Overbroad
By Mitch Berg
Katherine Kersten notes:
[atheist author Sam] Harris even has a decorated tree in his living room. Dawkins explains why. Christmas, he says, has long since ceased to be a religious festival in America. “Understanding full well that the phrase retains zero religious significance,” he adds, “I unhesitatingly wish everyone a Merry Christmas.”
When an outspoken atheist such as Dawkins says “Merry Christmas,” we may be reaching a consensus. American popular culture has appropriated Christmas, as it has Thanksgiving, and drained it of religious meaning.
Not in my house, Sam.
But read the rest of Kersten’s piece anyway.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:03 pm
There’s some wisdom in Kersten’s piece. Modern secularisism does assume an essential equality among human beings when this is neither apparent to the senses nor to scientific insight. Harris and Dawkins may well appreciate the sentiment of “Peace on Earth, Good Will towards men”.
However in Luke “Peace on Earth, Good Will towards men” is without contraversy a part of the New Testament that firmly binds the historical world of Caesar and Herod to the world of myth. In the Christmas story God, the creator of the universe, became incarnate in our world and took away from us the sin of Adam:
Piers Plowman,
My translation
The medievals knew what Harris and Dawkins do not: that the most important part of the Christmas story had its origins in Heavan, not in Palastine. Harris and Dawkins want “Peace on Earth, Good Will towards Men” without it being a gift from a benefactor, announced by a chorus of angels.
Kersten believes a ‘cease fire’ in the ‘Christmas wars’ is possible on the basis of certain enlightenment virtues esteemed by both religious Americans and sucularists. The paths of the two groups, however, have been diverging for a century and a half and they continue to grow further apart. Any such cease-fire will be doomed to failure.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:19 pm
What?!?!
“Jesus’ teachings introduced a new idea into European history — that every individual, no matter how lowly, has inherent dignity. This notion, and related ideas of equality and personal freedom, coalesced over the centuries to form the foundation of democracy.”
There seems to be a bit of disconnect between history and what KK states. Democracy occured well before Jesus’s birth, and while Christian ideals may have shaped present day democracies, in no way did Jesus’s teachings form the foundation of democracy.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Fulcrum,
Pre-Christian Greek “democracies” bore almost no resemblance to anything we’d recognize as such today.
Judeo-Christian traditions and ideals had a HUGE impact on what Democracy became, and how we practice ours.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Mitch, I think we are agreeing.
I feel that KK plays too lose with words. She said “foundation of democracy, not “present day democracy”. She is saying that Christ’s teachings, “coalesced over the centuries to form the foundation of democracy.” This is simply not true.
December 21st, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Well, it’s more “imprecise” than “simply not true”.