Real, confident atheists don't think it's offensive to say "Merry Christmas." We think it's adorable

[kpete]

From: THE RUDE PUNDIT

..................

The whole "War on Christmas" started because back in the late 1990s/early 2000s desperate attention whores like Bill O'Reilly heard about some stores that said their employees needed to say, "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" because, you know, they're stores and don't wanna piss off prickly Jews, Muslims, atheists, and whoever else. It was stupid, sure, but so is worshipping an invisible sky wizard (and so is going to war because you think your invisible sky wizard is better than someone else's invisible sky wizard and fuck them for daring to say that the place where their totally fictional did some totally fictional magical thing should belong to them. Or whatever. It's all just nonsense).

The point here is that while Trump was tweeting insane shit about how he "led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase" and while a Trump PAC was putting out a propaganda video with a little girl "fanking" the "pwesident" for "wetting" her say, "Mewwy Chwistmas" again, a video that'd make Joseph Goebbels roll his eyes from how obvious it is, the rest of us were thinking, "The fuck? When couldn't we say, 'Merry Christmas'?" Because, see, we always could. Sometimes we choose not to because we want to be polite to people who don't celebrate it. Sometimes we say, "Happy Holidays" when we're talking about Christmas and New Year's and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa whatever else the fuck is celebrated that we gotta list because it's shorter.

.................

It also works fine when someone gets upset about Kwanzaa, calling it a "made-up holiday." Motherfucker, they're all made-up holidays. Every single religious holiday is just made up based on someone's fictional book of faith. The only holidays that aren't are the ones that celebrate real, living, breathing people, like Presidents' Day or Martin Luther King Day. Still, I've always liked Christmas because a lot of people genuinely try to be nicer. And there's eggnog. And gifts. What's not to like? Hell, the decorations, even the religious ones, can be awfully lovely. So hope you had a merry one. Or happy, if you're British.

As desperately as conservatives want this "Merry Christmas" thing to be, well, a thing, it's not. Every Jew and Muslim and Hindu I've ever met has no fuckin' problem with "Merry Christmas." A few dicks might, but a few dicks will always be dickish. And some of those dicks exploit minor dickishness in order to show that they are major dicks.

Trump taking credit for "bringing Christmas back...bigger and better" is like standing in a rainstorm in a boat in the middle of a reservoir that was always full and declaring you have ended a drought. As much of a liar as you are, there will always be people who believe there was a drought and that you made it rain. But then again, that's how we got religions.





the rest:
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-merry-christmas-nonsense-from-real.html

[malaise]

1. Rudie nail it

as always

[HAB911]

2. Beautifully put!

[tavernier]

3. And we confident Christians think you are adorable!

So all is peace and harmony!

[whathehell]

41. Yeah..They tend to get a little cranky around holidays of a religious

nature, though only those of the Christian persuasion, it seems.

Theoretically, they are disdainful of all religions, but I've YET to see any mocking of Ramadan, Hanukkah or Yom Kippur...Funny that. .Can you say "hypocrites"?

[KatyMan]

48. Perhaps you don't notice it because

it doesn't mock your beliefs so you ignore it. As an atheist, though, as long as you keep your religion to yourself, I don't care what you believe.

[whathehell]

51. Um, no -- The reason I didn't notice it is because it's not there

Having been on DIU for 9 years, I think I would have -- the shock alone would have insured it.

As an agnostic, I don't care what you don:t believe, as long as you keep your condescending remarks to yourself.

[LiberalLovinLug]

84. "a little cranky"

Here I thought Christmas was supposed to be about love and peace and forgiveness and grace. I mean wasn't that the whole point of little Jesus?

So that even if it does deeply offend them when someone dares to wish them a "happy holidays", shouldn't they just roll with it?

These type of Christians sure are a miserable lot during what is supposed to be a celebration for them

[whathehell]

86. I was talking about the

hostile atheists here...I've yet to meet anyone who was offended by "happy holidays"

[LiberalLovinLug]

98. Ah

Actually no one is offended by Merry Christmas OR Happy Holidays, or Seasons Greetings, or Happy Festivus for that matter. Whether you are Christian or atheist or anyone in between. Its all a made up outrage started by the right wing like Bill O'Reilly as has been mentioned. Amazing how well that works on small minded deplorables. They are told there is a War on Christmas by some perverted wingnut...and so there is. All these liberal atheists out there forcing God fearing family folks to renounce their faith by having to NOT hear the word "Christmas" in a store greeting. The Horror.

