Soldato
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Are we Hypocrits?
- Thread starter easyrider
- Start date
Examples?
Soldato
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It's a national holiday. People are given a day(s) off work because it is Christmas. Why not make use of this time?
The holiday/event is nothing to do with religion for me (be it the pagan celebration of solstice, or the made-up birth of the fictional 'son of god' which Christianity allocated to the same holiday in order to try and eliminate said pagan beliefs).
I do however love it, as it is the only day of the year in the UK when the vast majority of the population are not working, the world slows down a little, you get the opportunity to spend time with loved ones without real life intruding and the general myths around Santa can make it a magical time for small children.
I hope it always remains a national holiday (and I'd love to see legislation introduced to prevent shops opening on Christmas or Boxing day), regardless of how many people choose to believe in the Pagan/Christian event.
Exactly!
I do however love it, as it is the only day of the year in the UK when the vast majority of the population are not working, the world slows down a little, you get the opportunity to spend time with loved ones without real life intruding and the general myths around Santa can make it a magical time for small children.
I hope it always remains a national holiday (and I'd love to see legislation introduced to prevent shops opening on Christmas or Boxing day), regardless of how many people choose to believe in the Pagan/Christian event.
Christmas to me is more like Thanskgiving for Americans
Exactly!
You've got to make room for 3 desserts somehow!
I'm not religious, yet on the morning of the 25th (around 1am) we loaded up the Oxford Christmas Service on the Iplayer (or wherever we found it) and got the words. We sang along to the carols and had a great time. There were 3 of us, all three atheists and one of us follows a different calendar...
When we woke the next day, we had Christmas Carols on the stereo and listened to the Queens Speech on the radio at 3.
We don't celebrate Christmas as a Christian/religious holiday even though we partook in many of their customs. We celebreated it as a time for family (new and old, as my Dad so wonderfully put it in his Dinner Speech) and loved ones. We enjoy the carols, and a lot of the other things that Christians would regard as 'Christmassy'.
Am I a hypocrite for doing so? No, of course not. I believe that what I'm doing is right for me, as does everyone else. And that's all that matters.
When we woke the next day, we had Christmas Carols on the stereo and listened to the Queens Speech on the radio at 3.
We don't celebrate Christmas as a Christian/religious holiday even though we partook in many of their customs. We celebreated it as a time for family (new and old, as my Dad so wonderfully put it in his Dinner Speech) and loved ones. We enjoy the carols, and a lot of the other things that Christians would regard as 'Christmassy'.
Am I a hypocrite for doing so? No, of course not. I believe that what I'm doing is right for me, as does everyone else. And that's all that matters.
Well considering I don't pretend to believe in the religious form of Christmas then I guess I'm not a hypocrite.
For many people Christmas is simply not a religious celebration. People have created their own version of Christmas day completely disconnected to religion.
And you don't understand why? It's a time for families to come together and it's nice to give and receive gifts. To call people sheep for doing something positive and loving is a bit strange. Perhaps the world would be a better place if we could have more of this 'sheepish' behaviour.
Do you celebrate it?
I don't, i don't suddenly go to midnight mass, or anything else religious. I use it as a time to spend with family and friends and to enjoy good food and wine.
Just like christians stole various asspects from other festivals, modern society has removed the religious connotations from christmas, so no most of us are not hypocrites.
I don't, i don't suddenly go to midnight mass, or anything else religious. I use it as a time to spend with family and friends and to enjoy good food and wine.
Just like christians stole various asspects from other festivals, modern society has removed the religious connotations from christmas, so no most of us are not hypocrites.
Soldato
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I use Christmas as an excuse to spoil loved ones.
Permabanned
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Everyones hypocrits at some point in their life. Full of white lies, pure lies and damned hypocrisy. When it suits an individual it's fine acording to one self. Plenty noblets around.
Soldato
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It's a rebranded celabration of the winter solstice and days getting longer. This has always been celebrated on December 25th and predates Christianity by several thousand years.
Associate
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It's called Santamas in our house 
Soldato
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no, it's not. Christmas is terrible for business and the wider economy. It put's a huge amount of stress on public and company infrastructure for 2-3 weeks every year and then trade is dead for 3 months after. This causes huge problems in hiring temp staff, additional warehouse space and loans to buy stock etc. Without Christmas the same money would still be spent but it would happen far more evenly throught the year.
It's called Santamas in our house
It's Cross-mas
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I don't believe that enjoying Christmas is hypocritical, for me it's one of the few times of year when most of my family can get together and enjoy each others company - the rest is largely an irrelevance. Religion doesn't enter into it for me, it doesn't for most of my family but for those who do observe religious traditions in my family then it's their choice - you could however substitute in any holiday where we could all get together and I'd enjoy it just as much.
I just see Christmas as a national holiday, with a set of traditions that grew out of religion. I don't have to think that the religion is correct in order to follow those traditions.
How many people who say "bless you" when you sneeze, actually believe that sneezing can allow a demon to enter your body without that blessing? Traditions endure long after the reasons for them has vanished.
How many people who say "bless you" when you sneeze, actually believe that sneezing can allow a demon to enter your body without that blessing? Traditions endure long after the reasons for them has vanished.
Originally it was the midwinter festival. Basically a big blowout in the darkest part of the year to remind people that it will get better and brighter. This gets incorporated into various pre-christian religions across Europe. Christianity then co-opts it to help the spread of their religion. The nativity story would strongly suggest that Christ certainly wasn't born at this time of year, that's for sure. In more recent times the festival has once again undergone a transformation is much more a cultural thing than religious thing. But the original meaning is still there, it is still a good thing to have a bit of a celebration at the darkest time of the year to remind us all that it is going to get brighter.
In short, you can celebrate Christmas for a myriad of reasons, with only a couple being religious. None of it makes it hypocrisy. As the Christian church "stole" the true meaning of Christmas a long time ago, I have no problem with it changing again and again and again.