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Do your Muslim friends celebrate Christmas? Do your Jewish friends? Most non-religious americans are something like Christian Atheists. They don't believe in a

Do your Muslim friends celebrate Christmas? Do your Jewish friends? Most non-religious americans are something like Christian Atheists. They don't believe in a god, but their worldview, ethics, and cultural norms are still originating in Christianity.

wutbrodo 5y ago
My parents are non-Christian immigrants to the US and we celebrated Christmas every year growing up. Have you really not seen this? Especially in the cosmopolitan urban environments that Christmas movie settings skew towards?
bcrosby95 5y ago
About half of my Jewish friends celebrate Christmas. And my one Muslim friend (that immigrated from a Muslim majority country) celebrates it too. He also has gotten into the habit of saying "god bless" because I guess they say that a lot in Georgia?
- totalZero 5y ago
  I mean, Muslims believe in God too.
  - bobthechef 5y ago
    Yes, but they don't celebrate Christmas. Anyway, Americanized Muslims tend to be quite "moderate", that is, they are either apostates or firmly on the path to becoming apostates. I don't know if this follows from selective immigration or from social pressure to assimilate into the liberal civic religion, but it is so. So it's not surprising that they would embrace the secularized counterfeit that many Americans already celebrate, just as they probably end up watching the high feast known as the Superbowl and joining into the national prostration before the Almighty Game.
mc32 5y ago
Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese I know do have a Xmas, most of whom are not Christian. And if I know someone celebrate Chanukah I’ll say happy Chanukah. Is that wrong?
throwaway894345 5y ago
So what's the argument here? Christians are represented proportionately in films if we count secular Americans as Christians?
munificent 5y ago
> Most non-religious americans are something like Christian Atheists. They don't believe in a god, but their worldview, ethics, and cultural norms are still originating in Christianity. I like latkes and challah, but that doesn't make me Jewish. All groups influence culture and culture influences all individuals. But simply having adopted a piece of culture that came from some group does not make one a member of that group. My wife and kids and I all celebrate Christmas. We are not Christian. If celebrating Christmas made one Christian, then anyone including a yule log in their festivities must also be pagan.
- Turing_Machine 5y ago
  Right. People in English-speaking countries observe Sun Day, Moon Day, Tiw's Day, Odin's Day, Thor's Day, Freyja's Day, and Saturn's Day every single week. That doesn't make them Germanic (or Roman) pagans. Ask the average person about Thor and you'll probably get something based on the comic book character. Ask him about Tiw and you're gonna get a blank look.
- takeda 5y ago
  To add to it, even the Christmas tree doesn't originate from Christianity. It was just adapted from a pagan tradition. The Santa Claus image was created by commercialism. The original saint Claus is celebrating on December 6 (or 7, don't remeber exactly) and that was a priest that anonymously was donating toys to children in orphanages and later was discovered. Easter Bunny is another commercialisation of a Christian holiday, which has nothing to do with rabbits. It is a day, where Christians celebrate Jesus raising from grave after being crucified.
  - tremon 5y ago
    December 6th: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas > Santa Claus evolved from Dutch traditions regarding Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas). When the Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam, they brought the legend and traditions of Sinterklaas with them
    - 5y ago
whoooooo123 5y ago
That clearly isn't what GP was taking about. The point was about what % of film characters are identifiably Christian, not what % of film characters hail from a country with Christian heritage.
Epenthesis 5y ago
My Hindu American family "celebrates" Christmas (tree/lights/presents/big meal)
no-dr-onboard 5y ago
I watched a Christian apologist recently who said basically this. He was debating a $social-leftist and basically said: >You say you're not religious, but the things you hold as value, the trappings of your ethics, and your decision making process seems to be more aligned with judeo-christianity than your self-proclaimed naturalist atheism"
- damagednoob 5y ago
  I watched something similar recently and I don't understand why it's so difficult for atheists to concede this point. I'm happy that Jesus argues for separation of church and state ("Render unto Caesar") and I don't need to find a non-religious inspiration. There are many examples of Christians coming up with good ideas. The fact that they did/do means very little in the debate regarding the existence of God.
echelon 5y ago
Atheists celebrate Christmas. With family, gifts, Christmas songs and atmosphere. Just no God or Jesus. Christmas is incredibly popular in Japan, which isn't very Christian at all.
ardit33 5y ago
yeah man, stop talking about all of the non-christians like you know them all. My family does, and we are all mixed. Also the xmass tree, was called New Years's Eve tree, and it went up every year, right before xmass. This was even in communist Albania, where religions were forbidden. The only thing we changed, was to open presents in 1st of jan, instead on the 25th. The whole xmass tree thing tradition, is an old pagan one, and existed way before jessus or whoever was born. It is a indo-european thing.

