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The Width of Western Wishful Thinking
The Importance of Christmas
And The Conundrum of Christianity.
Around the turn of the century I had an artist friend who was a Japanophile. He loved all things Japanese and would visit there regularly.
As you would expect with a bunch of arty types, we were mostly atheists, yet my friend returned from Japan after one particularly rich cultural experience with the following insight:
I used to think I was an atheist, but now I realise I’m just an ex-Christian.
The conceptual and moral structures of Japanese society were radically different from the West
For many atheists in the West, the only real divergence from the moral structures of Christianity is the belief that there is not a god.
If you live in the West, regardless of whether you are an atheist, Jew, Muslim or Hindu, Christianity is embedded into the culture in a way that is unavoidable. This is no more apparent than at Christmas time.
Christmas, along with Easter, is a holiday enshrined.
Yet, while Christmas is ostensibly a Christian festival the defining visual image of Christmas has become Santa Claus, with elf on the shelf…
