How is this not true? Many Christian's DON'T celebrate Halloween. Just because there are many churches that DO have Halloween celebrations does not mean that many othersalso don't.

The Christians that DON'T celebrate aren't the people I was targeting in my post, and quite frankly, irrelevant. I'm not aware of any census of Christians who celebrate Halloween, but I would put my money on a majority of them. Probably 1% of the Christians I have ever met have read the Bible, or half-way know what they are celebrating.

As I have ALREADY said, in the UK, the majority of Christians (that is church going Christians, not those who say they are Christian for census purposes but have never actually been in a church in their lives) DON'T celebrate Halloween. I'll happily take your money though. ;)

"Celebration of something I enjoy celebrating is hardly hypocritical. Consider the Christians' celebration of holidays that aren't Christian such as Halloween. Or hell, [even]Christmas."

Bolded part was added by me.

And I say in response to that:
PRECISELY!!!

I thought the "even" was implied. Why did you add it? lol...

Because I like the tradition. I went to a C of E school and said the prayers, even though I don't believe in them.
I find churches fascinating and I don't see how it's hypocritical... I'm sure thousands of people go to church out of tradition and habit rather than belief.
And none of my friends are religious yet we all celebrate Christmas... majority of the country is the same! Christmas is no longer a religious festival; even multicultural schools have nativity plays and nobody complains, because they are just now so intrinsically linked with the season.
And hey I'm sure churches can do with as many people as possible ;)

I don't care who partakes of "Christmas". The act of Christmas was celebrated hundreds of years prior to the birth of Christ, and by people who didn't believe in what Christians believe to be the One True God. As far as I'm concerned, the ONLY reason it is a "Christian holiday" is because Christians have taken it and MADE it a Christian holiday. Doesn't MAKE IT a Christian holiday, and for non-believers to partake of the joys and entertainment of it doesn't make it hypocritical at all.

As I've already said, it's not the celebrating of Christmas in general that I find hypocritical (because in many ways it is not longer a religious festival, and aspects of it were never to do with religion to start with), just the singing of hymns and saying prayers. How can athiests on one hand argue that religion is evil and that Christians (or people of any other religion for that matter) believing in God are stupid or naive, but on the other hand go to church and say prayers? How can that not be hypocritical?

I agree with you here. I don't care what "kind" of Christmas you celebrate - whether it be Christian, Pagan, whatever...if you are worshiping Jesus and you're not a believer, that is really weird.

Atheists going to church and singing hymns and saying prayers isn't so much hypocritical as it just makes them not atheist.

As for the "religion is evil and that Christians (or people of any other religion for that matter) believing in God are stupid or naive," this is a common misconception of the atheist view. Is it fair to assume that all christians are therefore preaching "If you don't believe my particular branch of faith, I condemn you to an eternity of pain, backed by my god, and you're morally inferior... blah blah blah" ? Of course this is ridiculous, however, it is to prove the point that you are making blanket statements about a group whom you obviously find distasteful.

Atheists going to church and singing hymns and saying prayers isn't so much hypocritical as it just makes them not atheist.

As for the "religion is evil and that Christians (or people of any other religion for that matter) believing in God are stupid or naive," this is a common misconception of the atheist view. Is it fair to assume that all christians are therefore preaching "If you don't believe my particular branch of faith, I condemn you to an eternity of pain, backed by my god, and you're morally inferior... blah blah blah" ? Of course this is ridiculous, however, it is to prove the point that you are making blanket statements about a group whom you obviously find distasteful.

If saying one is athiest, yet going to church and saying prayers makes one NOT an athiest, does this not suggest that doing such a thing while claiming to be athiest IS being hypocritical? (I'm not sure if that sentence made any sense!)

And you are right, I should not generalise. Because I hate when (some) athiests make generalisations about Christians (such as all Christians want to convert everyone). So apologies for that.

This part made me laugh though...

about a group whom you obviously find distasteful

NOW who's generalising? Where did I ever suggest I find all athiests distasteful? I have many athiest friends. In fact one of my best friends is athiest, and I have already mentioned her and her family (and their attempts NOT to be hypocritical when it comes to Christmas) above.

That's not a generalization, it's an observation based on the previous posts you have made in this thread.

Oh well. Your observations are just wrong then.

They had this story in the news tonight. I have to say that the only spot FOR THEM to put the sign was next to the nativity scene. It was IN the building, and from the looks of it that is the only spot where they could have put it, which was a specific spot designated for such things. So it's probably not that they put their sign up next to the nativity scene JUST to start an argument.

And if I understand correctly (and this is simply conjecture considering there are no pictures of the sign that stood by the nativity scene), there was a sign beside the nativity scene basically stating that all who did not believe in Jesus Christ would be going to hell.

So if that IS the case, then the Christians started this whole mess in the first place. But again, there are no pictures so far of the sign that stood at the nativity scene, so it's just presumption.

And if I understand correctly (and this is simply conjecture considering there are no pictures of the sign that stood by the nativity scene), there was a sign beside the nativity scene basically stating that all who did not believe in Jesus Christ would be going to hell.

Do you have a source to back this up? I don't remember seeing any sign next to the nativity scene in the capital building in any of the footage.

As I said, I watched the news and when they were showing the scene, there was a sign next to the nativity scene.

Then it must have been a different news report than what I saw. The only sign I ever saw was the atheist sign.

Well, yes, I'd agree that if there was a sign saying people who did not believe are going to hell, then that is just as disrespectful as the athiests sign. And I can understand why that would make the athiests a little angry. Personally I think if that is the case, then both sides are as bad as each other. Neither is respectful of the other, and both are trying to stir up anger.

Even though I'm a believer, I'm not sure that warning humans of eternal damnation is even disrespectful. I guess the whole message of Christianity is often seen as offensive because of it's exclusive route to salvation. But to warn others is not the same as actually condemning them, you know?

Exactly. Jesus Himself said that the Gospel would be offensive and tear apart relationships. True Christianity is not about "going along to get along."

That was not my point. My point was people have been complaining that the Atheists were bashing the Christians in their sign (not necessarily in here, but simply in my day-to-day interactions with people discussing this issue), and YET there was a sign by the nativity scene that, according to sources, would have been along the same lines but in the opposite direction.

To say that "warning humans of eternal damnation" isn't disrespectful, then the same can be said about the Atheists posting a sign warning of the pitfalls of religion. It's the same thing, just from a different perspective. So why is it okay for the Christians to do, but not the Atheists?

First of all, I haven't seen a source about the natvity's accompanying sign. But I might have missed it. Regardless, I feel the atheist's tactics here were specifically implemented to belittle the beliefs of Christians - whether they are "right" or not.

Do you REALLY think that signs that 'warn' of eternal damnation are going to bring people to God? To me, any non-Christian person who reads that is even more likely to be turned away from Christianity. Threats that create fear (which I do feel is disrespectful) are not the way to bring people to Christianity.

No, I really don't think that. I'd never spread God's message in that way, and I never have. Some people do, however.