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its their freedom to celebrate whatever they want...


PS: Im atheist and i celebrate christian holidays... No one really cares...

Does that not make you a bit hipocratical?

Yes, it does make him hypocritical.

And Chris: It changed because the Christians stole it from the Pagens, and made it their own.

Actually Christmas is alot different to christians then it was to pegans so correct me if Im wrong in thinking that Christmas for Pegans was for the poor to be rulers of that day and the rich people had to give the poor their best wine/food/etc.. for the day.

Christmas today has pretty much nothing to do with the old pegan holiday besides tha gifts. (rich to poor)

If you payed attention to the documentary on the History Channel, they even stated the Christians stole it, and changed it -_-

If that was directed at me; I could barely hear it, and only caught tidbits of it.

Well I was paying attention, and I came to believe that it evolved during the age of exploration and they brought the holiday over to the new world and started to celebrate it differently.

Sorry for reviving a dead topic.

I say yes, to SOME holidays. One like Christmas, I celebrate because I believe there was a guy named Jesus who did great things, however, I don't believe that God sent him to Terra to do such things. He was just a monk that liked to help people.

When I celebrate Christmas, I spend time with friends and family and just have a good time. The essence of Christmas to me, is togetherness.

Then, the obscure ones like easter, I don't really do anything for. I also don't celebrate any other religious holidays except that one because I can't find much meaning in it.

Well.. there's my 75 cents...

I believe that Athestist shouldn't celebrate religious holidays. Holiday doesn't only mean holy-day. It means a day of celebration. The holidays are only religious to the people who celebrate them as such.
I celebrate christian holidays, and I am more or less an atheist. The thought of christian history and the reasons behind the celebrations don't even cross my mind. I don't go to any churches for the holidays. There is nothing hypocritical about having fun with friends if I am not being a christian for one day and not the next.





Killer argument, by the way, Euro. You really contributed.

I know I did, thank you [/sarcasm]

No holiday is religous. They are deemed religious, by the church.

All holidays were taken from Pagens; Hence, no religious ties (Except when Catholics and Christians took it from the Pagens)

And may I ask you why you assume holidays are "religious"?

easter isnt pagan...

neither is st patricks, veterans, presidents ect.

easter and st patricks are christian/catholic related tho.

Easter is pagan influenced, but not created. (Easter bunny, eggs)

Pagan is a pretty broad term. It pretty much means anyone who is not a jew, christian, or muslim, which includes people who practice no religion, and people who practice every other religion. That would mean there are religious ties to pagan holidays.

There is reason to assume that the topic is talking about non-religion based holidays. Noone would call an atheist a hypocrite for celebrating president's day and birthdays.

So you're saying, that since I practice Christmas, i'm religious? That's the argument you're imposing. Which is a faulty one.

Holidays are not religious, as I have stated. They were taken from the Pagens BY religions, but are not religious (If you really want to get technical) They are practiced by religions, yes. But that does not make them religious.

So jewish holidays were taken from Pagans also?

I am an atheist, and I think it's nice that I can get presents because that others belive in God and Jesus and all that christian thingies!

The holidays are only religious to the people who celebrate them as such.
It's religious to christians who celebrate it as the birth of christ.
It is not religious to people who celebrate because it is a fun time of year and it's good to give and recieve gifts.

Well said my mate!

But, if Christmas wasn't celebrated as a holiday we wouldn't celebrate either!

Feh. Let them eat cake. If they want to celebrate the commericialism, let them do that. Its crude and vulgar, sure, but who am I to stop them? Hahaha. Let's make all the atheists go to school on Christmas!!! That'd be funny. Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks so.

Celebrating holidays is a great way to gain cultural awareness. Like going to Christmas Mass, lighting the menorah, etc. I'm not Jewish, but I celebrate Hannukah with my friends...

I don't see what you hope to accomplish by preventing atheists from participating in religiously based holidays. Over the years, Christmas has become more of a commericalized holiday than a religious holiday where people are encouraged to spend as much money as they can to buy gifts, but that's partially besides the point.

I'll put forwards this hypothetical proposition. Saturday should no longer be observed as a day of rest, a day where some people do not attend work and most do not attend school. In Christinaity, Sunday is considered to be the holy day of rest and was observed as such for the first few centuries of its dominance as a religion in semi-ancient times.

Saturday as a day of rest derived from the Sabbath of Judaism, the setting of the sun on Friday night to the settnig of the sun on Saturday night. It was adopted into mainstream society early on, but it's roots lie in Judaism and was not originally observed by Christians. Because of this, should we disallow Christians from consitantly using Saturday as an extra day of rest?

It would be daft and uneconomical to prevent people of different groups, organizations, races, religions, etc., from observing different holidays because it is not rooted to their beliefs. What purpose does this serve? Not only would such a thing be necessarily discriminatory, it impedes on peoples' legal rights which is a step in reducing the freedoms of the public. People should not be prevented from participating in holidays based on their religious beliefs, let people observe or ignore whatever holidays they wish to. People have different beliefs, I apologize if you find atheists celebrating Christmas offensive, but there are many groups who find the celebration of Halloween offensive and sacriligious, but that doesn't mean we should disallow people from celebrating Halloween so as to be careful to not offend those of different religions. The holidays are there, the holidays are observed by the government, many as national holidays. There is no reason to discriminate who may participate.

To answer your question with my opinion, atheists or those of non-Christian religious sects should be permitted to observe whatever holdays they wish to.

I'm Islamic, but I still celebrate Christmas. Whats wrong with celebrating any holiday you want? Especially if it's a happy holiday.

Well I think its sort of saying:

"I don't believe in god, I don't believe in your religion, I don't believe in the bible, but I sure as hell will reap the benefits of your religion!"

I don't know it still just seems wrong.

Well, everything is wrong until you show that it's right!

Good point.

And I bet that that attitude is not what Atheists use, Chris. Why do you always try to make things seem worse than they are? If you don't mind me asking a simple question such as that.