Doesn't it bother you when people say their is no God and then go out and celebrate christmas?!? Umm, hello! the true meaning of Christmas is the birth of Christ, the SON OF GOD! Before you go claiming there is no God, you better look into what your actions are saying, don't you think? This applies especially to people experimenting with religion... what's your opinion?
2006-12-04 06:51:52 · 38 answers · asked by italianchic1606 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Now i don't mean to criticize everyone who celebrates something in the holiday season. I just want to prove a point that some people don't realize that their actions contradict their beliefs. it's called CHRISTmas for a reason though. I know some of the traditions are not originally about Christ, but some of them are... we give gifts because Jesus was a gift from God to the world and the wisemen gave gifts to Jesus. Of course anyone is welcome to celebrate the season, but don't call it Christmas... there's a big difference. It's become so commercialized over the years that no one knows why we do what we do... including Pagan traditions.... as well.
2006-12-04 07:27:49 · update #1
I can see your point but Christmas, by and large, is a "secular holiday" ( which is an oxymoron itself!). Lots and lots of people celebrate it in one form or another who either have no knowledge of God or who have a distorted view of religion.
But it doesn't bother me. If people hear the name of Jesus Christ and if one soul - just one - out of the multitudes of Christmas shoppers and celebrants pauses for one minute and begins to consider the words to a Christmas carol or reads one bible verse dealing with the birth of Christ while attending their once a year church service - if one soul is brought one inch closer to God, closer to an understanding of His great love and mercy as found in Jesus Christ, then I rejoice.
god bless!!
2006-12-04 06:59:18 · answer #1 · answered by happy pilgrim 6 · 3⤊ 2⤋
The ancients celebrated the winter soltice thousands of years before Christ was ever dreamed of. It was a very joyous time. They called it The Return of Light. They decorated their homes with holly, mistletoe, and decorated an evergreen tree, usually a fir ( tannenbaum ).
It was the Christian church that conveniently had Christ born at that time, even though Roman records show that no census was taken then.
The evergreen tree was sacred to the pagans because it remained alive all winter, while the others appeared to be dead. The decorating with evergreen was outlawed by the church for many hundreds of years because of the pagan origin.
So when you religious people put up an evergreen tree, you're paying homage to the great Gods - - Woden, Frida, Thor, Frey, the sun god, and the moon god.
When you celebrate the Return of Light with evergreens, you better look into what your actions are saying, don't you think ?
2006-12-04 07:30:09 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Not at all.
The Yule holiday, what you call Christmas, is about gathering together in the dark time of the year and bringing light through togetherness to the spirit of the community. It has little to do with any particular God and alot to do with mortal men and women. Thanksgiving is a harvest festival, we give thanks for our food and make pigs of ourselves- well, some of you do, I have three harvest festivals and I'm done with it by November, so I don't see any need for another one- But Yuletide is like a thanksgiving for spirit. You give thanks for the people in your life and show them your appreciation with offerings or gifts, if you prefer. Traditionally these gifts were given to people who helped you bring in your harvest. First you celebrate the harvest and then you spend the next cold month or two making gifts for the people who helped you out.
Trees, wreaths, stockings, Santa, cookies and pretty presents have nothing to do with Jesus, or Christ or the son of God. Never have. Never will. The fact that we call it Christmas is just because it's so ingrained into our common language.
Besides. Jesus was born in the autumn.
The wisemen thought he was Mithra.
Move on.
2006-12-05 04:26:26 · answer #3 · answered by kaplah 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I gre up as a Catholic and love the good things about Christmas. Just because I no longer believe that Jesus is God doesn't mean I don't think he was a great man. I have also been known to have a drink or two on St Patrick's day.
If they had holidays celebrating the birth of Plato or Aristotle -- I'd be happy to celebrate those, too.
Besides -- one of the most important men ever to have lived was born on December 25. Isaac Newton was born December 25, 1642. Now if that isn't worth celebrating, nothing is.
2006-12-04 07:16:56 · answer #4 · answered by Ranto 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Do you really think that Atheists and non-Christians celebrate Christmas? Or could it be that they're celebrating having one day a year with ALL their family because everyone has the day off, they get to eat great food, and open presents? Or maybe it's because Christmas falls only three days after Yule which many Pagans celebrate with family, good food, and opening presents and have for millenia longer than Christianity has been in existance?
That couldn't be a possibility, could it?
I think the question is, why do Christians celebrate Christmas at the same time as Yule when Christ wasn't even born in December?
2006-12-04 06:55:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Because Christmas is mostly a secular holiday. BTW, the TRUE meaning of Christmas is a celebration of the season. Pagans celebrated this long before the Christians came around. Christians decided to celebrate their dead prophet's birth on this day, even though their own book indicates he wasn't born in winter.
