Okay, first off, I read parts of other threads bashing religion and evolution and such. I felt like I needed some insight anyway.
So I'm an Atheist/Anti-theist. You have the right to celebrate whatever religion you'd like. I can respect that right. . . as an American, but also as a human being. On the other hand I can't really understand it. It seems crazy to me (and you absolutely may disagree) that people dedicate so much of their time to something that does not exist. It'd be like me claiming that some little blue-skinned people inhabit my back yard. There's no way around it. They don't and he doesn't. I get that it's "faith" that carries religion along its way. What's the point of having faith in something non-existent? Seems wasteful to me. There are so many real causes in the world that need more dedication.
Secondly, why do people lie to children? Santa exists? No. The Easter Bunny? The Tooth Fairy. No and no. So why do we tell children that they do? Why not fill the heads of children from a young age the truth about the world? People are hungry. Help them. People are wasteful, don't be. People are greedy. Don't be. . . which includes expecting gifts for Holidays based on disillusion. I don't have kids yet, but mine will not be lied to. At least that's what I say when my fiance isn't arguing with me about it.
Why must we support corporate greed and lies based on tradition? I guess I just needed to vent. I'm sure I could go on and on.
Thanks for any thoughtful comments you may add. No reason to just make vicious attacks. . .
Let me first say I ahve not read any further than the OP's first post.
As a Christian, I understand your issue. I would say that before Henry Ford, there was no weekend, there were jsut 7 days, 7 days for men to work (if your not religious and keep the sabbath) Now we all basically think it is our right to have Saturday and Sunday off. For me, I like it, for productivity, it may get more done for the short term to do away with the weekend, but you would find that people would get run down and depressed over the long term. This is why Mr. Ford decided to make it standard issue for his workers to have a weekend. It actually increased productivity.
The same can be said for the holidays, (religious or not) they give us something to look forward to in a ho hum world.
As for the corporate greed thing during the holidays, just imagine what our economy would be like without the holiday spike? There are companies that lose money all year to make all their losses back and make a profit in the last 2 months of the year. All this money doesn't go to the execs, at the top, it pays many tiers of lower employees, not only in the company that sells the products directly, but the distribution, manufacture...
Think of it this way, how fast could a child get out of school, if they never had a break, take away winter, spring and summer breaks, go from kindergarden to college. They would graduate from Yale at the age of 18! Now practically what percentage of the student body do you think would make it? not very much I would guess.
We enjoy the holidays, all of them, nonbelivers have made them into a pill that they can swollow, all because they like the excitement of them also.
You can take this whole "how much good it can do for the world" thing to the ENth, and say with your car and all the audio that is in it, how many people could you feed?
Are you willing to give up all your creature comforts to send a bag of rice to Africa? I'm not.
