Why are there so many churchy people here.

[Gustaf]

Duh!  I'm having a blast today!  One of my favorite times of year.  The Mrs and I exchanged gifts that had been sitting under the tree, her parents came to stay for a couple days, we went ice skating at the Cosmo two days ago, we watched our favorite Christmas movies, etc.  We just don't go in for all the religious claptrap that's meant to go with it.

And, since it's Christmas, kindly show goodwill and charity to those of us who do instead of (or in addition to!--for this also is possible; believe me, I know from experience) being judgmental for no good reason.

Believe me, I know.  I went to a few as a child.  But eventually I grew up and understood the reality of Santa and God.  At least the concept of Santa is fun for the kids, however.  The God stuff is just a giant holiday buzzkill.

The God stuff is, for most people who celebrate this holiday, largely the point, at least conceptually. In some countries the God stuff is the Santa stuff. Ask Tender.

Dude, it's just my opinion.  And it's just what I'm used to, virtually my whole life.  Don't act all affronted that a sizeable number of people enjoy the fun side of certain Christian holidays without bothering with the dull religious stuff associated with them.

I think one could easily argue that what you're doing in this thread goes a bit beyond "not celebrating the religious aspect of Christmas"

I personally see no reason to complain about other peoples' celebrations of holidays.

[Gustaf]

Great, another pious lecture from Gustaf.  Just what I always wanted for Christmas!

Huh? I'm not the one trying to tell people what they should do for Christmas or making fun of them. If anyone was giving pious lectures in this thread it was you and I was merely pointing that out in two sentences.

[Gustaf]

Great, another pious lecture from Gustaf.  Just what I always wanted for Christmas!

Huh? I'm not the one trying to tell people what they should do for Christmas or making fun of them. If anyone was giving pious lectures in this thread it was you and I was merely pointing that out in two sentences.

Tell people what to do?  I couldn't care less what people do.  My posts in this thread were directed only at those I generally agree with on the subject of religion (e.g. memphis, the creator of the topic and poser of its question), because I learned long ago not to bother engaging directly with religious folk any more.  As Scott said a few posts up, I 'preach to my own choir' on religion these days.  You guys can read and respond to it if you want, but you weren't the people I was ever really talking to.

You couldn't care less?

It does seem a little disappointing at first glance, I'll agree.  But the result of the 'did you go to church last night' poll right now stands at about 65% 'no', so there's still hope for us yet.

I wonder how many of the rational folks among us still went to church anyway because of family tradition/pressure.  Poor guys.

That's certainly not what you sounded like. I don't care that much, but I found it a bit harsh to act as if Nathan was being affronted at there being atheists in society when you were clearly being affronted about religious people existing.