Thursday, December 23, 2010

Christmas








Some of my friends may know how I feel about this time of year. I love getting together with friends and family, I love getting up with my kids christmas morning, I love the anticipation of what's under the tree and of course everyone loves getting presents. I even like the idea of brotherly love with all men and women and spreading of joy and kindness to all. Despite all the annoying songs, movies and other trappings that come with the christmas season my biggest pet peeve with this time of years actually has nothing to do with the commercialism of christmas. My biggest pet peeve, the thing that annoys me the most this time of year...are christians.

Yeah I know we're supposed to be celebrating the birth of your messiah. But try to get over yourselves for a minute and realize you're not the only people on the planet. Try to listen to reason and maybe you can stop getting worked up in a frenzy every time someone says happy holidays instead of merry christmas.

1. The birth of christ was not on December 25th. It is estimated to most likely have been in the fall or late summer based on the position of the stars. At least that's what I have read. I don't recall anything in the bible saying that this was the day so try to remember this is just and arbitrarily picked day that had more to do with incorporating already existing pagan beliefs into the christian fold than it does with a factually based birth date of your baby god jesus.

2. There is more racism and religious zealotry at this time of year than at any other time of year. Many christians seem to think that because it is chistmas they are allowed to force the rest of us to acknowledge their god and their religion as the best. There are many religions, not just around the world but also in our own country. I heard a guy on the radio (albeit country redneck religious radio) actually say that if immigrants didn't want to celebrate chistmas then they should go back to their own country. Come on, are you serious, are you so close minded that you think anyone with a differing viewpoint should leave the country while you are celebrating your precious holiday. If you don't see the flaw in this thinking then I'm afraid no amount of reasoned thinking is going to get through to you.

3. In this country (as in any country worth living in, in my opinion) we have a separation of church and state. The reasoning behind this is because the people who wrote our constitution realized that freedom to have any religion relies on removing one religion as "above" others. Now I know this is a hard concept for many religious people because they feel their religion is the right one, but living in a free country means that you cannot force your religion on me or my family. Now some people may wonder what this has to do with chistmas. I'll give you a guess. That's right, public schools. I know singing a song that talks about jesus isn't necessarily pushing christianity down my child's throat but it kind of feels like it. Now I obviously don't prescribe to any religion in particular and would take exception if any religion tried to push it's beliefs on me or my family but I'm supposed to sit back and let you sing songs about your god and make my kids sing songs about your god just because the government made this time of year a stat holiday. Do you see how flawed that reasoning is?  My beliefs or lack thereof are just as important to me and mine as yours are to you and your family, so what makes you more important than me that you can force your religion down my kids throats? I don't go to schools and talk about the importance of not believing in god and being a moral person without the fear of punishment or need for reward.

4. Even moderate christians are hardcore this time of year. Do you go into a public store where anyone of any religion could be a customer and hear happy holidays instead of merry christmas and get pissed off? How about the rest of the year, do you feel it necessary to force your beliefs on people in the middle of spring? Do you get up in arms about people who won't say happy easter? What is it about this time of year that turns moderate christians into bible waving crazies? As I said in number one, even if your god is the right one, and even if jesus existed, and even if the entire story of his birth is 100% accurate, this isn't when he was born. The church decided to incorporate a time of year that was already being celebrated by pagans in order to make christianity more appealing to possible converts.

5. Lastly, I don't believe what you believe. Get over it. Most of the reasonable people I know, don't follow any religion. Most of the reasonable people I know,  have ideas all their own. If they have faith in some greater power it usually isn't one prescribed by some overblown institution, it is one they have come to in their own way. Are these people worth less than christians, are their beliefs less valid, how about those of us who don't believe in any of it? I say, merry christmas cause it's no skin off my ass, but I take offence when my kid has to sing a song with religious connotation because my child is forming beliefs and is in a state where those beliefs are easily manipulated, sometimes by things not in my home or control.

I guess what I'm saying is, be reasonable, try not being offended by political correctness. The store clerk doesn't take your faith away when they say happy holidays instead of merry christmas, the same can be said the other way, the holiday is called christmas who cares what the store clerk says to you as long as they aren't actively forcing religion or lack of religion onto you. Keep your religious songs in religious schools, if you don't like the public school system you have the option to move to a separate school or home schooling. The public school system is run by the state and as such has to separate from religion so suck it up and keep your religious zealotry out of schools.

Well, that's all I have to say on the matter. I doubt anyone who believes in christianity will agree, especially at this time of year when their belief is at an all time high. But try to remember, getting offended by people not wanting your beliefs pushed on them is unreasonable.

4 comments:

  1. I understand what you're trying to say, and it comes down to the fact that every year at around this time, people start debating whether it is appropriate to say Merry Christmas rather than Happy Holidays.

    The fact of the matter is that the tree, the presents, the decorations, the majority of the festivities are a construct of the Christian framework, and as such there should be some heed paid to addressing people appropriately during this time. The problem is that too many people feel entitled to not be offended, and too many people go out of their way to appease that entitlement.

    All I can say is that I guarantee that in Iran, Saudi, Jordan and many other places, "Happy Holidays" would get a frown, and "Merry Christmas" would get you executed. I'm glad that there's a place in the world where we can be safe to say what we think is appropriate, even if it offends others.

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  2. your absolutely right, freedom is awesome. I just think we should all stop getting offended. Merry christmas doesn't bother me and neither does happy holidays or any other seasons greeting.
    Say what you want, no one should be able to tell you differently.

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  3. Our school has gone both ways for the December concert. This year was all peace and working together and taking care of the world. That concert could have easily been done anytime of the year. Last year was a mish mash of various cultures although basically Christmas, Hanukkah, and Eid (not even in December) with a smattering of Kwanzaa (made up holiday). Personally, I think that the public schools should just stop having a December concert.

    On a related topic, anytime religions of the world are discussed in schools, they should also discuss atheism. Telling children that everyone has a religion is a lie.

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  4. Good point, though religious people would then feel that we were trying to push atheist beliefs onto them. I think it should be a simple omission of any religious topic. When unavoidable children should be taught that different people believe different things but that many people believe the questions religion attempts to answer are unexplainable in scientific or non faith based ways. Teaching children to be skeptical is practically the same thing as teaching them that religion is made up.

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