Michael Saba has created an assignment at CNN's iReport titled: A holiday season without religion?
Atheists, agnostics, and nonbelievers without label are invited to share their experiences of Christmas.
If you're an atheist, agnostic, or nonbeliever of any stripe, we want to know: How do you celebrate the holidays, if at all?
Do you follow any holiday traditions, in appreciation of the cultural and communal aspects of the season? Or do you make a point to treat December's religious holidays just like any other day?
Share your photos, videos and stories on iReport. Sign up today -- The best submissions could be featured on CNN.com! The deadline for this assignment is Sunday, December 18.
There are some wonderful submissions so far and naturally a few Christians couldn't help chastising the nonbelievers.
Natniems writes, "We do what every free-willed American is allowed to do; we make Christmas our own."
DarthLawyer offers a wonderful defense of atheists celebrating Christmas, saying,
Like Christians, I commemorate the birth of the key figure in Christianity by venerating a tree in the style of the ancient pagans, who worshipped trees as part of their winter solstice celebration. Is there anything quite as traditional as non-Christians borrowing traditions from Christians borrowing traditions from non-Christians?
MiriamP says, "Santa Claus isn't a god, or an angel. He is a symbol of the good feelings we have at Christmas, so he isn't hard to believe in."
Sadly, her entry, and a few others, elicited a tired response from Angel0:
how can you celebrate Christmas without knowing the reason why it is celebrated! Wil you celebrate the birthday of somenone you do not know? I don't think so.So you are celebrating Christ-Mas consiously or unconciously you are denying the reason we celebrate Christ-mas.
Some people just don't get it. Unfortunately, some Christians didn't seem to understand that the assignment was meant to be an exploration of the nonbelievers' experience of the Christmas holiday.
Canabitch writes, A holiday season without religion!@ [sic], and says:
Well a holiday would be nothing without a religion! People want to have christmas their way and everybody wants to be different from the others in their own ways, otherwise christmas would just be plain and have no meaning.
Does anybody know what that means? Angel0 apparently does--she left the same response to Canab--- as she did to atheist Miriam.
And Blendene Hurt clearly was not happy with the topic. In a rambling piece called, "Christmas With out [sic] Christ Not Possible," she claims, "If we have to accept head wear of Muslim's [sic], non praying [sic] Athiest [sic], the whole realm of witchcraft then its [sic] time they accept we have our Christmas."
What? And, naturally, Angel0 cut and pasted her comment to that as well. Hopefully, more antagonizers will comment on the nonbelievers' stories, because Angel0 clearly doesn't have what it takes to generate good fun.
And of course, no discussion of Christmas would be complete without the Scrooge complaining about Americans' "slavish mass consumerism" and worship of the almighty dollar. Thank you so much, DONKEYHotay--nobody's ever said anything like that before.
Share your experiences with Christmas. Your Orlando Atheism Examiner looks forward to reading them all!
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