To think people are ridiculous for moaning at the little things on Christmas, forgetting the true meaning?

[questionqueeen2022]

This season is about Jesus. Celebrating his birth and the amazing things he did for us. Not getting the latest gadgets and drinking games. Although all of that can be fun, did you take your children to church this year?? Teach your children about God

if I was a member of a well known 'religion of peace'

So you resent people making snide remarks about your religion, but are happy to make the same kind of judgment about somebody else's. Well if that what "believing" does to a person then I'm glad I'm an Atheist.

Obviously the Bible was collated, rationalised, invented and embellished, and much of it much later than 40 years after Jesus died. This is what I mean by it's not a gotcha.

It’s a pity that we’ve dropped so many of the festivals marking the equinoxes and solstices. Those were moments to reflect on our place in the universe, and to think about the bigger picture of the planet, and the solar system.

We might not be in the mess we’re in if the Christians hadn’t sabotaged all of those festivals. And either stamping out the joy with sermonising and tedious saints days, or diverting our us focus to our differences, and smug self righteousness instead of our common shared humanity.

The real meaning is having twinkly lights, joy and warmth at the darkest time of year. Spending time with loved ones or taking time for yourself. The gifts are secondary and it irritates me that people complain so much about them. Token gifts are fine. Buy your own expensive stuff.

If you mean Islam, it is a religion of peace.
Just like Christianity is, because Muslims and Christians believe in the same God. They all believe in peace.

What makes you put that phrase in speech marks? Do you think it isn't a religion of peace? Why not?

Yet when I went to church we heard a lot of judgy nonsense that did not align with Jesus’ teachings. The church of England’s superiority complex is really something. Our local vicar was on fb defending Justin Welby. It’s fair to say, we love Christmas family time but religion features far less. We’re happy with that.

From what I know about Jesus, I really don't think he'd be down with this thread. He'd want love and joy. He'd encourage understanding. What he wouldn't be doing is disparaging others for their own religion or lack of. I'm not religious at all but trying to gain moral superiority doesn't sound very Christ-like to me.

Oh bugger off. People celebrated winter solstice before Christianity was invented by people wanting to control the masses by fear.

I posted earlier about how Christianity took over other celebrations and beliefs but I find it laughable that people are writing about the previous beliefs as if they mean 'more' than the ones that came later, it's all man made to take account of humans need to make sense of the world and/or to control other humans, paganism and celebrations of the solstice aren't any different in that respect it might make more sense to celebrate the solstice because it's celebrating a time of year but the ritual around it and accompanying beliefs aren't 'better ' than anything else, or worse for that matter

Why did he have a hissy fit in the temple then, turning over tables and whatnot, because he was pissed off about what he saw as disrespectful to God

I did go to church with ds1 and dfriend (ds2 peeled potatoes and ds1’s dp joined us after). We also drunk wine, ate good food, exchanged nice gifts, and played silly games. It’s not either / or and religion should never be something enforced.

No its not.
He may have been a mythical figure and even if not so what?

My children know the story of Christmas. We rate it up there with stick man and Dear Zoo. Good storyline but total fiction.

"This is a UK site and the UK is a secular country. Only 1% of the population goes to church each week, that's slightly fewer than go to the mosque each week. The vast majority of the population haven't attended a religious service except weddings or funerals for years."

THIS.

Christmas is not a religious occasion for most people in the UK. It’s a social and cultural event because of the 2 bank holidays where more people make time to see friends and family rather than attend their church.
Religion has caused so much pain, conflict and death in the world that it is no surprise that people in the UK are moving away from it in the same way that they’ve moved away from ideas like colonialism. Christmas was invented to stamp out paganism - it is a fact that Jesus was not born on 25th December.

I think the teacher from Batley who's still in hiding from the death threats made by some offended Muslims might not agree about Islam being a religion of peace. You might remember yourself the riots and number of people murdered by Muslims because they didn't like some cartoons.

At least you can say what you like about Christianity without fear for your life.

I’m not religious in any way, but Xmas should be about love, friends, family etc. Not about who bought what for who, and whether we need to LTB. 🙄

I'm wondering what amazing things the OP's god has done for me? I can't think of any one thing I could relate to which her god has done to help me. Maybe she, or some other similarly minded person, come back to the thread and share the information.
I have a sister whose goes to her church every week, she claims to be very religious and tells me regularly I should go to church, but she is actually a bit of a bitch to how she behaves towards other people. I prefer my family's actions and behaviours as decent good living people than her meanness

Islam IS a religion of peace, its the way some men choose to use it that isn't.

I've taught my daughter that god isn't real but some people like to believe in him. So Christmas is nothing to do with religion in our house, thanks very much.

God isn't real. Christmas is real. You can have a great godless Christmas.

Yeah, well when I start seeing so love and peace out of it I'll believe you. Until then I won't.

Well it was started by a warrior so not really

While there obviously have not been any high profile instances of violence by Christian terrorists in Europe in recent decades, it certainly is not the case that Christians are universally peaceful and tolerant.

Briefly, as a teenager, I had an interest in neopaganism (which proved a brief detour along the road to atheism). There was a fairly large neopaganism chat forum, similar in structure to Mumsnet, which had various subforums - including regional ones. The moderator for my region became inactive, so I volunteered to step in (although, in practice, I never actually had to do anything).

Unfortunately though, being listed as a moderator led to me receiving abusive and threatening messages, including death threats, from people who identified themselves as Christians (which, from talking to the other mods, was not uncommon). There were never any resulting instances of physical violence, but the threats most certainly were not peaceful.

If it doesn't go without saying, I don't believe the abusers were representative of all, most, or even a significant minority of Christians, but there are some nutters out there.