Christmas, as we all know celebrated on the 25th day of December every year, is enshrouded with a lot of controversies in the past and even now, in the present. The reason for those objections to Christmas day celebrations can be of two categories.
The first one is a question of faith and the second, of reason. Atheists and probably agnostics- who believe, there is no God and our understanding about God can be limited respectively- forms the first category. The second category believes that there are no facts to believe that the Christmas day is the birthday of Jesus, which the believers strongly believe.
Analyzing all the facts and revealing the truth is beyond our ability as history dates back to thousands of years, yet we can try and sort out the differences that affect the harmony of a day, that can be otherwise auspicious and cheerful.
First, let’s see what the atheists believe and their reasons for the same. They deny to venerate the unseen God, as they don’t feel his presence because of the raising inequality and injustice in the world. Rather, they argue that we as human beings should help people, as God has failed to do so.
President of the Minnesota Atheists Association, Eric Jayne says, ‘People have to do God’s work, because there is no God to do God’s work’, and their group distributes green beans, frozen turkeys, apple pies and buy gifts to the poor as a part of their way of celebration.
They also endorse the usage of the phrase ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’ to take out the spiritual touch from the revered day. It sounds quite logical to understand why they embrace such a perspective, had they interrogated themselves with a few logical questions.
Their difference in opinion with the conventional tradition is adding more to the social grievances by giving us one more divisive factor, in the name of a person who dedicated his life to create the scenario, the atheists strive to create now.
Atheists fail to understand the concept of godliness, which aims at creating social equality, justice and a happier living for everyone irrespective of religion, which is what they too long for. In return, by their actions they add to our social woes by making the rift wider in some way. As logical thinkers aren’t they supposed to reduce the discord in the society as much as possible?
Why would they form associations and identify their existence as a noble group who work for the poor and improve social status, only to create more disagreement in the society. They have their right to celebrate their choice of way, but personally not as a coterie to promote unnecessary impious sentiments. Isn’t it a straight forward thinking for a logical mind?
The second set of opinions surrounding the Christmas controversy is, in a way not detrimental for an harmonious celebration. They base their arguments on the facts, but do not propagate their ideologies to create a gap in the society.
They argue that the traditions followed in the Christmas day celebration such as Christmas tree, caroling are the features of celebrations that are way too before in practice before the time of Jesus.
As per the Julian calendar, the winter solstice falls on the 25th day of December in which the shorter days of the year will be started replacing by longer days, which is considered auspicious. Hence the day became more eventful with celebrations as there will be more sun and brightness during the day.
For these reasons, it is quite acceptable if you give importance to your reasoning than your traditional values and prefer saying Happy holidays, inclusive of the other year- end festivities such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, instead of attributing the day to the birth of Jesus Christ.
Freedom of expression is very much necessary in a civilized society, but not at the cost of values that bind our society together. The term ‘war’ itself explains what it professes, while the pursuit is just the contrary.
Hence, it is our responsibility to mitigate discords and agreements that can help build a healthy and prosperous society, at least not for God’s sake, but ours’.
War on Christmas is just gross absurdity. Merry Christmas!
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