Resolved: Atheists Shouldn't Observe Religious Holidays 2

Here's some fun math to talk about: 1*-1=-1 1*1=1 and -1*-1=1. Likewise in arguments a negative times a negative equals a positive, and negative times a positive is negative. The resolution is a negative statement and I have the positive side; therefore I have a negative burden of proof. You have the negative side so you have Positive burden of proof. therefore it is not my duty to convey why you should not celebrate a holiday until you provide sufficient justification for celebrating. That should win the argument for me in this debate, but lets hypothetically say I don't really think that and believe the voters will not either, then I will go ahead provide more reasons for why you should not. Your refutation about my point of earning more money was your retired. But you see the flaw with that argument is that you should not be retired either. this state of existence is an illogical one to enter into in the first place. the ultimate goal for anyone, God or no God, before they die is to leave the world a better place than when we left it. To contribute to society. As long as there is breath in our bodies this is still something we can do. But often we can never truly measure the good one has done until some time after they have died and there has been enough time to start seeing the chain affects directly resulting from the actions of their life. So in our own live there will never be a day we can say with certainty "I have left the world a better place than it would have been had I not been born, so I can quit contributing and retire now" Plus the resolution deals with all atheist, not just you, and we can not assume that all atheist are crippled to a degree that they can not help anymore so retirement is a state of existence they must enter. So its logical to benefit society for as long as possible and never retire, and it is logical to make more money, so one should not celebrate a holiday. Another point worth making, if being a hypocrite honestly is concerning enough to us that avoiding being such warrants stating we should not do certain things, then by your definitions this qualifies well enough as being hypocritical. Because to celebrate Christmas as you defined would bring you to church on Christmas morning reading scriptures about the birth of Christ and how he was a gift of god. You, an atheist, who does not believe their even is a god... well the action would contradict your stated belief. Celebrating L Ron Hubbard's birthday as you defined it would involve passing out copies of his book "The Way To Happiness". You, an atheist, who does not believe in any Gods, would be doing something contradictory if you celebrated the life of a man who not only thought that there were gods,but that you could become one. (I am aware that they don't use the 'term' god, but that is what a thetan is). For an atheist the resurrection of the dead is not possible, So it contradicts to celebrate on Easter the rising from the dead of an individual 2,000 years ago. Unless you believe in sin, then Christ sacrifice does not mean anything, so that would contradict in your action to celebrate it. But as I said all this would only be pertinent if being a hypocrite is a relevant factor to whether one 'should' or 'should not' do something. I am not sure I could prove that it is. But they are other reasons I can argue not related to money or being a hypocrite that show you should not celebrate the holiday's. Because it is outright detrimental to the quality of your life to do. One might read that and go 'are you crazy, holidays are fun, an important factor to improving the quality of ones life' One might also not ever go into such deep thought on their own witch is why I pose the question for you. But bear with me and I shall explain. Whether you believe their is a god or their is not, All generally agree that we should live our lives,that our life is ours and we should rise up and live it! the expression 'difference in breathing and being alive' or 'standing outside the fire' is rooted in this philosophy. Everyone would want to 'be alive' (not a reference to your mortality) as being so is described in Tim McGraw's song 'live like you were dying'. I contend that Holiday celebration is a disease to your ability to live like you were dying. The hype surrounding enjoyment of a single day causes a lull into the quality of every other day of the year. You merely 'get by' day to day waiting like a drone for the next holiday to come. I ask you why would anyone logically choose to make Christmas the day for giving gifts and helping the poor? the Native Americans gave presents to each other in potlucks long before the people who brought the celebration of Christmas with them to America. why show special affection to your wife on Valentines day when she deserves it everyday from you? If you recognize the day specifically enough to show romance on it you are accepting in some degree that all other days of the year are not for showing that much affection to her. If you do give her your love on all other day's of the year then there is nothing during Valentines day to even recognize, because it is the same as any other day. All of this is especially important for you Con, because if we ignore the reasons I gave for not retiring and simply look at the purpose and goal behind doing so, you retire so you can spend all your time doing things that are fun. If you live your life in a way that you can not be said to have 'lived like you were dying' then the whole purpose of your retirement is a failure, so it can be argued that it is vital that you avoid holidays that can be a poison to your doing so, so I am arguing it. Maybe it is possible to celebrate holidays without lowering the quality of your life every other day of the year waiting for them to pass by. But if there is the danger's are far to high. So this I find is my best argument to fit my opponents criteria for persuading why he 'should not' observe a religious holiday, because it not enough to warrant explicit forbidding statements in my conclusion, but enough to advise against. So to wrap up: 1) Con had the positive burden to justify celebrating any holiday in the first place. 2) retirement is not a logical reason to pass up overtime, because retirement is not logical in the first place 3) Observing (as Con defined) the holiday's (as Con defined) honestly is contradictory in action with the professed belief. So if being a hypocrite is concerning to you, vote Pro. 4) Every man dies, but not everyman lives. don't waste your life waiting for holiday's make every day special, and in effect make nothing special about the holidays. For any of the above 4 reasons I urge the voters to vote Pro on arguments Because My opponent has sourced to define stuff and not directly back up an argument, nearly ignoring the definitions as was, vote Pro on sources. As for spelling and grammar, vote Con, I understand why Conduct, vote tie, I have enjoyed this debate and do not see any uncordial act on either side. Hope you had a happy Goshen last Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent! http://www.abc.net.au... http://www.scientologytoday.org... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com...