The Atheist Who Stole Christmas. #ReplaceChristmas #Socmas

let's just say that Jesus did live let's
say he was a real man who lived preached and had a small gathering of followers not aware of him killing millions of people in the Bible he doesn't call for the mass extermination oh neither did Karl Marx you idiot I don't want my daughter worshiping the Communist Manifesto either the principles that made communism so violent they are in the writing of Karl Marx and that's why I reject even the writing of Karl Marx oh gee the fictional character of Jesus didn't personally murder much neither did Mao Zedong's he didn't personally murder millions people celebrating the life of Mao Zedong represents your approval of oh my god this is just the stupidest or use is this guy still in high school I can't guess his age by his voice in the Bible he doesn't call for the mass extermination of Jews he doesn't set up goo legs or concentration camps he didn't starve to torture or imprison his political adversaries to compare Jesus to Hitler or Stalin is silly now I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I did not you're just misrepresenting me I compared Christianity the empires of Christendom to the Nazi Empire and the various communist empires such as the Soviet Union and China it was very clear what I said and I asked you a question that you dodged you didn't answer I said which one has killed more people okay why is why is Australia full of white people speaking English how did that happen homie do you think the Christian Church here in Chrismukkah is all of North America and South America full of people speaking Spanish in South America she wowed in Spanish and Portuguese become the majority language of Mexico and everything south of there you got you got the impact inside on that how did Spanish and Portuguese become such widely spoken languages white why isn't it one of the languages of edenia why isn't everyone speaking Sanskrit homey the history of genocide committed in Jesus's name is real the sickest thing of all is understanding that the Catholic Church from their perspective had good intentions in carrying out that genocide because they they believed good and evil as they got it from the Bible do you think you could have this perspective whiteboy if you were born Cree or a Jib way or an indigenous person of the Hawaiian Islands do you think you would have this perspective that Christianity and Christmas is harmless if you were one of the last people struggling to speak the indigenous languages of California like Yurok or out in the middle of the Arizona desert trying to cling to the last of the Denny languages if you were ethnically a member of one of the peoples destroyed by Christianity I do sympathize with your point here and I don't think you're entirely wrong either so why didn't you make a video saying that exactly what when I won the last minute of the video exactly what has been missing here is sympathy you couldn't open with this is a middle-aged man I'm 40 years old I have a five year old daughter this is a man who wants to do better for his own daughter and his own family who's struggling to bide an alternative de Christmas and something meaningful in his daughter's life and who's interested in publishing this story book so you also with way less effort can buy the story book and read your kids something meaningful that's not rooted in Christianity or communism or Islam or something awful why isn't there sympathy and why isn't there a positive tendency like I said before to recruit talent for us to work together II meant no new Canosa so what I do on YouTube has changed from one period to the next and everything I've done on YouTube up to this point the year 2018 ending has been a combination of the personal and the political like when I talk about First Nations politics indigenous people genocide history colonialism it's personal its political but it doesn't have the quality of a detached academic lecture or presentation that was a decision I made from the first moment I got on YouTube now what I'm doing foreshadowing hashtag spoiler it's gonna change in 2019 I'm changing my format I'm changing what I'm doing but I've really been reminded about how phony and insincere most of the discourse here is on YouTube and even worse on reddit reddit is really I don't even do I don't even do Facebook groups I haven't for years I don't know yes that's right no they're still yeah they're there's at least one reddit group I still this is not this is not a promo for my Facebook group but look you know um when I came out with starting to talk about my attempt to offer my own daughter a superior alternative to pop culture entertainments and modern Western secularized Christmas it's it's personal and its political it's real you know I really am writing this series of poems series of new children's stories that I think I will eventually publish as a book or maybe a series of children's books they're gonna be Illustrated they could be made into show some short cartoons here on YouTube and to promote the book or something this is a creative project I'm engaged in and the level of cynicism and hostility I got back it reflects partly something that's just wrong with the internet but it reflects something that's wrong with activism on the Internet and I think I can say that I think that's true of the kind of stereotypical left-wing social justice warrior activism I think it's true of the stereotypical right wing or alt right or I don't know TRADD thought conservatism I think it's true of vegan I think it's true of a lot of things what we've come into is a really weird period of the culture of complaint so as one example this it's always misleading to use quote selective quotations of what your opponents have to say but I got a comment on YouTube