I'm very devout about my belief in the natural and the rational, as opposed to the supernatural and the irrational. You can call it a religion; I believe in what's real, as in what is provable and rational. I believe it so strongly that I even tend to dismiss preposterous things without analyzing them to their fullest extent. For example, if someone tells me that if they smash the skulls of kittens together, it will make their penis longer, I will not believe them. And no, I didn't bother to scientifically test their theory either.
It takes a leap of faith to believe in reality. Some people are so frightened of it that they invent all kinds of fascinating diversions which comfort and amuse them; such as astrology, Tarot, psychics, magic tricks, incantations, miracles, curses, wishes, faeries, zombies, time-travelling aliens, angels, demons, devils, gods, feng shui, luck, Fate, Destiny, Fortune, prophecy, creationism, life after death, heaven, hell, limbo, purgatory, reincarnation, alternate dimensions, holy scriptures, dragons, wizards, hobbits, fairy tales, legends, myths, fables, and Hollywood movies. While they are amusing diversions, one should never take them so seriously that they become obsessive and religious about them. Have you seen Star Wars nerds take it to that level where they run around with plastic toys, in brown robes, claiming to have mastery of the force? These are grown men. Then you have Scientology, which is basically the same thing. Tom Cruise thinks he's an immortal Sith Lord who will one day rule the galaxy with his offspring as father and test tube baby.
UFO cults come right after that, because when you dress the same and commit mass suicide to join the superior life force from the Crab Nebula, you deserve to have Scotty beam you up. Then look at Islamic Jihad, men blowing themselves up to have precisely 72 virgins, given to them by Allah. My question is, do women get into Allah's heaven, and do they have 72 virgin husbands? A bunch of nerdy Trekkies who do the vulcan salute and get aroused? It's certainly worth killing Jews over.
sarcasm, folks.
Catholicism and Judaism rank right behind that, the whole creation story where Adam and Eve (not Adam and Steve, you evil, evil godless homosexuals) have two sons, one of whom kills the other and then runs off in a world that has never been populated by human beings, and finds himself a wife. So does Adam and Eve's third son, even though it never mentions who these women are, where they came from, and why they weren't brother and sister incestuous couplings. Not to mention the idea that a senior citizen built a 450 foot long wooden ark all by himself and also managed to herd two of every animal (scientists have
yet to identify every animal, and they've had millenia to do it, as well as teams that include more than
just one old man in them) into the ark, as well as food for all those animals, and of course, places for them to poop, and also, enough fresh water for this boat filled with how many metric tons of life forms....
And the kind and loving God will send you to burn in hellfire forever and ever should you neglect to be dipped in magic water or forget to praise Jesus sufficiently, but then again he loves you and has infinite compassion, and the former and the latter aren't mutually exclusive. Mormonism... white people came to America first, before the natives did, and Jesus visited there too... yep that's proven by science. Wicca, casting spells on people. Of course, that's entirely plausible in this day and age.
What is the difference between Tarot cards and a magic 8 ball? Nothing. What is the difference between a lucky rabbit's foot and a cross that someone displays for protection against the devil? None. What about exorcisms and human sacrifice? These are all perfectly rational things. Virgin births, virgin wives, virgins in the afterlife, religious people seem to absolutely HATE the idea of a broken hymen. And yet, much of what the holy texts focus on is sex. How bizarre... all the rules handed down by God almighty telling you it's bad to sleep with your sister or your donkey, because he made us so perfect that he had to mention not to have sex with animals.
I could do this all day and for every single religion, superstition, phobia, or otherwise irrational belief, fear, or teaching.
The War on Christmas exists in the minds of people who believe that Christmas always involved a tree, with Santa Claus, and elves making toys at the North Pole, and that there was always christmas ham and yule logs and mistletoe, and that to change any of those things or not acknowledge the Christmas is the worst sin. This ignores the fact that Christmas happens coincidentally during the pagan holidays, and borrows almost every single one of it's traditions from the evil, godless pagans.
Christmas Trees (Germanic tree worship), Santa Claus (Odin), Yule Logs (Yule), hanging Mistletoe, everything associated with modern Christmas is a pagan concept. And the modern holiday of Christmas only really gained importance during the past 200 years. Before that, Easter and Epiphany were the greatest of holidays.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_(holiday)
I could rip on Easter, too, but that would be too simple.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter
Whosoever wages the war either for or against Christmas is wasting their time. Celebrate whatever holiday you want, whenever you want, however you want to do so, but don't force your beliefs on me or bully me into submission because your precious holiday doesn't get all the attention in a world that is not 100% obsessed with YOUR PARTICULAR INTERPRETATION of Christianity.
Christmas has nothing to do with reindeer or trees or logs or any of that. Jesus lived near the desert. He wasn't a white man. There was no such thing as Christmas shopping for a long, long time. An actual observance of Christ's birth would NEVER happen on December 25th, and given his lifestyle, he would encourage charitable giving and poverty, not driving around in a new corvette. The message of the season got lost in the commercialization and paganization of the observance of a holiday that never had anything to do with anything it currently stands for. You want to decorate a tree and say Ho Ho Ho that's just peachy but it does not have anything to do with Jesus whatsoever, and when you don't understand the actual recent and ancient history of your own holiday, it makes no sense to boss people around who don't celebrate it exactly the same way you do, or don't observe it at all.
If you wanted to have an honest celebration of the life of Jesus, you wouldn't do it with plasma screen TV's and video games. You'd do it by fasting, reading the Bible, donating to charity, making your own clothes, visiting the sick in the hospital, laying down your arms and promising peace to everyone on earth, whether they believe in Jesus or not, whether they celebrate your holiday or not. The message of Christmas has gotten so lost, so twisted, so perverted by the very people that claim to observe the tradition and worship the God, that it boggles the mind of someone like me who honestly doesn't even care what you do with it. It's your religion, do whatever. I just wish when someone decides to say Happy Holidays, you could do the Christian thing, which is smile and say thank you, and return the sentiment, instead of declaring a political correctness war.
See, I am in the minority. Most people on this planet have some kind of belief, and in spite of some of their more violent and tragic mistakes, I still love them all. I tolerate their different views, and even celebrate with them during their holidays, and wish them all the best, and don't correct them when they say "God Bless You" when I sneeze, because I don't believe demons are trying to escape from me, nor do I believe God actually blesses some people and not others. You know what I do? I smile and say THANK YOU.
Because it's not my business how YOU observe YOUR customs and traditions, holidays and religions. So I'd appreciate it when someone who's not a Christian who greets you at the store does an acceptable thing, which is give you a standard, general greeting and best wishes over the holidays, whether you're Christian, Jew, Muslim, Wiccan, atheist, or believe in bubblegum faeries, and it applies to everyone, you don't take offense and say that war has been declared on Christmas.
No one should be forced to say Merry Christmas, or Happy Kwanza, or
Hail Xenu. No matter what it is, no one should ever be forced or pressured to believe or celebrate another person's religion, or be prevented from celebrating it within reason (no human sacrifices, for example).
There is a war on Christmas, and that's the perversion of it's meaning. And frankly, Christians did that to themselves by stealing from the pagans. Now, it's a holiday about stock prices and sales and a magical elf that lives on the north pole, not about Jesus. As a non-religious person, it doesn't bother me, but maybe instead of jumping down the throats of people who say "Happy Holidays" you restore the meaning of Christianity itself to Christmas first. Subtle, humble suggestion, from your friendly neighborhood Godless heathen.
