An Agnostic’s Christmas, by John Ostrander
It’s an odd time of year if you’re an agnostic. It’s especially odd if you’re a church-going agnostic like myself. Oh, I suppose it could be said that Christmas is an odd time of year for everyone one way or another. We rush around spending money we don’t really have buying gifts for people, some of whom we don’t really like. Amidst the desperate scurry, we try to convince ourselves that it really is the happiest time of year and, for some, perhaps it is.
Christmas isn’t just a “holiday” in the sense that the Fourth of July is a holiday. It’s a holiday in the sense of being a “holi-day” – a holy day. It celebrates the day Jahweh became Jesus; the day that, according to the story told, God came off His (Her) mountain and incarnated as a mortal child, a baby boy. That’s what underlines the whole Christmas concept. The mythology has that at its root.
The existence of Jesus (as a mortal) I can buy; the existence of Yahweh (or any other god), not so much.
Aside: before anyone starts chiming in about the pagan roots of Christmas, I know all about that. I don’t believe in your gods, either. And few if any folks are celebrating the pagan rituals; if they still have meaning, it’s only because the majority of people see them in a Christian or quasi-Christian context. Yes, the Church swiped your ideas and co-opted them. Get over it.