just yesterday of someone saying to me you know and it has this kind of spirit of the 4chan over-the-top comment or the reddit you know insulting backhanded compliment kind of thing this guy wrote to me with with all due self-confidence saying no you're totally wrong atheists don't need to be activists they don't need to get politically organized to try to change the society or culture where they're living all we need to do is laugh at and ridicule the people who still believe in religion and the Internet has really magnified that sentiment across the board I think there are a lot of anti-racist people and they might not say at that openly but they really think the way to make society less racist is by coming on Twitter or coming on reddit and ridiculing people for being racist yeah I think I think that's one of the cross cross currents yeah I don't think it's the main one because I mean veganism is in some ways a strangely upbeat optimistic and compassion driven you know movement and you see that agony you know one of my first hit videos was called the agony of of activism and I break down weeping and it briefly and you talk about going to a slaughterhouse and seeing and hearing pigs getting slaughtered most of these other movements don't have that kind of touchstone of like hey I know what it's like to watch a pig have its throat slit and bleed to death and I know what you know like it doesn't have that kind of yeah today the anti-racist movement right I mean of course there's centuries of races right racism right go off of there but well are you personally touched by it in that kind of yeah in a it moving way right right right right so yeah I mean you know it's also obviously the case that ridicule is easy to do and organizing real political opposition mobilizing people to influence Congress is not so easy yeah and doing something like writing and publishing an original story book is not easy yeah so it's right from my perspective what I'm doing is just totally positive in this case and I mean look agent as it is if you don't know my channel I don't think marching up and down the street holding a placard and shouting that Parliament I don't think that kind of street protests percent positive I think it's mostly a waste of people's time and there are negative elements to it and I've talked about this before the people who are just trying to go to work and have to you know have to literally walk past the protesters every day it actually does have negative impacts on perception there are advantages and disadvantages to street demonstrations I think there's a lot of yeah a lot of people are kidding themselves about conventional political protest in terms of jockeying for culture and political change but if you're talking about giving people an alternative like hey you know what Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer it sucks why why are you teaching your children this you know I mean I think ironically this is something most conservative Christians would agree with also they'd say why are we doing this why are we worshiping like a cultural icon that was mostly invented by the coca-cola corporation you know dude how is this what Christmas again we're downtown and the bus system here they actually have a Santa like somebody dressed up as Santa driving one of the buses around down right right wire right why are we all complicitous either from a Christian or an atheist perspective at some point just taking a step back and saying the meaninglessness of this whether you regard it as commercial and secular or as something linked to a religion I actually suppose it's a bit chafing this is a poem for me and again just positively hey we can do better know the other side of it again I mean okay I'll save more about this you know to what extent do I expect anyone on the internet to respect my opinion or treat me like a human being my expectations are pretty low I have five years of experience being a public figure on the Internet and over 1,000 videos and over 3.2 million views on YouTube and even before that I was really a public figure in Buddhism as a highly critical free thinking nihilistic philosopher and scholar within the Buddhist religion and of course I got a lot of negative reactions to what I was to what I was doing there however my daughter is bright I'm not going to do the most parents Nina oh my kids a genius not I'm not gonna see that but my daughter I think she's like a lot of kids which is that she often says things that are kind of remarkably sharp and witty and insightful and then you only figure out later on that she memorized that from a TV program or from a story book some of the things she said to us are sentences memorized from a children's storybook and only later we read the story or you know we figure out how much of her vocabulary and how much of her behavior is mimicry of cultural sources okay Christmas is one of those holidays that is celebrated every year and there were components of Christmas that are taught in schools and there were Christmas fables and songs that are played over the loudspeaker in coffee shops and shopping centers and while you buy your groceries the extent to which my daughter memorizes and internalizes a cartoon from Netflix you know these days it's mostly not conventional TV broadcasting or her favorite storybooks or songs she sings at school some of the songs she learns are at school it's it's something to be taken really seriously so even if your position is oh well Christmas is meaningless look I think Curious George is meaningless that's not the end of the debate that's not the end of the conversation why can't we step back and say whoa let's deal with the burden of meaninglessness here like how is it in your mind that meaningless equals good if your argument is that Christmas is