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 What meaning can Christmas have for atheists?
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Cold in here
New Member

Canada
48 Posts

Posted - 12/22/2003 :  22:11:51   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Cold in here a Private Message
True enough, atheists can appreciate the joy of Christmas surely. I'd say we can all liken the manoeuvring of the squirrels at the bird-feeder to the clever motions one is required in making in order to find parking at the malls Christmas time.

Toronto is the capital of Canada, and I live in a giant igloo. Blubber anyone?
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Woody D
Skeptic Friend

Thailand
285 Posts

Posted - 12/22/2003 :  22:29:58   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Woody D a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Maglev

Most atheists/skeptics I know "reflect" (well, think) all year around, not just at Christmas time.


I'm glad you said most, because I AM an atheist but I try not to think. It's too disturbing!


quote:

drink good wine (really, really good red French wine... A 1996 Chateau Clark (Lisrac-Medoc) amongst a few... yum yum!). And the deserts... Cigars

This probably has not much to do with the topic but because Gorgo mentioned it, I'd like to say...like his remark about cutting down a tree and putting lights on it, I think turning grapes into a sour drink is also an affront against nature. It's a waste of good fruit.
And your skin is probably green from the cigars....another waste of living plants. Whatever! Cigars!!! YUK!

www.Carabao.net
As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll.
Mick Shrimpton
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26021 Posts

Posted - 12/23/2003 :  05:28:37   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Yup... Trees, wine, cigars, turkeys: this holiday isn't about peace and joy, it's about murdering lower lifeforms. Bwahahahaha!

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard

USA
5310 Posts

Posted - 12/23/2003 :  06:31:56   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Gorgo a Private Message
Lower life forms? How did this turn into a discussion about politicians?



quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.

Yup... Trees, wine, cigars, turkeys: this holiday isn't about peace and joy, it's about murdering lower lifeforms. Bwahahahaha!


I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter



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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 12/23/2003 :  09:23:34   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
Murdering polititions? That is to say, the causing the violent demise of various scoundrels and low-lifes? Can I play, too? Pleeease?

Hey, do we get to chose one, or will one be assigned? And are there any rules and regulations as to method?

This sounds like a good game!


"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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Randy
SFN Regular

USA
1990 Posts

Posted - 12/23/2003 :  12:19:07   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Randy a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.

Yup... Trees, wine, cigars, turkeys: this holiday isn't about peace and joy, it's about murdering lower lifeforms. Bwahahahaha!


A little mint jelly and a few icy cold ones would go well with that.

"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."

"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Sea Sorbust
Skeptic Friend

USA
68 Posts

Posted - 12/23/2003 :  12:44:55   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Sea Sorbust a Private Message
I am sadened at the people who blow months of income on junky, or not so junky, gifts that almost none of the recipients want. (By the way, did you include the receipt so I can return it?)

I am scared by the ever increasingly angry drivers on the roads.

I am deeply pained every time I see a murdered tree; murdered for no better reason that to be a silly decoration, and a serious fire hazzard, for a couple of weeks.

How is it possible for "Christians" to celebrate the birth of Christ by killing a tree? The New Testament says somewhere that as Jesus was headed into The City for Passover, that he stopped by an olive tree, but that it had no fruit and so Jesus caused it to wither and die. Is this the justification for "Chritians" to kill a tree every year? I can only believe that this particular passage in the Gospel was added by a money-grubbing Roman Papist to justify deforestation. I don't believe that anyone of Jesus' reputed stature could do such a thing. I think that modern "Christians" are little more than mean-spirited barbarians. The whole thing leaves me very sad come Christmastime. Gifts don't help much. (But booze does.)

The whole business of Christmastime...and Christmastime is little more than business...is one of the biggest reasons why I want to be one of the earlier colonists of Mars.

"This is the forest primeval...."
Edited by - Sea Sorbust on 12/23/2003 12:49:29
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26021 Posts

Posted - 12/23/2003 :  20:01:30   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Randy wrote:
quote:
A little mint jelly and a few icy cold ones would go well with that.
Yup. More of the same: dead mint, dead hops, dead yeast, and dead barley. Ho Ho Ho.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Woody D
Skeptic Friend

Thailand
285 Posts

Posted - 12/23/2003 :  21:32:43   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Woody D a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Sea Sorbust

I am sadened at the people who blow months of income on junky, or not so junky, gifts that almost none of the recipients want. (By the way, did you include the receipt so I can return it?)

I have since learned, from another PBS program recently, that the gift idea came from the Magi (sp.) who brought expensive gifts to the baby Jessus.
How that translates into the reason everyone of us should give each other things, don't know when that started but that's the background.
BTW, I think it's fun to give a whimsical, outlandish or impractical item to someone on Xmas. If could be something they might want but wouldn't buy for themself or just for the amusment of getting something one wouldn't expect. Would you perfer to have this gift exchange on April 1? It's fun to break up the days of the year with fooling around. All work and no play...etc., etc.

quote:


I am scared by the ever increasingly angry drivers on the roads.

You must not be from California! That's old news here.

quote:


The whole business of Christmastime...and Christmastime is little more than business...is one of the biggest reasons why I want to be one of the earlier colonists of Mars.


Hum! Just a thought! The idea of a christ comes from the Jews. Jews are known for being businessmen. Could this be some sort of world wide conspiricy started all those years ago to take over world trade and commerce. The Jews invented Christmas so they could get rich.
WOW! What an ingenuis plan.

www.Carabao.net
As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll.
Mick Shrimpton
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 12/24/2003 :  00:57:24   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
Pretty much agreein' with Sea, here. And I, an ex-trucker, am also apalled at the traffic, and not just at Christmas.

I keep it simple. I give only what I know will be used, and a fair amount of that is homemade (I have the time, Quetzacoatl knows, I have the time! ).

As stated, the commercial aspect of the holiday has turned what was once a happy occasion into a huge hassle, and you couldn't get me into a mall at gunpoint. Thanksgiving seems to be all but forgotten in the insane rush to get the late-December potlatch game going. It's a damned shame when retail outlets actually depend upon Christmas to get their bottom lines safely into the black. It is a further shame that the news organs actually report the figures as if they were keeping score.

I've read that at Christmas time, the suicide rate goes up. Also petty and grand larceny seems to peak as well. Also drug use. I wonder why.

Perhaps it's the circles I travel in, but I've also noticed that the courtesy level rises a bit. It offsets the rest, somewhat.

But it is my further understanding that this is not true of the custom in some of the larger stores, especally the day after Thanksgiving and the one following Christmas, when everybody is trying to trade all the unwanted crap off.

Religious holliday, my ass. It's the giant, annual commercial break.

Tonight, I shall be out in the meadow with a good spotlight and the .35 Remington. At least one o' them reindeer is goin' in the freezer.


"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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