations they used, but it wasn’t in December.
And I think they point out that Christians use Paganism in other ways as well by pointing out the days of the week that are named for the ancient gods.
It’s just a way to show how Christianity has been influenced by Paganism in general.
But I’m an Atheist who is also a Pagan… I pay attention to these kind of things.
Jesus was not born in Dec, it was Oct, thus his birth should be celebrated then. Second The days of the week come from Roman gods that everyone used before Christianity and why they are still in use, that really has nothing to do with Christianity. Atheist are concerned with the truth, and pointing out that you have been lied to, it would be mean to just let you go through life without knowing the truth.
Because we are at war with the fundies who scream about putting Christ back in Christmas. you don’t hear Pagans say put Wens back in Wednesday. They protest and boycott businesses because they say happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas. Christmas is not the birthday of any Christ anymore than Santa flying around the world to give presents. Those who present such facts are trying to educate Christians who think they have a corner on the facts and who are unaware of history. You seem not to be in that Catargory.
I don’t care what you celebrate Christian, Pagan or Jew. but when you shove you holiday down my throat I spit it back at you.
I oppose lies when presented as truth. Xmas is the time of year that Christian use to promote their blood cult ” Jesus gave the Ultimate gift” crap. Blood is what taints your holiday.
Was your post to gather information to justify your own premise?
There are Christians and there are fundies. Two different species of Christian. You may be surprised on how many Fundies there are among you. I would feel the same way about any religion who shoved their holiday on others.
I also get real tired of hearing the same old xmas songs year after year.
The reason for that atheists are ‘obsessed’ with the pagan origins is because endless amounts of Christians flood the board asking why atheists celebrate Christmas.
It doesn’t suprise me that you’re asking this. There are no end of idiots asking atheists to defend their questions without looking at all the reasons behind them. Why should you investigate when no one else does?
There is a much loved quote about not acting when “they” came for until there was nobody left to speak up when “they” came for you.
Educated people regardless of their Spirituality (Atheism is a form of Spirituality not a religion) have a tendency to defend people’s right to believe/speak even if they disagree with the content.
If I see some Fundy Wackjob lying about something I know to be wrong I will speak up.
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