genuinely just as meaningless as Curious George to be okay both of those from your problematic I don't want my daughter's whole life and culture and outlook to be shaped by crap like Curious George and Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck again yes of Mickey Mouse is not evil you mean and it's true Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and Curious George they're not linked to a religion that is guilty of genocide on several continents the way Christmas is it is different but we don't solve the problem by by emphasizing the extent to which Christmas is similar to other purely commercial children's products we only further explain that right you want to jump in yes I'm gonna I'm gonna click it so I'm gonna click on one on one response to this and this is titled the atheist who stole Christmas and we'll see what he says but at this point obviously my expectation is the more the same that this is just gonna be a completely hostile completely negative response from someone who again the way I posed this initially was to draw attention to the difference between destructive and creative aspects of atheism nihilism and the pursuit of cultural change the most successful political movements are going to be political movements that achieve the cultural change first and then pursued the legislative formerly political element second really quickly in Canada the culture accepted homosexuality decades before legislation normalized homosexuality so I mean homosexuality in general you can use gay marriage in specific but probably the most important part of that was the protection of employment rights for gay people that you couldn't be fired from your job for being gay you couldn't be fired for being a schoolteacher because you're gay so the cultural change happened first that was the big struggle and then the legal and formal parliamentary political changes were relatively easy if you want to pass the same law in Saudi Arabia Malaysia Indonesia you're gonna have a very different struggle on your hands right because the cultural change hasn't happened first there you're talking with the legal and political change being forced on people first and the culture catching up what have you afterwards right and I could throw it a million examples here we're not going to do that so in terms of what's possible for powerless people like myself the pursuit of cultural changes is really meaningful and so I just did okay I have a lot to say about this less simple this without even applying the video okay but Melissa you remember we were walking down the street the other day and we passed a dressmaker shop a fashion shop and it's in it's in an expensive neighborhood here in Victoria I would assume that a hundred percent of their customers are wealthy elderly white women wealthy white women over the age of 50 let's say okay and I said you you know what in political movements and in fashion and entertainment and theatre and in many different walks of life one of the signs that what you're doing is legitimate is that you're actually looking to recruit new talent if what you're trying to do in fashion it is recruit new talent say hey yeah we have this dressmaker hey wow great we'd love to meet someone who's just graduated from fashion school who's a designer and really knows how to cut fabric and really know set it to something new that's a sign that what you're doing is legitimate that you're a legitimately out there trying to do whatever it is a dressmaker does do whatever it is you can to contribute to fashion or your own movement you own whatever your own movement within fashion put it that way you know and in the contrary a shop like that the one we walked past I said I can guarantee to you if you walked into that shop with your resume in hand and said hey I just graduated from the School of Art and Design in New York City or Milan I'm a young up-and-coming dressmaker and fashion designer I really know how to cut fabric I'm really ambitious you know and you know I'm really I'm really looking to start at the bottom and get some experience making dresses in a shop like this what they say to you is look we're not hiring we're not really looking to expand what we do here in any way we're not looking to make any new styles or patterns you know we're just making money recycling old crap to a rich elderly people or not you know sorry in a sense this is not a real dress maker this is not this is not real fashion that's not what's really going on here and it's always bothered me I mean whether it's vegans looking at what I'm doing atheists so-called atheist activists secular activists New Atheists looking at what I'm doing on the internet or even within Buddhism Asian Studies politics why is it so lacking the capacity for people to want to recruit talent what does it say about you in your institution in your organization so I could mention a million different forums that I haven't been I'm not welcome to speak at and channels are not welcome to to collaborate with where you know so again even if you just look at the videos if you just look at the videos that uploaded YouTube within the last one month there's really good reason why a an atheist some other atheist youtuber atheist activist could look over this stuff and say oh hey you know what this guy is this guy is talent this guy is something positive can contribute even if you disagree with me but believe me do you think dressmakers do you think fashionistas do you think people in the fashion industry all agree with each other no of course not they have deep bitter disagreements about matters of style that you and I are invisible or don't matter at all likewise people within veganism people within Buddhism people within humanitarian work people within atheist activism they're gonna be disagreements