Man. You just gotta hand it to some people. I have no issue with a serious critique of religion that includes a humorous sneer at various humorless forays in high-dudgeon moralizing.
On the other hand, the following is the opposite in every single way.
The talk show where an angry couple of “brights” (“brights” are people too smart and sophisticated to be duped into believing anything so stupid and “dull” as religion) argued that atheists, secular humanists, and intelligent people of all backgrounds need to fight to “redeem” Christmas from ignorant Christians who base the holiday in supernatural myth and fairy tales. Their thesis is that Christians suck all the joy out of Christmas by trying to make it a religious holiday. I sat incredulous, thinking “these people claim they are smarter than Christians?” They proceeded to recite a laundry-list of odd, backwards, simple, silly and unenlightened incidents that cast Christians in the worst possible light, then lifted up a series of heart-warming and wonderful stories of non-religious people who celebrate Christmas as a purely secular and cultural holiday. They concluded their rant by stating that Christmas could become a world-transforming phenomenon if only we could strip it of any spiritual or religious meaning.Like Christians who refuse to celebrate Halloween because it is an "celebration of evil" without understanding it is little more than the night before All Saints Day, the "brights" mentioned here are really just ignoramuses. Beyond that, I really have nothing to add.
