[ExI] Tolerance

[JOSHUA JOB]

On Dec 10, 2009, at 12:16 AM, Olga Bourlin wrote:
> > I celebrate Christmas because it serves as a special time to be  
> with those you care about and show you care through the exchange of  
> gifts.
>
> And why can't you do this anytime you want?  (Who's in charge here?   
> You?  Or Stepford Village?)
Well having a culturally define time of year to do this seems good.  
Its more fun if its a holiday then if its just random (condensing it  
seems to increase enjoyment). Of course you can do this any time, but  
you seem to be against the notion of holidays period. Which seems  
silly. Celebrations are important, even if it isn't commemorating an  
event so much as an idea.
> Perfect for you, maybe ... but, during the holly jolly Christian  
> Heat Season, at the cost of excluding some other people.
>
> My last husband was culturally Jewish.  In the early 1980s, I  
> remember how his Nieces - young girls of 7 or 8 or 9 at the time -  
> were asked by a couple of their Playmates:  "Have you gotten your  
> Christmas tree yet?"
>
> Nieces, being Jewish, said, "No - we don't celebrate Christmas."
>
> The next day Nieces were told by their hitherto Playmates:  "We  
> can't play with you anymore."
>
> Priceless.
Well, I am talking about is making Christmas a secular holiday, with  
no religious meaning whatsoever. I choose to do it on the 25th because  
that's when everyone else does it, and it is simply easier to do it  
then (its the same reason Christmas is on the 25th in the first  
place-- it was the same time as an earlier pagan holiday). You don't  
have to call it Christmas, but its the same sort of thing. My  
celebration of Christmas is totally divorced from religion. I don't  
praise Jesus, or talk about the manger thing, or any of that. I simply  
celebrate the people I value and all the values I've produced over the  
year which allows me to share that part of myself (my property is a  
part of myself, since I devoted part of my life to it) with them as a  
token of my appreciation of them.

It would be a lot harder to get people to be atheists if it meant they  
aren't allowed to celebrate anything around this time of year because  
it happens to be the same time of year as mainstream religious  
celebrations. That strategy is almost certainly going to cut off huge  
portions of the population, and set atheists apart as these weird,  
anti-happiness freaks who piss all over everyone's fun (actual fun, as  
opposed to their murder people and destroy lives sort of fun).


Joshua Job
nanite1018 at gmail.com