Hey, I'm Seth Andrews, Im host of The Thinking Atheist radio podcast. I want to wish you
and yours a very Merry Christmas. Now that might seem odd to some people: why would an
atheist say Merry Christmas? In fact, why would an atheist celebrate Christmas at
all? Its Christ-mas, and atheists dont believe in Christ, right?
Do you enjoy Thursdays? I mean, have you ever enjoyed a Thursday? Or maybe done something
special on a Thursday? Have you ever participated in Thursday? Well does that mean that you
honor the Norse deity, Thor? Because that's where we get Thursday from. It is actually
from the Old English Thuresday- its "Thor's Day." And thats just one example of many
days and dates and occasions we have that are named for Ancient gods and goddesses.
Monday is the moon's day for the worship of the moon. Wednesday is named for Wodan, perhaps
better known to us as the Norse god Odin. Saturday is Saturns day, for the Pagan
deity Saturn, or Cronus, the father of Zeus. The month of January was named for the deity
Janus. Our month of March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. And so on, and so on,
and so on. Now, if you dont believe in the Pagan deity Saturn, does that mean that
you arent supposed to participate in Saturday? You dont get to enjoy your Saturday? Well
of course not, thats ridiculous. And the reason its ridiculous is because the name
of the day, the meaning of the day, is much different here in the 21st century than it
was in ancient times. And this is how many atheists and non-Christians view the holiday
of Christmas. Sure, Christ is in the title, but you dont have to believe in a literal
Christ to be able to enjoy the holiday. Christmas is for all of us- its for everyone. And
that fact really bothers some people. Those are the annual screams of protest about
the War on Christmas. You see, many Christians say that Christmas itself is under attack,
and it's apparently under attack by people like me. Non-believers. Atheists. They say
we want to strike Christ from Christmas. We want to toss nativity scenes in the garbage
bin. We want to mute the voices of Christmas carolers as they sing "Glory to the newborn
king." We want to suck the joy out of the whole month of December, and force everybody
to unplug their Christmas lights, and cancel the pageants, and destroy everything with
the baby Jesus on it- creating absolutely no joy...to the world.
The thing is, I'm an atheist, right- Im an atheist activist. And Im supposedly
on the front lines of this War on Christmas, and I have no idea what they are talking about.
I've talked with atheist-activist friends of mine, they have no idea what theyre
(protestors) talking about. Its very possible that we just have one big misunderstanding.
And maybe we need to better understand each other. And so, Im going to call this episode
Christmas: Behind the Curtain. Music (sounds like angels singing)
Now, if you're a Christian, and you believe in a literal Baby Jesus, and you celebrate
this holiday religiously, cool. But hang with me here for just a few minutes, because there
are some things about Christmas that you might find hugely surprising. I know I did, when
I learned them for the first time. For example, XMAS is supposedly an attempt
to X Christ out of his own holiday, right? Weve heard this for years and years. Well
the truth is, is that X actually represents the first letter in the Greek word for Christ.
Its not an attempt to remove Christ from Christmas- XMAS is Christmas.
You might be surprised that the holiday season didn't originally belong to Jesus. In fact,
if you look around, you're going to see icons which represent the earlier, pagan roots of
celebrations that relate to the winter solstice...and the return of the sun. Not the "son" --the
"sun."
Long before the time of the Jesus story, December celebrations would signal the ending of winter-
that the days would start getting longer, that the warmer weather was coming, and with
it, a new harvest which was hoped to be plentiful. And so, to petition the gods for good crops
the next year, celebrations and offerings would be made in the month of December. The
pagan festival of Saturnalia honored Saturn, the same god tied to our "Saturday." The Vikings
of Scandinavia honored Baldur. Ancient Egyptians honored their sun god, Ra. And so on. The
gods would, hopefully, bless the land and the people, and the long winter would finally
be over. Many of these gods had a special plant, the
evergreen, which is most certainly the explanation for why you and I have a decorated evergreen
tree in our living rooms every December. The Christmas tree hearkens back to the honoring
of gods that came well before Jesus and definitely were not Christian. In fact, Christmas trees
were considered pagan symbols right here in the U.S. until the 1840s. That's right, if
you celebrate Christmas, there's a really good chance you have a pagan symbol in your
living room. Here's an example. Do you have mistletoe hanging
over a doorway in your house? Well, the early Druids and Greeks used to believe that mistletoe
had magical powers- was a magical plant- a pagan symbol of life and fertility. Yule logs
in the Christmas fireplace? Well those stem back to the pagan festival of Yule, which
honored Yule Beings- pagan deities. Think about that next time you warm yourself
next to a Christmas fireplace. By the way, you might find this interesting-
the United States of America didn't declare Christmas Day a national holiday until June
the 26th, 1870- like, a hundred years after the Constitution was written. And those who
say that we're a Christian nation probably dont realize that many of our founding
fathers weren't actually Christians. Benjamin Franklin- not a Christian. John Adams- not
a Christian. James Madison, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson- not Christians. Christians
may not know that the U.S. Constitution never mentions God- and religion is only mentioned
in the context of maintaining church/state separation. The words "In God We Trust" weren't
added American coins until 1863. Paper money didnt have it until the "red scare" of
the mid 20th century. You might not know this- the words "under God" were not in our original
Pledge of Allegiance. Under God was added by congress in the 1950s...almost 200
years after this nation was founded. The Establishment Clause of the first amendment was put in place
to assure that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.
