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Discuss.

Merry Christmas all!

And whatever else.  :)  

I'm curious as to why athiests bother celebrating christmas.  

That's my beef too.  I mean like these people don't have a god and are probably priding themselves as anti-conformists, but then Christmas comes around and they're like "OMG Merry Christmas!" when Christmas actually means Christ's birth really.

And it weird how all these other religions do the same thing.  It's so fucking American.

I was thinking of ruggo.  Last time I checked he was an athiest and he celebrates christmas.

im an athiest and i celebrate xmas, why? its an important mental break that psychologically does a lot of good, it makes millions of people happy, it brings lots of people together in many shapes and forms and its a great excuse to get things bought for you. besides apartf rom what any hardcore christian will tell you xmas is all about marketing, sales and 'the corporation', its no longer a celebration of jesus' birth (whether it happened or not) it s a comercialised holiday like every other 'day' there's a special label by on then calendar

December 25th = Pagan celebration of Yule.
Jesus' birth = Sometime in Autumn. (That's "Fall" to you odd US people.)

The only reason Christians celebrate Christmas on the 25th December is because the Roman's wanted to encourage more people to convert to their new religion. Likewise with Easter (Eostre/Ostara) and Halloween (Samhein) - both Pagan festivals absorbed by the Church in order to gather more followers.

The reason that Atheists/etc celebrate them is two-fold:
1) The new World Religion of Commercialism has now taken them over also.
2) In many places, Christmas has evolved into a family tradition, rather than a religious/commercial one.
3) It's boring sitting being grumpy when everyone else is celebrating.

:santa:

I enjoy being grumpy.  People leave you alone when you're grumpy.  

you are?

...cuz i'm not, thats an easy one: presents. greedy greedy athiests...




oh and awwwwwwwwwwwwwww fire, i <3 the christmas goomba :santa:  

hey im not greedy, im buying all these presents for people out of the goodness of my heart my own pocket!

hehe i meant to say more...but i got lazy...

as a national holiday, it isn't observed as a catholic celebration. Over the years it has just become more and more a part of society, like thanksgiving. thanksgiving isn't derived from any religion, yet its still a national holiday....

heh, i'm kinda rambling, that doesn't make for a great argument there, but meh.


and good for you mole! your so nice heh heh

What about Easter?  Knowledge is so confusing.

I agree with Gal- it's the presents.  :D

SS- isn't the real time of Jesus's birth speculated to be in spring (I know it wasn't winter, but only have a 33% chance of getting it right).  :)  

Well, yea seeing as the shepherds saw the stars in the night sky, I think they concluded it should be spring b/c it's cloudy(?) wherever they were in winter.

Thanks gal. :)

I think I remember reading that thanksgiving was created because George washington wanted to make an American holiday.

You might be right. It's definitely either Spring or Autumn, and I was 70% sure it was Autumn, but I might have got it wrong.

not sure if it gets that cloudy in the middle east, just incase you dont know your geography israel is on the most eastern edge of the meditearanian

Well, I know the summer is clear and hot down there, at least!  LOL  

I work christmas day! :o  Time and a half at least, but still...

Nah, you just want the presents. ;)

Galmort - Ouch.  Time and a half would definately not make up for it for me.  Did you have a say, or did they just stick up the work assignment before you walked in?  

Time and a half is regular weekend pay here (I think).
Christmas on a weekend should be double-time!

ive already forked out £52.50 on prezzies  :(  

no, i crossed it off and said i couldn't work, but i figured i would have to. thats basically why i was hired, for the holiday rush, so they didn't care if i wanted to work or not heh heh

Uh... what's time and a half?  :miffed:  

1.5 your regular wage.  Usually on holidays, but I guess over in Britain they have it on weekends too.  Heh... not so in the US. :miffed:  

nope, not here :(  

You only get it at weekends if you've done enough hours during the week for the weekends to be overtime. I think. Saturday was 1.25, Sunday was 1.5
This is all memories from over four years ago.

Ditto. As an aside, why do you celebrate birthdays?

Same question, as there's no real reason to do either. You just do, mainly because everyone expects you to.

i dont think thats quite along the same lines but hey, i enjoy the attention

Sure it is. Would you celebrate christmas if noone else did? Would you celebrate your birthday if noone else did?

i dont 'celebrate' my birthday any more than i celebrate eating and my view on thats pretty drab, its become a chore i just dont enjoy it anymore. xmas is a means to an end, if itll make me happy then let it me, right now i aint happy so it isnt working, christmas doesnt feel like christmas anymore.

Funny, I feel the same way for some strange reason...  :miffed:  

idd

whats that mean? you agree?

It means indeed.

That's because you're all depressing teenagers who are too busy moping about to enjoy the free gifts and overpriced wine

It's b/c Christmas is a capitalist holiday and no longer retains its original meaning to most people.

Sounds right.  Couple that with college stuffs and the vicious cycle of WoW playing, and I am totally out of it.  :mellow: