I asked a simple question about whether or not Athiests celebrate the holiday seaon, and what exactly they celebrate, do they give gifts, do they have a tree, and alot of people got really sensitive and gave kinda hateful answers and voted me thumbs downs. SO What if this was the most frequently asked question? No one is forced to answer any question on here. And I did not judge anyone, by saying things like "Well if you do, your a hypocrite" or "How dare you celebrate the birth of our Lord when you don't believe in him!" I was curious to know if people who are Atheists celebrate anything, or if it is just another day to them. And if they do celebrate, what are they celebrating. Only one or two people really gave an answer, that wasn't just putting down Christian beliefs or insulting me for asking. All I wanted to know was if they celebrated family, the turning of the season, or the birth of THE FLYING SPAGETTI MONSTER. It was a simple question. Why are people so uptight about it?
2006-12-23 03:51:11 · 20 answers · asked by LittleMermaid 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I didn't make any assumptions. I gave examples of things that are a part of my Christmas celebrations, and asked if they included it in theirs, like giving gifts or having a tree. If they took it wrong, that is their own fault, cause that is not how I meant it.
2006-12-23 04:01:47 · update #1
I think the main problem here is that your question is either too naive or it looks like a wind up! That's why us atheists get 'uptight' we can sniff out a chain pulling question a mile off. I do it often by asking seemingly innocent religious questions.
I'm sure you know that atheists do not believe in God , therefore they do not believe in religion, that's all, (simple as that).
We do have families (and even a few friends)!
We do celebrate all holidays together with family , (some of our families are even religious, we forgive them for this) we atheists do not of course celebrate 'Christmas' as a celebrate of the birth of Christ, its just a holiday that we treat as any other holiday,we can even say "Good will to all men" and actually mean 'all' men, not just Christian men !
What are we 'celebrating'? we are celebrating the time off from work.
Very few of us atheists left now that still worship the 'Flying Spaghetti Monster' (pbuh).
The 'hypocrite' bit as raised in some of your answers has bothered me on occasions, I really do detest all religions and all they stand for, so for the same reason I detest the church and all it stands for.
And I would feel like a hypocrite if I ever went into one, even if it was just to show my respects to a departed friend on his funeral day. I have paid my respects to family and others in private.
Apart from that we are really just normal folk, not many 'fanatical' atheist bombers about or crusaders, just normal folk that do not believe in God or all the trimmings that go with him.
I do not only pick on Christians to show my contempt I like to share my contempt equally between all religions.
Have a good holiday and try not to take this forum too seriously, religion is really just a big joke after all!
2006-12-23 05:06:26 · answer #1 · answered by budding author 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do you want the truth?
The truth is that with so many different religions giving their followers the right to believe that everyone else is going to hell, it removes value from humanity. It cause disharmony between man and damages our species. The worlds great religions are not designed to do this, but, new religions are being developed all the time to make the followers feel like some elite person that can judge others. So, atheists now feel compelled to "evangelize" themselves. And this their humanist responsibility. Stop the hate...
2006-12-23 04:00:35 · answer #2 · answered by BigPappa 5 · 3⤊ 1⤋
No -- in basic terms the different, in actuality. If the guy tells me that they do no longer seem to be interesting in what I could say, i'm unlikely to push my ideals on them. Now once you're speaking approximately what is going on interior the communicate board here, that's a distinctive difficulty. in case you ask a question, it somewhat is uncomplicated sport for all and sundry to respond to, whether you settle with them or no longer. yet to proceed to badger somebody in "authentic existence" approximately faith while they have made it sparkling that they do no longer seem to have an interest. . .nah, that's in basic terms undeniable rude.
2016-10-18 22:10:05 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At least 9 people gave you real answers.
Your reaction suggests that you have some kind of problem with this. Do you feel threatened by the fact that people corrected your naive beliefs about Christmas?
Did you notice that it was the Christians who went on the attack, both there and in their responses to this question? Did you really think that people will just quietly sit around while Christians spout juvenile nonsense about us?
2006-12-23 04:03:39 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
Actually I don't think of myself as "uptight" when a Christian asks a question. I do not care who asks - I tend to respond to the question on it's own merits as honestly as I can and without much concern about what you think of my answer. I would therefore disagree with your initial assumption that the non-believers -all- do this. I am not being uptight - I just disagree with you and the generalization you are making. We are not all alike... to assume that we are is pre-judging, the core meaning of predjudice.
2006-12-23 04:10:14 · answer #5 · answered by Michael Darnell 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Because a lot of people read more into what you are asking. Or they put a different tone while they are reading and get all upset...I am not sure what they celebrate but lets just say a whole lot of people don't celebrate kindness!!
2006-12-23 03:55:45 · answer #6 · answered by Floridapurrfection 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
That's not a simple question. The way you asked it was condescending and not respectful. You automatically assumed that only a Christian would celebrate a holiday. That shows ignorance on your part. Christmas was around long before the Christians were. Christmas has nothing to do with your religion.
2006-12-23 03:57:57 · answer #7 · answered by Justsyd 7 · 6⤊ 3⤋
Maybe they thought if they answered your question honestly (by admitting that they celebrate Christmas) it would make them look like hypocrites, when Christmas is more about Santa nowadays then Jesus anyways. Thanks to commercialism, it's a holiday for everyone now, not just Christians.
2006-12-23 03:59:34 · answer #8 · answered by James P 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Atheist do not have a narrow view of life.
"Life" itself is a celebration, every moment of it, and so why limit the celebrations to a few days in a calender year.
Every "moment is important". Every "important moment" of life is a celebration. "Celebration" is not just mirth and laughter, it is the essence of day to day struggle for existence. "Victory" is tasted everyday, The latent power of the human being in all its manifestations is experienced in the day-to-day life. Thus the Atheist can not comprehend 'celebrations' as few isolated moments of life.
Their answers would definitely hurt the feelings of a 'theist'.
A theist understands celebrations only from the view of religion and life as a gift of god. And so they would 'mock' at the atheist "what can you celebrate ?" and then find it difficult to digest the answers which questions their 'assumptions'.
Why ask such questions ?!!!!!!!!!!!
2006-12-23 04:14:10 · answer #9 · answered by madhatter 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋
People are sensitive because christians are constantly on the attack, maybe not you but MOST of the christians on this site seem to have some personal agenda agianst non christians or as they like to call them, non believers.
2006-12-23 03:56:40 · answer #10 · answered by badferret 3 · 4⤊ 2⤋