Posted on 12/13/2009 9:14:32 PM PST by smokingfrog
Angie O'Neill recently moved into a new apartment complex for seniors and she's trying to make new friends. But Christmas is a tough time of year for an atheist.
"All the planned activities at this time of year revolve around the church," said O'Neill, a retiree and an atheist for decades.
O'Neill sought an escape this week, joining a group of her fellow nonbelievers for a weekly "Atheist Happy Hour" at a suburban Mexican restaurant. The group, Atheists for Human Rights, is active year-round but takes it up a notch this time of year with a Winter Solstice party, a charity drive and good attendance for the weekly gathering at Ol' Mexico.
** snip **
"What we're celebrating this year is the promise of the sun returning. That's S-U-N, not S-O-N," said Bill Weir, a retired marketing executive from Plymouth.
"Then the Christians stole it," added Marie Alena Castle of Minneapolis, the 82-year-old founder of Atheists for Human Rights and an atheist activist for two decades. It's a season of celebration for the Jewish faith as well, with Hanukkah.
Still, none of the atheists interviewed for this story expressed a wish to be left out of Christmas entirely.
"Food, we like. Presents, we like. Seeing family, we like," said Val Woelfel of St. Paul, an aspiring archaeologist. Woelfel, 47, and her boyfriend, Bjorn Larsen, 32, planned to erect a tree in their living room: "Sacred trees are an ancient custom. It's pretty, it smells nice and it's pagan," Woelfel said.
** snip **
Castle, the veteran activist, said people shouldn't cave in to the notion that Christmas belongs to Christians.
"Baby Jesus is just an excuse for a lot of people to party, anyway," Castle said. "Enjoy your friends. Eat, drink and be merry."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.google.com ...
Oh, boo hoo wahh wahh. They ALWAYS have a reaction to God. If He doesn’t exist, why get your panties in a bunch over people celebrating Christmas? They’re not athiests, they’re anti-Christians.
Most of them are nothing but bitter contrarians.
and there are none in hell either...
Evil SOBs
I have a few atheist friends that are firm about their non-belief, but respectful. These old people are mostly just disgusting. “They stole it!”.
“Atheist Happy Hour”...
What’s to celebrate? Yay, we’re still not dead yet! Our lives have no meaning in the grand scheme of things and ultimately won’t mean anything, but damn that’s a good martini.
And all the planned activites around the end of October revolve around the Wiccans and their ilk.
You’d think they would enjoy watching those they think are idiots, act like idiots. Think how much smarter they are than all those people who need religion as a ‘crutch’. Us simple folk.
Hate to tell you, most Christians do not accept Christ on blind faith. We read the bible, we’ve investigated the claims from a historical view, from other secular sources and it’s not that we’ve come to this conclusion without examining evidence and the writings of both Christians and non-Christians.
So apparently, if the religion is paganism, it's OK. Shouldn't this be called the anti-Christian club, not the atheist club?
AND, by the Grace of God.
crotchty old non-believing farts.
“Another man at the Atheist Happy Hour declined to reveal his last name, saying his employer is a conservative Catholic who would not tolerate a committed atheist on the payroll.”
I’ll be a committed atheist wouldn’t like a conservative Catholic on his payroll, either.
That knife cuts both ways.
“Shouldn’t this be called the anti-Christian club, not the atheist club?”
It’s always this way. Note they have no objection to all the Halloween stuff, from tv specials to decorations to haunted houses.
No mention of Al-Eid, or Hannukah.
It’s just Christmas that drives them nuts.
I wonder about Easter. It’s much less pervasive, from my vantage point.
only former athiests?
Yes...thank you for making it more clear.
Atheists are about the only people I know of that seek fame and recognition for what they don’t do, rather than for what they do. Like Scrooge or the Grinch they aren’t content to just let what they don’t believe in be.
He even gives us the faith to believe. Since our sin natures naturally resist anything from Him, He has to do even this for us, give us the ability to believe.
Most people who know something about Christianity recognize Christmas as the commemoration of the day when God first made himself personal, in the largest possible sense, to the world. God up close and personal is the last thing most atheists would care to meet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.