mysticalforest

So much for Thou Shalt Not Steal. *rolls eyes*

Oh, I see. A prank. So much for being respectful. *rolls eyes*

In fairness to religion, there is nothing at all wrong with it. The problem is in the people who practice it. That is why I do not call myself a Christian (cuz then I would be lumped in with those people). Mahatma Gandhi said it best: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Also, yes, Christianity is the intruder into December, but not because of the solstice. If information I learned in college is correct, the birth of Zoroaster was celebrated on December 25th, so in order to compete with one of its largest rivals at the time, Christianity decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus on the same day. "Hey look guys, OUR demigod's birthday is also the [insert their calendar's equivalent of 25th of December]! You should come celebrate HIS birth with us and forget that Zoro-what's his name." Early Christianity was really good at doing that sort of thing (see also Halloween and Easter).

From a historical perspective, Jesus was born either in the spring or autumn, since the scriptures speak of shepherds being out with their flocks (which they do in spring or autumn, and not in December). April or September are, IIRC, the months most often put forward by Biblical scholars.

Which is all a pointlessly long way of saying that I agree with your points in principle, but for different reasons. :)

Why link Atheism with Winter Solstice? Do we have to have a "holiday" of our own?

No, but I lurv blinky lights and prezzies, and a solstice is a good vehicle for that—and has the added benefit of being something that actually happens.

For the same reason Christian Americans made/coerced/convinced Jewish Americans to make a bigger deal of Hanukkah? Because the Xtians had a big party at the end of December and wanted everyone to join in...

...and also? For what Mystical Forest said in his reply to your comment.

Yay for the lights. :D

... How about Ayn Rand's Birthday? Or Karl Marx's birthday? Or both?

On a totally unrelated topic... how do you make it show the differences between your quote and normal text? I feel like I'm missing how to do this. It must be easy and right under my nose...

I use the <blockquote> tag. Use it to show the text you want to blockquote. For example, <blockquote>Here be quoted text</blockquote> becomes:

Here be quoted text

(Though come to think of it just now I don't think replies support the blockquote tag in my layout on LJ. Which brings up an important point: Not all LJ layouts support the blockquote tag, and not all of them treat it the same.)

But I use 'em and enjoy 'em 'n' such. :)