This born-again Atheist would like to wish everyone in the world a happy and secular Christmas. I did everything I wanted to this year. I put up the tree, sang Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Handel’s Messiah, had a huge Christmas luncheon, and got a hug from a boy who got a Nintendo DS for his Big Present. It was great.
But there are a few things I’m going to buy, and I think you should too.
1) A Flying Spaghetti Monster ornament for the tree. Yes, I know it’s a car decoration. Adapt it — tie some string on it or something!
2) A mosquito net. People are dying from malaria, and 10 lousy bucks could buy a net and save a life.
Hat tip to Connor.
3) I can’t think of a third thing. Help me out, people. What’s worth spending money on?
26 December 2006 at 1:57 am
Our Aunty bought three ducks through Oxfam in our names (three kids). What a great present. I bought free trade tea for my aunty from Oxfam.
An executive toy? The one with the swinging, clicking balls? Not the most exciting or wanted present in the world, but I got one. It’s been banished already. Too annoying.
xozse: The number of runs England will get when Shane Warne starts bowling. Eg: “England have scored xozse since that blond guy got the ball!”
27 December 2006 at 10:02 pm
Sam Harris:
With all this high-profile atheism in mind, it might come as something of a surprise to learn what sort of tree Mr. Harris has sitting in his living room right now. Let’s just say that it is not a ficus, that it tapers to a little peak practically begging for a star and that it is currently sporting some lovely ornaments on its branches… And it was really not his idea but a result “of a lost tug of war with my wife,” who likes Christmas trappings and insisted on buying it. But he added that his reluctance “was good-natured all the while.”
Richard Dawkins:
“Presumably your reason for asking me is that ‘The God Delusion’ is an atheistic book, and you still think of Christmas as a religious festival,” Mr. Dawkins wrote… “But of course it has long since ceased to be a religious festival. I participate for family reasons, with a reluctance that owes more to aesthetics than atheistics… So divorced has Christmas become from religion that I find no necessity to bother with euphemisms such as happy holiday season. In the same way as many of my friends call themselves Jewish atheists, I acknowledge that I come from Christian cultural roots. I am a post-Christian atheist. So, understanding full well that the phrase retains zero religious significance, I unhesitatingly wish everyone a Merry Christmas.”
I only want one thing for myself for christmas… The ability to seriously talk about socialism in the united states without being laughed at.
28 December 2006 at 9:16 am
I think that’s going to have to be your birthday present as well.
29 December 2006 at 8:03 am
How about a pope calendar
?? The profits go to children in Rwanda… and wouldn’t it be delightful see 12 different faces of Pope Benedict XVI?
29 December 2006 at 8:04 am
This one is better… It’s got the pictures!
29 December 2006 at 9:45 am
I like pictures 5 and 6.
dhlmqu: A Mongolian dish served with the fins of a Baiji.
30 December 2006 at 12:12 am
Sorry, faerie and ash, when I moved over to new Blogger, it dropped your names from these comments. I hope that’s the worst of it.