Atheist Christmas
December 17th, 2006
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After reading Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, it was nice to learn how they celebrate Christmas. (if at all!)
As Christmas has always been a Christian holiday, not being a Christian would seem to exclude one from a true appreciation of and sincere participation in the festivities - most of which are really secular. Actually, Christmas seems mostly to be crass commercialism. But it is also a time to bring families together (give and get all those great gifts!) and enjoy being a family. In the proper spirit, feeling bad about a Nativity scene being displayed here or there shouldn’t in anyway detract from the joy of it all. After all, the Christians stole Christmas from the pagans!
As a palliative to the residual paganism that early Christians harbored (not yet being fully converted) the birth of Christ (being an unsettled fact) was selected to fall close to the Winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. For our early pagans relatives, their sensitivity to the natural cycles of nature made such recognition of the shortest day a “natural” holiday! (The Chinese celebrate Dongzhi Festival on the solstice.) Given that we all suffer seasonal disorder syndrome to a greater or lesser extent, a festive time at the nadir of our lighted days seems like a good way to renew our spirits and look forward to brighter warmers days when pitchers and catchers report for spring training!
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