Religion and it’s practices does have a fair amount of traditions, holidays, celebrations and brings a bit of community bonding, yet we do not have those things within atheism. Religion also passes on these things to other generations. Atheism really has nothing in the way of celebrations or traditions to pass on to future generations.
Putting aside all the boring and scary sermons do you ever look at religion with some sort of admiration for the "societal bonding" that takes place?
I think these things may come in time. This may be an answer to the age old drink question: Why are atheists in R&S? Why? Because you guys are awesome!
EDIT – Wow! Do we have our first Black Israelite on R&S?
Preach on Black Truth! Thumbs up from me – I love diversity!
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:02 pm
No.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 3:12 pm
No. We don’t need an excuse to celebrate. Every day is a party.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Nopeski
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March 2nd, 2010 at 4:28 pm
No. I feel no attachment to people who happen to share the same philosophical and ideological principles I do.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Most holidays have been commercialized nowadays anyway…so it doesn’t really matter.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Not one bit..
Its all just another day in paradise
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March 2nd, 2010 at 6:13 pm
There’s plenty of secular traditions and holidays… and community activities.
Parades
Arbor day
Basketball games
(to name a few examples)
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March 2nd, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Sort of, but then we have our "traditions, holidays and community bonds" within our family & friends. Besides, the pagans don’t have a problem with us partaking in their holidays.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 6:54 pm
I don’t really associate holidays and traditions with religion specifically. I associate it with the human need to bond and celebrate with loved ones. When you really break down holidays, that’s what it comes to. So in effect, anyone could invent a ‘holiday’ or special occasion to get the family and friends together.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I think these things may come in time. This may be an answer to the age old drink question: Why are atheists in R&S? Why? Because you guys are awesome!
EDIT – Wow! Do we have our first Black Israelite on R&S?
Preach on Black Truth! Thumbs up from me – I love diversity!
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March 2nd, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Commercialized holidays are for everyone
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Atheist
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Nah. Religious holidays and stuff have turned so secular that atheists are able to celebrate them without saying the word "Jesus" or "God" so whatever.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 8:38 pm
We still have birthdays, anniversaries and secular holidays like Presidents Day, Valentines Day and that sort of junk.
I don’t need a bunch of holidays. I still get most of the Christian ones off anyway and I still go eat with my family.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 9:10 pm
My family has traditions holidays and other celebrations of our own that has no connection to a god or jesus. We don’t need it or want it. And we are fine without it.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 9:34 pm
I see no reason we can’t celebrate holidays, etc just because we don’t beileve in the religious side of things. I use any excuse to get together with family and enjoy time with them. And traditions can be created at anytime, in anyway.
And not really. I think it’s wonderful that people get together no matter what the motivation and simply enjoy spending time that way. It’s not limited to religionists. I don’t need a religion to bring me friends or have a cook out.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 9:47 pm
No, because I always viewed the holidays and most community activities as largely secular anyway. And they’ve been that way for centuries.
Do people who live outside of Massachusetts feel sad on Thanksgiving?
Do non-Druids feel outcast on Halloween?
Has anybody ever said "I didn’t get any candy for Valentine’s Day. Shucks, I wish I was a Roman pagan!"?
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March 2nd, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Well, no, because atheism isn’t an organized group that warrants holidays or shared belief celebrations. (Which you know, of course.) We celebrate many of the same days (or times of year) as religious people do, just without the mythological or religious figures.
Church or mass is very comforting for those who desire that sort of thing. It was never the thing for me, though. It was long and boring and I wanted to be somewhere else most of the time.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 11:05 pm
there are plenty of nonreligious holidays, plus alot of us just co-opt the christian holidays.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 pm
No. Just because I don’t believe in God doesn’t mean I can’t celebrate holidays. I still have a family that I love and care about, and we still eat dinner together every night, and we get together on many different holidays. For example, I don’t believe in Jesus or his miracles or whatever he did, but I’m still going to celebrate Easter with my family by having a family meal this Sunday. The kids are going to decorate and find eggs, and we’re going to have a great time. This is a truly idiotic question, because atheists are people too, and love their familys just as much as Christians love theirs. You should probably be ashamed of yourself…
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March 2nd, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Everyday is a holiday!!!
