How many hypocrites do we have in the Gulch?
Posted by woodlema 10 years, 4 months ago to Philosophy
How many of the "Atheist" Objectivists in the Gulch celebrate "Christmas" "Easter" or participate in any way Christian holidays?
If you do are you not being a bit hypocritical?
To deny and condemn Christians who believe in God as delusional and lacking reason, and yet you celebrate their holidays?
Celebrating a deity you do not believe exists?
Or do you simply justify the hypocrisy by trying to call it something else in your mind?
Didn't Shakespeare say " A Rose by any other name is still a Rose."
If you do are you not being a bit hypocritical?
To deny and condemn Christians who believe in God as delusional and lacking reason, and yet you celebrate their holidays?
Celebrating a deity you do not believe exists?
Or do you simply justify the hypocrisy by trying to call it something else in your mind?
Didn't Shakespeare say " A Rose by any other name is still a Rose."
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Yes, of course. A national holiday, in this country, cannot have an exclusively religious meaning. The secular meaning of the Christmas holiday is wider than the tenets of any particular religion: it is good will toward men—a frame of mind which is not the exclusive property (though it is supposed to be part, but is a largely unobserved part) of the Christian religion.
The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”—not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form—by giving presents to one’s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .
The best aspect of Christmas is the aspect usually decried by the mystics: the fact that Christmas has been commercialized. The gift-buying . . . stimulates an enormous outpouring of ingenuity in the creation of products devoted to a single purpose: to give men pleasure. And the street decorations put up by department stores and other institutions—the Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors—provide the city with a spectacular display, which only “commercial greed” could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle.
The Objectivist Calendar, Dec. 1976
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/chr...
And you can actually calculate his approximate birth 2 ways. 1 he was executed at 33 1/2 years old on Niacin 14 at sundown. Niacin 14 changed every year but calculating back to 33 ce, the actual date he was executed was, April 14th. Now if you count back 33 years 6 months, you get roughly Oct 15th give or take 15 days either way.
The other way to calculate roughly Jesus Birth was to go by John the Baptists birth. John was 6 months older than Jesus.
Jesus was baptized at 30 years old, In the 15th year of the reign of Ti·beʹri·us Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Ju·deʹa, Herod was district ruler of Galʹi·lee, Philip his brother was district ruler of the country of It·u·raeʹa and Trach·o·niʹtis, and Ly·saʹni·as was district ruler of Ab·i·leʹne, 2 in the days of chief priest Anʹnas and of Caʹia·phas,
Historian Josephus recorded much of this so we know roughly when Jesus turned 30.
Next we know roughly when John the Baptist was born and Jesus was 6 months younger.
None of these ways to figure out Jesus birth date takes you into December.
Do any decorations? I do not celebrate Christmas, I do not decorate, I do not say merry anything. Dec. 25 was not Jesus birth date. Period. I am Christian, but try to worship in "Spirit and Truth" and since that is NOT his birth date, it would be wrong of me to participate in it in any way.
I tell them I don't celebrate Christmas because I'm an atheist, but they still give me gifts in return.