Comment

Comment by Grinning Cat on November 26, 2012 at 9:14pm

Atheists need a holiday of their very own ... where we could mobilize a ton of service projects.... We need to let the world know that we are moral, altruistic and rational primates.

Sounds like a good way to expand the celebration of HumanLight!

Comment by Earther on November 26, 2012 at 4:43pm

Sometimes I think the only way I would feel like I was not being eaten alive by the social traditions of religioun and consumerism is if I worked at an all atheist elementary school.

Comment by Peter Furminger on November 25, 2012 at 11:48pm

Never liked x mass. Was hoping it was going to be canceled this year due to lack of interest but it seems we are not quite there yet.

Comment by Sentient Biped on November 25, 2012 at 12:33pm

There was a time in my past when the on-call holiday schedules took religious holidays in considerations.  The Muslims were protected at Ramadan.  The Jews for Jewish holidays.  The Christians for Easter and Christmas.  And me......   there was no atheist holiday, so I had to defer to everyone else on theirs, but got no deference in return.   Fortunately, now where I am they don't defer to anyone.  

Comment by Alan Perlman on November 25, 2012 at 12:26pm

I emphatically agree.  Gets worse every year, as people need ever larger doses of hyped-up consumerism to deaden their pain, dread, and guilt. 

As a Jew, I first felt left out of a great party everyone else was having.  As I grew up, I saw what an awful exercise it is and was glad to be uninvolved (except for office parties - I had TWO every year at one company; on the whole, I think I would prefer to be waterboarded). 

When South Park's Kyle realizes, in the second half of his song, that it's not so tough being a Jew at Christmas...that's my story, and I reached the same conclusion long ago.

Many atheists make fun of it all with Festivus, but I second Dick's comment: Christmas should be a season of social projects by atheists.  That would make "good without God" a reality at just  the time when people believe most fervently that without God/Jesus, humans are failed, fallen, and incapable.

Comment by Pat on November 25, 2012 at 12:22pm

The Friday after Thanksgiving, my daughter came in for a surprise visit. Which, was a great surprise. Soooo, we decided to go out to eat. We went to a pretty good restaurant in the area, to enjoy a good bottle of wine and some fine pasta. Normally, this place will have something like Vivaldi's Four Seasons playing as background music. Well, they had the Four Seasons, alright. The stylings of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons with I Saw Mommie Kissing Santa Clause. The three of us (me, my daughter, and my partner) all commented on this in agreement. Let the crap begin!

There are a number of things that bother me  about the imposition of compulsory good cheer in celebrating Big Brother's birthday, but the thing that gets me the most is the insipid, banal, trite, and tiresome canned music that seems to be inescapable. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "I'll Have A Blue Christmas," "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer," etc., etc., ad naseum.

I'm reminded of the prayer intoned by my 8th century Irish ancestors. "From the wrath of the Northmen, spare us."

Comment by Provocative Primate on November 25, 2012 at 11:42am

Atheists need a holiday of their very own, not just celebrating Darwin's birthday, but something where we could mobilize a ton of service projects in our respective neighborhoods, as opposed to blindly "buying" into consumerism.  We need to let the world know that we are moral, altruistic and rational primates.  I've only been part of Atheist Nexus for a few days but I'm enjoying how it fosters a sense of community and gives rational folk an outlet for sharing without stirring up a hornet's nest of believers who have their archaic Middle Age world all figured out. 

Comment by Sentient Biped on November 25, 2012 at 9:27am

I feel like I'm entering a foreign culture during xmas season.  Not one I like.  My partner is from China and views it as Western silliness and excess, but fun.  

The traffic, the full parking lot, the hassle just getting some groceries.  The xmas muzak.   Arrrgghhhhh!  The horror!

At work they are putting up an xmas tree and xmas stocking for everyone.  I don't want to stand out as negative, so I just tolerate it.  One year someone put a creche on the xmas stocking of a colleague, who happens to be semi-lapsed Hundu.   She was horrified.  But didn't want to stand out as negative so tolerated it.  A trend....

Comment by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on November 25, 2012 at 12:18am

Start! LOL I've already been subjected to Xian Muzak at the dentist's office twice and stores are going banannas. *groan* My dread is about Climate Change since I saw David Roberts TED talk.

I've been upset for two days.

Comment by Steph S. on November 25, 2012 at 12:18am

I agree!! I just hate Xmas myself. All consumerism - it's just buy this and buy that. 

I've always hated Xmas.