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Has Christmas been secularized?

Quick question to you all, has Christmas been secularized?

I've thought about this for a few days and while this should probably wait until after Thanksgiving, I thought I might ask what you thought about the secularization of Christmas.

As of now, as I type this, I happen to believe that Christmas has been, for all intents and purposes, secularized. It is a religious holiday in name only like Halloween.

For me, evidence of this is that Christians feel compelled to prompt us to 'Remember the reason for the season' (which can only mean that we shouldn't forget that the plane of the Earth's rotation is not parallel to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun) implying that people have forgotten.

I'm of the opinion that the Christians have already lost the war on this one, the co-opting of pagan rituals hundreds of years ago to get people to care about Jesus more seems to have backfired.

I think the secularization of Christmas has been done. What do you think?

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Permalink Reply by ryan cameron on November 16, 2009 at 9:20am

I was asking a similar question here, but with the spin of what is the potential damage we bring on our "sacred" secular humanist institutions such as civil rights, democracy, science, reason, logic etc. if we take meaningless sacred things like "christmas" away from religious people? Are we poking the insane tiger or swarm of insane bees with a sharp stick, just asking them to come attack science, democracy and education under the force of "freedom of religion"...effectively using our own weapon against us?

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Permalink Reply by Klaus Motan on November 21, 2009 at 4:05am

...just a little thing, everyone seems to have forgotten : it doesn´t matter, if Xmas or Easter or any other "ecclestical" holyday (HOLYday ?! ahaa...) is based on a pagan festivity or not, as an Atheist you´re definitely not supposed to celebrate them - the "tradition" you´re calling on is a christian, and, of course, as an Atheist you´ve decided not to follow any religious tradition, pagan or christian or else, `cause it always includes the existence of a god or gods...

So, I don´t know much about American "holy"days, but the only true secular ones here in Austria are "international labourer´s day - 1st of May" and the "26th of October - our national day", each other is a ecclestical one - seems to be the same in the States, including "Thanksgiving (whom do you thank, eh ?)"...

I wouldn´t say, that you shouldn´t enjoy these days free of work or school, you just should keep in mind, that those are not Atheistic "holy"days....It´s not a matter of the name, such a day is given, nor if you celebrate by going to the church or not, or if you changed the bonds of christianity to the bonds of capitalistic society of over-consuming, it´s a matter of realizing, that you´re actively working against your so-called conviction, and enjoying an ancient tool of roman-catholic church.

In my opinion, the only true way (me likes to have labour-free days too, christian or not) for an Atheist would be to reject ecclestical "holy"days and demand for secular ones. But, to avoid beeing flamed here, I´m not so straight on acting, everyone likes to have some times for themselves, and so, as it´s quite an utopian claim to call for secular days of one´s own use in a religious dominated society, be fine, and see my posting as a rather theoretical one...

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Permalink Reply by funk Q on January 19, 2010 at 4:06am

I guess you're not a fan of xmas then?

Also, may I suggest proof reading before you post, because your comments don't make any sense. The ability to perform those tasks while "posting desire" seems both hazardous and daunting.