Christmas is such a joyous season.  Yet for rational people it is a season of conflict.  The joys of family and community are often commandeered by religious zealots claiming to have exclusive right of our annual traditions.  For years, we have been told by one extremist group or another that they alone know the “reason for the season.”  As sane, intelligent adults, without belief in imaginary gods, we have often felt forced into abandoning Christmas altogether, and isolating ourselves from the mythological onslaught until the season ends.

 

It doesn’t have to be this way.  Atheists and rational thinkers around the world are realizing that we don’t have to hide from the silly, religious ramblings of our less rational human brethren.  We don’t have to abandon the community and family bonding over seasonal holidays.  We don’t have to give up the joys of brotherhood, just because we won’t agree to suspend rationality, and believe in ghost stories and dictated dogmas from religious “leaders” around the world.

 

 

Often in our dealings with religious zealots of every creed and stripe, we have come back to this simple phrase.  “It is possible to have truth and love and meaning and happiness without having to believe any lies.”  Some think that atheists live sad and empty lives, but in reality, the relief from lies and dogma is very freeing.  We observe truth in the world around us.  We feel love and see its impact on the world.  We make our own purpose based on educated understanding of the social, economic, and political systems around us.  Our happiness is based on an intimate, informed connection with the real world and its beauty.

 

What a wonderful world it would be, if others could shed their false “beliefs” and share in the beauty and truth that is the natural world.

 

This contest is one channel for sharing this vision with the world.  A way to take back hope and love and happiness from insane religious people who claim to hoard it unto themselves.

 

Yes, we know that the origin of the word "Christmas" includes "Christ" and that "holiday" is derived from "holy day" and a host of other similar things.  For years, this pushed us into overly-sanitizing our language of anything with religous origin, replacing them with "season" or "solstice" etc.  Finally, it dawned on us that we don't need to pretend like our unenlightened religious past never happened.  We should embrace it as a mistake made along the way to the adulthood of our species.  Sort of like smashing your parents' car when you were a teenager learning to drive.  It doesn't mean you're delusional to "use" the word Christmas, just like it doesn't make you a Norwegian god-worshipper to use the word "Tuesday," named for the Norse god Tiu.

 

Just use lower case for the mythical/fairy tale words dealing with old religious ideas, and focus instead on turning your energy toward positive humanist values.

 

We hope that you share our vision of a world without lies, and that you help us take back the holiday season for reasonable people everywhere.