The Conceit of Christianity

Now that the holiday season is over I actually have a bit of time to sit down and reflect on things that have happened and what they mean. It's been a bit of an awkward time, between my mixed marriage which lands me in church, my atheism and dealing with the public, my Judaism and dealing with the public, as well as being very aware of the minority position I'm in. And I've learned quite a bit this year.

Those that follow my twittering will know that I've been reading up on the pre-Christian origins of the December 25th celebrations (and here's a nice article with religious stories and at least 12 pre-Christian gods born on December 25th). I've also been reasoning out exactly what is meant by holiday greetings. But something interesting I have learned about this year is something I could never put my finger on until now. It's the conceit that lays at the heart of modern Christianity. I'm not using conceit in a pejorative way but rather pointing out that current members seem to all share an inflated sense of importance and universality.

What triggered this Yuletide realization was a discussion that occurred at my job. I'm out as an atheist and that means that some of the more conservative people I work with come to me as their friendly unbeliever. Christmas came up and I told them that to me Christmas was simply "Chinese food and a movie day". They replied that it was sad as it is a day about family. I replied "That's true. If you celebrate Christmas." They went on to say that it's really one of the few days off that are celebrated, as opposed to Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Presidents Day, etc. I, once again, agreed stipulating that it's only true if that person should celebrate Christmas.


And then it dawned on me. There was something deeper to their assumptions about the holiday of Christmas and how people celebrated it. To them it was a family day without much religion. But that was still coming from within their Christianity. Their view of my atheism is not that I reject all gods but rather I rejected the Christian god. Their view of the Judaism I was raised with, likewise, accepted a god and therefore the Christian god in some way, though without Jesus. This is probably a shock to most Christians but the Jewish god is not the same deity as the Christian god. Assuming so is part of the conceit of Christianity. Were that true then Christians would be expected to believe in Allah but I'm guessing you'd be hard-pressed to find a Jesus follower who would claim that is true. The best way to visualize this is to put the "big three" in a line:

Judaism-----------------Christianity-----------------Islam

That is a simple time-line. Now, here's how Christians see it:

Judaism----------------->Christianity-----------------Islam

And here's how Muslims see it:

Judaism----------------->Christianity----------------->Islam

Each successive religion sees the previous ones as part of the foundation of their own religion. That's because the older a religion is the more readily people will respect it as a belief system, though Scientology is not more ridiculous than a literal reading of any of those major religions listed above. But by building on an ancient heritage and history they can claim some sort of legitimacy by lineage. The twist is that those previous foundational religions don't accept the spin-off faiths in any capacity. Christians don't accept Allah as their god nor Mohamed as a major prophet. Jews, similarly, don't accept the Christian god or Jesus. There is one ancient rabbinic text that may mention the same Jesus of Christian fame, though it writes him off as a poorly read scholar and therefore finds his religious exegesis moot and invalid. While I can't speak on the details separating the belief systems between Christianity and Islam I can point out some incredibly vast fundamental leaps between Judaism and Christianity. So here are some key facts about how the religion works according to Judaism

• God does not care about belief. One does not need to believe in god in order to be a good Jew.
• It is not written anywhere in the Hebrew Bible that a messiah will be born of a virgin.
• Messiah, in Hebrew, means king rather than embodiment of god. Think savior as in saving someone, not Saving someone.
• There is no heaven or hell in Judaism and to live one's life with the afterlife in mind is forbidden.
• The letter of the laws does not completely exclude the idea of other gods, simply the worshiping of them.

That's just a sampling of differences which really split Judaism from Christianity on the god level. Christianity is based on faith, belief and worship while Judaism is based on practice and adherence (and lineage). Since these are essentially opposing sets of metaphysics their entire world-views are incompatible.


That was a lot to take in, but there's a second part to the Christian conceit I want to get to and that is the idea that Christmas can be a secular holiday. This is false. The confusion comes from the fact that it is currently a federal holiday and therefore observed by the state with the closing of the post office, municipal services and banks. This does not mean it's secular. George W. Bush made "Jesus Day" (June 10th) a state holiday in Texas but if you think that's secular then you're delusional. The truth is the state makes mistakes and this is one of those cases. Christmas, the celebration of Jesus' birth, can never be a secular holiday as long as Jesus is involved in it. And for those who argue that he's not an longer then I must disagree. While the reason for the season is Earth's tilt away from the sun the reason for Christmas is to put a Christian mask over pagan holidays in order to win converts. Christmas is, at its very core, a holiday to celebrate a Mass for Christ. The fact that it's a federal holiday does not make it secular, but it does drive home the... incredible conceit of Christianity ever year to non-Christians. I'm not trying to be rude by calling Christianity conceited; I'm jut trying to point out a fundamental problem with how Christians view the world in relation to their one, elected, narrow world view. However, when's the last time you heard a Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, Jain or Zoroastrian claim that Christmas is a secular holiday? While it's not a rare view it is held as an elusively Christian sentiment. Hell, Hannukah is actually a military victory remembrance celebrated in a specifically Greek style and has no religious roots to it and I've never heard anyone say that Hannukah should be a secular American holiday.

Is Christianity alone in this conceit? Not really. I'm sure that most people that are part of a religion believe their world-view to be correct. Who would choose to believe in something they know to be false? The issue that comes up with Christianity is its sheer number of followers. Jews are only about 2% of the population, albeit a vocal 2%. Christians clock in at just over 75%. What is important to remember is that being a majority does not make a religious practice secular. While being a majority does make it easier to bend the US legal system to turn a religious holiday into a nationally recognized federal holiday it does nothing to lessen the purely Christian concepts that Christmas consists of. With a 78% majority Christians cannot vote away logic. They can only vote to ignore it.

For all my Christian friends: I do not mean offense to you. Even if you see bits of yourself in this post does not negate the fact that I'm still your friend. If this single aspect was all I saw in you then I'd be letting the air out of your tires rather than cheerily returning your phone calls. I'm also not arguing against Christmas and pushing an atheist world-view. Celebrate Christmas. All I ask is that Christians (and the mainly non-religious who were raised Christian) recognize that Christmas is still part of the Christian religion and culture, and that is is completely separate and in some cases antithetical to the ideas of other groups. To deny this is to deny the views of others and that would mean actively wrapping one's self in Christian majority arrogance.