“I love Christmas.”
“I thought you were an atheist.”
“I am. I still love Christmas.”
“How’s that work, exactly? I mean, I’ve skimmed through Dawkins–”
“I haven’t. Dawkins is an asshole, even if he’s on my side most of the time. Besides, what Dawkins thinks atheism should be is non-binding. Atheists don’t have dogma, remember.”
“Fine. But how do you resolve this? Being a Christmas-loving non-believer, I mean.”
“Well, do you believe in the Easter Bunny?”
“Are you comparing Jesus Christ to the Easter Bunny?”
“Only indirectly.”
“I’m mildly offended, but go on. No, I don’t believe in the Easter Bunny.”
“But I know, for a fact, that ever Easter you rush over to the store and buy up gobs of Easter candy.”
“What can I say? I love Cadbury Eggs.”
“So Easter is more than just ‘death-and-ressurection of Christ, salvation-of-mankind, Hallelujah’ to you.”
“Well, of course. But I still think of it as a religious holiday.”
“But there’s still that disconnect, that tension.”
“Fine, sure.”
“Cultural instincts kicking in, learned behaviors from childhood, recalling with fondness the Easter basket filled with goodies–”
“Get on with it already!”
“Fine. For me, Christmas has cultural baggage: I was raised in a somewhat-observant environment until my early teens. We didn’t attend church, but my parents both identified as Christian and so did I. The major religious holiday on the calendar — even better, the only major holiday on the calender — was Christmas.
“And the Christmas we celebrated was almost entirely secular aside from the carols playing on the radio that day. No mangers, no angels in the tree, no mention of why we celebrated that I can remember.
“Even though I’m no longer a believer, the institution of Christmas is part-and-parcel in my being. It just feels right to exchange gifts on December 25th.”
Comments 2
An interesting dialogue DA…a conversation you recently had with someone? Religion and holidays are so synonymous, i.e. Christmas/Easter, but ironically, in vastly “Christian” USA, no one can say, “Have a Merry Christmas”, without being politically incorrect; but dammit, we all want our presents under that tree, cherubim or not! The reasons for celebration have lost to gift-wrap and toys. Ppl will say it’s a religious day, but the secular works far outweigh the spiritual.
Posted 01 Jan 2010 at 11:02 am ¶This one sparked some thought for me DA, good stuff.
“Atheists don’t have a dogma.” I love it! Simple, eloquent and true. This dialogue could be, and should be, drawn out even further. There is lots of good stuff here which I feel you’ve only just begun to touch on. As I state in most of my other comments, “more, more, more!” It may sound strange but even I (also an atheist) think that Christmas would be much better off if it were far less commerical and more religious (or spiritual). Christmas is now less a celebration of hope and faith than a orgy of bargain crazed zealots.
Posted 10 Jan 2010 at 3:02 pm ¶Post a Comment