Why can't atheists just celebrate Christmas as the B-Day of a Prophet

I agree with katthevamp that Xmas is simply replacing Christ with the initial of his name in Greek. It was originated by monastic scholars centuries ago, although I can not remember exactly which monastic sect it was. As for renaming Christmas, I have to disagree with that. Christmas is a centuries old tradition and I shall always use that name for it.

katthevamp Yes it was a Pagan holiday before it was Christmas and part of the reason Christmas was set up was the church wanted to lure people away from the pagan festivities...we know now Christ wasn't really born Dec 25... One reason we can keep and promote Christmas is out of respect to the tradition and there is nothing wrong with the good parts of Christmas..those who would eliminate it are wrong..in my opinion, of course.

Christmas is a generalized winter holiday, mostly celebrating that the worst is over. And by the way, saying "xmas" isn't taking Christ out, at all. X is an abbreviation of Christ. It is hard to rename, but is the Christians could rename it from the winter solstice, then we can take the celebration back.

chiyosan Then everyone can just celebrate the tradition of Christmas in their own way..some will consider Him divine, others will see Him as a great philosopher or prophect. This way we include all and eliminate bad feelings of 'war' on Christmas under the argument of separation of church and state...

That is absolute nonsense, there is no doubt that Christ existed. To deny the existence of Christ would be as ridiculous as denying the existence of Egypt simply because it was mentioned in the Bible. There is a great deal of historical evidence to support the existence of Christ. I have never doubted the fact of Christ's existence and that he was a prophet, I simply do not believe that he was the Son of God. He was also a very successful prophet and he had a profound effect over a vast area. Even the Roman Empire started to take notice because he undermined their power and authority by giving the populace something to believe in. He has been used as an excuse for many wars, but he can not be blamed for the actions of others.

No, actually, Egypt is mentioned in many other places besides the Bible. There is no other reference to Jesus besides the Bible. If you take the Bible out of the mix, there are no references to Jesus.

But its more a reference to the Christians killed by Nero and saying they follow this person, rather than referring to Jesus as a current person.

No, it was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and they didn't celebrate Christmas, in fact that is why the Pilgrims left England. Here is a video I watched the other day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZAL80TMLaE And this is from the History Channel; there are 5 videos, but I only saw the first one so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT-Mms2t1hA So if anyone observed it in the beginning, it was after the Pilgrims came.

carmelanirel I don't know about Pilgrims and Christmas but I stand by the idea the nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles..

Sound fine with me, my friend! By the way, are both of them the same person in your personal opinion??? They sure look quite similar to my eye.

lampar Well they could just celebrate the Birthday of a good man who influenced the world but in their opinion is not God. That would be a heck of a lot better than trying to ban nativity scenes all over town.. How about celebrating the birth of Santa Claus and Jesus...

McCreeper Sorry I wasn't clear..yes I was speaking only of the US. I don't understand why you want Christ removed from Christmas...I accept you have become an atheist but I assume you also still recognise the teachings of Jesus (as in love, peace, forgiveness, etc) to be for the betterment of society. That being the case, why not just celebrate Jesus B-Day and allow those who want to keep their tradition of using the Christmas greetings instead of replacing it with Holiday greetings?

habibti320 Yes I agree the problem is not just atheists..but they are the ones who seem to organize a 'war' on Christmas every year so I mentined them... plus there isn't a lot of room in the title to list everyone.. I am ok with being inclusive of everyone as long as Christmas is honored and part of the reason for that is tradition ...

Asylum My apologies for not making it clear that I know that not all atheists feel the same. My disagreement is with those atheists who work with groups like the .... American Atheists and the Freedom from Religion Foundation . Here is a link to what is happening im my state ..Cal http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/22/us/california-nativity-atheists/index.html .

choybel ..I agree that not clelbratng is ok if that is their choice, but I don't like when some want to ruin it for others. I also don't think the recurring 'war on Christmas' is unnecessary or helpful ...

OOPS...I menat to spell celebrating correctly and I meant to say "I also don't think the recurring 'war on Christmas' is NECESSARY or helpful ... sorry about that mistake

savypat In my opinion it would just include more people in the tradition and perhaps eliminate some of this war on Christmas stuff... I understand some would not want any part of it but maybe some more would... I like keeping traditions and perhaps if we emphasized Jesus the great philosopher more, we would take some emphasis off Santa Claus..Santa Claus could just be someone who brings gifts to help celebrate Jesus Birthday even if it isn't His real birthday And those who want to celebrate St Nicholus instead of Santa would do so too...

WakeUpKitty I respect everyone's views. The reason I wanted to expand the celebration of Jesus as a great man, was for those who do not think He is God, was to be more inclusive. Jesus represents a traditional majority belief in the US but I wanted to include as many as possible without all this conflict over removing Christ from the Christmas season. I sort of compared it to celebrating Martin L King Day..MLK had a great philosophy and so does Jesus ...in addition to many of us believing Jesus is Divine

edvc77 Atheists probably would say don't feel sorry for them, but secretly you could pray for them without telling them

robspeakman Whoa..sorry if I upset you..I respect all your thoughts. I hope you are ok with someone disagreeing with you as I am and I could learn from your POV. I am aware of the the world before Christianity..in fact I have a lot of admiration for some of the Pagans...some were more spiritutal than our modern day Christians and/or other religious people... I am an American, my parents were immigrants.. I am a non-practicing Catholic and and very aware of the control the Catholic church used to keep and maintain control over their members..so of course I know why Christmas was set up to counter the Pagan holiday.. I don't know as much about Atheists as I would like to and I continue to learn. Many that I do know are awesome peole, though I disagree with their philosophical views. Islam and Christanity have Jesus in common even if Christianity considers Him divine while He is a great Prophet for Muslims. I think they wouldd be a perfect group to just honore the man Jesus on Christmas instead of the religious Jesus of Christians. I admire Buddism and Buddists..I have studied the religion a bit, but while technically you are correct they don't beleve in Christian God, their's is a spiritual belief that I find quite helpful to read and study and even apply. I am not aware of spiritual beliefs among Aheists unless you are calling Buddists atheists...my limited knowledge tells me Atheists don't believe in First Cause, Creator, God, etc.. I apologize with the limnited space and time I gave you the wrong impression that I was speaking of ALL atheists when I wrote ths..I'll try to be more careful so I don't upsetr anyone else..Thanks for your input!!!

@stary1 Thanks for being respectful in your tone and response. I'd be happy to participate in more of your discussions! Sometimes it's scary to post about things like this since people become heated and passionate so quickly and often become mean-spirited in their responses.

habibti320 I am glad to hear you say you have no pronblem with Christmas and I do appreciate the fact that many ateists feel that way, but there is an element who are trying to go against anything having to do with God or Christ.... No state religion should be established, but there is another point that is often mistaken. There is no quarantee from all religion in the public square