Tag Archives: Christmas

Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas?

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Santi Tafarella

This shouldn’t be hard. If you’re an atheist, and you greet somebody who you know is a practicing Christian, decorum would suggest that you say “merry Christmas.” If you’re a Christian, and you know you’re greeting an atheist (or a … Continue reading →

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We’ve Entered the Atheist Holiday Season

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Santi Tafarella

___________ Magician and atheist James Randi magically levitates a holiday bird with occult powers given to him by Satan. Via James Randi at Facebook.

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Christmas Song

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Santi Tafarella

Sort of.

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A Bit of Life Perspective from Woody Allen (and Owen Wilson)

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Santi Tafarella

In the below video, Woody Allen offers some unsettling and thought-provoking responses to some questions. Owen Wilson is also interesting. _________ Allen’s resigned and melancholy answers remind me that the winter holiday season is here and that my favorite Christmas … Continue reading →

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Catholic Church Christmas Bombing 2011: Boko Haram Means “Western Learning is Sinful”

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

The Islamist group that calls itself “Boko Haram”—northern Hausa language, meaning “Western learning is sinful”—and that blew up Catholics at a Christmas service yesterday, is described in the following manner by Reuters: The shadowy group from Nigeria’s Muslim north, blamed for … Continue reading →

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Why It’s Better to Say “Happy Holidays” Than “Merry Christmas” to Strangers

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

Because saying “Happy Holidays” to a stranger is not “taking Christ out of Christmas”; instead, it’s acknowledging the plurality of ways that late December is treated in a world in which not everyone is Christian. “Happy Holidays” is a catch-all that … Continue reading →

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The Secular-Christian Social Contract at Christmas

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Santi Tafarella
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Critical Thinking Watch: A Lot of Conservatives Still Doubt Barack Obama was Born in Honolulu, but Few Doubt Jesus was Born in Bethlehem. How Come?

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

Barack Obama has released his long form birth certificate showing that he was born in Honolulu, and yet many Republicans still don’t believe that President Obama was born there. Curiously, those very same Republicans, in the absence of any good … Continue reading →

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A Great Christmas Song That Isn’t a Christmas Song (But Feels Like It)

Posted on December 25, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

Something to exit Christmas 2010 with:

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It’s a Wonderful Life: The Last Five Minutes

Posted on December 25, 2010 by Santi Tafarella
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Have a Very Reflective (and Not Too Melancholy) Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

One’s a Christmas song, the other isn’t. But, somehow, they seem to go together. And:

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My New Favorite Christmas Song

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Santi Tafarella
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A New Atheist Ad Campaign: Choose Your Hell Realm

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

ABC News is reporting a $200,000 holiday season atheist ad campaign in the United States, sponsored by the American Humanist Association. One of the group’s ads sounds particularly interesting, for it specifically targets women: One of the association’s television spots … Continue reading →

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Handel’s Messiah in the Mall: Totalitarian Creepiness or Just a Song for the Holiday Season?

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

Even though I’m an agnostic, I love Christmas music and Christmas movies. I must, for example, have upward of 300 Christmas songs on my iPod. And every year my family and I watch Alastair Sim as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and … Continue reading →

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A Thought after Christmas

Posted on January 1, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

And a plug for Platonic coherence against Richard Rorty. G.K. Chesterton (from The Everlasting Man ): Any agnostic or atheist whose childhood has known a real Christmas has ever afterwards, whether he likes it or not, an association in his … Continue reading →

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Atheist Optimism vs. Atheist Pessimism: The Case of Thomas Hardy

Posted on December 27, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Contemporary post-9/11 New Atheists are so, well, sunny, aren’t they? Perhaps it’s a product of our contemporary advertising culture, but it’s hard to distinguish this American atheist bus ad from a Mentos breath mint commercial: Minty and refreshing? As an … Continue reading →

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Have Yourself a Perky Little Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

This strikes me as what Christmas is like after a bit too much coffee:

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The Ideal vs. the Real: Our Kitchen as Plato’s Cave

Posted on December 24, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

The image that was on the side of the gingerbread house kit box wasn’t exactly what my three and six year old ended up making:

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Have Yourself a Maoist Little Christmas?

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

The far right is making a bit of hay about some of the baubles (“Images of communists and transvestites, oh my!”) on the White House Christmas tree this year, and Andrew Sullivan characterizes the feigned outrage as a form of paranoid … Continue reading →

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Judy Garland Singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

And with heartbreaking power:

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