Tuesday 24 December 2013

Amazing Atheist On How Atheists Are Better At Christmas

The Amazing Atheist posted a video giving three reasons why atheists are better at Christmas
Atheists don't have to go to church. Um...neither do Christians. Why are Christians obligated to go to church on Christmas? All Christians don't automatically subscribe uncritically to every pronouncement or stance of institutional Christianity.

According to the Amazing Atheist going to church also detracts from what Christmas is really about, which is family and togetherness etc etc. But how did this tradition really come about? How did it come about that Christmas is seen as being about family and togetherness? Through Christianity obviously.

"I don't want to destroy Christmas. I like Christmas. I just don't think it has anything to do with Jesus". TJ goes off about how atheists don't really want to destroy Christmas and goes on a pointless and absurd but admittedly funny rant about Bill O'Reilly and Fox news and then manages to take a stab at the Rapture as well. I think what I found most funny about it is how unbelievably tangential and irrelevant it was. Well, the issue is highlighted by the passage quoted from TJ above. If you're going to redefine Christmas as being a non-specific  non-religious celebration of "family", then you have destroyed Christmas. The family is redefined on atheism, and Christmas is also completely redefined on atheism. The central narrative around which Christmas is constructed and around which all the other pleasant things about Christmas developed is Christianity. Christmas is altered fundamentally without its origin and shaper ( Christianity).

"Atheists don't have to worry about the true meaning of Christmas". Well, they don't have to worry about the religious meaning of Christmas, but if TJ truly values Christmas, then he has to say that atheists do have to worry about the meaning that he believes to be the true meaning of Christmas. 




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