Concerns for atheists
Offline Sorry for being away for so long, wish i could be on alot more.
Well, i am a rather young Atheist. Only 17. I take great pride in my neutral state or absence of theism. I have many concerns or questions though.
What happens if your whole family celebrates all the fake christian holidays?, what should i do ? (xmas, easter, ect..)
What happens if/when i want to get married, by a priest? ewwwww
What happens when one day, i will die. I'm not getting put under by a preist talking in gods words.
just some questions i would like to bounce around. Thanks!
If this is in wrong section, sorry, its been a while.
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Offline NoGodJon wrote:What happens if your whole family celebrates all the fake christian holidays?, what should i do ? (xmas, easter, ect..)
Nothing, you can still celebrate with them.
Quote:What happens if/when i want to get married, by a priest? ewwwwwI once asked somebody how atheists get married and he just typed in "lol, what?". If he laughed in front of me, I would've kicked his ass.
But you can still have a ceremony and stuff like that.
Quote:What happens when one day, i will die. I'm not getting put under by a preist talking in gods words.What can ya do about it? You'll be dead.
The thing is, i don't want to be like oh i'm an atheist, but im a greedy bastard...gimme presents! i want to be a full non-religious human. Celebrate no holidays based on a religion, get married (was marriage started undera religion?) by a priest. Cremated thing is a good idea. It seems, i have a looong time to think of that...
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Offline What happens if your whole family celebrates all the fake christian holidays?, what should i do ? (xmas, easter, ect..)
All of those "holidays" were hijacked by Christianity as already stated, so hijack them back in your own way. To me Xmas is about spending time with the family, Easter is about making the most of red meat and alcohol etc.
What happens if/when i want to get married, by a priest? ewwwww
Priests aren't the only people who can perform marraige ceremonies. This is another tradition hijacked by religion. Marraige used to be as simple as declaring it, but then religion got involved and then so did the law. A Justice of the Peace, a Judge, or many other people can legally perform the ceremony for you in a very secular manner. The only problem will be if you like the idea of it being in church as I do, to me all other locations are just tacky but I'll have to settle for one of them when my time comes.
What happens when one day, i will die. I'm not getting put under by a preist talking in gods words.
Make sure it is in your last will and testament, otherwise the ceremony will be along what ever lines your family chooses and it sounds from your first few paragraphs like they'll instantly go down the religious line.
There is absolutely no reason in this day and age that anything needs to be done in a religious manner. Religions have hijacked lots of things and preach so loudly that many (such as yourself) don't seem to be aware of any other way, but there are lots of other ways.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
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Offline NoGodJon wrote:What happens if your whole family celebrates all the fake christian holidays?, what should i do ? (xmas, easter, ect..)All of those "holidays" were hijacked by Christianity as already stated, so hijack them back in your own way. To me Xmas is about spending time with the family, Easter is about making the most of red meat and alcohol etc.
NoGodJon wrote:What happens if/when i want to get married, by a priest? ewwwwwPriests aren't the only people who can perform marraige ceremonies. This is another tradition hijacked by religion. Marraige used to be as simple as declaring it, but then religion got involved and then so did the law. A Justice of the Peace, a Judge, or many other people can legally perform the ceremony for you in a very secular manner. The only problem will be if you like the idea of it being in church as I do, to me all other locations are just tacky but I'll have to settle for one of them when my time comes.
NoGodJon wrote:What happens when one day, i will die. I'm not getting put under by a preist talking in gods words.Make sure it is in your last will and testament, otherwise the ceremony will be along what ever lines your family chooses and it sounds from your first few paragraphs like they'll instantly go down the religious line.
There is absolutely no reason in this day and age that anything needs to be done in a religious manner. Religions have hijacked lots of things and preach so loudly that many (such as yourself) don't seem to be aware of any other way, but there are lots of other ways.
Thanks thingy, you pretty much covered everything I was going to say. Great minds think alike.
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Offline What happens if your whole family celebrates all the fake christian holidays?, what should i do ? (xmas, easter, ect..)
Christmas coincides with the pagan holiday Winter Solstice - you should celebrate it! Evergreen tree, presents, et. al. I may be mistaken, but Easter also coincides with the Vernal Equinox - celebrate at will. No, it is not a coincidence that these holidays overlap. Christians didn't want to lose converts to the good parties so they constructed Christmas and Easter around them. As far as I am concerned any celebration of life is a good thing.
What happens if/when i want to get married, by a priest? ewwwww
Justice of the Peace or a non-denominational minister. Many bars will allow marriage ceremonies (my preference) or local parks. A nice backyard works well too.
What happens when one day, i will die. I'm not getting put under by a preist talking in gods words.
Make sure someone else knows about your preferences, but really you won't care because you will be dead. LOL
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Offline The thing is, i don't want to be like oh i'm an atheist, but im a greedy bastard...gimme presents! i want to be a full non-religious human. Celebrate no holidays based on a religion, get married (was marriage started undera religion?) by a priest. Cremated thing is a good idea. It seems, i have a looong time to think of that...
You don't need presents. You can just be there with your family.
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Offline Ahhh, hell! Thingy - you and I must have been typing at the same exact time!! (hmmm...there is a quote about great minds...perhaps it just that I think like your great mind! LOL)
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Offline Great minds think alike.
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Offline What happens if your whole family celebrates all the fake christian holidays?, what should i do ? (xmas, easter, ect..)
Do what Richard Dawkins does.
Götter sind für Arten, die sich selbst verraten -- in den Glauben flüchten um sich hinzurichten. Menschen brauchen Götter um sich zu verletzen, um sich zu vernichten -- das sind wir.