some of which are substantive and some of which may be more petty but okay I'm just looking at the list of videos I did within the last month critique of I'll and double toll on atheism 2.0 response to Monkey Jones getting his you know channel banned the atheism is destructive not atheism being creative not destructive there are of course a whole bunch of videos about veganism dating to what extent is Buddhism a philosophy about the health effects of antidepressants okay there's a whole lot of substantive content here and guys I'm in the opposite position all the time people write to me asking to collaborate with me asking to cooperation there's something I have to look at their channel and look at what videos they've made over the last couple of months and I have to make a judgment is this someone I could work with is this someone I could cosign or collaborate with us but the the absence of any capacity for recruiting new talent cooperating and collaborating it shows in a sense that your movement is fake like if peda People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is not open to working with me what does that say about peda and if you dial back it's about twenty years ago they were open to working with Gary Yourofsky it's a little bit shocking and embarrassing to both sides there you know they used to take on some really edgy and offensive people as their as their formal spokespeople they put support pipe so you can see those specific institutions they're willing to take a risk they're going to get involved with someone who is some really offensive in extreme opinions so I think some institutions and political movements go through different phases where the doors are open and they're interested in collaborating with people interested in recruiting new content new sorry recruiting new talent and they can go through a more narrow phase where nobody's allowed in and the doors are closed and like that shop they're just trying to keep making money off of the repeating the same pattern repeating the same on YouTube repeating the same content they're out here so I feel like we're in a period of time when certainly the atheist and secular category has really become very very dark and dim and closed all right so I have a lot to say before president play in front of so many topics I don't even know how I could you know that's like seven minutes I wish I had something to say for each of those topics but then it would be like an hour long and you know the point of the video was to I mean I can complain about how much I hate that it's inescapable I mean right walking around downtown I can't escape Christmas and I don't even know why these white conservative people think that it's an issue at all that you're trying to take Christ out of Christmas or like trying to remove Christmas at all and oh it's it's too PC to say season's greetings or whatever but I think really and she clear-- by the Santa everywhere is like lights I was like your your experience is not just in Canada Canada in the United States we have a lobster's there's also in your right edges mission in terms of walking around of having the president so yeah I mean like just this morning I was walking you know I took a walk at like 6:00 in the morning and I didn't realize there's a construction site that we walked by they put Christmas lights all over the construction sites right to make it more festive and stuff and I mean like I see how much effort is put into decorating and you know completely changing the decor and in grocery stores and you know department stores basically everywhere you go even the gym that we go to like they put you know flakes on all the gym equipment they have this like you know 25 days of Christmas acts of kindness that you can do and everything's just decked out there's even a Christmas tree and like they have a drawing up like the Santa that's buff or something you know yeah merry lift miss you know so I mean I can't escape it and when you know I sit down in Starbucks with Isola to sit down and work on Chinese for me it really bothers me that everywhere I go there's music playing like I mean if you think back just like 50 years ago music was more of like a special-occasion thing like you only heard it when you went to a concert when you wanted to actually hear music or you know later on it's where people really it's music that it's so emotionally so emotionally overwrought it's like how can I ignore this I'm gonna ignore somebody like saying basically suicidal over a heartbreak or something well I'm sitting here eating a salad yeah what if some of those songs are saying our Lord and Savior has come I mean some of them are yeah when we're sitting at Starbucks in your truck you know trying to work on Chinese I don't want to hear Mariah Carey like talkin about all she wants for Christmas is you yeah what and the question I put you this is just and this is just us joking amongst ourselves but I say to you how would people react if this were Muslim music how would they react if this were like what if these were pictures stations but but even the decoration how would you react if you go to the gym and there's Muhammad the Prophet or you know and anything even symbolically relate to Islam instead or anything Hindu gods and Hindu celebrations if you guys want to play this game were you so this happened with you know a lot of us courthouses where the courthouse is displayed the Ten Commandments so I don't know if you know this is not just one example this isn't let's happen repeatedly in the United States and where the state government said well it's not religious because we would allow any other religion also to have a monument in front of the courthouse so like it's all religions are equal having the Ten Commandments in the Bible displayed this isn't religious