A conversation at the BHT worth saving:
—————-
Kurt: How atheists “cope” with Christmas. Is it wrong of me to feel snarky?
Spike: Why would an atheist consider ancient paganism to be more atheism friendly? As I recall, they had a couple of gods.
Kurt: I’ve heard it alleged that most atheists are mostly opposed not to the idea of “god” in particular, but opposed to Christianity. I wonder if this is because Christianity is the prevalent belief in the USA, or because it’s the one that rankles the nonbeliever most?
Fearsome: Why Atheists Love Pagans:
It’s the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” syndrome. If you hate X enough, you start to think that anything that is non-X is favorable to you. So, since ancient pagans weren’t Christians, they are taken as somehow the ancient allies and forerunners of modern atheists. Christianity is the root of all evil, so paganism, merely by being non-Christian, must have been good. It’s sort of like how during the Cold War, we assumed that if you were fighting the Communists, you must be at least partially on our side. You know, like the Taliban. Nevermind that one for the Romans’ favorite excuses for burning Christians was accusing them of atheism.
Mark N: Someone should inform the atheists in that article (who, to be fair, were probably not the best representation of your more thoughtful atheist), that one of the most popular christian writers of this century also wrote great pagan influenced fiction: CS Lewis. We already got dibbs on the pagan lore 😛
Fearsome: I think pagans have dibs on pagan lore. Atheists have dibs on…uh…VCR manuals? They don’t even have dibs on science fiction, since Jules Verne was a Catholic.