Anonymous wrote:Are these posters trolls or for real? Die thread, die.

Adding two additional posts to the thread is not a particularly good strategy for killing a thread. Do you routinely douse fires with gasoline?

On another thread recently a supposedly "uptight Christian" was outed as a total troll. Makes me wonder.

Are these posters trolls or for real? Die thread, die.

Anonymous wrote:Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ; if you don't believe in Christ, how can you celebrate Christmas?

I see that you could exchange gifts, etc. like other people at this time of the year, but I don't like to hear people say they celebrate "Christmas" unless they believe in the whole true meaning of it.

Flame away, I don't care...

If you feel this way, I certainly hope you didn't have a Winter Solstice tree in your home, decorated and laden with lights. These trees are patently NOT CHRISTIAN and have no place in a Christian home.

Anonymous wrote:Every time a religious person gets bent out of shape by someone ELSE celebrating Christmas differently (secular, atheist, pagan, etc.), my first thought is that their faith is not very strong in the first place, and that unorthodox views really underscore their own doubts.

This.

How can you celebrate Saturday if you don't worship Saturn?

And yet somehow we manage...

Anonymous wrote:Yes.

I was raised Catholic and my family continues to celebrate this holiday together.

I should add that DH is not an atheist, although possibly agnostic if pressed. If he were open to it, I'd advocate for stockings on St. Nicholas Day and exchange of gifts on the winter solstice. We also don't celebrate Easter, although I'm guessing that as DD gets older DH will want to do Easter egg hunts and the like.

Yes.

I was raised Catholic and my family continues to celebrate this holiday together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpbDaOlX2s

History behind Christmas and more.

I am an atheist and need Christmas to get me through the long, cold winter. It's a lovely festival to look forward to, and I'd hate my kids to miss out on the experience. I guess it's a kind of mid-winter celebration for us, with great food, a nice tree, giving of gifts and (some) great songs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^^
pp here .. p.s., I am very spiritual but in no way that has anything to do with any organized religion or any belief in any particular supreme being, or even the existence of one (or more)...

Snort

whatever ... It sounds like it may be too complicated for some of you to figure out.

No, it sounds like you are intellectually lazy.

Or, perhaps, this: "Maybe the atheist cannot find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman." - Francis Thomson

I'll see your Francis and raise you an H.L. Mencken:

"A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass; he is actually ill. Worse, he is incurable."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^^
pp here .. p.s., I am very spiritual but in no way that has anything to do with any organized religion or any belief in any particular supreme being, or even the existence of one (or more)...

Snort

whatever ... It sounds like it may be too complicated for some of you to figure out.

No, it sounds like you are intellectually lazy.

Or, perhaps, this: "Maybe the atheist cannot find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman." - Francis Thomson

actually, it sounds like you're a pompous ass with a pole up your butt ... arrogant, self-centered, dismissive of others' views ... a real "credit to your creed", LOL...

I'm an atheist, and celebrate Christmas and Easter as secular holidays - Santa, stockings, lights, and a tree, the easter bunny and dyed eggs, etc. They do have pagan roots, after all, and I appreciate the idea of lights during the darkest time of year as well as Easter's celebration of the coming spring.

"Jesus was the one (or one of a very few) religious leader who was not in it for the money or the chicks."

How could you possibly know this, given that what we know about his life was passed on by oral tradition for years, and once written was rewritten by various religious groups based on what they wanted to preach?

Agnostic here, who sees JC as a historical figure, much like Buddha and Mohammed. We celebrate Christmas in a more secular way, but do teach the kids about the religious background too. They know that Christmas is the birth of Christ and that some people believe he was the son of God.

For those so called Christians that are bent out of shape about non-Christians celebrating Christmas - well, that's not very Christian of you, now is it? Especially considering the spirit of "let the children come to me" or whatever the man said...

Anonymous wrote:18:50 Turns out I'm not really addressing my response to OP but to the zealots on this thread who don't believe doubters should celebrate Christmas. Sorry if I sounded defensive, OP.

You didn't sound defensive at all. In my opinion, there was some really thoughtful feedback in all the responses here.