[Luis Dias]

I still disagree. The simple fact that they now actively choose to label themselves non religious rather than mildly religious is a milestone towards arreligiosity in general. Dropping the semantical connections with the institutions is a good trend.

[Wobble73]

Thing is, how many non-religious people still celebrate Christmas and Easter or even Halloween (All Hallows Eve)? They state that they don't have any religion but still recognise these christian festivals.

[Luis Dias]

That's a different discussion. I do celebrate most of the christian festivities gladly. Especially christmas, I find it very meaningful.

[Killer Whale]

Meanwhile, I don't celebrate them because of my being a christian.

[Dragon]

I mostly celebrate those holidays because of tradition, not any sort of religious belief. Also, I get Xmas presents out of the deal. Easter is mostly fun for my younger brothers (they love painting eggs and eating sugar lambs ), as is Halloween. But in fact, the most important thing about those is meeting with the family.

[Luis Dias]

Absolutely, and I think there's still a lot more to be said regarding the theological aspects of it. They are still meaningful even if you are an atheist. This is something very difficult to grasp to a hardcore theist sometimes.

[Nuke]

most of them used to be pagan festivities. the christians took them over once those pagan religions were replaced violently stomped out. they were simply given new meanings. they are more a matter of cultural significance rather than religious significance, and thats why they are still practiced by those of european ancestry (or any christians that buy the propaganda).

[Luis Dias]

The meanings were added, not exactly entirely substituted. The pagan version constituted something on the lines of "rebirth", "regeneration" of Nature's cycle. A sense of renewal of hope, which aligned itself with the solstice, the moment the sun began to have a bigger presence than the day before (at least in the northern hemisphere). Christendom interpreted this moment as the moment when Jesus was born, which then symbolizes every child born within the families, which again is a symbol of renewal of generations and of hope of a better future, etc., etc.

I do prefer christian's version. It's more anthropogenic.

[Nuke]

that is the exact reason i hate it. the tendency for religions to anthropomorphize the universe disgusts me. most religious scholars pretty much agree that jesus was not born anywhere near december. whatever the equinoxes/solstices meant for the ancient pagans is pretty much lost to history, erased by this little thing called the inquisition. we only have the bastardized christian version of things, and a few ideas from neo-pagans which may or may not be in parallel with ancient pagan teachings. frankly i look forward to the day where atheists do the same to christians. merry darwinmas to you.

[Lorric]

Merry Atheistmas?

[Phantom Hoover]

that is the exact reason i hate it. the tendency for religions to anthropomorphize the universe disgusts me. most religious scholars pretty much agree that jesus was not born anywhere near december. whatever the equinoxes/solstices meant for the ancient pagans is pretty much lost to history, erased by this little thing called the inquisition. we only have the bastardized christian version of things, and a few ideas from neo-pagans which may or may not be in parallel with ancient pagan teachings. frankly i look forward to the day where atheists do the same to christians. merry darwinmas to you.

so like do you actually draw all your historical religious narratives from /r/atheism or is that just another classic nuke 'troll'

[Nuke]

well i just use that as an example. i dont really give a **** what the atheists rename all the holidays to. i will still identify as something obscure so as to differentiate myself from the sheep. if its any consolation i read 5 wikipedia articles about the christianization of europe, but i didnt find anything to backup my statements, so i just said **** it and posted what was in my head anyway.

[Luis Dias]

that is the exact reason i hate it. the tendency for religions to anthropomorphize the universe disgusts me.

It's not about anthropomorphizing the universe. It's about anthropomorphizing *our* world. It's about celebrating our lifes instead of random meaningless neutral cycles that have no concern for us.

[Mars]

Christianity, no matter what you believe it to be, has always been about giving a sense of command and purpose to the universe. Command and purpose are human things.

[QuantumDelta]

Yeap it's pretty stereotypical human tendency to make the entire universe about them.
There's an all powerful, omniscient being that created the entirety of time and space all so you could be born and they could watch over your life and reward you at the end of it.

EVEN IF there's a "God" in any sense of the word, there were far too many "<you/r>" in that sentence, hubris isn't a science thing, not in the slightest compared to making your world view that the universe was created for you. So Nuke's comment wasn't really that much of a troll but a fairly legitimate gripe.

[An4ximandros]

Something of note is that even the language is skewed towards man. Words like World come from things like Man's age, for example. It's all loaded with self importance.