I call bullshit on atheists celebrating Christmas.
If you celebrate it you’re Christian, feel free to call yourself cultural Christian or atheist Christian. but celebrating Christmas is a Christian thing.
I don’t believe in God and still celebrate my Jewish holidays, and I call myself an atheist jew, a common thing in Judaism.
and I call myself an atheist jew, a common thing in Judaism.
I don’t think it makes sense to equivocate Jewish identity with Christianity, because Christianity is a universal religion, not an ethnic religion. Atheists I know who celebrate Christian holidays don’t consider themselves Christian, Christianity is considered to be about the belief system, not the culture surrounding it. Any remaining Christian influence is treated more like a cultural tradition than a religious event. The way Christmas is celebrated in the ones I’ve been to, you could simply change the name and it would then be a completely secular feast. It’s derived from (not influenced by!) a pagan event, so most of its core features aren’t even related to Christianity in the first place, not even the date. Christianity is surprisingly arbitrary in Christmas.
Like you mentioned, Christian atheism appears to be an established concept in other countries, along with similar concepts like lapsed Catholics. I only personally know one person like this, who identifies as a Lutherian but not believing in a higher power, and other people I’ve mentioned it to consider that to be odd and contradictory.
It’s not even about declaring themselves default. Many countries used to have 90+% of population identifying as Christian, with persecution against non-Christians. Christianity was/is taught in schools, determines the public holidays, and was historically written into law, among a million other things. In these countries, they were the default. They were normal and their cultural legacy is still normal. Retaining the status quo of their traditions is not seen as religious celebration or worship, it’s spiritually empty.
Thought experiment: If a Christian attends a friend’s Hanukkah each year, watches the rituals and enjoys the food and company, do you believe this alone now makes them a Jew?
I mean… the Japanese who as a nation are mostly non-Christian and don’t know much about it beyond pop culture, celebrate Christmas. I mean it’s a couple’s holiday there, but they do all the superficial things around it. Plenty of non-Christians celebrate Christmas the way that many people celebrate Halloween. It’s just a fun little tradition cooped because a dominant culture enjoys it and doesn’t care too much if you don’t adhere to the heart, but just the ritual of it.
There are plenty of people who don’t know the first thing about what Christmas actually is that celebrate it.
I call bullshit on atheists celebrating Christmas.
If you celebrate it you’re Christian, feel free to call yourself cultural Christian or atheist Christian. but celebrating Christmas is a Christian thing.
I don’t believe in God and still celebrate my Jewish holidays, and I call myself an atheist jew, a common thing in Judaism.
I don’t think it makes sense to equivocate Jewish identity with Christianity, because Christianity is a universal religion, not an ethnic religion. Atheists I know who celebrate Christian holidays don’t consider themselves Christian, Christianity is considered to be about the belief system, not the culture surrounding it. Any remaining Christian influence is treated more like a cultural tradition than a religious event. The way Christmas is celebrated in the ones I’ve been to, you could simply change the name and it would then be a completely secular feast. It’s derived from (not influenced by!) a pagan event, so most of its core features aren’t even related to Christianity in the first place, not even the date. Christianity is surprisingly arbitrary in Christmas.
Like you mentioned, Christian atheism appears to be an established concept in other countries, along with similar concepts like lapsed Catholics. I only personally know one person like this, who identifies as a Lutherian but not believing in a higher power, and other people I’ve mentioned it to consider that to be odd and contradictory.
that’s some bullshit.
Christians declares themselves the default and therefore everything they do is “normal” rather than a Christian thing.
It’s not even about declaring themselves default. Many countries used to have 90+% of population identifying as Christian, with persecution against non-Christians. Christianity was/is taught in schools, determines the public holidays, and was historically written into law, among a million other things. In these countries, they were the default. They were normal and their cultural legacy is still normal. Retaining the status quo of their traditions is not seen as religious celebration or worship, it’s spiritually empty.
Thought experiment: If a Christian attends a friend’s Hanukkah each year, watches the rituals and enjoys the food and company, do you believe this alone now makes them a Jew?
I mean… the Japanese who as a nation are mostly non-Christian and don’t know much about it beyond pop culture, celebrate Christmas. I mean it’s a couple’s holiday there, but they do all the superficial things around it. Plenty of non-Christians celebrate Christmas the way that many people celebrate Halloween. It’s just a fun little tradition cooped because a dominant culture enjoys it and doesn’t care too much if you don’t adhere to the heart, but just the ritual of it.
There are plenty of people who don’t know the first thing about what Christmas actually is that celebrate it.