I think you have to allow for a bit of grumpiness in the atheist mentality this time of year. So much Christian musak forced on us, and time and energy put out to pay homage to a book written by the Church about a magical baby who can conveniently take away every sin you've ever committed and will commit, all so the authorities could have control over their parishioners. How good is that? This faith is so loosely interpreted that you can even believe that someone like Trump is sent by God to do His work. And then there's some that don't think that is possible, like I'm sure on DU. But what does that say about a religion that can be interpreted so many different ways? How can those more liberal Christians know for sure that the deplorable Christians are wrong? I guess they'll have to wait until they die and find out.

[mdbl]

102. I guess they'll have to wait until they die and find out.

but until then, they'll do their best to make this world miserable for everyone.

[mdbl]

103. Let's just face it, Lucy was right

when on the Peanuts Christmas special she said "We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It's run by a big eastern syndicate, you know." This is true whether the syndicate is a religion, a retailer or an advertiser. It's about money. The commercialism mixed with the religious guilt makes it the perfect mind control vehicle.

[whathehell]

105. Correct.

No, and I think everyone here actually knows that as well.

As for. allowing for grumpiness of the atheists...Nah..I don't think so.. Christmas music being "forced" on you?... Give me a break -- It's called living in a diverse society, one in which you are not the majority. C'est la vie.

As for Christianity and it's being " interpreted so loosely"...Huh? If
you think that varying "interpretations" in a religion were the sole
province of Christianity, I can only shake my head in amazement, and ask "Where have you been"?

Don't you know that Judaism, a faith with far fewer
adherents, has four major "interpretations" or denominations -- Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist?. Islam is also Is divided, not only into the two major factions
of Sunni and Shia, but they also have Sufis and of course, our
good friends ISIS.
I'm sorry, but for someone who seems to want to defend a
selective bigotry against one of the major religions in this country, you don't seem to know much about any of them.

[LiberalLovinLug]

106. It is Christmas, and we were talking Christianity

And it seems you have no argument with the premise of it being loosely interpreted. Only that I should include other religions in that charge. Fine. I don't give any other religion any quarter. If you ask me, every organized religion is a man-made invention by a few clever men. Feeding the God part of the brain to control the confused masses. Islam is one of the worst, of course, at different interpretations of their own holy book, by various groups of clever men.

I was brought up in a very strict Christian house. I do not speak without first hand knowledge. The deprograming took many years. I can never say I am 100% atheist as I'll always have a never say never attitude. So I'll always be agnostic to some degree. But most of my extended family are still die hard fundies. I play along to get along. I don't have angry arguments with my older parents anymore. I went to Christmas Eve church with them. It was fine. I say Merry Christmas. Its fine. I am forced, yes forced, to have Christmas musak playing everywhere but that's fine. I even like a lot of Christmas music. I just interpret it a different way than my family. Its one time of year when humans can have the opportunity to be nice to each other, even strangers. See how that feels for at least a brief time each year. Reminding us that we actually CAN get along if we try. Its a great holiday for that reason. I'm all for it.

Just keep the rest of the mind numbing 364 days of cult worship away from me.

[whathehell]

107. We were talking about religion generally, & how Christianity compares

Last edited Thu Dec 28, 2017, 08:27 PM - Edit history (1)

My point is, Christianity cannot be "singled out" as being particularly unbelievable due to. It's "loose interpretation" since all major religions have this feature.

It is not my mission to "re-convert" you back to Christianity. I'm
now an agnostic myself.. I'm simply pointing out that, on the basis of it's credibility or lack thereof, it's no more deserving of criticism than the others.

You say you were raised in a very strict Christian family..We're they Fundamentalists, by any chance?


























.