and then in one case it was actually the Satanists to applied and it said okay well then we want equal equal time we want equal space we want to have a monument to Satan next thing you know they did it obviously half half parity and a half as a serious protest if you're gonna have a monument to the Ten Commandments and you can also have a monument to to Satan and the state government changed their interpretation of secularism and said okay no monuments for any religion as opposed to equal once but none of those places have a monument to Buddhism or Hinduism or Islam you know the next one and I don't I don't believe in that that for me became most dicey in France when I was formally enrolled in the process to become a French citizen I did not complete that process I'm not a French citizen but it was really tightly fiercely debated what secularism meant in France and in French it's lazy Tay so it's it's not exactly the same meaning as secularism or atheism in English and I was pointing out to the you know the the instructor your interpretation of secularism is a mosque on every corner like that's literally what you're teaching us is that you know as long as people have plenty of mosques and churches to choose between that secularism and to me it's not that's not a secre saying when serving you just mentioned walking around the streets in France that's government money going into Christmas festivals is government money going into a whole society festooned with church architecture everywhere you go every block there is Christian architecture Christian monuments and I mean yes Christmas may be the thin edge of the wedge I mean it's not the same as a giant marble statue of race on the cross bleeding but you have both they're not mutually exclusive one is reciprocal with the other yeah and you you want to become a society that in addition to the government giving three hundred thousand euros for a Christmas market where they say ok secularism means we treat religions equally so we're also gonna provide a three and a thousand euro budget for an Islamic festival that similarly is this what you want to get into you and where does it stop I mean the story even if it's just those two religions even is just well let's say it's the big three because that's the French government's attitude Christianity Judaism in Islam that was their attitude in the formal meetings to become a French citizen I don't want to live with that I don't want to live in a three fold religious society I want to live in and actually secularism yeah I mean part of the season's greetings like auntie season's greetings is like oh they're trying to take Christianity out of society um whereas other people are like oh no it's a good thing because and as you say it's possible that we could have more decorations out for different religious holiday you know holiday events but I don't want that either and I agree with you you know for the first twenty four years of my life so I'm 26 now I spent every Christmas in the Detroit area visiting with family we did the same thing every year you know growing up I would grew up in a Christian household we went to church every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and you know it was definitely centered around the religion but of course you know as a kid it's it's more fun to open presents like that aspect of it it's more fun for a child and you know as I grew up and as I basically came out as an atheist to my parents like and said you know I don't believe in this it came it became more and more of a I don't know just more like a conflict going to church that that was like the event this was the celebration with our family and you know I I still would go even though I wasn't Christian anymore and it was just like this this conflict or just like kind of kind of feeling like epic rant like why am I even here so I mean I dealt with that for I don't know I mean quite a few years and last year when I was with you in Thailand was the first time I ever was in a place that it wasn't celebrated and I actually got to have Christmas in Thailand and it was like just so much of a relief because and if you like people stress out so much about these holidays too and like it's such a big deal for everybody and it's become even more commercialized and stuff that's like unnecessary stress for something that like we don't even believe in anymore okay and you know this is it's a big percentage of people's income like just the amount of shopping and expenditure and holiday money and travel money most people who are moderately poor middle class Christmas is a big percentage yeah I mean I know other society know China Chinese New Year's the biggest yes drink it really changes the schedule but I mean it is really like even with the schedule of seeing your daughter I mean like we're thinking about moving to Taiwan and like oh this is not gonna line up if we want to do Chinese language courses because yep plan our lives around I know you're seeing some like Facebook groups for Taiwan there are like Christmas trees and stuff before but you know and about two percent of people in Taiwan are Christian yeah had a big Christmas tree out front but like you know things weren't closed for Christmas and Lutheran churches all around in you know it was more of a commercials no there were buddhist temples along Acula you're saying it's a predominantly Buddhist Society so anyway I thought that that was so much better and not having to the pressure of buying everybody presents and like you know if it's if it's really about generosity like I know some people say that Christmas is just about like the spirit of giving and you know that's what Santa is all about you giving out presents to the needy and you know I think some people the only time of the year that they actually do giving