Posted on 04/25/2008 5:06:24 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Atheists push 'humanist' holidays
By Karen Goldberg Goff April 25, 2008
Now that Earth Day is over, let the planning begin for the summer solstice and World Humanist Day in June.
The Institute for Humanist Studies, an Albany, N.Y.-based nonprofit, is calling attention to its calendar of atheist holidays on its Web site, www.secularseasons.org. The group wants nonbelievers (or at least noncelebrators) to have a handy reference guide of the calendar of holidays honoring free thinkers, banned books and nature, among other themes.
Matt Cherry, executive director of the Institute for Humanist Studies, says his group is trying to expand options and alternatives for secular holidays. He hopes even those affiliated with a particular religion will pay attention to the options.
"Some religious holidays are about culture and tradition, not theology," he says. "Even people who go to church only on Christmas or to synagogue on the High Holidays do so out of cultural heritage, not because they believe the religious doctrines associated with it."
Some of the highlights of the Secular Seasons calendar include Thomas Paine Day (Jan. 29), April Fool's Day (as always, April 1), and Ingersoll Day (Aug. 11). The latter celebrates the birthday of 19th-century thinker Robert Green Ingersoll, who was known as "the Great Agnostic." Secular Seasons recommends visiting his birthplace in Dresden, N.Y., for a holiday celebration. (Hey — you only live once.)
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Get the aluminum pole! (It’s got a high strength to weight ratio.)
And now, the feats of strength!!
“The Fool says in his heart, “there is no God”
Finally, A Festivus for the rest of us.
Religious atheists. How quaint.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Darwin Day. That should be a fun one. Stay off the roads that day!
Huh, Thomas Paine was a deist, not an atheist
“Enjoy this life - to atheists, you get only one chance upon the earth and after that its finit!”
Same goes to Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Pagans, and Satanists.
Just further proof of the truth of Pascal’s phrase “there is a God-shaped vacuum in every man”.
A craving for order, for celebration, for feasts and festivals and liturgy.
No, only in US public schools along with their global warming agenda..(joking - I hope)
Thomas Paine was a deist as were many other “Founding Fathers”
However, the God they believed is the not the God from the Bible. Most of them viewed the God of the Bible that people worshiped as absurd.
Don’t skip the Airing of Grievances.
I find your belief system fascinating.
I value them so much I don’t even mind being driven out of Bayside.
I’m getting ready for Karl Marx Day (5 May). That’s when I get to go through my neighbors’ places, steal their stuff, shoot them, and then tell them it’s for the greater good. Tell me that one isn’t popular!
Hey, ya know whach ya call an atheist’s funeral?
“All dressed up and no place to go!”
;^)
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