[LiberalLovinLug]

111. I was only discussing the topic in Rude's OP. About the percieved war on Christmas.

But I am happy to disparage all other organized religions. I have come to abhor the brainwashing effect I see on my extended family and in the Christian evangelical community. That is the only religion I know enough to speak extensively on. So many really nice kind loving people that get caught up in a cult, LIKE ALL RELIGIONS ARE. Yes I was brought up in a fundamentalist Christian household, with Mennonite heritage. I left home as soon as I finished high school at the age of 17 to get away from it.

The fact that it can be used so easily by charlatans like Trump, (and W Bush before him) to gain power is proof to me of its danger. And then someone like Trump will proceed to rip off many of the poor Christians that he swindled into voting him in. Religion is a tool to recruit others into the church in order to keep it going, and sometimes to enrich megachurch pastors like Joel Osteen. But it can also be used as a rally to pressure parishioners to vote a certain way. Create a peer pressure situation where if you truly love God, you will vote Republican. I think many do not even know much about the issues, they just follow the leader, like a good flock.

[delisen]

4. Unfortunately Christmas decorations

in my neighborhood are down considerably from last year. I think it may be due to the current unrest.

I am partial to Kwanzaa as creative and "new" but somehow a perfect fit in spirit.

I've devised my own greeting: I drop the "H" in Happy and Holiday, and use the second letter in each word to say A-O America. It's OK-works for me.

[Merlot]

22. It seems like decorations were down in my neighborhood too

Wasn't sure if I was imgining it, wondered if it was from the current unrest.

[Mariana]

67. My neighborhood, too.

I hardly heard any strangers saying Merry Christmas, either. We can only hope people who celebrate Christmas have had enough of their holiday being made ridiculous by angry RW Christians, crying about how they're being persecuted because someone says Happy Holidays to them. Yes, the message of Christ is sure spread best by assholes harassing store clerks, who can't tell them to fuck off because they'll lose their jobs if they do. There's no need for non-Christians to kill Christmas in the US, they're doing a fine job of it all by themselves.

[Big_K]

97. Decorations are way up in our neighborhood this year....

Everyone is probably excited about all those jobs we're getting from Foxconn in return for 3 billion dollars Scott Walker is giving them. You know, the jobs just for Wisconsin because only 5% of the employees will come from Illinois, as that 10 mile drive will probably be too much for them.

Oh, and Scott Walker is running for another term as our governor.

And our own congresscritter, Paul Ryan, a.k.a the zombie-eyed granny starver (thanks Charlie Pierce!!) may show his shite-eating grin around these parts.

Good times.

[IronLionZion]

5. Most normal people are glad that someone wishes them well

regardless of the holiday. It's just a nice thing to do. Non-Christians have wished me a Happy Good Friday because they didn't know it's not a happy day but I didn't feel offended.

Before wishing a friend a Happy Rosh Hashanah this past fall I quickly googled it on my phone to make sure it was a happy day and not something tragic.

[Girard442]

6. Tsk. How can we MAGA if you're going to get all respectful and sensitive and positive?

[IronLionZion]

7. Losers are sensitive and respectful and positive, winners don't have time for that nonsense.

[KG]

8. eggnog? one of the most vile of man's creations?

anyway, as a non-believer i've just played along to keep from harshing peoples mellow. but it's been decades since i've even had to say the words merry xmas or happy holidays to anybody.

[GulfCoast66]

14. Sacrilege!! You eggnog heathen!

I am fine with you being a nonbeliever since that is how I describe myself.

But knocking the heavenly beverage we call eggnog!!! Unforgivable!! What next? Dissing Bourbon? It’s a slippery slope I tell you!!

[mainer]

23. Pour enough brandy in it and you'll change your mind.

Actually, just straight brandy and whipped cream does it.

[dhol82]

58. On the occasions when I made my own eggnog I would use 100 proof bourbon

That always gave it a really good kick.

[Control-Z]

71. That's what I was going to say.

You gotta put enough Brandy in it to make it good. Duh. The more Brandy the better the eggnog.

You know, this thread has reminded me that I haven't had a single eggnog this year. Now I'm gonna go out and buy me some. A small cartoon of eggnog and a small bottle of Brandy. If I do it correctly I'll run out of both at the same time! Woohoo!