wutbrodo 5y ago

My parents are non-Christian immigrants to the US and we celebrated Christmas every year growing up. Have you really not seen this? Especially in the cosmopolitan urban environments that Christmas movie settings skew towards?

bcrosby95 5y ago

About half of my Jewish friends celebrate Christmas. And my one Muslim friend (that immigrated from a Muslim majority country) celebrates it too. He also has gotten into the habit of saying "god bless" because I guess they say that a lot in Georgia?

totalZero 5y ago
I mean, Muslims believe in God too.
- bobthechef 5y ago
  Yes, but they don't celebrate Christmas. Anyway, Americanized Muslims tend to be quite "moderate", that is, they are either apostates or firmly on the path to becoming apostates. I don't know if this follows from selective immigration or from social pressure to assimilate into the liberal civic religion, but it is so. So it's not surprising that they would embrace the secularized counterfeit that many Americans already celebrate, just as they probably end up watching the high feast known as the Superbowl and joining into the national prostration before the Almighty Game.

mc32 5y ago

Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese I know do have a Xmas, most of whom are not Christian. And if I know someone celebrate Chanukah I’ll say happy Chanukah. Is that wrong?

throwaway894345 5y ago

So what's the argument here? Christians are represented proportionately in films if we count secular Americans as Christians?

munificent 5y ago

> Most non-religious americans are something like Christian Atheists. They don't believe in a god, but their worldview, ethics, and cultural norms are still originating in Christianity. I like latkes and challah, but that doesn't make me Jewish. All groups influence culture and culture influences all individuals. But simply having adopted a piece of culture that came from some group does not make one a member of that group. My wife and kids and I all celebrate Christmas. We are not Christian. If celebrating Christmas made one Christian, then anyone including a yule log in their festivities must also be pagan.

Turing_Machine 5y ago
Right. People in English-speaking countries observe Sun Day, Moon Day, Tiw's Day, Odin's Day, Thor's Day, Freyja's Day, and Saturn's Day every single week. That doesn't make them Germanic (or Roman) pagans. Ask the average person about Thor and you'll probably get something based on the comic book character. Ask him about Tiw and you're gonna get a blank look.
takeda 5y ago
To add to it, even the Christmas tree doesn't originate from Christianity. It was just adapted from a pagan tradition. The Santa Claus image was created by commercialism. The original saint Claus is celebrating on December 6 (or 7, don't remeber exactly) and that was a priest that anonymously was donating toys to children in orphanages and later was discovered. Easter Bunny is another commercialisation of a Christian holiday, which has nothing to do with rabbits. It is a day, where Christians celebrate Jesus raising from grave after being crucified.
- tremon 5y ago
  December 6th: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas > Santa Claus evolved from Dutch traditions regarding Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas). When the Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam, they brought the legend and traditions of Sinterklaas with them
  - 5y ago

whoooooo123 5y ago

That clearly isn't what GP was taking about. The point was about what % of film characters are identifiably Christian, not what % of film characters hail from a country with Christian heritage.

Epenthesis 5y ago

My Hindu American family "celebrates" Christmas (tree/lights/presents/big meal)

no-dr-onboard 5y ago

I watched a Christian apologist recently who said basically this. He was debating a $social-leftist and basically said: >You say you're not religious, but the things you hold as value, the trappings of your ethics, and your decision making process seems to be more aligned with judeo-christianity than your self-proclaimed naturalist atheism"

damagednoob 5y ago
I watched something similar recently and I don't understand why it's so difficult for atheists to concede this point. I'm happy that Jesus argues for separation of church and state ("Render unto Caesar") and I don't need to find a non-religious inspiration. There are many examples of Christians coming up with good ideas. The fact that they did/do means very little in the debate regarding the existence of God.

echelon 5y ago

Atheists celebrate Christmas. With family, gifts, Christmas songs and atmosphere. Just no God or Jesus. Christmas is incredibly popular in Japan, which isn't very Christian at all.

ardit33 5y ago

yeah man, stop talking about all of the non-christians like you know them all. My family does, and we are all mixed. Also the xmass tree, was called New Years's Eve tree, and it went up every year, right before xmass. This was even in communist Albania, where religions were forbidden. The only thing we changed, was to open presents in 1st of jan, instead on the 25th. The whole xmass tree thing tradition, is an old pagan one, and existed way before jessus or whoever was born. It is a indo-european thing.