I don't celebrate holidays, nor do I take part in the them. This has been a source of consternation to some people around me for most of my life. They just don't understand and they wonder what is wrong with me. Even among skeptics and atheists, people still celebrate holidays, renaming them or attempting to assimilate them or even just simply trying to ignore the religious aspect of them. Excuses, excuses.
I have a profound respect for the power of symbols (which is not the same thing as a respect for specific symbols). My experience is that they turn on you. I wore a pigasus for a while until I discovered the organization it represented didn't have the courage of its convictions.
Following is a retelling of the moment I went from atheist to anti-theist, on a very personal level. Perhaps it will help shed some light on my views on holidays for anyone who might be interested. I wrote this for a board I participate in. I have toned down my description of the priest in the story for delicate ears (yes, this is toned-down).
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Actually, the last time I was in a church (Church of England) for a wedding really opened my eyes. Up to that point, I had pretty much gotten the academic side of things down, was a public atheist, etc., but I didn't have that sense of understanding, on a very personal level, about how virulent religion really is. I was an "each his or her own way" kinda person. I kept things, more or less, to myself.
The priest used their wedding as an excuse to put forward a "there is an atheist in the crowd" rant, and I saw red - not so much because I perceived myself as the target of the attack, but because this twisted little parasitic homunculus had the temerity to assume the right to abuse the wedding of some of my loved ones to attack one or more persons in the crowd. I realized at that moment that this [person] was in the business of annexing our humanity and wielding it against us. What was supposed to be a celebration of two people's love became a mere opportunity to push an agenda for this piece of parasitic detritus. There are very few times in my life I can claim to have seen red. That was one of them. That moment was when I went from atheist to anti-theist. I decided I would never permit one of these monsters to have any claim on me.
I didn't say anything then. I was desperately trying to think of my uncle and his new bride, seething at the realization that the priest was using that I was doing so for his twisted little purposes.
I dropped all religious celebrations that day. I'm not saying anything to anyone else about what they should or should not do. Your life; your business; your call, but I will not allow religion any claim on my humanity, not in any way, shape or form, ever again. I will not hold my tongue ever again. It is probably better for anyone else that I never enter a church again.
If that makes me a "dick," then so be it. I will still not tell you what you should do. Extend the same courtesy to me, please. If you can't, brace for impact...
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This turned religious dogma from an academic exercise into a vivid personal prescriptive force, virulently wielded. It exposed the vicious nature of the deeply abusive relationship between belief and believer and the parasites that (I can't say "who") use it to steal free room and board and spread hate and malice.
Some have tried to find ways to work around the religious content of holidays on my behalf, and I thank them for their efforts, but I just can't stomach the poison...
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