Whatever you celebrate, may it be happy!!

[ET Awful]

49. Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion man.. . . Name a better nog, go ahead, I dare you.

[PJMcK]

104. You have to try Stew Leonard's Egg Nog!

Stewie's is a small chain of dairy/supermarkets in the New York area. Their egg nog is unbelievable and addictive!

ETA: To be clear, I don't have any affiliation with Stew Leonard's. I just love their egg nog.

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Atheists and those secure in their religion have no problem expressing good tidings to other faiths.

.

It's only the jerks who are trying to prove how pious they are who have issues respecting other faiths.

.

[maddiemom]

76. So true.

"Happy Holidays" was originally meant to convey the blessings of the Season and be inclusive when in contact with strangers whose religion you couldn't be sure of; and if you were Christian, you certainly would greet Christian friends and family with "Merry Christmas." Even if of another religion, you would probably use that wish to your known Christian friends. During the holidays, retail store workers often were told to use "Happy Holidays" to their customers to be all inclusive. Suddenly Bill O'Reilly (he probably wasn't the first, just the first I remember) seized on this and did his best to incite outrage. How ridiculous and narrow minded that it caught on for a while! I really thought the "controversy" had run its course with all but the right wing nuts. Now of course "our president, who we all love" saw a chance to start more trouble and resurrected the farcical outrage.

[roody]

10. I reply,

"Thank you, and merry every day to you."

[rzemanfl]

11. I made a real effort to say "Happy Holidays" this year in light of Drumpf.

In my entire 70+ years I have been inside churches only for weddings, funerals and once for a required meeting held there. I never had a problem with saying "Merry Christmas" without believing the story.

[whathehell]

63. It"s just a silly non-issue made up by Republicans.

They have to distract people with something while the pick their pockets.

[rzemanfl]

79. But saying "Happy Holidays" pisses off the distracted deplorables. n/t

[whathehell]

81. That's what they say... Maybe I'm not around many deplorables

because I've yet to meet anyone who looked like they cared.

[rzemanfl]

85. You're in Chicago. I'm in Florida and spend a lot of time at the Y around

people even older than I am (and I'm old). You can see their knuckles turn white on the handles of their walkers.

[whathehell]

87. Turning white from what?

[rzemanfl]

88. My hyperbole. n/t

[dchill]

12. "...a few dicks will always be dickish."

Another way to say "Merry Christmas!"

[Orsino]

13. Confident atheists can also make merry, and may not care what others choose to name a holiday.

And whether or not one is a believer, yes, all holidays are made up. Because we all need holidays.

[GulfCoast66]

15. Ironically, this year has been a happy Holiday year for me

I have always said Merry Christmas and will in the future. But since it seems to just melt the republican snowflakes this year I have just used happy Holidays.

On a couple occasions I used it after being given a very aggressive Merry Christmas. Then looked them in the eye and smiled sincerely.

They both turned away not able to meet my look. I was classic. Most people took it as the compliment it is normally intended.

[SidDithers]

16. DU rec...

Sid

[Farmer-Rick]

17. After seeing the Trump propaganda

A page right out of the Putin play book I might add, (take credit for nonsensical things tied to mythical thinking) I vow to war against the silly phrase all the more if Trump still occupies the white house next year.

Let's hope it wont be necessary. I don't want to have to continue the war all by myself.

By the way, there are Christians who don't celebrate Christmas too. Jehova Witnesses, Seven Day Adventists and others.

[BigmanPigman]

89. Well said!

The "Thank You for LETTING us say Merry Christmas tRump" ads on CNN make me ill. What fucking BS!

As a teacher I had students of all faiths, religions, cultures, languages, etc. in my class and it was usually the psycho Christian Fundamentalist parents that caused any problems with celebrating holidays. Eventually we couldn't even celebrate Halloween (Devil's holiday). If the Jehovah's Witnesses weren't allowed to make cards or partake in a student's birthday celebrations the other students and I were very cool about it and had back up fun and creative stuff set aside for them to enjoy while we celebrated. They weren't punished or left out at all. The adults ruin it for everyone.