Besides all of our celebrations are borrowed from others
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March 3rd, 2010 at 12:44 am
Where did you get the idea that atheists don’t have traditions? They have most of the same traditions as anyone in any particular culture have, just not the religious ones. Not every aspect of a culture is centered around religion. The view you’re expressing is very narrow.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 1:00 am
It’s different in Europe, because secular people are in the majority there. Atheists only feel isolated in this here "Christian" nation.
http://www.slate.com/id/2203614/
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March 3rd, 2010 at 1:14 am
Why can’t atheists just celebrate the seasons, too?
As IF Christmas and Easter and Halloween are Christian anyway!
They are just the same ancient stuff- to mark the solstices and equinoxes.
So some people plunk Christ in there to legitimize it in their minds…
But honestly- those "feast days" are just a human thing- we all love to mark the passing seasons, with our loved ones.
Nothing wrong in it.
It’s not as if you would be worshipping any sort of god or goddess anymore- just marking the seasons.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 1:24 am
Atheists does not share a common beliefe or a lifestyle. The only thing in common is not believing in god.
We don’t lack any traditions, we’re happy people who live in different societies and share holidays with the rest of the society. We love our families and we love our friends, nothing wrong with us to think religion has something special. Most atheist had a religion and they left it so why would they be jealous of it?
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March 3rd, 2010 at 1:33 am
No not really.
I still celebrate Christmas and Easter, but it’s mostly for the kids sake.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 2:18 am
No because atheism is not a iffin religion! It’s a gang group full of apes minus the voilent! hahaha
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March 3rd, 2010 at 2:59 am
Okay. I admit it, the minute I lost my faith in God, all the stories my grandfather told me from his youth and about his parents and grandparents ceased to exist.
My family history ceased to exist. My memories of going camping with my grandparents ceased to exist. The glass work of my great-grandfather ceased to exist, as did the quilting my grandmother did and passed on to me as an heirloom. I lost the ability to hang out with my parents and have dinner, to hang around with my uncles and talk about the parties we used to have at Fort Jackson in Louisiana. I no longer have any connections in a community that my family has been a part of for three generations before me. Because I lost my faith in God, I no longer have a living memory of the folklore my grandmother in Florida passed on to me. Because I’m an atheist, the town in Alabama named after my ancestors is a pale imitation of real history and tradition.
I don’t need church to have family, friends, and a history.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 3:20 am
Why would you need a holiday or tradition? To celebrate…Your grateful for…Happy that…wait…NOTHING. You don’t believe in anything.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 3:38 am
I have community bonding! I spend my day with people and function in relationships as you do. Just because I do not believe does not make me an outcast. I love just like you and want to be loved just like you, I am just a little more realistick in my expectations of other people
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March 3rd, 2010 at 3:56 am
I view christian traditions with great fondness. I view them just as that..Traditions that were once hardwired in religion.
It doesn’t mean as an atheist, I cannot enjoy being with family at Christmas or Easter
http://softmelon.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/good-friday-an-atheists-perspective/
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March 3rd, 2010 at 4:44 am
why should I need some religious dogma to give me a reason to celebrate with my family? We do just that, whenever the mood strikes, because we are a family, together. And when the weather’s nice, the sun shining or the evening cool, neighbors, friends, colleagues and relatives gather for food and fun, joining not because of an ecumenical calendar says so, but for friendship and community.
I’ve passed the tradition of waffles on Sunday mornings, summer vacations at the shore, garbage on Wednesdays, Friday movie nights, thrift shopping and road trips and volunteering and daily hugs and recycling and puddle jumping and remembering to bring positive to every day. I’ve given my children tenets to life by: Respect all, help those in need, love strong and knowledge is power.
And all without the tainting touch of religion.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 5:10 am
yes
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March 3rd, 2010 at 5:27 am
Are you really that ignorant about the holidays and feast days?!!
Easter is set by the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This is the one day in the year when day and night are roughly equal!
It varies by more than a month over the years and so it simply cannot represent the date of anyone’s death!!!
It is in fact a combination of several pagan festivals most notably the spring festival.
The name Easter comes from “Eastre” an Anglo-Saxon pagan goddess. Also the Norse goddess,Ostara who took her name from the Teutonic lunar goddess Eostre
Even the Chinese have the festival of Ching Ming where flowers and sweets are put on their ancestors graves!!
The egg and the rabbit are symbols of springtime and rebirth along with the custom of giving flowers etc!!
