How about this Robert?

I object to any pastafarian nativity displays on public property depicting baby FSM, mon. Unless it is fresh and I am hungry.

I’ve always lived in quite secular countries so the really really religious bit about Christmas has always been background noise. And the secular parts of Christmas (tree, gifts, food etc) dominate the holidays. I’m sure if I was in Folktown, Alabama and an atheist, I’d wear ear plugs and find excuses to avoid family events or else I might go…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

nearly everyone has respect due to them as a human being.

I would say “everyone”, if we follow the “veil of ignorance” and assume that any of us could have been born into the position of not being seen as human for one reason or another.

But as it says in the lecture, “there never was a [making or signing of a] social contract”, in that there was never a pre-contract phase (except pre-human) and then everyone decided to make a contract.

I think it’s much more plausible that social norms came first, and a society’s laws reflect its social norms.

I hold to the view that the social…[Read more]

Rousseau is really only talking about what is best for society in terms of its laws. Once laws are established and adhered to then social norms can develop. Not all people want to follow social norms. I ignore or disagree with many of them. Treating people with respect and kindness only becomes a social norm in societies where the rule of law and…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

all its members should want what it best for that society so that is can flourish to the betterment of each individual rather than for each person’s individual (selfish) needs.

I think all its members want to follow social norms, and following social norms is good for the society.  Social norms include treating ot…[Read more]

We go all out. Tree, lights, dinners, parties, presents, carols, decorations. All secular, of course. I am a huge fan of the Nutcracker ballet, The night b4 xmas poem, Burton’s nightmare b4 xmas, and my favorite old movie, “A xmas carol” based on Dickens’ book. I like the spooky part of xmas. A scapegoat is born of a virgin (1/2 the DNA, I guess?)…[Read more]

We have adult children who have their own children in some cases. In order to avoid clashing invitations with other sides of family, we invented Cranksgiving. We choose a Saturday somewhere between Christmas and Thanksgiving, and combine the traditional turkey dinner with all the gift giving.  This year it’s 15th Dec.  And somehow ‘Cr…[Read more]

We participate because its how we grew up.  We don’t celebrate the holiday with prayers or appearances at church. I think we just celebrate the season. We like the Christmas tree, the sappy Christmas music, and the family gatherings. To off set the sappiness of the Christmas music we have taken to listening to jazz Christmas music.  We greet peo…[Read more]