[Bradical79]

18. The only person mad at work was an older Jewish lady

She got a little fed up with some fellow employees putting so much emphasis on this bullshit.

[MosheFeingold]

19. She sounds unpleasant

I've never cared one way or the other.

I get "merry Chris...ummm ... happy Hanukkah" all the time.

I don't expect people to change their religious practices to suit my religion.

[Bradical79]

65. I wasn't very clear

It's less something like that, and more bigoted ignorant "war on Christmas" comments that got to her, as if anything other than Merry Christmas was a grave offense. The most egregious of which was "Not celebrating Christmas is un-American!"

[AtheistCrusader]

20. I view it at a platitude. Like 'Good morning'. A meaningless pleasantry

in the normal social dance we do when talking to other people. Without regard to actual conditions. (In the good morning example, for instance, few people give a thought to whether the person is ACTUALLY having a good morning)

I've never gotten upset about it.

[Norbert10]

21. Yeah Dipshit Donnie isnt worth being rude to strangers

It’s a pagan holiday anyways

[whathehell]

54. Um, no..You're thinking of the winter solstice..

Christmas may roughly coincide with the Solstice, but it's a separate holiday,

[haele]

70. Saturnalia! The original reason for the Season.

Gift giving, Feasts, Drinking, Bonfires, and lots of happy family-making time!

What else are you going to do when the days are getting shorter and shorter and the nights are getting longer and colder?
Poke what appears to be death in the eye and have some fun.

Haele

[whathehell]

73. Works for me

[whathehell]

27. Of course it is..

The whole"issue" is not worth a minute's time.

[Iggo]

34. Yep, it's "Have a nice day" for the xmas season.

[malthaussen]

40. Gandalf the Grey might have something to say about that...

... a classic example of a wise guy making difficulties over something just to be a pest.

-- Mal

[solara]

24. "As much of a liar as you are, there will always be people who believe there was a drought

and that you made it rain. But then again, that's how we got religions."

That's also how we got PINO trump




Well, one of the ways, anyway

[angrychair]

25. While I agree to a certain point

As an atheist I see religion as a danger to the stability and future of our nation and world.

If it really was just “peace, love and joy” I wouldn’t mind as much but religions, Christianity here in the US specifically, attempts (and often succeeds) in influencing everything from education and science to our very rights as human beings to make our own healthcare decisions.

These influences are corrosive and are doing long-term damage to every aspect of our society.

Example:
Amish keep to themselves and live their lives without influencing or disrupting society. I question pushing their children into it but that is the only rub I have with it.

US evangelicals and Catholics and other religions in US attempt to control every aspect of our private lives from what I learn in school to what technology we develop to how I spend my retirement even though I didn’t ask them too or agree with any of it but I wasn’t asked or given a choice.

[whathehell]

26. "adorable"?

Condescending much?

[ExciteBike66]

30. I find my 3-year-old's belief in Santa to be "adorable" too...

[Iggo]

35. LOL.

Ayup.

[whathehell]

37. I find intolerant atheists to be assholes..

To each his own, I guess.

[ExciteBike66]

44. Intolerant?

I tolerate your views on Santa!

[whathehell]

47. Like I said..

Assholes.

[Piasladic]

53. Lol

Ayup.

[whathehell]

55. You got it..

[Piasladic]

56. Nope

In this case, I think you mistook the assholes.

[Mariana]

68. It's funny how words acquire brand-new definitions, isn't it?

Intolerant used to mean, well, intolerant. Now it apparently means something else entirely, to some people.

[SergeStorms]

90. What were you saying....

about condescending opinions again?

[whathehell]

91. I was saying.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

[SergeStorms]

100. Oh, OK.

Just checking.

[LanternWaste]

62. I'm not surprised you dug deep enough to find something

I'm not surprised you dug deep enough to find something... anything really, to pretend offense.

Bless your little heart.

[whathehell]

64. Aww.

You sound more offended than I supposedly "pretend" to be.

[LakeArenal]

28. We celebrate the real season

The Solstice. I make cards for it.
Since all the other celebrations are made up or at the wrong time of year, the Solstice is a real thing that happens over and over again.
Since most of its made up, we made up the Solstice being the new year. So it’s all one celebration around here.

