What should atheists do for Christmas?(atheists only please)

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I just saw a video that really got to me

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkXxkfu8dGs&feature=sub[/youtube]

Mr. Jillette seriously got me to thinking what every atheist should do this time of year. I usually just see my family and have a tradtional Christmas. Some of them respect my lack of religion, some do not.

Whatever you want. I stay at home with family, probably watch tv, go online, give people their presents. Nothing special

Enjoy the crass materialism? Revel in pure acquisitive avarice? That's what my family usually does, plus we bake far too many cookies and push them on any guest who shows up during the season.

Takeout Chinese?

Does anyone have any reactions to the video?

Penn's always hit or miss for me. I respect the emotion and sentiment in the video but I don't think it really requires that much thought. Do whatever. If someone wants to say merry christmas, then greet them back with it...why not?

as an atheist, i xmas is f***ing awesome. as a militant asantist, i'm often misunderstood to be in opposition to xmas. nothing could be further from the truth. i believe that the tradition of gift-exchange is greatly educational and can help children learn, from a very young age, that other people are important, too.

it's also a great way to teach your children that people believe all sorts of stuff that isn't true, including the notion that there's a jolly old man flying around in the sky who rewards good works and punishes bad people. there are so many different sources for the traditional "christmas" stories, songs, and traditions, that it's also an excellent tool to teach your children just how easily a myth or legend can transform and be abducted by religion.

there's so much awesomeness in reality. i don't see a need to paint over it with magic.


and i really dgaf if anyone is offended by an asantist atheist celebrating xmas. if the lord thy santa has a problem with it, let him say so.

What should atheists do for Christmas? Do as the Hindus and Buddhists do. Keep Frosty the Snowman refrigerated so he won't melt. Sing secular holiday songs which include lines like "as the fates allow". Put blind trust/blind faith in those printed slips which come with fortune cookies. Prepare for the day after Christmas discount specials. If the weather is good and the slopes covered with snow and the lakes frozen over with thick ice, snow ski or ice skate. For those who fish, drill a hole in the ice, bait the hook, and hope for the best. For the creative, find a warm cave, bring several months plus of food rations, then carve the positions of the moon as the moon appears at the entrance of the cave over the course of a month onto a bear bone and hope there is an early, warm spring coming. Other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule

Don';t worry, I am not responding to the topic, just startled - you mean that a theist can tell ATHEISTS to keep away from a thread?

We have a concurrent thread about how christianity has nothing to do with christmas anyway.

So whats the problem?

Its the non-atheists who should ask themselves what to do with, and on the holiday.

Jews complain about having to succum to christian influence by having to make Hannuka into
"Jewish Christmas", failing to see the irony that the Christianity's fixation on Dec.25th was because of early Christianity having to co-opt Paganism! So both christians and jews are being pulled into the vortex of paganism on the holiday season!

So it could be argued that both jews and christians should ingnore the holiday and leave it to the Athiests, and to the Wiccans, and other neo pagans because those groups are the only true owners of the holday to begin with!

He has to submit a video by contract so I guess he just ran out of ideas.

Which is odd considering how this is the time of the year in which Christians get whiny about "Happy Holidays"

I don't think it's that so much as that while he'll occasionally ask good questions or come up with a decent idea, he also has some big misses where he just doesn't get it. I like him...but he's not always the brightest commentator, you know?

Point one: It's a foolish idea to have "atheist only" or "theist only" threads, not the least of which because that criteron is utterly unenforceable.

Now, to Penn's sentiments. I hope this video is a joke.

- "Happy Holidays" refers to any Winter Time celebration. Since there's a dime a dozen, that's a pretty big set of possibilites (Jule, New Year's Eve, Christmas, etc, etc.)
- WTF???! !! "Christian Holiday"?! That's ahistorical nonsense, it's a holiday shameless plagarized from Old European Religions.
- Christmas hasn't had a spiritual character of any significant degree for this century (and, in previous centuries, it was regarded as heretical and vice-filled by Christians such as the Puritains).

As for the question about what to do this holiday season, I suggest you buy the gift that multiplies everyone else's gifts (or resources) and finance somebody's abortion this year.

I said "atheists only" because I do not want anybody forcing their religion on anyone else, I don't force my lack of religion on anybody.

LOL!!

That being said, who cares? You can be as traditional or non-traditional as you want. If you really like Christmas, you can go all out, even using Christian imagery while doing so. (I doubt anybody would care if you decided to go all Hindu-y at some point in your decoration style) If you don't, then don't do anything. I think the typical answer though will be to celebrate Christmas in the normal way that most people do in your area, because most Christmas celebrations aren't *that* religious where it is difficult to remove significant theological content. Even further, a lot atheists do have religious family members who will insist on Christmas.