Metal Reviews

Today is St Patrick's Day and a whole heap of Australians will be getting drunk for it. Most will not have a drop of Irish blood in them. None will attend Mass or observe any religious rituals.

It makes me think how religious holidays have become completely corrupted.

I'm not religious in anyway (heck I'm an atheist), but I think it's sad that people often celebrate religious holidays for the wrong reasons.

Most people that I know that celebrate supposedly religious holidays are not religious.

They do not go to Mass and instead usually indulge in overating, getting drunk or consume enough chocolate to be sick during Easter. Oh and there's presents and for most kids, Christmas means presents.

Even on Christmas, many just catch up with family for a quick lunch and then wonder off to get drunk with friends or get drunk at the family lunch.

My inlaws do this as do all of my friends and acquaintances (my own family are all atheists so we don't do Christmas or Easter - we did get gifts for New Year).

The religious people I know don't really indulge in this sort of behaviour and not on the vulgar level that most non-religious people seem to do it (gifts are more modest, it's all about family).


It's a bit disrespectful to people who are actually religious and it makes a mockery of those holidays.

Religious people participate in this bullshit though, as can be witnessed by the many socially conservative co-eds who will be shitfaced come tomorrow after scrunching their nose up earlier today at the mention of a philosopher not only not believing in a god but arguing that no one really has any reason or need to.

So really it just reflects a society that doesn't care about any traditions and would rather be numbed with alcohol or spending money on gifts than actually facing a difficult world as their religion called them to do.

So should only religious people be allowed to celebrate "religious" holidays?

I don't know why the non-religiose would want to celebrate some random guy being born or celebrating him not coming back to life.

Exactly.

Why celebrate Christmas or Yom Kippur or Rammadhan if you don't believe in it?

Pretty much. I'm just saying, it's silly to say that it's "disrespectful to religous people" for non-religious people to celibrate "religious" holidays anyway. Christmas was adapted from that Pagan holiday anyway; isn't it disrespectful to Pagans for Christians to call Christmas the day their Jesus was born?

Actually it's a bit disrespectful to celebrate solemn occassions through debauched pissup or chocolate consumption fest.




It was probably more disrespectful to Pagans that their religions were completely prohibited and then annihilated by the Catholics.

Don't religious people do that anyway? Besides, even if it is disrepectful, should we stop? or change our ways? What do you propose we do about it?




thats_the_joke.jpg

Not the religious folk I know.



Mere discussion. It's like when we talk politics or music. We don't do anything about Gaddafhi hammering his own people in Libya, government cutting taxes or In Flames and Soilwork being shit for the last decade or so.

We still discuss it.

They're in the minority then.

Most of the ones I know are middle-upper middle class and educated.

Cool story, bro.

Because most modern religious holidays have roots in pagan traditions, thereby coming, I dunno, full circle?

Besides, I'll celebrate whatever the fuck I want, whenever the fuck I want.

Not as cool as your boozer Christians who worship Jeebus with a flagon of sherry and 1 kilogram block of chocolate.

Sherry? Blocks of chocolate? These fuckers drink Nati Light and eat m&m's, wild turkey and reese's cups. There is no cognac and white chocolate truffles where I'm from. You're so bourgy you don't even know what these lower class religious heathens consume.

You really are inane, you know that? What sane person would be complaining about people eating chocolate on Christmas?

A 1 kg block of chocolate sounds awesome.

Reese's cups are awesome!

Actually it's more about eating chocolate on Easter.

What does consuming large amounts of chocolate have to do with crucifying Jesus?

If an alien were to look at it, they would make the following observation:

1. 2,000 years ago they killed some insane guy (i.e. claiming to be son of some diety is clearly insane - try doing it now).

2. The dead guy then apparently comes back, zombie style.

3. To celebrate the slaying and susequent resurrection, people gorge on chocolate which is often shaped like eggs or small mammals (in line with old pagan traditions) but just as often comes as a rectangular block. Chocolate is consumed on supposed dates the guy is killed and comes back to life.

The chocolate has nothing to do with Jesus, being introduced to Western society some 1,500 years after Jesus was apparently resurrected.

Bizarre.

Send in the proletariate!