Jump to content
Goodbye Jesus

Religious Holidays


Guest FreedomFromReligion

Recommended Posts

Guest FreedomFromReligion

There was another thread in this forum about St Patrick's day being retarded because of its catholic connections.

 

Now, I'm all for hunting out religious retardation as much as the next guy, but a holiday that currently means get drunk and wear green is hardly a religious exercise.

 

St. Patrick's day is about as Christian as Christmas. Hint: this means it isn't.

 

Just change Christmas into Saturnalia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia - and keep on celebrating it as a large number of Americans do.

 

To believe that Jesus was born on December 25th or that he thought you and Santa Claus should give your kids the latest toys on this day is ridiculous.

 

All the fun things about all holidays are incredibly non-christian. In fact, if only Bible thumpers celebrated them, then they'd be super lame and full of evangelism and "Repent! Repent! Repent!".

 

So let's atheist it up and party hard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh boy...

 

You obviously mean well. You also obviously haven't spent much time reading the forums previous to posting this.

 

I'm not coming down for or against you, but you should probably know you've just potentially opened a very large and messy can of worms.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest FreedomFromReligion
but you should probably know you've just potentially opened a very large and messy can of worms.

 

Let's hope so! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

 

That was my post, and you apperantly missed the bottom half of the secular insanity.

 

Lemme ask you this, why is being told I HAVE to celebrate anything secularly any different than being told I have to celebrate something religiously?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kurari, I didn't read the St. Patrick's thread. Maybe I should have. It's not a holiday I have ever had connections with. Kurari, I think you should celebrate what you want to how you want to.

 

I, too, have faced issues of having to conform regarding the group here. I decided that conforming to ideas of folks here is the exact same thing as conforming to any other organization, not least of which is religion. Thus I focus on being me. Period.

 

I better leave it at this since I did not read that other thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest FreedomFromReligion
Lemme ask you this, why is being told I HAVE to celebrate anything secularly any different than being told I have to celebrate something religiously?

 

Now I haven't read all the St Patrick's Day thread, cause I was feeling a bit sick of the BS halfway through.

 

I never told anyone to celebrate anything secularly, or apply secular mishmash onto a religious thing, I'm just saying, don't be a bunch of haters just because somebody appends some religious meaning to something.

 

Jesus H Christ, just because Christianity is wrong doesn't mean having Dec 25th off is a bad thing, and isn't going to stop me from getting pissed up on St Patrick's Day, Easter, etc. There is something historically stupid about every day of the year. Get over it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was another thread in this forum about St Patrick's day being retarded because of its catholic connections.

 

Now, I'm all for hunting out religious retardation as much as the next guy, but a holiday that currently means get drunk and wear green is hardly a religious exercise.

There was a (irish) guy on my morning news radio complaining about St. Patrick's day being co-opted from a religious festival of national pride being co-opted into an excuse to drink green beer. I rolled my eyes a bit at that too. He complained about the alcohol connections, but it's a celebration connection for me, unless New Years' Eve is also traffics in irish stereotypes.

 

But it's never been religious in my growing up experience, it was a good day for making money as a celtic musician, or listening to some good music, mostly. I liked that part of it, and still do. I don't perform in parades anymore, though.

 

The aggressive must-wear-green mafia can be annoying. I don't want to be told how I should, or should not, celebrate or not celebrate any holiday. They aren't terribly common, though, less common than the Merry Christmas mafia. If the historic religious connection bothers someone, I'm hardly going to tell them they shouldn't be allowed to ignore it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lemme ask you this, why is being told I HAVE to celebrate anything secularly any different than being told I have to celebrate something religiously?

 

Now I haven't read all the St Patrick's Day thread, cause I was feeling a bit sick of the BS halfway through.

 

I never told anyone to celebrate anything secularly, or apply secular mishmash onto a religious thing, I'm just saying, don't be a bunch of haters just because somebody appends some religious meaning to something.

 

Jesus H Christ, just because Christianity is wrong doesn't mean having Dec 25th off is a bad thing, and isn't going to stop me from getting pissed up on St Patrick's Day, Easter, etc. There is something historically stupid about every day of the year. Get over it.

 

I see what you are saying, but I have no idea how you managed to deduce my (or anybody else's) opinion on ONE holiday somehow extends to all the others and the rest of the year, even the religious ones. I hate St. Patrick's Day for it's religious AND secular reasons, and I'm not the only one. Get over it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

St. Patrick's day is about as Christian as Christmas. Hint: this means it isn't.

 

You might want to look up the threads on this from Dec. 2006. There was a lot of discussions on the topic of Christmas and folks here might not want to rehash the old stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I was working a festival in Arizona, we had a St. Patty's day tradition to strip naked, paint our bodies green, find snakes, and ceremonially parade them out of the campgrounds.

 

But when the "Must wear green" mafia come around I just raise my shillelagh and ask them if they feel lucky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I haven't read all the St Patrick's Day thread, cause I was feeling a bit sick of the BS halfway through.

 

Then why are you whining about a thread you didn't read all the way through? :shrug:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a positive and a negative side to christian festivals.

 

On the plus side, they can often be excuses to get very pissed - or at least gorge yourself on chocolate (Easter soon, folks)

 

On the negative side however - there's all that religious crap that comes along with it, and everyone expects you to celebrate and thinks you are mad if you don't want to. For example Christmas and all the pain in the arse Christmas shopping. Why should I even bother with the whole stressful thing seeing as I'm not a Christian or a pagan?

 

That's two negatives and one positive though - which might explain why some people want to complain about them.

 

I myself celebrate things because there is a lot of fun that goes along with it. But Christmas shopping pisses me off every year :angry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My standard response when someone notices bugs me about not participating in Christmas rituals, "I'm not a Christian, I'm not a pagan and I don't worship at the altar of commercialism."

 

However, if I'm not bugged about it, I don't say a thing. Christian holidays don't bother me...Christians who insist I celebrate them do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.