Out of interest if you are secular, do you celebrate Xmas rather than Christmas?

[Marmiteandjamislush]

Just for background, our family is modern traditional Christian, that is to say we observe all of the rules as they relate to the individual, so food, dress, personal actions, hygiene etc. but we do not impose our views on others or encourage others to join the faith. God gave people choice and we cannot influence that, we can only show our best selves. We do not believe in creationism, we believe God gave us the capacity to understand and practice science so science and God cannot be mutually exclusive, though we do believe that the process began with God. We are most definitely Not homophobic (really annoys me that a lot of Christians are automatically tarred with this brush) God made all people in his image and that includes people of all orientations. We accept that the Bible was of it's time and the language used expresses views that do not always hold true in our time, because God has revealed information to us that changes our understanding. We use it as a guiding hand rather than a rigid stick.

Anyway, to my point. I've seen quite a few threads on the site generally where people will say they celebrate Christmas, but then follow it up with something along the lines of 'but we don't do any religious nonsense.' I have no problem with people wanting to do the commercial/family aspects, but I do have an issue with people talking about Christmas, but having nothing to do with or even basic respect for Christ or Christians. Especially when a secular term exists. So as I said, out of interest do any of you do Xmas rather than Christmas?

"such bile"? actually, i think it's mostly been polite and reasonable

OP I'm just wondering if the reason you have found this thread difficult is that you deemed the person that taught you this to be 'all knowing' and if they were wrong on this then have they been wrong on other things too?

Sorry if I'm projecting - just trying to understand why one letter would have such an impact?

I've a theology degree but not sure that qualifies me as a religious scholar (especially as I just struggled to spell scholar!).

Yes Private. Kate less just agree to disagree and Petula being jumped on and bitten when I have apologised for any offence and explained myself is neither polite nor reasonable.

Secret, it's not just the letter, people have implied other more fundemental things are 'wrong'. Anyway, I have to start cooking or I'll never be ready in time!

But isn't that the thing about religion and theology people can believe they are right but no one knows for certain.

I can't see any bile either.

you claim to be open to God showing you the way, but God rarely shows you by a straight forward manner. you have had a lot of people here explain to you about the X and i personally think that God is speaking to you loud and clear right now. you have to learn to listen to what He is saying and remember that what He says might not be to your liking. If you really did not want people explaining to you that you are wrong, or on a 'parenting forum' then why did you ask the question? Why are you not willing to say which branch of Christianity you believe in? And why do you call Easter something different and what do you call it? do you actually live in the UK?

Not about some issues Cervix. Faith wise of course people can believe anything they like, when it comes to dates of the gospels, authorship, etc there is agreement amongst most scholars.

honsandrevels there is certainly agreement about the X standing for Christ. Centuries of agreement!

if you pursue discussions outwith your own community you are likely to be challenged, it's what happens. which is presumably why some members of your own community choose not to permit access, they don't want that - their prerogative. don't wish you'd never asked the question - lots of us have learnt things on this thread that we wouldn't have if you hadn't asked, even if it's not the discussion you wanted

i'm afraid that your idea of being jumped on and bitten must be different to mine, but we can agree to disagree on that point

but you have to admit that you have solicited opinions here and then said that they aren't reliable enough sources for you. people are not going to respond well to that

And this thread is exactly why we find religion and differing beliefs being the source of wars. Since time began.

I find it very sad that OP cannot accept her "teacher" was wrong over such a small matter that she equates it to shaking her whole foundation of belief.

This is not about religion per se, but about the fact that X is an abbreviation for Christ deriving from the Greek letter Chi and that this is widely used in many forms throughout Christianity. Which isn't actually up for debate because it is a fact that can be verified.

To view people who tell her this as being rude or unreasonable is rather disturbing. How OP chooses to practice her religion is of course up to her. But to deny factual information only tangentially related to religion in the broadest sense is very strange.

No one knows many things about faith for certain, cervix, but this disbelief woud require leves of human faking of evidence on an enormously greater scale than that required by the idiots who think human scientists faked fossils.

I think cervix and petula have hit the proverbial nail on the head.

Lunch is started so I can come back.

Redhed. Yes I am in UK. We celebrate and refer to the Resurrection, I believe in it.

I said this upthread:

God has opened my heart and mind to go looking for answers and he will give them but as I said you could be anyone and 5 mins is not long enough for me

What do you mean Pike? Not defensive btw, just not sure what's fascinating

5 minutes is more than long enough to google and discover numerous reliable sources of info that will confirm X = Chi and that Xmas is shorthand for Christmas.

If you are open minded enough to accept you and your teacher are wrong.

If you aren't then you will never accept the fact that your teacher was wrong.

What is a "strident atheist"?

The older I get the more certain I am of my atheism. But rituals and superstition are a part of every day life, religious or not.

I love Christmas. I love the story of the nativity (but as a story), I love the carols, I love the greenery in the house and the gift giving. It's all lovely and warm and makes me happy. I don't distinguish between the religious aspects of the carols and the pagan aspects of the tree, because the religious meanings of both don't mean anything to me. They look nice and sound nice.

I would always call it Christmas, because that is the name of the festival. But it has no significant meaning to me other than a day of being with the family and trying to express love to loved ones. I would not go to church because it doesn't interest me. If it did I would go. I would not pray because I would feel daft to talk to something that isn't there.

I think that it's difficult to understand if you are religious, what meaning someone atheist could find in the rituals if you don't believe. I'm not sure that's something I can explain, just as I don't think you could explain why you believe in a way that I would understand.