Photo from Blog Critics
There are many wonderful traditions about the Christmas season that people around the world enjoy every year: the decorating of Christmas trees and lights, the hanging of stockings, the wrapping and unwrapping of presents, the singing of Christmas carols, Santa Claus and so on. As an Atheist, I love all these traditions, even the one about Jesus and the Nativity. I think a large part of it is nostalgia growing up in a Christian household, going to a church I liked and performing in Christmas plays for church. I realize it is complete nonsense, and we are not even sure if Jesus was a real person. In fact, both the birth story, and the rest of Jesus's life story isn't even an original story.
Going back to Christmas, one new tradition that has seemed to come about in this country in more recent years is fighting a battle against those evil atheists against a so-called "War on Christmas". Fundamentalist Christians and conservatives in the media will find isolated incidents where an atheist complains about a nativity scene being on public property, a non-Christian parent doesn't want their child singing Christmas Carols in school, or some other story with a similar storyline. Suddenly, there is an all-out assault on Christmas and Jesus himself by atheists, secularists, and liberals. And don't even think about saying "Happy Holidays". It's MERRY CRHISTMAS, God Damnit!
In addition to the cherry-picking of "Christian Persecution" stories, the term "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" has been acceptable phrase for as long as I've been alive, and probably a lot longer. It was only a few years ago that this alleged assault on Christmas began to take place. Part of this is the effective work that fundamentalist Christians have put in to help delivering this message that they are under assault by evil, secular forces. In reality, of course, these Christians don't want anything that isn't Christianity getting in their way of glorifying their Lord, or spreading the word of the Bible.
Part of this phenomenon is also that some members of the media always need something to complain about so people will watch their show or read their articles. This is especially true for conservative pundits and journalists who love to talk about how liberal, secularists are persecuting conservatives, Christians, and of course, conservative Christians (double whammy). I can assure you Christians that while we secular liberals have many items of business on our agenda, neither persecuting Christians or ruining Christmas is not among those things.
One phrase those individuals who insist there is a "War on Christmas" like to say is that "He is the reason for the Season". But the funny thing about the season is that Christmas is primarily a pagan festival. Check out this fascinating video from The Thinking Atheist, and you will learn about the origins of Christmas.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Photo from Young Australian Skeptic
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