How do atheists celebrate Christmas? I posed that question to my friend Michael Shermer, the editor of Skeptic, during our recent Cal Tech debate. (My two debates with Shermer will soon be up on the web and I'll link to them on this blog.) Shermer replied that he puts up Christmas trees, and his kids sing Christmas carols--even the religious ones--and he exchanges gifts just like everyone else. Here is a guy who is not a believer but who at least respects what Christianity has done to shape our civilization and our world.
Then there's Christopher Hitchens, whom I've known over the years and like just as much. Hitchens, alas, seems to be letting his atheism get to him. First, the poor man is never seen without a drink. As a wine aficionado myself, I cannot begrudge Hitchens his affection for the spirits. In fact, a priest friend of mine once observed that wine is evidence of how much God loves us. It seems odd, however, that Hitchens feels the need to imbibe even when he's on national television or giving a public speech. If you watch our debate on C-Span or on my website dineshdsouza.com, you'll see that Hitchens reaches for his glass with the same alacrity that fundamentalists reach for the Bible.
Recently Hitchens appeared at a "secular Christmas party" thrown by the libertarian magazine Reason. Many libertarians are basically conservatives who are either gay or druggies or people who generally find the conservative moral agenda too restrictive. So they flee from the conservative to the libertarian camp where much wider parameters of personal behavior are embraced. To the sensible idea of political and economic freedom many libertarians add the more controversial principle of moral freedom, the freedom to live however you want as long as you don't harm others. Hitchens, needless to say, is at home in this group.
Hitchens' contribution to the party was to read an irreverent Christmas ditty by the lyricist Tom Lehrer. Remember Lehrer? He's a bit of a relic, like the Monty Python and the Rocky Horror movies. When I was eighteen and a freshman at Dartmouth I found Lehrer and Monty Python very sophisticated and amusing. Most of us, however, outgrow the juvenile sense of humor that they represent. Hitchens also offered a brief summary of his view that God is a celestial dictator. He portrayed God as a kind of Kim Jong-il and Jesus as a kind of little Kim waiting to inherit the throne. So here we see another portrait of Atheist Christmas: bitter guys making sophomoric jokes and staggering out of the room inebriated.
Yes, I agree that many nominal Christians have also forgotten the message of Christmas. Even so I wonder: what's the atheist equivalent of Christmas? Darwin's birthday? For many libertarians I suppose it's the day they get their tax refunds.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 54)
1. I was raised as an athiest, and we celebrated Xmas big time. The families got together, we ate turkey and stuffing until we were stuffed, and there were so many presents under the tree and spread out so far that you couldn't even reach over the piles of presents to touch the tree. We put the lights on the house and Dad took us to see Santa in the mall. When I heard about JC and asked my parents about him, they replied that he was some nut who let himself get killed a long time ago. Of course, now, as an adult, I don't think JC was a nut. I think he was a pacifist who challenged the Establishment. :>)
The Goddess Athena at 3:35PM on Dec 21st 2007
2. Xmas is just about the most materialistic holiday of all now. So atheists must be celebrating it just fine. They can be capitalists just like the Christians. The real question should be, How can REAL Christians celebrate the REAL meaning of Christmas...without gifts, borrowed pagan symbols, or myths about jolly Arctic dwellers. You know, by living up to their ideals of charity.
AndrewV at 3:44PM on Dec 21st 2007
3. How do atheists celebrate Christmas? From what I can tell, just like they celebrate most days -- by spewing venom into your blog comments.
C. Michael Pilato at 3:48PM on Dec 21st 2007
4. CHRISTMAS IS CELEBRATED ROUGHLY THE SAME BY ALL WHO CELEBRATE THE DAY, BE THEY BELIEVERS OR NOT. CHRISTMAS IS THIS COUNTRY'S BIGEST HOLIDAY, EVEN THOUGH . . .
THERE IS NO GOD !
Daniel Mullane at 3:50PM on Dec 21st 2007
5. How do I celebrate?
Merry Mithras and a happy Tammuz!
Christmas is a pagan holiday anyhow. Jesus wasn't born on the 25th. Nobody knows when he was born, so the church picked December 25th because the pagans were already celebrating it as Mithras' birthday, and even the christmas tree is a pagan symbol. Not that you christobabblers would know that, or acknowledge it if you did....
Brian at 3:55PM on Dec 21st 2007
6. DARWIN SAVES
Double d asks a question then goes into a digression. Nice if he'd stick to his topic, instead of spewing inanities.
JefFlyingV at 3:55PM on Dec 21st 2007
7. As a libertarian, I would like to point out I'm not conservitive, gay, or a druggie. Just FYI.
Happy festivus.
Ryan Anderson at 3:57PM on Dec 21st 2007
8. I am an atheist as well and I volunteer on the 25th. I walk dogs for shelters, distribute food to the homeless, read stories to orphans, deliver meals to the elderly, whatever I can find. We still exchange gifts in my family, but not in the crazy consumerist fashion. Whatever we give must be meaningful and personal and cannot produce a bunch of waste. Yes, it is possible to honor Christmas as a tradition to bring family together, put your life into perspective and remind yourself, at the end of the year, to set purposeful goals for the next year. Yes, Dinesh, all this is possible without a shred of religion.
