Odd atheists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/ap_on_re/us_rel_religion_today
"What we're celebrating this year is the promise of the sun returning. That's S-U-N, not S-O-N," said Bill Weir, a retired marketing executive from Plymouth.
"Then the Christians stole it," added Marie Alena Castle of Minneapolis, the 82-year-old founder of Atheists for Human Rights and an atheist activist for two decades. It's a season of celebration for the Jewish faith as well, with Hanukkah.
Still, none of the atheists interviewed for this story expressed a wish to be left out of Christmas entirely.
"Food, we like. Presents, we like. Seeing family, we like," said Val Woelfel of St. Paul, an aspiring archaeologist. Woelfel, 47, and her boyfriend, Bjorn Larsen, 32, planned to erect a tree in their living room: "Sacred trees are an ancient custom. It's pretty, it smells nice and it's pagan," Woelfel said.
I don't think I can call myself an atheist if practicing the traditions of ancient, defunct religions & cultures is considered atheistic. I really wonder how the interviewer located these people, and why some of them consider themselves atheists. I guess it's possible to be atheistic without being areligious, and vice versa, but it still seems very weird to me.
"What we're celebrating this year is the promise of the sun returning. That's S-U-N, not S-O-N," said Bill Weir, a retired marketing executive from Plymouth.
"Then the Christians stole it," added Marie Alena Castle of Minneapolis, the 82-year-old founder of Atheists for Human Rights and an atheist activist for two decades. It's a season of celebration for the Jewish faith as well, with Hanukkah.
Still, none of the atheists interviewed for this story expressed a wish to be left out of Christmas entirely.
"Food, we like. Presents, we like. Seeing family, we like," said Val Woelfel of St. Paul, an aspiring archaeologist. Woelfel, 47, and her boyfriend, Bjorn Larsen, 32, planned to erect a tree in their living room: "Sacred trees are an ancient custom. It's pretty, it smells nice and it's pagan," Woelfel said.
I don't think I can call myself an atheist if practicing the traditions of ancient, defunct religions & cultures is considered atheistic. I really wonder how the interviewer located these people, and why some of them consider themselves atheists. I guess it's possible to be atheistic without being areligious, and vice versa, but it still seems very weird to me.