ASM049 Ask Science Mike Mini: The Meaning of Christmas

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what's the meaning of christmas that's the issue at hand for this episode of ask science mike mini it's ask science mike mini we're answering one christmas question every day this week in honor of the christmas holiday

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our question came from scott and he's one of the patrons of the show on patreon and he asks how has the meaning of christmas changed for you since going through your faith deconstruction and reconstruction and what does it mean to your faith now through my prior evangelical eyes christmas was all about jesus coming to save us from our sins and give us the ticket out it was like celebrating escapism however as i'm going through a faith reconstruction i am finding christmas so much more joyful and meaningful i now celebrate the birth of jesus by seeing it as when god decided to enter the human drama because he loves us and we've gotten so much of life wrong he came to teach us the fundamentals of life and to set the most important things straight to teach a social responsibility not to create rules to bring humans together i don't see it as simply the fulfillment of the old testament story but rather god breaking through all the human-made systems to show what life is really about christmas also gives me further comfort in being an agnostic christian because if god wanted to unfold the mystery of life to us jesus could have done it but instead he came to teach us about love so at christmas this year i am celebrating jesus as making humanity better and not as me being part of a lucky minority of chosen people well thank you scott not only for the question but for the commentary on what christmas means to you i think uh you may be surprised by how my perspective on christmas has changed through deconstruction and reconstruction i loved christmas as a kid but it's because my parents went all out to make christmas special it was a huge cultural milestone for both my mom's family and my dad's family and some of my fondest memories involve trips to see my family out in madison county where all both sides of my family are from also you know frankly we weren't a real gift giving family most of the year but my parents pretty consistently went overboard for christmas and so christmas morning was always a delight but as i grew in faith and i really leaned into biblical inerrancy i started to be troubled by the differences between the traditional ways christmas was celebrated and what the bible actually said about christmas it seems we got a lot wrong some of the christmas carols we sung didn't really reflect the biblical text and the nativity scenes and christmas plays certainly didn't and when i got in high school i realized through research that it was very unlikely that jesus was born in december at all and that christmas was originally a pagan festival a celebration of roman gods had nothing to do with christianity at all had been co-opted by the church after constantine's conversion to christianity so i kind of became a ba humbug christian i thought that it was important to remember jesus and his birth but that the biblical mandate was all about the death and resurrection and that easter was the one true christian holiday that was kind of a scrooge baptist very strange combination and i stayed that way for many years i started to discover the magic of christmas again after i had children of my own the honey badger my wife was very into building christmas traditions and making christmas special for the kids and i started to see that magical quality to the holidays through their eyes but that still didn't have a lot to do with jesus later when i lost my faith through atheism i actually started to appreciate christmas more can you believe that losing god made me appreciate the christmas holidays at a deeper level because the mythology or the accuracy was no longer all that important what i liked about christmas was the way that it called people towards grace goodwill toward men unity love all those admirable qualities seem to be on display in the christmas season and i appreciated that and that appreciation for the call to wholeness the call to community that christmas represents stayed with me in my return to faith i don't get as hung up on you know how historically accurate christmas ideas or christmas stories or or even christmas traditions are because the important thing now is uh actually the traditions associated with christmas that help us honor that yes there was something special about jesus so you know deconstruction made me appreciate christmas more and i held on to that love of christmas as i built faith up again as a believer [Music] the theme song for this week's episode is a song by the brilliance called joy to the world it's available on the liturgist's release olight which you can find on itunes or by going to theliturgists.com [Applause] [Music] joy to the world the lord is come let earth receive her king let every heart prepare in room and heaven and nature sing [Music] sing joy to the world the savior reigns that men their songs repeat the sounding joy [Music] [Music] the ground he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found far as the curse is found [Music] he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations proof the glories of his righteousness [Music] of