"An Atheist Can Believe in Christmas"
Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion", when asked if an atheist could celebrate Christmas wrote,
“Presumably your reason for asking me is that ‘The God Delusion’ is an atheistic book, and you still think of Christmas as a religious festival,” Mr. Dawkins wrote, in a reply printed here in its entirety. “But of course it has long since ceased to be a religious festival. I participate for family reasons, with a reluctance that owes more to aesthetics than atheistics. I detest Jingle Bells, White Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and the obscene spending bonanza that nowadays seems to occupy not just December, but November and much of October, too.”
He added: “So divorced has Christmas become from religion that I find no necessity to bother with euphemisms such as happy holiday season. In the same way as many of my friends call themselves Jewish atheists, I acknowledge that I come from Christian cultural roots. I am a post-Christian atheist. So, understanding full well that the phrase retains zero religious significance, I unhesitatingly wish everyone a Merry Christmas.”
Monday, December 25, 2006
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12 comments:
I bought that book for my sister for a Christmas present, LOL. I hope I don't go to hell for that!
If an atheist can celebrate Christmas with "reluctance" for family reasons then why the fuss about Santa hats for bus drivers etc? Just deal with it. I still think they should give their kids a lump of coal in the stocking...
Personally, I celebrate Christmas purely as a secular holiday - ahhhh, the smell of a real pine tree inside your house, lots of food, and gifts. Oh, and Christmas lights. Only missing the real pine trees in Taiwan.
i think the lump of coal would be a pretty shitty gift... why should atheists be assholes?
The lump of coal symbolizes what becomes of the physical body after death, and rejects the notion of a soul or afterlife. Plus I am referring to militant atheists who complain about bus drivers wearing santa caps, etc., not me or you.
Here's a joke for you:
Kid: Dad, Here's my list of Xmas presents I want.
Dad: Whoa, that's pretty long...and what makes you think you will get any? You've been pretty naughty - you might just get a lump of coal.
Kid: What's coal?
Dad: A kind of rock that burns.
Kid: A rock that burns! Cool!
"Plus I am referring to militant atheists who complain about bus drivers wearing santa caps, etc."
There number of such people is so amazingly small, that it's ridiculous to even mention them. The recent news releases about the bus driver Santa cap hullabaloo didn't even mention atheists, they just said a parent whose child didn't believe in Santa Claus. Given the demographics of Long Island, where the complaint took place, I think you are pointing fingers at the wrong group.
so if a lump of coal represents the lack of an afterlife, does a piece of fruit or some cool toy necessarily confirm the existence of life after death?
No, not at all. The lump of coal symbolizes the lack of an afterlife for an atheist celebration that is a figment of my imagination so far. (no takers on this website alas.) Look, we need to get rid of the whole naughty/nice paradigm and the idea of cool toys and fruit as the antithesis to the lump of coal is NOT helping. I'm trying to re brand the lump of coal from something with negative associations into a gift of knowledge.
p.s. Karl, good point on the Santa hat issue - similar to the rabbi at Seatac incident. BTW, I saw a Taiwan bus driver with a Santa cap and his bus was all decorated...except he mis-spelled Xmas to read: Max's.
BTW, I don't believe there is any serious "war on Christmas" and I am not a Christian. I am probably an agnostic myself. Did no one think it was funny to imagine an atheist family having lumps of coal in their stockings?
yeah i thought it was funny but reminded me of the old charlie brown cartoons...
did you hear the old bill hicks line-
"what's an atheist yell when he comes?
---chemical jets! chemical jets!"
I can't get the humor because I can't see the connection between atheism and Santa Claus. Analogy joke: Are you going to give your daughter an empty hong bao because you don't believe that demons prowl about on Lunar New Year's Eve?
Karl, I get what you are saying, but I just had this funny image of a kid running downstairs all excited to find a lump of coal in his stocking, and his atheist dad explaining to him that it symbolized the non-belief in afterlife...maybe sort of like how Jewish kids might be jealous of Christmas?
Though, I will now make a case for you anyways.
Atheist does not believe in God, and berates Christians for believing in a make-believe fairy tale. Atheist belittles Christians using a parody of religion called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, i.e. you might as well believe in the FSM as Christ.
Now, said Atheist says its okay to "reluctantly" celebrate Christmas since its mainly just a cultural relic, a family holiday, or a commercial enterprise...but there is no such thing as Santa, so by celebrating Christmas in anyway is sort of like attending Church for the cultural value even though you don't believe in God. It seems sort of a cheesy half-way house.
Now for some more speculative crap:
But I don't really believe the Athiest is "reluctant" at all but secretly ENJOYS Christmas - the associations with getting childhood gifts, the food, and the tree - dude, no way do people NOT like Christmas on some level. (I think we are well placed to know this, since we had to work on Christmas day and it just felt DAMN WRONG. See also Kevlar's student expressing the "I hate Christ but love Xmas" meme.)
The again, truly believing in a religion versus the quasi "willing suspension of disbelief" for the Santa kind of Christmas is a big difference. However, in my mind, I think most religious people secretly in their hearts know their religion does not really exist beyond a cultural construct, but through force of will, they "believe" in it for various reasons not unlike celebrating Christmas because its fun.
"Atheist belittles Christians using a parody of religion called the Flying Spaghetti Monster"
This is not correct. The FSM was conceived solely as a comment on Christians who want Genesis taught in science class in public schools.
As Dawkins said, Christmas is not a Christian holiday, so why shouldn't an atheist celebrate it? Jesus wasn't born on Dec 25, and everyone has forgotten whatever pagan gods were involved with the holiday before it got ganked from the Celts. Dawkins does Christmas for the same reason we do CNY- everyone around us is doing it.
FSM is a parody of religious beliefs - or are you saying Genesis is not a religious belief now?
Atheism does not just oppose Christianity (or am I missing something?) so they shouldn't celebrate any religious or quasi-religious holiday...Santa Claus sounds to me like some sort of Cargo Cult (note the word cult there?)
He wrote a whole book about the God Delusion, so for God's sake, he should not be doing anything remotely religious on CHRIST MASS day. No Jolly SAINT NICK, or what not. Just like I'd expect a militant Christian who forgoes all of the pagan rituals, like Christmas trees or worshiping the Chinese ancestors, to do the same at CNY. (Actually, my bro is now a Jehovah's Witness, and does not celebrate Christmas either...LOL.) When I write a book called "The Delusion of the Lunar Calendar" then we can discuss if I should be reluctantly or not celebrating the CNY.
Actually, the problem with Christmas is that it's a spectrum from fully religious holiday, to angels on the tree, to a man with a red suit coming down chimneys. If I hear Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer followed by Silent Night, it's sort of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup situation:
Hey, you got your Christian holiday in my Winterfest!
No, you got your Winterfest in my Christian holiday.
In any case, I actually agree with Dawkins that its mainly a cultural holiday now and its fine for atheists (or people like me) to celebrate Christmas, but for some reason he pisses me off and I want him to get a lump of coal for Xmas. He won't mind actually since he detests commercialism anyways.
Now, how about St. Patrick's day? Can a non-Irish atheist get drunk and wear green?
;)
wow..found all of this by mistake...oh if it were only cosmic... i gotta say tho..i will be glad when i do die to find that there is a heaven, than to die always believing there isnt ...and then find that heaven wont be my home...for eternity.
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