NYC ATHEISTS DECEMBER MEETUP

GROUP LEADER: MICHAEL DORIAN

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Wallowing Knee Deep in Holiday Tinsel?

Some Atheists Love it, Some Don’t

Come and Tell Your Fellow Atheists If You Are Good or Bad

About All the Xmas Flap

OK, let’s start with the bad news: Michael Dorian likes the Christmas Holidays.Listen to Dorian as he effuses: “I was walking home from Times Square after filming the new Atheist billboard put up by American Atheists that says ‘Who Needs Christ During Christmas,’ when I happened to walk by the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, all lit up. I said, Wow! There were people ice skating in the rink and Fifth Avenue was all lit up and lined with evergreens and people were shopping and laughing and the Santas were out with their buckets...” His voice catches. You can sense the boy who grew up Catholic just 20 minutes from Rockefeller Center.

But one listener rolls her eyes. She is NYCA director of communication, Jane Everhart, and she begs to differ: “The tree in Rockefeller Center uses up too much electricity. The shopping people were laughing because they won’t be able to pay their credit cards in January. The Santas were put out there in the freezing cold to collect money for a religious group and make you feel guilty if you don’t give.”

And, she adds, Grinch-like, “Nothing about the Christmas holidays is authentic. It’s all deliberately put together to get you to spend money.” You can sense the bored empty-nest suburban Mom who had hung up too many Christmas stockings and decorated too many evergreen trees.

Holy Day or Holiday?

“I think it’s okay to enjoy the holiday ambience without the religious aspect,” counters Dorian. “Is there something deeper and significant about marking this time of the year?”

Grinch-Mom groans: “They stick religion and their myths in-your-face wherever you turn. And what if you don’t like tinsel and all that Ho-ho-ho? What if Christmas carols bore you, the fragrance of evergreen provokes your allergies and giving gifts to people who don’t want them (who in turn give you gifts you don’t want) feels forced.

“I don’t care if these customs started in 56 A.D., they are still annoying,” she adds. “I feel Scroogy when the Xmas spirit floats in from Wal-Mart and Macy’s and everybody from doormen to cab drivers has their hand out. Enjoy the holidays? These three weeks before Christmas should be called Revenge of the 56 A.D. barbarians.”

Is Holiday Magical or Miserable for you?

So who do you agree with--nostalgic Dorian or crusty Grinch-Mom? Do you see that Salvation Army Santa as a cheery emblem of charity or as an obese smelly unemployed man taking a seasonal job for below-minimum pay to make ends meet and probably skimming quarters from the pot?

Come and tell us on Tuesday, December 17th at the Stone Creek bar: Hoist a few, cry in your beer if you are nostalgic like Dorian or drown your seasonal affective disorder if all the elves and candy canes and cheeriness are making you miserable.

EVENT SUMMARY

WHAT: “DO ATHEISTS ENJOY THE XMAS HOLIDAY OR DO THEY WISH SANTA WOULD DROP DEAD?” A NYC Atheists-sponsored discussion led by filmmaker, thinker and nostalgia lover Michael Dorian.

WHEN: TUESDAY, December 17, 2013 - 7 p.m.

WHERE: STONE CREEK Bar & Pub - 140 East 27th St. (3rd/Lex - Back Room

COST: Free. But you are urged to purchase food/drink to compensate Stone Creek. Knoshies: Yummy! Beer: deeply satisfying.

New York City Atheists Inc. is a 501C (3) not-for-profit association dedicated to the separation of church and state and to promoting the Atheist values and lifestyle.