In the end don’t we all want fellowship , peace on earth and good will.

Not words, Dump, actions.

[pokerfan]

83. Reason for the season

[elleng]

29. Not so sure about 'adorable,' but friendly,

and certainly not offensive.

[Ferrets are Cool]

31. Preach it Rude

[thbobby]

32. How are you today? Good. And you?

Basically just a polite greeting meaning little.

Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you. Same. Words to express a polite greeting. Is there a deeper meaning? I doubt there is for most people.

Happy Fuck Trump Day! That is a greeting that means something and could be expressed with pride and a love for America.

[MontanaMama]

52. Happy Fuck Trump Day!

My kinda holiday! Good one...

[Major Nikon]

33. Saying "Happy Holidays" to a BillO fan is an inoculation against the chickenshits

And let's face it, if someone is so into their own religious privilege they get pissed off by someone expressing good will to people of all faiths (including theirs), then they are most certainly ate up with the chickenshits.

[dobleremolque]

36. I like to greet pro-Christmas warriors

with: "Merry Christmas ... in the strictly commercial sense."

[KY_EnviroGuy]

101. LOL, that would be appropriate for Walmart door greeters.

And, welcome to DU!.

And, happy whatever holiday happens to be your choice. I just hope you got a holiday!

..................

[Bernardo de La Paz]

38. The "War on Christmas" appeals to christian Dominionists: think theyre oppressed when not oppressing

The christian Dominionists think that anytime christianisms are not 100% dominant, then christianity is being oppressed.

[maddiemom]

77. Exactly.

Those who loudly, constantly refer to themselves as Christians seem to believe that anyone who disagrees with them are persecuting them

[Faux pas]

39. Merry Holidays

and Happy Ho Ho Ho works for me.

[DetlefK]

42. Real atheists roll their eyes, ignore it and move on.

The only kind of atheists who care about this are combative assholes who are out to prove that they are better than you. Average atheists don't care about "Merry Christmas".

[sandensea]

43. As an Agnostic who believes Christ was probably born in October,

I agree.

[Codeine]

45. Lifelong atheist here, and I love Christmas.

Trees, lights, wrapping paper, the whole bit. The backstory is dumb, but who cares?

[lindysalsagal]

95. Yup. Listened to christmas cd's in the car, great Christmas dinnet

With family. Just love it all. This is a family tradition, w/o any deities. It's all good, but no god. I'm ok letting everyone select their own meaning when I say merry christmas. People who know me know i'm no believer.

[mountain grammy]

46. Theyre all made up holidays .

Indeed.

[rock]

50. "I have ended the drought"

"And averted the flood!"

[BarbaRosa]

57. I have no problem saying Merry Christmas,

I just like to wait until Christmas to say it. They start this crap around Halloween.

[Still In Wisconsin]

59. I am a Jew- know what my response is when someone tells me "Merry Christmas?"

I answer, "Merry Christmas."

[EllieBC]

75. Same but my almost 8 year old has a longer reply.

I'm chalking it up to her autism but this year she said to someone who asked her if she was looking forward to Santa and Christmas, "We don't have Christmas. We have Chanukah. Momma also doesn't let us eat pork or shellfish and you have to remember which plates and forks to use for meat and dairy and it.is.so.frustrating!". 🙄

My usual response is to wish someone Merry Christmas back. That's it.

[C Moon]

60. I remember back in the 80's they were complaining that people abbreviated it as X-Mas

[whathehell]

61. 'Real, confident' atheists don't mock and insult non-atheists either

Insecure dickwads do that.

[demopilot]

72. Theism was born when the first scammer bumped into the first gullible dope.

Hope that's not too mocking. It is sincere, for what it's worth. And it goes for all
flavors of 'faith' (a piss poor substitute for thinking.)

[whathehell]

74. Like I said..

Insecure Dickwads.

[demopilot]

108. Thanks for the acknowledgement.

There are many amazing things in this world. One of the most astonishing is that many people still appear to believe in talking snakes and as(s)ses, global floods, magical gods who live way up in the sky, virgin pregnancies, men living inside fish and dead guys waking up after 3 days.

