April 29, 2008
Failing at Atheism - They don’t believe but they would like Holidays anyways
Posted by Aurvant under Epic Fail, Funny, General, Really?, Religion, Science, Stupid, WTF | Tags: Atheists, holidays, Humanists, retarded |Found this on HotAir.
It’s a pretty poor argument on the humanists (read: atheists) part to try and sway people to create a bunch of holidays when the people arguing for it have constantly attacked pretty much every holiday in the past.
Not to mention? These are the worst holidays I have ever seen:
Some of the highlights of the Secular Seasons calendar include Thomas Paine Day (Jan. 29), April Fool’s Day (as always, April 1), and Ingersoll Day (Aug. 11). The latter celebrates the birthday of 19th-century thinker Robert Green Ingersoll, who was known as “the Great Agnostic.” Secular Seasons recommends visiting his birthplace in Dresden, N.Y., for a holiday celebration. (Hey — you only live once.)
The site also breaks down the customs of Festivus, the holiday popularized by Jerry Stiller on “Seinfeld.” In case you missed that episode: A Festivus pole is plain aluminum, made to contrast the ornate Christmas trees; the official greeting is “Happy Festivus”; and each person complains to family and friends how they have disappointed them in the last year.
Wow, a bunch of faithless and unhappy people want to celebrate the lives and days of events and people who were pretty much centered around making people unhappy. That sure does sound like fun….mmmhmmm.
Mr. Cherry says Darwin Day (Feb. 12) is growing in popularity. February 2009 would be Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, and next year will also be the 150th anniversary of the publication of “The Origin of Species.”
Honoring the man who helped us understand science and humanity is a reason to celebrate, says Mr. Cherry. His recommendations: Throw caution to the wind and attend a biology lecture or even have folks bring fossils to a party.
I think I’ll just stick to my presents and easter eggs, actually. I prefer holidays that are centralized in the themes of love, happiness, and spiritual fellowship….not boring lectures and bones someone found in the dirt.
April 29, 2008 at 1:18 pm
“Wow, a bunch of faithless and unhappy people want to celebrate the lives and days of events and people who were pretty much centered around making people unhappy.”
Paine and Ingersoll centered around supporting freedom and knowledge. Seinfeld centered around entertaining others.
Oh yeah. Those are horrible, hateful, boring reasons to have celebrations, aren’t they?
April 29, 2008 at 2:01 pm
April fools day - A day centered around gagging people and playing pranks on them. While some are generally clean and mean well most are just mean.
Festivus - A day where you complain to family and friends about how they disappoint you last year? Gee, sure sounds like fun.
Paine, while an advocacy of getting out from under royal rule was a constant critic of religion. While he constituted himself as a deist he vocally professed that the churches were nothing but “institutes designs to terrify the masses”. Boy, he sure sounds like a happy fellow.
Ingersoll was the only man who came close to being somewhat normal but even his radical views of free-thought were a bit extreme and his speeches were generally filled with rhetoric that made fun of religious belief.
April 29, 2008 at 2:18 pm
And as a side note, the assumption that atheists are unhappy is quite wrong. Certainly some are unhappy. But no more than the percentage of the general population.
Faithless, certainly. But then we don’t view faith as a positive.
April 29, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Ingersoll would be countered as a normal person today. His views were just extreme in a time when killing black people was an occasion for a picnic.
April 29, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Wow, somebody is deeplpy confused about the meaning of happiness and has no sense of humour, to boot.
And, “boring lectures and bones someone found in the dirt”? Methinks it is you that is the boring one here…
April 30, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Hey, I’m all for another nondenominational holiday like Festivus if it’s centered on something that doesn’t divide everyone along ideological/politcal/racial/etc. lines. Bring out the aluminum pole!
April 30, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I find it odd that a group of faithless people would adopt a “faithful” construct of celebrating holidays. That’s basically what is happening here.
Structuring a faith based celebration calender around the faithless ideals of humanism.
And if you actually enjoy biology lectures then I really can’t help you.
April 30, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Actually holidays were originally times for people to stop working and get together. Not really a faithful construct.
May 1, 2008 at 9:33 am
To begin with, holidays were not “faithful constructs” but rather community celebrations to have some time off and reinforce the communal binds. The word “holiday” should not be used, perhaps, because of its association with “holiness”, but the word “celebration”is just fine.
And if you don’t like biology (or physics, or astronomy, or philosophy), I *rteally* can’t help you. Lack of curiosity is one of the most odious faults I am aware of.
May 1, 2008 at 3:01 pm
And since almost every Christian holiday comes from a Pagan origin, and each of those Pagan origins come from seasonal celebrations, I have no problem celebrating Christian holidays either. I just don’t go to church, give them money or give praise to any of their symbolism.
Getting together with family and friends, eating good food and giving presents, going out together for entertainment and education…who would be against such things?
May 1, 2008 at 3:52 pm
*clap clap* Thank you Morse. I was so lost until you revealed to me the clandestine secrets of my faiths holidays. The origins of many of the “Christian Holidays” were, indeed, pagan holidays.
However, after Constantine converted to Christianity he decreed that all of the pagan days would be retooled to fit Christian faith and practice instead of the pagan worship it was originally intended.
Whereas the Winter Solstice was originally a pagan holiday where people all over rome would get together and partake in massive orgies it was changed in to a more wholesome and pure celebration where they stopped having the orgies and reformatted the day around the celebration of Christ’s birth.
The same goes for holidays like Easter worshiping on Sunday. I’m quite aware of the origin of my holidays however the purpose behind the reformation was to steer the masses towards a more Christ-centric form of worship instead of decadent hedonism.
The humanist holidays seemed to be centered around celebrating the faithless and creating an anti-thesis to those who take religious holidays seriously.
It just seems odd that a group of people who lash out against faith and who have constantly criticized religious holidays in the past would create their own form of holiday calender and then seem offended when someone of faith criticizes them.
May 1, 2008 at 5:53 pm
“Whereas the Winter Solstice was originally a pagan holiday where people all over rome would get together and partake in massive orgies”
As someone who loves Ancient Roman History, methinks you should read a book on it.
“The humanist holidays seemed to be centered around celebrating the faithless”
You type ‘faithless’ like it’s a bad thing.
“It just seems odd that a group of people who lash out against faith and who have constantly criticized religious holidays in the past would create their own form of holiday calender and then seem offended when someone of faith criticizes them.”
Number 1, who’s offended by being criticized by believers? I’m not. I will argue when I believe a believer is saying something disingenuous or generally untrue, however.
Number 2, criticizing religious holidays is not the same as criticizing holidays. Holidays (as in celebrations, not holy days) are great things. Many religious holidays are sad and ripe for being criticized.
May 1, 2008 at 6:21 pm
So, I am to believe there is a double standard here?
May 1, 2008 at 8:09 pm
What double standard? Christianity took holidays and changed them to make them palatable for Christians. That’s all atheists are doing now.