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Do Atheists Have Ceremonies?

Pinkie said:
Read the Op again, zgoldsmith. Does it sound snarky?

I'm still curious, BTW.
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The fact that there is even a question whether atheists have ceremonies is snarky. Duh we have ceremonies.
 
zgoldsmith23 said:
The fact that there is even a question whether atheists have ceremonies is snarky. Duh we have ceremonies.
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Who was being snarky now? I mean, if you think that something like that was an attack on atheism you must have pretty thin skin.

Now back on topic, the ceremonies I have are largely dominated by pagan and Wiccan ones because my partner is Into that, well that and presents. If left to my own devices I would probably feel the need for fewer ceremonies but I am sure I would still do some.
 
Pinkie said:
Great.

What are they?
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Well, when we cook babies, we celebrate "Stalin Day" .. of course I'm kidding.

Atheists celebrate birthdays, we celebrate holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. As I said earlier, let's be honest: Christmas is an economic holiday. Atheists have "de-baptizing" ceremonies. There's large congregations of atheists that have wedding ceremonies. PZ Myers had a "frackin' cracker" ceremony at the Creation Museum. It's on youtube.
 
zgoldsmith23 said:
Well, when we cook babies, we celebrate "Stalin Day" .. of course I'm kidding.

Atheists celebrate birthdays, we celebrate holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. As I said earlier, let's be honest: Christmas is an economic holiday. Atheists have "de-baptizing" ceremonies. There's large congregations of atheists that have wedding ceremonies. PZ Myers had a "frackin' cracker" ceremony at the Creation Museum. It's on youtube.
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Wow do we have meetings too? Wheres my membership card? Can I be a Atheist about Atheists? :2razz:
 
FreedomFromAll said:
Wow do we have meetings too? Wheres my membership card? Can I be a Atheist about Atheists? :2razz:
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We do have meetings. We meet in the maternity ward to pick up dinner.
 
zgoldsmith23 said:
Well, when we cook babies, we celebrate "Stalin Day" .. of course I'm kidding.

Atheists celebrate birthdays, we celebrate holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. As I said earlier, let's be honest: Christmas is an economic holiday. Atheists have "de-baptizing" ceremonies. There's large congregations of atheists that have wedding ceremonies. PZ Myers had a "frackin' cracker" ceremony at the Creation Museum. It's on youtube.
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Wait...what?

"Congregations of atheists"?

Has it dawned on you guys that if you keep up this behavior at some point, you'll be a religion as well?

WTF would you need to congregate? I still cannot understand why there are atheist conventions....to discuss what? All your non-beliefs?

In all the years I have spent as an atheist/agonist/theist, I never felt the need to find a group of like-minded people to discuss (?) my spirituality or lack thereof with. I rather considered the absence of any pressure to join a group was one big advantage to me beliefs.

I have to admit, the ceremony at the Creation Museum is funny -- but I'd never turn my baby's baptism/nonbaptism ceremony into a snark fest.

 
zgoldsmith23 said:
We do have meetings. We meet in the maternity ward to pick up dinner.
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Get off the cross, zgoldsmith, we need the wood.

How much pity will you require for all the suffering your atheism has subjected you to before you can stop demanding special care?
 
My wife and I got married at a nice venue with family and friends there, food, cakes, vows, pictures. Ah, memories. Religion didn't come up, not sure why it would. Ceremony exists without religions, crazy I know!

Death, yeah, pretty important, sad, depressing. Not sure what it has to do with religion though. Births, baby showers are good, especially for new mothers, lots of support both in terms of people and goods, it's a crazy time that first child and having the startup-package crowd-sourced for you is pretty cool. Oh crap, we need a placemat now that she's on solid food because she's basically just eating off the table!...oh yeah, we got one of those from Judy! You won't be finding "goods from gods" though, they tend to be silent at most of these functions and NEVER bring gifts :p

Life without religion is exactly like every aspect of life, without the religious flavoring and commentary. We do think it's a little wierd to go to a wedding where have to sit through a Church service with strange songs about mythos and hand signs and gestures of unknown meaning and origin, or see a baby having water put on their forehead, etc., but it's not so strange that I'd outright refuse or roll my eyes. My wife may, I just give her the "don't go there" glare and she usually behaves :)

Christmas is Christmas, it's a holiday involving family and gifts and foods you bring out once a year, and something for kids to look forward to without going overboard on materialism and a hundreds gifts of course though. Also, to watch Christmas Story :). We're having 4 generations together at our place this Christmas, looking forward to it.
 
I have no idea (and won't be here to care) what my funeral will be like; I want my kid to do whatever comforts her.

But I have a friend who's mom was an atheist and when she died, they did the wake at the funeral, but there was no religious service -- and this seemed proper to me. We were there to comfort my friend and show our respect for his mom, and we did not violate her views in the process.

My brother, who is a devout Catholic, has finally agreed not to afflict me with a priest as I lay dying. It's not easy for him to shove over, as he had to first entertain the possibility that I am correct about the "dead is dead" thing.

If he breaks that promise, I think I may haunt him.

LOL.
 
Of course. I spent 10 years in the Navy and we had all kinds of ceremonies like Change of Command, Christening, Commissioning and many others. These are certainly not religious in nature. There are all kinds of ceremonies in civilian life as well, like ribbon cuttings, ground breaking, and many more.
 
maquiscat said:
Of course. I spent 10 years in the Navy and we had all kinds of ceremonies like Change of Command, Christening, Commissioning and many others. These are certainly not religious in nature. There are all kinds of ceremonies in civilian life as well, like ribbon cuttings, ground breaking, and many more.
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Well, of course -- I was referring more to ceremonies in your personal life, such as the birth/naming of a child.

