Fellow Atheists/Agnostic Atheists - Let's Chat: Do you feel it is risky being "out" these days?

Try working for a corporate call center when people call in frothing at the mouth about this. I have dig my nails into my palm to avoid saying anything about how this wasn't a nation founded as a Christian nation and our being inclusive of all celebrations for our myriad of employees does not make us out to get you while you are the one calling in wanting to alienate everyone else. Only worse time of the year for calls on religious issues is gay pride month when we get a lot of people calling in complaining about our supporting a local pride parade as part of our corporate value of diversity and equality.

krev82 wrote:

Simply respond with "and a merry [pick one; Dionysusmas, Mithrasmas, Attismas] to you!"

I prefer "Merry Zathras."

IMAGE(http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire4/384eba3472aeb61bda6fd4ebfd42a38e1350947908_full.jpg)

*Edit* OK, now I have an urge to photoshop a Santa hat on Zathras's head.

I just tell folks "Merry Krampusnacht".

Paleocon wrote:

I just tell folks "Merry Krampusnacht".

Krampusnacht sounds like the result of a copious Christmas dinner indeed.

dejanzie wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I just tell folks "Merry Krampusnacht".

Krampusnacht sounds like the result of a copious Christmas dinner indeed.

dejanzie! I thought of you the other day. I posted this in the guns thread, but figured it is just as applicable here. I know you are in Belgium and not Holland, but figured you are close enough to know what is going on with your neighbors.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Why does anyone believe Christmas is a religious holiday anymore? I say "Merry Christmas", because it's Christmas. I have a Christmas tree. I give Christmas presents. I don't see the big deal with "Happy Holidays" at all.

This. Yes. Agreement.

My canned salutation or response is, "Enjoy the holiday" I've never gotten a negative reaction to that and I live in frelling KS. Not to mention it's appropriate year round.

Paleocon wrote:
dejanzie wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I just tell folks "Merry Krampusnacht".

Krampusnacht sounds like the result of a copious Christmas dinner indeed.

dejanzie! I thought of you the other day. I posted this in the guns thread, but figured it is just as applicable here. I know you are in Belgium and not Holland, but figured you are close enough to know what is going on with your neighbors.

That's hilarious - and so true!

My mom has the nasty habit of angrily snapping "It's Christmas!" when cashiers wish her a happy holiday. I do wonder how many times she actually says this during Hanukkah or other winter holidays.

Yonder wrote:

My mom has the nasty habit of angrily snapping "It's Christmas!" when cashiers wish her a happy holiday. I do wonder how many times she actually says this during Hanukkah or other winter holidays.

Tell her I wish her a merry Krampusnacht.

Yonder wrote:

My mom has the nasty habit of angrily snapping "It's Christmas!" when cashiers wish her a happy holiday. I do wonder how many times she actually says this during Hanukkah or other winter holidays.

People do this with our call center too. We could have fixed or refunded any number of issues and had them happy as a clam... and then we say happy holidays and the length of the call goes up by about 10 minutes while people vent.

Demosthenes wrote:
Yonder wrote:

My mom has the nasty habit of angrily snapping "It's Christmas!" when cashiers wish her a happy holiday. I do wonder how many times she actually says this during Hanukkah or other winter holidays.

People do this with our call center too. We could have fixed or refunded any number of issues and had them happy as a clam... and then we say happy holidays and the length of the call goes up by about 10 minutes while people vent.

Still pushing the Krampusnacht greeting. I bet that would really wreck your call center numbers.

I had to Wiki this Krampusnacht stuff, and yeah, that's my new holiday greeting.

Farscry wrote:

I had to Wiki this Krampusnacht stuff, and yeah, that's my new holiday greeting. :D

Glucklich Krampusnacht!

IMAGE(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IFsrZfobzd0/Tt4T3flYb8I/AAAAAAAACag/WZ47VnxVQsA/s1600/krampus1.jpg)

Rallick wrote:
Paleocon wrote:
dejanzie wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I just tell folks "Merry Krampusnacht".

Krampusnacht sounds like the result of a copious Christmas dinner indeed.

dejanzie! I thought of you the other day. I posted this in the guns thread, but figured it is just as applicable here. I know you are in Belgium and not Holland, but figured you are close enough to know what is going on with your neighbors.

That's hilarious - and so true!

+1

The Saint Nicholas myth is one of the many sources for Santa Claus. It's as popular in Belgium (even the French speaking part) as in The Netherlands, only he comes on the 6th of December in our neck of the woods.

Since the fifties, when immigrants started to ask questions about Saint Nicholas little slaves, the black skin of the Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes) is explained away by claiming its chimney soot from dropping the gifts. Yeah.

dejanzie wrote:
Rallick wrote:
Paleocon wrote:
dejanzie wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I just tell folks "Merry Krampusnacht".

Krampusnacht sounds like the result of a copious Christmas dinner indeed.

dejanzie! I thought of you the other day. I posted this in the guns thread, but figured it is just as applicable here. I know you are in Belgium and not Holland, but figured you are close enough to know what is going on with your neighbors.

That's hilarious - and so true!

+1

The Saint Nicholas myth is one of the many sources for Santa Claus. It's as popular in Belgium (even the French speaking part) as in The Netherlands, only he comes on the 6th of December in our neck of the woods.

