As I was preparing for my own Thanksgiving celebration today I was thinking about the people here in this forum and it dawned on me that since Atheists don't believe in God what would be the purpose of them celebrating Thanksgiving? I'm just wondering do you celebrate Thanksgiving and if you DO who are you thanking?
I didn't realize how many holidays you guys must miss out on because you don't believe in God. Do you celebrate Christmas or Easter?
Please, I'm not trying to make anyone mad I just really want to know.
2006-11-22 16:47:11 · 29 answers · asked by Pamela 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
But you guys are missing my point....it's called THANKSgiving....as in "thanks for giving me life and health and a family, etc. Who are the Atheists THANKING on Thanksgiving? I am well aware of the history of Thanksgiving. I don't honor the Pilgrims. I use it as a time to thank GOD for the blessings in my life and for His grace in allowing me to live in this country.
2006-11-22 16:54:30 · update #1
ndmagicman....if you are thankful for your life, your good luck and your fortune to whom do you give thanks for those things?
2006-11-22 17:01:09 · update #2
This is a very valid question.
As an Atheist i celebrate thanksgiving as a day of giving thanks to my family for supporting me, my friends for the good times weve had, my partner for being a sweetheart, and HBO for running six feet under.
I celebrate the commercial aspect of Christmas soley because of all the religous holidays around the end of the year it is the most widely practiced (by believers and non).
And i do not celebrate easter, because i think that to make a mockery of this holiday would be uncalled for and disrespecting those who do believe. I do have a thanksgiving like dinner with my family though.
2006-11-22 16:54:16 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING:
Because of Squanto's help, the Pilgrims had a very successful harvest in October and had plenty of food for the upcoming winter. The Pilgrim's Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of celebration and thanksgiving sometime in the middle of October. The Pilgrims invited Squanto and many other Indains to join in the celebration. The Thanksgiving feast lasted for three days.
CONTINUATION OF THE CELEBRATION OF THANKSGIVING:
The custom of celebrating after harvest time became an annual event. However, it was not until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln officially proclaimed the last Thursday in November a national day of Thanksgiving. On November 26, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the fourth Thursday in November as a national Thanksgiving holiday.
Source:
http://www.hazelwood.k12.mo.us/~cdavis01/webquests/kpw/#THE%20STORY
2006-11-22 16:53:26 · answer #2 · answered by buttercup 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas have moved away from being Christian holidays. They are now just US tradition. I am an Atheist. I eat a big meal on Thanksgiving and my father leads us in a prayer, but that's about all. These holidays are basically just excuses for extended family to get together if you aren't a Theist.
2006-11-22 17:05:10 · answer #3 · answered by Dawkins 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
What does god have to do with Thanksgiving at all? You can be thankful for your life, for your good luck and fortune without any religious overtones what so ever. I do not see Thanksgiving as any kind of religious event at all. Celebrate easter? Why? And how do you celebrate easter? Christmas I exchange gifts with family and friends as part of what christmas has really become....a national celebration of advertising and commerce. I find it strange that you, a christian, would be celebrating christmas and easter which of course were orginally pagan holidays. Doesn't that make you feel strange?
2006-11-22 16:58:32 · answer #4 · answered by ndmagicman 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
First i am an Agnostic but it pretty much means Atheist to you. I am a former Catholic so all my family still is. I still get gifts and they get some from me. I dont have to believe in God to be thankful for the good things in my life. Thanksgiving isnt a Catholic holiday by the way!!!! Not to make you mad but do you that most Christian holidays have there roots in pagan holidays??
2006-11-22 17:09:15 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Thanksgiving is also a federal holiday. Christmas and Easter are also very secularized (Santa wasn't at the Nativity and the Easter Bunny wasn't at the Crucifixion). I'm not atheist, but that's how many people celebrate them anymore.
2006-11-22 16:51:49 · answer #6 · answered by The Doctor 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I am not atheist, but I don't consider Thanksgiving to be a religious holiday. It is about togetherness and family. Besides, many athiests celebrate Christmas as a holiday that focuses on family and giving to others. I am unsure about Easter.
Some Christians believe athiests to be bad people, but many are just like you and me. They just don't believe the same as we do. it doesn't mean they lack morals. And I am not trying to be mean about it, but rather to explain.
So an atheist may be thankful for their family or for their friends (or any and all other things). They just don't have to thank God for those things.
2006-11-22 16:55:50 · answer #7 · answered by toothfairy 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Do YOU even know what Thanksgiving is all about? God didn't mean anything to the Indians at the table. It was just a sharing of food in the "new land" with the savages that the Pilgrims were attempting to "convert" by tricking them into the white mans ways of living. Why? To take their land for themselves. Since the Indians never believed in the white mans GOD, that doesn't mean that they didn't give thanks or have their own beliefs. You are confusing GOD with JESUS & this is why I don't practice ANY type of organized religion, including Atheism. If you have to label yourself, then you are a follower & you have missed the point of creation & oneness with your creator. I used to call myself an Atheist, now I am just a living creature that has been created by the force which creates ALL life. Some call it GOD. Jesus was just a human like the rest of us. Humans are mammals. aka animals. I'm not trying to be a smart a*s, but I just thought you'd like the facts from another perspective. Enlightenment has no conceptual boundaries of time zones & holidays as organized religions practice. :o)
2006-11-22 17:00:22 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. One can be thankful for the good things in his/her life without attributing those things to God. Christmas and Easter are fairly secular now and even have their roots in paganism. (They were later adapted to Christianity to further include pagans in Christianity.)
By the way, I am not an atheist; I am a practicing Christian who believes that as a Christian I have the responsibility to accept and love EVERYONE and not constantly question their lives and beliefs.
2006-11-22 17:08:39 · answer #9 · answered by C.D.N. 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Um, God has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. It's about America's history.
I celebrate it. Mostly for the food though.
I celebrate Christmas for the commercial aspects of it. Honestly, I have nieces and nephews, and that's all they care about is the gifts.
And I don't celebrate Easter. No point in it for me.
(I'm agnostic; not an atheist.)
2006-11-22 16:51:14 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