Do you have a way of marking a child's entry to their teenaged years, for example?

 
Pinkie said:
Wait...what?

"Congregations of atheists"?

Has it dawned on you guys that if you keep up this behavior at some point, you'll be a religion as well?

WTF would you need to congregate? I still cannot understand why there are atheist conventions....to discuss what? All your non-beliefs?

In all the years I have spent as an atheist/agonist/theist, I never felt the need to find a group of like-minded people to discuss (?) my spirituality or lack thereof with. I rather considered the absence of any pressure to join a group was one big advantage to me beliefs.

I have to admit, the ceremony at the Creation Museum is funny -- but I'd never turn my baby's baptism/nonbaptism ceremony into a snark fest.
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The only time that I have seen Atheists do anything together as a group is in some link to some event that I never heard of before then.

But I do not see anything wrong with Atheists organizing to protect their rights. Lol only a theist would try to imply that such gatherings are religious.

Not every event is centered around some type of religious or cult activity. lol Every been to a bar or tavern?
 
FreedomFromAll said:
The only time that I have seen Atheists do anything together as a group is in some link to some event that I never heard of before then.

But I do not see anything wrong with Atheists organizing to protect their rights. Lol only a theist would try to imply that such gatherings are religious.

Not every event is centered around some type of religious or cult activity. lol Every been to a bar or tavern?
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WTF do you have in common, apart from imaginary suffering?
 
Pinkie said:
WTF do you have in common, apart from imaginary suffering?
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Perhaps you could explain WTH you are asking here? What do I have in common with who? And what do you mean by imaginary suffering?


If you were actually replying to my post then I assume that you believe that Atheists are never discriminated against?

And did not you get the meaning of my question asking if you ever been to a bar or tavern before? Have you gone a seen a movie?
 
FreedomFromAll said:
Perhaps you could explain WTH you are asking here? What do I have in common with who? And what do you mean by imaginary suffering?
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Have in common with other atheists.


If you were actually replying to my post then I assume that you believe that Atheists are never discriminated against?
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"Never" is a bit strong. I don't think you need a National Day of Mourning, though.

And did not you get the meaning of my question asking if you ever been to a bar or tavern before? Have you gone a seen a movie?
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I assumed this was rhetorical, my bad.

Yes, I have done all those things, usually with friends, none of whom is a fellow atheist/agnostic/theist. I'm the only one I know IRL, and it's never been a problem for me.
 
Well you know us atheist like to sacrafice a lamb on Sundays, before the game. Pray to satan, since, you know if we don't believe in god we must worship satan. Also on Xmas we burn down orphanages. You know the usual.
 
Pinkie said:
WTF do you have in common, apart from imaginary suffering?
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What we atheists have in common is a non-belief in gods. Otherwise, it's herding cats time.
Somebody once sent me a link to the "Brights", who seem like a cross between quasireligion, unreligion anonymous, and a cult debriefing centre. I looked, shivered and didn't join.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brights_movement
 
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Manc Skipper said:
It seems from the link that they don't get a day off school for it, unlike Christian kids who do for their confirmation.
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No idea, I don't really know people who are into that kind of thing.

But my guess is they do it in the summer holidays anyway.
 
I was just pointing to a piece of discrimination which defenders of the faiths tend to deny happens.
 
Pinkie said:
One function religion serves for most of us is to provide a ceremony for most of life's big occasions: birth, death, marriage, etc. Most religions also provide the annual celebrations in the winter and spring.

I wasn't in any religion when I got married and later, when I had my child, but I wanted the ceremonies, so I persuaded a local church to lend me theirs. I always have celebrated Xmas and Easter, even though I don't do it for religious reasons.

What do you do? Do you think these ceremonies have value for you, even if entirely secular?
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Sure. I think they are reasons to get together with the community and have fun. Also, they are ways of celebrating the values of those holidays without requiring religious beliefs to espouse those values.

So I see nothing wrong with secularists from celebrating such holidays.
 
Pinkie said:
Have in common with other atheists.
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Im sure I have just as much in common with other Atheists as I do with Theists.


"Never" is a bit strong. I don't think you need a National Day of Mourning, though.
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I am not sure why you are making such assumptions?
Why the **** would Atheists need a "National Day of Mourning"? Are Theists planning on killing Atheists? BTW I never said anything of the sort. I feel like you are saying that I should shut up and conform.

The fact is though that theists (not all) like to preach that if you are an Atheist then you have no morals.



I assumed this was rhetorical, my bad.

Yes, I have done all those things, usually with friends, none of whom is a fellow atheist/agnostic/theist. I'm the only one I know IRL, and it's never been a problem for me.
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It doesnt matter what the people in those places believe at all does it?


Atheists are people too just like anyone else. There are many different belief system that result in a person not believing in gods. Not all non-believers call themselves Atheists, I actually dont even like the label. I do not belong to some mysterious group of like minded people. I am an individual, I do not subscribe to a belief system shared by many.

I suppose it is difficult to understand that some people do not need an excuse to love or hate other people. Why do I celebrate holidays? Because its a cultural and family tradition and I like to do it. And the fact that there isnt any religious substance to celebration does not mean that the events are pointless to me. Instead of centering everything around a religious context I center these celebrations around the people that I love. I dont give my love to a god I give it to the people around me that touch my life that give my life meaning. Atheists are not heartless self centered robots out to harm everyone. Sure there always are some in a crowd, but generally Atheists are unrecognizable in crowd.

Atheism gets some much flack because Atheists are the one thing that just about all religions can agree on. Theists tend to assert that if you believe in any god that its better than not believing in any god.
 
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