A Christian Agnostic Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Christmas is a time that drives some atheists crazy. They go around raising objections to manger scenes within public view, or at least on public property, and they can never shield themselves from the music and imagery much of which is overtly religious. If religion makes you angry, Christmas is not very merry.

But I am just fine with Christmas. It is such a beautiful experience; if it did not exist, we would have to create it. It is basically an excuse for doing things we would consider too soft and fuzzy the rest of the year. For example, Christmas is a time when the arteries of altruism open up a little more (see my evolution blog entry for today). Christmas memes have been accumulating in our cultural gene pool for thousands of years, from a variety of sources: Christian (the nativity story), pagan (holly and yule logs), traditional (Santa Claus, despite the fact that some fundamentalists think Santa is actually a clever form of Satan; click here or here), and commercial. Even conservative Bible scholars will tell you Jesus was not born at Christmas; the shepherds would not have had their flocks outside at night in winter. Christmas is the Mass of Christ, invented by the Catholic Church to capitalize upon ancient pagan yule festivities.

Religion, which pervades Christmas, generally dulls the thought process (a topic for later), but if you can’t be a little muddle-headed at Christmas, when can you be? People go around yearning for a white Christmas, even though if they really get one it is a pain in the hypothermic butt. Think of Santa Claus having a heart attack while shoveling his walk. This is because the desire for a White Christmas is a feeling, not a policy. Taken together, these memes have passed the natural selection test, and no atheist crusaders can change that fact. Have some eggnog (unless, like me, you have diabetes) and relax.

I do not merely acquiesce to the religious content of Christmas, but actually like it. Most scholars know that the gospel nativity stories were made up, principally because they are absent from the oldest account (the gospel of Mark). But what image do these stories create? A baby Jesus in the manger, bringing joy to the world. This is a good image. It is much better than the ugly image of Jesus in the book of Revelation, with a sword coming out of his mouth and his horse trampling thousands of people into mires of blood.

What I don’t like is the commercialization of Christmas, especially the increasing trend of people giving gifts to themselves. But I deal with this by ignoring it. My wife and I will have a quiet Christmas with just a very few gifts around…oops, where is the tree? We have a cherimoya tree—does that count? We’ll enjoy one another’s company rather than spending money.

When my mother was growing up in rural Oklahoma in the 1920s, the Christmas tree was a cedar tree that Grandpa cut from the field and dragged in. They had very little money, so Christmas gifts consisted primarily of everyone (in the large family) getting an orange. Back then, oranges were hard to get in Oklahoma. But they needed something to alter the routine of farming and ranching. This is what the Ghost of Christmas Present showed to Scrooge—even people who had little could enjoy a spirit of candlelit warmth in the middle of winter.

Merry Christmas to all.