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Godless Thanksgiving: Do Atheists Have Anyone to Thank?
There's a common belief among many American Christians that the American Thanksgiving holiday is somehow religious. Aside from the apparent desire to turn everything into an expression of their religion, the primary reason behind this seems to be the idea that the whole point must be to give thanks to their god - not any other gods, just theirs, thus making it a Christian holiday too. If that's true, then it makes no sense for non-Christians, or at least non-theists, to celebrate Thanksgiving.
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Atheists Celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas
Should you participate in acknowledging, much less celebrating, any aspect of a religious holiday? If a holiday has no other aspects to it but religion and religious ritual, there are few opportunities for atheists to participate. In such cases, if you do participate, it will likely be because some other factor like family unity weighs more heavily on you than does the principle of avoiding religion.
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Alternative Holidays for Atheists?
A question which faces many atheists is whether or not they should avoid prevalent religious holidays and instead adopt their own holidays. One method would be to develop new, uniquely atheist or humanist holidays - for example a celebration of historical developments in freethought. Another method is to adopt a holiday which is used by some but which might also have significance beyond religion, for example Winter Solstice.
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Finding Meaning in Holidays: Atheism, Holidays, Rituals
So, the way in which an atheist might best approach the question of religious holidays and the creation of new atheist holidays is to ask: What might this mean to me? Are you going to let Christians "win" by allowing them to decide what holidays like Christmas mean to everyone else, or are you willing to stand up and decide what it means for yourself?
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