Your comment regarding moral freedom is pathetic. It is not the goal of atheists to free themselves from morality. Many atheists feel the way I do, that this life is the purpose of our existence and our only chance to leave behind a positive legacy. We do not strip ourselves of personal responsibility by hoping for forgiveness by a deity to excuse an immoral, lazy and judgemental life. You based your statement on the set of values you have created for yourself, but let me remind you that your belief does not hold the patent on morality. What I do believe is that your FREEDOM ends where it hurts someone else, which is based on a widely popuar model of ethics and completely different from what you tried to imply.
It seems to me that more believers than non-believers end up on the immoral path, because they are so convinced they'll be saved regardless, a sad and twisted view of morality and the meaning of humanity.
emma at 4:01PM on Dec 21st 2007
9. Well, Christians more-or-less appropriated the pagan winter festivals that were going on at the time. Christmas has been re-appropriated into a secular holiday for many, that's all - many atheists don't actually need an equivalent. I can imagine that Christians don't like it, but it's something that happens to holidays.
If anyone's interested in what Hitchens actually says about Christmas, they could look here: http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/christmas_with_christopher
In a strange turn of events, D'Souza's characterization of someone else's position is actually not as far off as usual.
Ray Ingles at 4:06PM on Dec 21st 2007
10. Well... I think it's a great idea to sing carols then explain to the kiddies the reality of it all.
Good King Wenceslas for example... was a libertarian... that must be a 'given'.
He would have seen the poor man gathering winter fuel... from his royal woods... and had him arrested.
This particular carol really 'speaks' to me... the king can actually look out and see destitute people... how good could THAT make you feel!!?
Perhaps the king would be magnanimous and allow the man to steal that wood... don't want to bother the royal guards on such a night with the cruel frost and all.
Maybe he would have just let the dogs out... a bit of sport... plus... warm the old man up a bit... running for his life!!
pboyfloyd at 4:08PM on Dec 21st 2007
11. Oh, good grief, could you possibly BE more passive-aggressive? DD, have you considered therapy? In a few years, perhaps that chip on your shoulder might not be so...so...ever-present. Then again, it seems to be working for you. Not sure if it's working for or against you,however. Well, I have my suspicions, but seeing as it's Christmas and all...I'll just say:
Haperry Christmakwanzakahtice, y'all!
web jones at 4:11PM on Dec 21st 2007
12. Merry Christmas... and may all the poor, hungry miserable people be put out of their misery! AMEN.
pboyfloyd at 4:14PM on Dec 21st 2007
13. WHY would early Christians borrow some pagan holidays/ symbols?
BECAUSE they wished to redefine them.
Thus the winter solstice of the Romans - became Jesus' birthday. The celebration of the bright light - the sun became the celebration of the LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
Thus, the EVERGREEN christmas tree - with its hints of pagan past became a symbol of eternal life...REDEFINED. RENEWED.
TODAY as I write this, some persons in other cultures have CHOSEN FREELY to cast off the shackles of an oppressive belief...and many redefine their bigger holidays in light of the Jewish Carpenter who is renewing their hearts and cultures.
My ancestors gave up Thor's Hammer - tho some of their crosses still bore a similar shape. The CROSS was the "hammer" used by God to shatter all sin...
And a Jewish man (educated in the Greco-Roman culture as well as his own Jewish culture) used the altar some Romans had to "the unknown God" to reveal who that GOD was... and is. and will be.
Some things of meaning - with some beauty and resonance run through many cultures and beliefs. They are hints (sometimes only partly correct) of the truth - which the Jewish Carpenter claims is Himself.
And the Carpenter's axe still divides our history (within a few years to when HE was born).
We return to our oppressive pagan past - at our personal peril. We who are from Christian families have FORGOTTEN what our pagan converted to Christian ancestors could tell us (and what some recently freed cultures could tell us today) the JEWISH CARPENTER can free us...
DNA - a great design at 4:23PM on Dec 21st 2007
14. Dinesh, you have to bring up Hitchens' drinking problem because it's the only way you have to discredit him. You can't focus on debating his arguments, obviously, because if you did, you'd lose.
On a separate note, there's no reason why an atheist can't enjoy Xmas. Jesus, by many guesses, was born sometime in the Spring, not winter. The Christmas tree dates back to pagan ritual -- as do the concepts of a virgin birth (see the legend of Horus), the three wise men, the star of Bethlehem, the birth in a manger, etc. In other words, Xmas is not exclusively Christian. It is also a cultural holiday.
Stefan at 4:37PM on Dec 21st 2007
15. The writer of this blog needs to relize. People who arent christians dont have to respect what Christianity has done to shape our civilization and our world.
allie h at 4:37PM on Dec 21st 2007