By SJ Otto
It is almost December
25, Christmas in this country, and as much as I love this festive season, I
have to put up with those who have deemed themselves holy crusaders to keep
Atheists and similar views out of the holiday season.
Some time ago people
here realized that Jews don’t celebrate Christmas so some people began trying
to include Chanukah in these holidays. In some cities as in New York there are
a lot of Jews. There are menorahs and many people say “happy Chanukah.”
A few years ago I
studied Druidry and after a couple of years of hanging out with other pagans, I
decided to go back to a more humanist approach to spirituality and I adapted
the doctrines of Epicurus. Epicurus did not deny the existence of god(s) but
decided that gods take care of gods and humans need to take care of themselves.
He also told people we should learn not to blame everything on gods. ‘If your
house is crushed by an earthquake it isn’t the anger of the gods, you built
your house in an earthquake prone place.’ And he didn’t believe in an
after-life.
But I still like the fall
holidays, so I still celebrate Samhain or Halloween and Christmas which I call
Winter Solstice. The solstice was actually the December holiday that was taken
over by the early Christians. Many of the old symbols are still used—such as
putting a tree in the house and decorating it.
I’m sure many atheists
celebrate these holidays as well. So why then do some Christians get so angry
if non-Christians want to celebrate this holiday? Why the blatant hatred
against all of us by conservative Christians?
An example of this
hate is an article in the Huff Post where
the president of a Kentucky creationist museum told Fox News that
Christmas was a “time to take on the atheists” who used their free speech
rights to doubt the existence of God;
“Well, it wouldn’t be
Christmas without someone complaining about Christ,” Fox & Friends host
Elisabeth Hasselbeck told Creation Museum President Ken Ham, noting that
atheists had put up a
billboard in Time Square which suggested that Christ was not
needed during Christmas.
“You know, the atheist
who are a very small minority in the population have been trying to impose
their religion of atheism on the culture now for quite a while,” Ham explained.
“You know, getting Bible, prayer out of schools. Christian symbols out of
public places.”
And the most infuriating statement
from this person was;
“I mean, what’s the
atheists’ message? There is no God? When you die that’s the end of you? So
everything’s just meaningless and hopelessness?”
Why is it that if we
don’t believe in god and a religion that focuses on god being more important
than anything else we are “meaningless and hopeless?”
I believe that people
come first, not gods and not the afterlife. Why then are people like me accused
of trying to put doubt about god in people?’ Don’t these Christians have enough
faith in their own beliefs that they can stand it when some says “I don’t
believe that?”
It is obvious that Ham
does not really know what atheists believe, because he has raised the question
‘what do they believe in?’ I notice he didn’t bother to ask an atheist, he just
assumed.
Again Hamm from Fox said;
“The atheists are only
a small part of the population. And really, it’s that minority, less than 2
percent of the population, that seem to be having such say in our culture, in
imposing their anti-God religion.”
I’m not trying to
promote anything—I’m trying to celebrate some holidays. I’m part of the culture
of this country whether others likes it or not. No one can erase non-Christians
and atheist from this country.
Have a Happy Winter Solstice! —Or whatever holiday you want to celebrate!
Solstice Bells- Jethro Tull
Pix by The Practical Shaman500 × 361.
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