At its very roots, the United States was designed to represent everybody, and not just Christians,
and that is why youll occasionally hear protests whenever politicians elected to represent
us all, start promoting a single religion, their religion, on tax dollars that we all
pay. Now, you want to celebrate Christmas religiously?
You want religious symbols, nativity scenes, and Jesus Christ representing your Christmas?
Knock yourself out. Not only do I, as an atheist, respect your right to do so- I will argue
publicly for that right. You have a Constitutional right to believe in Jesus Christ and have
a personal faith. Now lets examine the Jesus story in the
context of the scripture, lets look at the literal Nativity, because an examination
of the Bible actually raises a whole lot of interesting questions.
Now, the bible is God's perfect word, right? In fact, if you go to the mission statements
of most major protestant bible-believing denominations, theyll just say it outright: the bible
is inerrant. It is Gods perfect word- it is without contradiction.
But if you look at the accounts in the books of Matthew and Luke side by side, they kinda
contradict themselves. Check this out. In the book of Matthew, the angel appeared
to Joseph to give him the news that Mary would give birth to the Christ child. But Luke tells
us that the angel appeared to Mary, not Joseph. Luke chapter 2 says that Mary and Joseph traveled
to Bethlehem from their home in Nazareth. But that contradicts the 2nd chapter of Matthew,
which says that Mary and Joseph didn't call Nazareth home until after the death of Herod,
which is also well after the birth of Jesus. The lineage of Jesus is mentioned in the bible.
The book of Matthew lists 28 generations between David and Jesus. But the book of Luke has
its own reference to Christ's lineage, and it lists 41 generations.
According to Matthew and Luke, Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the great. But Luke
says that the pregnant Mary had to travel with Joseph to register for a census that
was decreed by Quirinius, and thats weird because any census would have taken place
in their local tax district- requiring no travel- and only Joseph, the head of house,
would have been required to register. And if you look at the dates, Quirinius' census
didn't take place until 6 CE, well after the birthdate for Jesus Christ.
Matthew tells us that after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph fled for Egypt to hide from
the evil king Herod. But if you look at the book of Luke, it has them returning immediately
to Galilee, to Nazareth, and there is no mention of Herod anywhere.
What about the miraculous virgin birth? Well, it looks like there was a mistranslation of
the word "virgin" from the Hebrew to the Greek. The Hebrew word "almah" does not mean �virgin�-
it means a young woman of marriagable age. By the way, several pagan gods which pre-date
Jesus were also said to have miraculous virgin births, like Perseus and Romulus.
What about the three kings? Well, Matthew tells us they were magi, which were
essentially illusionists. And there's no mention of the number three anywhere in the story,
and the whole magi thing doesn't jive with Luke's version which has shepherds visiting
Christ, and not magi. And finally, take a second and just look around
at the depictions of Jesus here in most American Christian homes that celebrate a literal Christ.
Take a look at Jesus- the white-skinned Jesus. The truth is that a Jesus born in the middle
east during that time period would have almost certainly looked a whole lot more like
this. So very quickly, lets just recap, okay?
Christmas stems back to the celebrations of pagan gods and today still incorporates a
whole lot of pagan traditions. Jesus came after those pagan gods and the pagan celebrations
of those gods. Jesus isn't the reason for the season, or at the very least, he's not
the only reason for the season, and almost every "true" detail written about Jesus
birth in the bible contradicts another "true" detail written in the very same book- a book
that's supposed to be God's perfect word. Our Constitution says our government cannot
play favorites, but should represent us all. And most of the people who get freak out about
atheists during Christmas, well they probably celebrate Christmas in ways that don't really
involve Christ, anyway. I would wager that your favorite stuff about
Christmas, probably isnt religious at all, right? Its decorating the house, its
stockings over the fireplace, its pumpkin pie and turkey and hot apple cider, its
playing in the snow and then rushing inside to warm up by the fireplace, its seeing
your children open gifts, its spending time with those you care the most about. Honestly
the most awesome stuff about Christmas has nothing to do with Christ.
There's no War on Christmas. Atheists aren't out to strike Christ from
Christmas any more than we want to strike Thor from Thursday. And those who believe
in a literal baby Jesus aren ot victims just because someone else reminds them that they
don't have a monopoly on Christmas. Christians do not own the holiday, and in light of the
true pagan origins of Christmas...Jesus doesn't own it, either. Ultimately, Christmas isn't
about gods or goddesses, offerings for the harvest, the feasts of the pagans or the story
of a super baby who came to save the world. It's really about something much, much better,
more personal, more meaningful. Christmas is not a supernatural thing. Christmas is
a human thing. For many of us, it really is the most wonderful
time of the year. Just remember that December 25th the Christmas holiday, isnt exclusive
to Christians- and many non-Christians love to celebrate Christmas, we don't celebrate
the religion of Christmas- we celebrate the tradition of Christmas...and Christmas belongs
to everyone.