Let's look at the elements of Christmas:
Christmas trees - Pagan, Secular
Santa Claus - Pagan/Commerical/Renamed after a Christian saint
Visiting family - Secular
Giving gifts and receiving them - various, also secular
Peace on Earth and goodwill towards men - Secular
Giving to the poor - Secular
Jesus being born - Christians moved his birth to this date to piggyback on a pagan holiday
Holly - Pagan, Secular
Feasts - Secular
Lights - Pagan, secular
Snowmen - Secular
The North Pole - Secular
Tinsel - Secular
Being kind to others - Secular
Being of good cheer - Secular
Parties - Secular
Other than the name, Christmas is mostly secular. So why shouldn't atheists celebrate? We're as charitable, if not more so, as anybody else.
2006-12-04 06:54:19 · answer #6 · answered by nondescript 7 · 7⤊ 1⤋
I think its more important to serve god and make him happy than call myself a christian and know the orgins behind christmas and still celebrate it. I don't think it makes god happy to see people celebrating something with so many false idols and pagan orgins.
Yet that is what most so called christians do. At least the Jehovah's Witnesses can have a good conscience before god when it comes to Christmas and other holidays with pagan orgins.
People should have the so called holiday spirit year round not during a certain season.
2006-12-04 07:39:59 · answer #7 · answered by JB 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Christmas presents a complex issue for atheists because there is currently so much more to Christmas than religion. People will justifiably decry the American consumer culture which appears to overemphasize spending and superficiality, but which has also managed to diversify Christmas far beyond a Christians-only celebration.
This may be one case where the ability of our consumer culture to tear down traditional meanings has actually done us a service.
Christians quite literally stole a great deal of the outward aspects of traditional Christmas celebration from older pagan celebrations, and now secular consumer culture is stealing them, too.
So, is Christmas religious or secular? Christians will naturally argue that it is religious - I can't tell you how often I see signs telling me "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." Well, they're wrong - and on a number of levels. The "season" itself is originally due to ancient Roman Saturnalia and pagan solstice celebrations, not Jesus.
Today, Christmas may be wholly religious to many Christians, but it need not be religious in any way to anyone else. There's nothing inherently religious, much less Christian, about a whole host of Christmas activities: decorations, lights, Christmas trees, giving gifts, family gatherings, holiday meals and foods, etc. Even incredibly sappy holiday movies offer Christmas messages of human love and kindness which carry no inherent religious basis.
2006-12-04 06:55:08 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 1⤋
To some people christmas is not a religious holiday. It is as simple as that. What do you recommend doing, passing laws prohibiting christmas to only those who are christian? People are going to celebrate a holiday. To some it is not a religious holiday, but they have made it a personal time with their own traditions.
Now, what we have here is a classic WWJD scenario. Would Jesus complain that non-christian people are celebrating christmas or would he sit back and hope that people are being a little kinder to each other if even for a couple of days?
Do you celebrate christmas? Well, guess what, by your reasoning, you must be pagan, because christmas is originally a pagan holiday. It has been modified by christians, yet it has pagan roots. The meaning of christmas is a religious one to you, yet to another person it may not be. What is needed here is tolerance of others and not attacking them for treading on what you perceive to be your religion's holiday.
2006-12-04 07:04:36 · answer #9 · answered by A.Mercer 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
The true meanings of Christmas are the Birth of Mithras (pagan), Sol Invictus (pagan), and the Winter Solstice (pagan).
The symbols involved: Christmas tree (pagan), mistletoe (pagan), gift giving (pagan).
So, besides your assertion that you're celebrating Christ's birthday (which was not winter anyways), where's Christ in all this?
When the original Christians were captured, many were given an offer that if they were to put even one pinch of incense on the brazier before a statue of a roman god or Caesar, even if they denied its divinity, their lives would be forever spared. To avoid even LOOKING like they were worshipping a false god, they paid the price and refused -- and were executed.
How's your faith these days? Feeling a little shakey it would seem, what with your playing along with pagan rituals. What would Jesus think about you participating in occult practices?
I may be an atheist but this is one point the Jehova's Witnesses get RIGHT despite the rest they get wrong.
2006-12-04 06:56:16 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 10⤊ 1⤋
First of all, Christmas is not really about the birth of Christ, it's for the Pagans' Winter Soltice. Jesus wasn't even born in December.
Second of all, most Atheists have family that do celebrate Christmas and they join in out of respect. Christmas has also become more of a consumer holiday as opposed to a religious holiday.
And finally....WHY THE HELL DO YOU CARE??? Mind your own friggen business.
2006-12-04 06:58:54 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