Since the fifties, when immigrants started to ask questions about Saint Nicholas little slaves, the black skin of the Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes) is explained away by claiming its chimney soot from dropping the gifts. Yeah. :-D

It is almost the season for stroopwaffels and stollen. Yum.

Paleocon wrote:

It is almost the season for stroopwaffels and stollen. Yum.

NOM

Ranger Rick wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

It is almost the season for stroopwaffels and stollen. Yum.

NOM

Wrong thread.

This whole thing is incredibly befuddling, because the word "holiday" comes from the Old English "haligdaeg", which means "holy day". Someone who is upset with "Happy Holidays" is at a minimum because it's "not religious" enough is ignorant of etymology. Similar anti-kudos to the people who think "All Hallows Eve" is a devil's holy day, rather than the evening before the feast of all the saints (All Saints Day, or All Hallows Day as it was known). (To be fair, I believe they likely also think Catholicism is demonically inspired, which at least would be consistent.)

I've actually embarrassed a few of the militant Christians by responding "Channukah Tov" if they get shirty about "Happy Holidays". Many of them had the decency to look abashed. It's like they forget Jews have a holiday then too (no, I'm not Jewish). I've never had to go further - "See, the Reason for the Season is the rebuilding of the Temple." But that could be fun too. For Christians, it's more easily referenced than trying to explain Saturnalia or the like. And hey, Jesus was not a Christian, he was a Jew. You wanna be like Jesus, really be like Jesus? Forget Christmas, find a Rabbi, study hard and accept God's Covenant that he made with his chosen people, of whom Jesus considered himself a part.

Sigh. Of all the human social constructs, religion often seems to me to be the most arbitrary and bizarre.

And yet again, Robear teaches me something awesome that I'll never be able to say to my customers.

Pat Robertson comes out against young earth creationism.

Granted, he's still a creationist, but I doubt anyone expected him to say something like this.

Pat Robertson wrote:

Look, I know that people will probably try to lynch me when I say this, but Bishop [James] Ussher wasn't inspired by the Lord when he said that it all took 6,000 years. It just didn't. You go back in time, you've got radiocarbon dating. You got all these things and you've got the carcasses of dinosaurs frozen in time out in the Dakotas.

They're out there. So, there was a time when these giant reptiles were on the Earth and it was before the time of the Bible. So, don't try and cover it up and make like everything was 6,000 years. That's not the Bible.

Wow, color me impressed.

ruhk wrote:

Pat Robertson comes out against young earth creationism.

Granted, he's still a creationist, but I doubt anyone expected him to say something like this.

Pat Robertson wrote:

Look, I know that people will probably try to lynch me when I say this, but Bishop [James] Ussher wasn't inspired by the Lord when he said that it all took 6,000 years. It just didn't. You go back in time, you've got radiocarbon dating. You got all these things and you've got the carcasses of dinosaurs frozen in time out in the Dakotas.

They're out there. So, there was a time when these giant reptiles were on the Earth and it was before the time of the Bible. So, don't try and cover it up and make like everything was 6,000 years. That's not the Bible.

Even this guy believes in science on some level? Wow.

Guess that makes the young earth creationists look even loonier...

Wow, yeah. When Pat is saying your beliefs on the bible are too extreme and crazy... here's your sign?

So hard to keep up with all the crazy religious televangelists... but isn't this the guy who said he talked to Jesus or God about 9/11 and said it was because of the gays and feminists and liberals?

What do you do when that guy says you are crazy?

My guess is bury your head in the same and ignore the cognitive dissonance when you need the evangelical vote in the next election.

Other things Pat Robertson has said:

-- Feminism is a "socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
-- 9/11 was caused by "pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the American Civil Liberties Union and the People For the American Way."
-- The 2010 Haiti earthquake was caused by a pack with the devil the Haitian people made in the 18th century.
-- College professors are "racists, murderers, sexual deviants and supporters of Al-Qaeda."
-- Non-Christians are "termites" who "...are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions" and that now is the time for "a godly fumigation."
-- God really likes to punish people with natural disasters

TL;DR: No one should listen to a word Pat Robertson says. Ever.

Yeah, this isn't even a case of a stopped clock being right twice a day.

This clock is still running, and it's still wrong.

I guess this is notable because he doesn't think the wrong thing that we all expected him to think?

NSMike wrote:

I guess this is notable because he doesn't think the wrong thing that we all expected him to think?

Basically.

Most Jesuit priests are educated out the ass with PHDs in science, mathematics, linguistics, etc. I think the philosophy of the guiding hand of god in the theorems and laws of nature is a perfectly valid outlook. So maybe listen to them instead of Pat Robertson. Some of the finest Astronomy in the world comes out of the Vatican.

OG_slinger wrote:

TL;DR: No one should listen to a word Pat Robertson says. Ever.

Bazinga. The guy who hits one home run and strikes out the other 999 times is not a player you want to have on your team.

Jonman wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:

TL;DR: No one should listen to a word Pat Robertson says. Ever.

Bazinga. The guy who hits one home run and strikes out the other 999 times is not a player you want to have on your team.

And acknowledging evolution shouldn't be considered an intellectual home run. It is more like a requirement to get up to bat.