Halloween is shortened from All Hallows’ Evening which has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain a celebration of the end of the harvest. But it was a day on which many northern European Pagan traditions or religious festivals were celebrated!!
Two Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old All Saints’ Day from May 13 itself the date of a pagan holiday to try to hijack the pagan festival.
Christmas is nothing to do with either Christianity or Islam but it does have it’s origins in the midwinter festival and many other basically pagan rites but since much of it is a celebration of nature rather than religion everyone should be able to enjoy it and be happy together despite religion!!
The ancient European pagans celebrated the midwinter festival and a number of other festivals long before Christianity ever existed!
Babylonians celebrated the feast of the Son of Isis with gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift giving and the goddess of fertility, love, and war.
The Romans held a festival on 25 December called “Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, celebrating their own god Sol Invictas – PAGAN.
The Persian god Mithras, the Syrian sun god Elah Gabal, the German Sol, the Greek Helios and the Mesopotamian Shamash. But also Saturnalia, honouring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. The law courts and schools were closed. No public business could be transacted an this is where the holidays originated – ALL PAGAN!!!
Wax tapers were given by the more humble to their superiors. The origin of the Christmas candle – PAGAN!!
In Rome groups of costumed went from house to house entertaining their people. And this was where the carolling Christmas tradition originated PAGAN!!
Statues of the Mother and lover or Mother and son were paraded through the streets not only in Italy but also in Africa, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Bulgaria. Thus, the symbolism of the Heavenly Virgin and the infant child paraded on a yearly basis are not of Christian origin. They stem from the Mother-goddess religion, which is very ancient ENTIRELY PAGAN!!.
Scandinavian countries celebrated Yule honouring Thor – PAGAN.
In Germania (not Germany) they celebrated midwinter night followed by 12 wild nights of eating and drinking. The 12 days of Christmas PAGAN!!
The church under Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25 in 350 AD in order to try to hijack the PAGAN festivals but it was largely ignored. Christians did not really celebrate Christmas until 378 but it was then dropped in 381 and not resurrected until 400.
The Christmas tree stems from pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice, which included the use of holly boughs ivy and other foliage as an adaptation of pagan tree worship. Holly and ivy represented male and female. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual – all PAGAN!!
Santa Claus came from the Dutch “Sinterklaas” and was a tall figure riding a white horse through the air and usually accompanied by Black Peter, an elf who punished disobedient children. Also the origin of the reindeer, sleigh and the elves ALL PAGAN!!
The modern red coated Santa was brought about by coca cola!!
America actually banned Christmas several times and is the originator of the expression “Happy Holidays” which came about because of the pagan origins of Christmas to include all religions and traditions!!
The Venerable Bede, an early Christian writer pointed out that the Christian church absorbed Pagan practices when it found the population unwilling to give up the festivals. Thus a lot of what Christians now see as Christians practices are in fact pagan!!!
All holidays where christians strive to prove just how pagan they have become!!!
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March 3rd, 2010 at 5:50 am
Wow, the way you put it,,,it seems like atheists are like lost little outcasts, pressing their little booger noses to the window of the world, and watching everything they want…OUT ….OF….REACH..
everyday is a party, huh? and pray tell, what happens when the party’s over?
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March 3rd, 2010 at 6:17 am
Atheists don’t need empty mythological ritual traditions to enjoy their lives, family or friendships.
You mean put aside all the scary sermons and pedophiles, the Spanish inquisition, the persecution of Galileo’s heliocentric truth until 1992, the Intelligent design retards trying to subvert science with unsubstantiated BS and every loon that believes in a magical man in the sky. No I don’t have any admiration for superstitious morons regardless of how much bonding goes on that would be like admiring a group of kids because they scared themselves playing with a Ouija board.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 6:53 am
Yes. I felt the same way the first time I thought I was in love. But then I regained my senses and discovered all the insincerity involved in that relationship. I’m more careful now about deluding myself, especially if it involves exchanging material things to certify, and build upon our relationship.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 7:31 am
No not at all. There are many opportunities for community celebration that o not have a religious focus. Atheists can celebrate secular holidays such as the fourth of july, mother’s day, and father’s day, birthdays, and many others. Just because Chiristmas, Easter, ect. may be more popularized and widely celebrated, doesn;t mean that you and your family/friends cannot have your own traditions centered around nonreligous holidays.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 7:45 am
Not really, we just use your holidays as an excuse for presents.
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