But then people who substitute faith for thinking don't have much intellectual horsepower anyway.

http://www.godisimaginary.com

[whathehell]

109. I acknowledge that intolerant atheists

are insecure dickwads, yes.

Your assertion that modern religion is based on "talking snakes" and "men living in fish"" is absurd and based on a very LITERAL interpretation of the Torah and Bible that's rejected by the vast majority of Christians and Jews...Enjoy your evening.







r

[demopilot]

114. A literal interpretation is rejected by a 'vast majority'....?

That is the most astonishing claim I have heard since Harold Camping predicted the return of
Jebus back in 2011.

http://www.godisimaginary.com/video2.htm

[whathehell]

115. Um, yeah..

and what "astonishes" me is the widespread ignorance about religion among atheists, at least on this board.
Google "percentage of Christians who are Fundamentalists"...It's about 30 %. You'll then be informed, rather than astonished.

[Bradical79]

66. I say Merry Christmas near Christmas time

Christmas Eve, weekend before Christmas... not immediately after Thanksgiving like some people were doing with me this year, lol.

[Initech]

69. The thing about the "culture war" nobody is telling you:

Nobody gives a shit! Fucking Fox fucking News is a virus that ruins everything it touches. They made up this whole culture war to give it's viewers a cause that nobody previously cared about, and people still don't care about it!

And you the other thing they're not telling you? Nobody goes to retail stores anymore! You can make lists of which stores don't worship baby Jesus enough, but the truth is - Amazon is the only store out there that's making money. And they don't have physical stores! Ha ha ha ha...

[Blue Streak Science]

78. Let's put the X back in Xmas in 2018!

XXX OOO

[Mariana]

80. It's much more likely that a Christian will be offended

if someone doesn't say Merry Christmas to them, especially if it's some poor sod of a store clerk. Some of those people get very angry indeed.

Clerk (me): Thank you, have a nice holiday.
Christian: It's CHRISTmas! Say CHRISTmas! Merry CHRISTmas!
Clerk (me): Jesus Christ, get a grip, you look like you're about to have a stroke. (Not really, I'd lose my job, so--)
Clerk (me): Uh, yes Ma'am. Next!

[whathehell]

110. Must be only Fox watching Christians..I've never met anyone like that

I'm starting to think the whole meme is just made up bullshit.

[Mariana]

112. There are an awful lot of Fox watching Christians.

Have you worked at a register in a store in a conservative area? You might have run into them now and then, if you did, and said the word holiday to your customers in December. Fortunately, the real crazies are few and far between, but they certainly do exist.

[whathehell]

113. Maybe where you are..

Seriously..I live in a blue state, grew up in a blue state & city around Catholics, Jews & Mainstream Protestants....These Evangelical/Fundie types are basically foreign to me.

[trof]

82. "Motherfucker, they're all made-up holidays."

If I were gay I would absolutely propose marriage to the Rude Pundit.
(Assuming he's a he.)

[McCamy Taylor]

92. In Japan its a gift giving holiday just like here

And they are Shinto and Buddhist

[LiberalFighter]

93. Yep! They don't have Christmas as a holiday in the Bible.

[whathehell]

116. Um, no and the Pilgrims didn't celebrate Fourth of July

[The Mouth]

94. Utterly agree

I hope that whatever somebody believes makes them happy, makes them a better person and offers them joy and hope.

I'll play in their praise band, refrain from eating a pork chop in their face and buy their flower just because the poor SOB has been standing in an airport all day...

The *NANOSECOND* they try to require or prohibit what I can say, who I can love, what art I can create based on those beliefs I am justified in terminating their corporeal existence, until that point, peace and love. ISIS, LDS, anything else, it doesn't matter; don't make laws effecting me and it's peace and love, make your revelations the basis for law I have to obey and I am doing the world a favor ridding it of them, no in-between.

I like Christmas, the lights, the gift giving, the fact that it often serves the function of making people feel shitty when they have been assholes to family or friends

[Martin Eden]

96. K&R for R.P.

One of his best!

[oberliner]

99. How hard is it to just say Happy Holidays instead?

Just shows basic courtesy to the non-Christians who walk among us.