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Offline My atheist fiancee and I plan to get married outdoors in a small ceremony presided over by a judge. No church, god, ect, just two people that love eachother.
As for holidays, I still celebrate them with my family. To me, christmas has ALWAYS been more about getting together with my extended family and enjoying their company.
They can do whatever with my corpse, I'm no longer there to care. ^_-
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Christmas and Easter are traditions. Participating in them does not mean a thing. Besides most of the things we do on these days are not Christian in origin. The tree, the eggs, the rabbit, the exchanging of gifts, the man with the beard [oh. wait never mind that last one] If anyone gives you grief, ask them since they have a Christmas tree, or an easter basket, do they believe in the pagan gods?
I look at these holidays as a chance to spend time with my family. I enjoy giving gifts to my children on Christmas , and enjoy watching them hunt for eggs on Easter.
My wife and I were married by a judge.
As for what people do after I die.. I don't care. They can have 100 priests presiding over my corpse, won't matter to me, I'm dead.
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Offline haha, well thank you all for your help, thats what this forum is all about. 
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Offline Christmas: Time to hang out with the family and try to give mom presents that make her cry. ("I win Christmas!"
Easter: Time to gorge yourself on the candy that your co-workers bring in because they bought way too much. And you can celebrate Equinox and just be happy it's spring (or very nearly spring, depending on what the weather's doing.)
My wife and I were married by my mom's best friend since junior high, who is a reverend of the "Mission of the Laughing Heart" (which he started himself). He's an artist/spiritualist/pantheist-type of guy who can give a great speech about love and all that jazz without making outrageous claims about who or what god is and, it seems, without offending someone else's outrageous claims. We actually got compliments from family members whom we thought were most likely to be bothered by his service. A touch of spirituality without being religious.
When I die, I'd like to be cremated and have no funeral. Just a wake with good food and some good beer. Hopefully, everyone will make bad jokes in rememberance of me.
-Triften
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Offline Marriage I think its an American thing that associates marriage and religion in most the Western world there is just no link 2/3rds of people in the UK do not get married in any religious building. Some are religious some are not but getting married in church is a dying concept mainly due to money rather than any secular concept
Marriage = a secular , legal and social event it has NOTHING to do with religion unless you choose it to be that way
I would be curious to hear from Americans as it appears this is very different in the US. 50% of Americans go to church every month while the figure in the uk <2% (less than the people who are openly gay)
2) Christmas is about as christian as Bin Laden these days, it wasnt christian in the first place and is a secular time to be nice to each other and drink/eat too much. Any religious concepts are purely optional
3) Funerals are a bit trickier (not for you of course as you're dead). Good humanist ceremonies do exist but funerals are not for the dead's benefit its for the living. You can ask for a humanist one but if your relatives can't bring themselves to do one well its not your problem
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Offline What happens when one day, i will die. I'm not getting put under by a preist talking in gods words.
A couple of years ago before major surgery I put my ducks in a row on this issue. I made out a living will and had it notarized. I can only hope that when the time comes my wishes will be followed.
Under Article II I wrote the following:
"I direct that my body be donated to science....(private issue here). I would like a secular memorial service that makes no mention of God, Jesus, the Bible, an afterlife or any other aspect of religion. I am an atheist and I would like my beliefs to be respected during the memorial service. I would like for my funeral to be a casual celebration of the good times in my life. I would like (friend's name) to give the eulogy and call upon attendees to share remembrances of my life. I ask him to keep the service under control. Don't allow my passing to become a platform for others to preach religion. I authorize my Executor to carry out these directions and wishes, particularly those for the disposition of my remains."
So, yeah. Even though I'll be dead, it's important to me that my family not use my corpse as a witnessing tool.
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Nothing, you can still celebrate with them.
I once asked somebody how atheists get married and he just typed in "lol, what?". If he laughed in front of me, I would've kicked his ass.
But you can still have a ceremony and stuff like that.
What can ya do about it? You'll be dead.
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Just because our life rituals have been hijacked by Christianity doesn't mean that we don't still like them. Most Christian holidays are stolen from pagan celebrations of spring, harvest, winter solstice, midsummer etc. Marriage (albeit in a more informal form) predates Christianity by tens of thousands of years, at least. There is evidence that Neandertals ritually buried their dead.
I refuse to let Christianity ruin these celebrations for me. It is possible to observe all these life events with little or no referance to Christianity at all. Christmas is about Santa Claus and the tree. Easter is about the Easter Bunny and spring. Thanksgiving is about turkey and getting drunk in front of the football game.
Getting married by a priest is a little stickier. After all, the church is their club, and they do get to make the rules of membership. I'd suggest getting married by a JP, or just go to Vegas.
Who cares about your funeral? You'll be dead.
Lazy is a word we use when someone isn't doing what we want them to do.
- Dr. Joy Brown
try to find non theist things to enjoy about the holidays, their so commercialized anyway it's not like christians even really get any spiritual meaning out of them. xmas: celebrate being with family and giving gifts to loved ones. easter: eat candy and color eggs. that's not christian, it's pagan honoring the goddess ishtar. and coloring eggs is fun.
my wife and i (both atheists) eloped to roswell, new mexico and got married by a judge at the courthouse. it was fun, the whole alien/ufo thing. sure, the judge made one brief reference to "holy matrimony", but we didn't care. he wasn't a priest, and we're madly in love. that's all that matters.
simply make a living will and make it clear that you don't want a priest or a religious service at your funeral. you don't even have to have a "funeral". you can just be cremated, if you want. how you're honored in death is your choice, so long as you get it in writing!
www.derekneibarger.com http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=djneibarger "all postures of submission and surrender should be part of our prehistory." -christopher hitchens