No, the gift-giving, greenery, lights, hat wearing and big meal were taken from Saturnalia. The tree decoration, a lot of the food and the carol singing come from Germanic paganism.
I always assumed that christmas was a western invention, started by retailers, so they could sell more stock. And good for them too. I'm all for bright business ideas. How can it be used to celebrate the birth of a guy who didn't exist? That's like having a yearly ceremony to celebrate the creation of Power Rangers.
The short reply to your question is NO But my OP question is specific to DISRESPECTFUL non-believers. - AND - that does not infer that you can't be a nice person if you DO NOT believe in God - similarly many believers need to drop the stones they carry whilst in the house of glass.
Serious question here. I christmas is a fixed date, why isn't easter? Wasn't that alleged to be the ending of the dudes life in the bible?
Well i don't believe in Jesus, but i celebrate christmas. The christmas we know has nothing to do with religion, and all to do with commercialism.
Because it's important that Jesus' resurrection is remembered as being on the sabbath, Sunday, which was really key to the prophecy of scripture.
I agree wholeheartedly. There have been many magnificent atheists, and many dickheads of theists. As long as everyone's generally nice to each other, you can't really go far wrong.
Well it devalues the whole concept if it has to be on a sunday. People die on a specific date, not a specific day. That's a bit like me dying on, say, the 20th of november 2011, which is a sunday, but then next year, the anniversary of my death is celebrated on the 18th, which is a sunday. That's not right, the anniversary of my death would be the 20th, so you can't change the date you remember someone, just for religious reasons.
