Hello members of Atheist Republic, how are you?
My name is Pedro, I am an atheist and I live in Brazil and recently we elected a reactionary (if not neofascist) president. The first thing he did in office was to make it so religious people can skip classes and work on their "holy days". Now, I can't quite figure out if this should or should not be a principle of a secular government. The creation of special rules for special people get on my nerves, I get it when those exceptions are made to protect a minority group, but as I understand the only ones who will benefit from this special rule are the whopping 88.9% majority of christians and the members of the jewish community. So my question is: should the government, in a secular country, create these rules to allow anyone to fully practice their religion or should the religion adapt to a neutral government?
It would greatly help me if you could give me your input on this subject.
Thank you very much.
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Sure sounds like it is no longer a secular country.
@pndcarva
What do mean by 'holy days'? Christmas, Easter, saints days?
In Australia, like most western christian countries, we have public holidays at Christmas and Easter. I don't know if catholics here take a day off for their saint days, but they would need to use their annual leave to cover that.
The Jewish community here, I believe, celebrate their holy days on their own time, but I am not really sure.
Could you take time off work or from studies, like the religious people, to enjoy a day entertaining yourself, or do you actually need to go to church on these 'holy days'? Who would police that?
I never get challenged anymore, like I used to, for taking those 'religious' holidays despite being an atheist, but then religious enthusiasm in this country has waned considerably in the last few decades.
@pndcarva: should the government, in a secular country, create these rules
National holidays should be strictly limited to commemorations of historic or cultural events. Religion should be kept right out of it.
Unfortunately these relics still persist even in the most secular countries. In New Zealand, it's a criminal offense to open your store on Good Friday or Easter Monday. Government spies wander around entrapping businesses that flout this archaic nonsense.
I like holidays, Religious or not, I prefer having them to not having them. I hope that as atheism grows, we will continue to have them and simply give them other names. I have always liked Winter Break for Christmas and simply Spring Break for Easter.
On top of that, and frankly speaking, I benefit more from religious holidays that the religious. I get to stay in bed, go on vacation, spend my time fishing, skiing, visiting other countries, or just doing whatever my heart desires. I am under no obligation to pray, attend sunrise or midnight worships, fast, buy presents for anyone, light a menorah and watch it burn for seven days or stick a pine tree in my living room and burn the house to the ground. I do things I enjoy doing and am no slave to traditions. I enjoy my holidays more than do the ritualized religious around me.
Ahemmmm Regarding Brazl - That country that is famous for Christ spreading his arms on top of a mountain as he looks down on the city below. Brazil has the largest number of Catholics in the world. Roman Catholicism has been Brazil's main religion since the beginning of the 16th century. Brazil is 64% Catholic. 4% Protestant. 6.5% Assemblies of God. 1.2% Christian Congregation. 5.6% Other Christian Congregations. 5.6% other Pentecostal Congregations. 6.8% Unclassified other Christian. (Ahemmmmmmm *Cough Cough* ) That is 93.7% Christian. About .8% of the population in Brazil claims NO RELIGION.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Brazil
Governments serve the people, it is not the other way around. America has also dealt with a massive majority of the religious. What do you do? You pick your fights, force the government to change when you can. Sue the religious when you can. And hope the assholes never get more power than they already have.
Here in the US, FUCKHEAD TRUMP just allowed the Office of Religion and Global Affairs. This is a bullshit way to give CHRISTIANS in America an added voice in the Government of America. "• Informing: We advise Department of State officials on specific religious dynamics relevant to foreign policy priorities, drawing on the expertise of religious and secular organizations and communities, scholars, and others from around the world." The organization is COMPLETELY unnecessary, We already have diplomats advising us of policies in foreign countries, religious or not. All we are doing is giving SPECIAL STATUS to religious concerns. BULLSHIT!!! They stuck it into the government by calling it GLOBAL.
I am with Cognostic and Algebe. Religion should have NOTHING to do with the setting of holidays (contraction of holy days). I think they should be renamed to genericize them. In my honest opinion, ALL religion should be abolished and made illegal. But I am biased against religion since I endured its Gentle Love when I was a child. And to be frankly honest, I still see religion's Gentle Love has grown more and more horrifying and terrifying as I have lived.
And before anyone says anything to contrary, my desire to see the complete annihilation of all religion has nothing to do with persecuting the people. Only the bullshit lies religion is.
Sorry for the little rant. I feel ALL holidays should be abolished and re-created as a genericized as possible. Winter Break = 18 Dec to 01 Jan. Fuck Christmas. Spring Break = 20 Jun to 04 Jul. That is all the "holidays" anyone needs during the year. Fuck all the rest of them (excepting Memorial Day and Veteran's Day). Federal and State workers get way TOO many days off as it is. If a person needs more "holidays" then they can use their damned vacation time.
Besides, look at the military. It runs all 31,557,600 seconds of every year. Fuck you lazy ass Federal and State workers. Y'all's sorry asses need to be working like the military. Fuck you Federal and State workers having ANY days off.
Sorry still ranting. But it is how I feel. Federal and State workers have done nothing more than whine their sorry asses off for not having enough holidays. FYI: The ONLY reason Columbus Day became a national holiday is because the Federal and State workers whined their asses off for not having a holiday off between Labor Day and Veteran's Day. So the fuck what? You lazy asses have to work for two months before you get another holiday off. Boo-Hoo!.
Again, sorry for ranting. I quit before I get going on that track forever...
rmfr
The state should not show preference for religious beliefs or preference for one religion over another.
Ideally, citizens should not be obliged to take certain religious days off: Christmas being a notable example.
If the majority of the people in a country are from one religion, I think it's fine if those are the official holidays even in a secular country. My country is a secular country with a Christian past, why shouldn't there be some traditions surrounding that? I don't believe in Jesus being the saviour, but it's fun for a day to feel connected to my ancestors who did. Ideally I'd like to partake in what ever pagan rituals went on here before the Christians put an end to them, but meh, what ever. The symbolism and the sacrifices it has motivated people to do is moving. A few years ago I would have agreed to just burn it all, but now I would not give it up, even as an atheist. Without traditions we become just tasteless odourless cogs in a capitalist machine.
Ideally everyone would have a set of holidays they could allocate the way they wish, but in a society some form of uniformity is required under scarcity. To give only some groups holidays off based on religion is of course a minor for of persecution, though.
If formal religions were outlawed, new forms of religiosity would just pop up. You can see this in the west atm. Formal religions are down, but beliefs in angels and other bs are up. How a person can believe in angels without believing in God is unthinkable to me, because I know about the history of beliefs in angels, but most people don't think like that. Even with more education I have no faith that we will ever get rid of religious thinking, as it is a part of being human, unless we become something other than human through machines or biotechnology. We are all religious to an extent, it's just a function of our evolved cognition. You can see the religious ways of thinking in various political isms at present.