for the holiday like is only during Christmas like that's the only time that they would thing to donate food like at our gym they have a bucket for donating food to this organization and there's only it's only around around Christmas time like that's the only time of the year and I think a lot of non organizations that bank on people trying to get into the giving spirit only in December it's like if you really want to live in a society that's that's celebrating this like why it wasn't it more of the year that you were thinking of this like why can't it be yeah I just measure I know someone who's a PhD in German philosophy and she's one of the only people who has read this really really influential book in the history of philosophy politics and especially religion called v's and Iskra sentence by flora Bach that is one of the most influential books that nobody reads anymore it was a huge hit hugely influential book in German philosophy and exactly what you just said which is what many hold on quote atheists say it adjusted by Christmas they say oh well Christmas is about the spirit of generosity okay do you think we can't do that with Ramadan do you think they can't say Ramadan is about the spirit of blank do you think we can't make cold unquote secular humanistic values placeholders to maintain a fundamentally conservative Christian society conservative Muslim society and to you know drown the potential for atheist skeptics and free thinkers to transform the society they live in right now what do you have to say to atheists in Saudi Arabia if you've met Arabs you know there are intelligent people I mean they're not there's this really horrible racist conceit in the West that somehow people born Muslim are born mentally disabled they're not I'm telling you go out and spend time with them a lot of them they're as smart as you and I have you been really biologically they're not at a disadvantage this way they're not oh you know whether it's Saudi Arabia or one of these other cultures what they are are people that live in a culture that punishes dissent punishes freedom of thought and challenging orthodoxy challenging social assumptions to an extent you cannot imagine it's it's an oppressive culture and that's what our culture used to be like only a number of centuries ago I mean it's depends on where you were in Europe but I mean just dial back to Italy 500 years ago look at the Spanish Inquisition I'm in Spain it's it's a little bit different the time line for each of the each of the Western European countries or Eastern European countries for how we emerge from having that kind of hyper authoritarian hyper conformist Society but you would not say this to a Muslim you would not say to a Muslim you should be satisfied with just sorry I mean an ex-muslim you would not say to a Muslim atheist an ex Muslim atheist you should be satisfied to silently conform in your culture and just keep observing Ramadan keep observing Eid keep doing animal sacrifice key participating in all these all these festivities while not believing in them because they represent the spirit of generosity or the spirit of blank fill in the blank you would never do that so and again I know to some people these are shocking examples but they're real examples if you live in a communist society and you don't believe in communism and you actually do recognize that communism is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people I'm sorry I live in Canada the Anglican Church has blood on its hands I don't regard the Anglican Church as as you know harmless I don't regard the Catholic churches as harmless just within the history of my own country of Canada I don't have to go as far as Australia or South America or other examples or medieval Europe right here in Canada within the last 100 years there were crimes I do not forgive that the Catholic and Anglican Church committed and they've gone to court for them and blah blah blah I mean they're on the record this stuff ain't secret so you know it by the same token you would not say to someone who was an ex communist or free think honest well you should just blend in you should just accept the fact that Lai Fong day so that's when I talked with the earlier video you know that that's the spirit of helping orphans and helping elderly people and we should just celebrate that because those are good Communist virtues even if you don't believe in communism and way that is a discourse that actually came to its full pardon me came to the fore in Europe specifically because of flora ba who had this hit book called business Crescent towns and that was his solution that was his atheism 2.0 that was his way forward for atheism was for atheism to move forward as being a new religion of humanity of what is truly human to take the human virtues out of religion and then celebrate those and hold them up and interestingly one of the most powerful negative reactions against that was Max Turner who is another philosopher I've talked about on this channel who said no no no what you're doing with the real effect of what you're doing is to take Christianity out of the church and to Christianize all of society where now it's not just the the church it's not just going to church on Sunday that's Christian now all of society is going to become sanctified and religious sized with this view that that makes these into even more dominant a humanistic religion and interestingly so just now my critique of Atlanta boto and atheism 2.0 that actually is parallel to that discourse in in 19th century philosophy what single you think you're making things better by taking religion out of the church and putting it into the university system making compulsory moral and ethic education part of the university system and putting into the arts and museums and filmmaking no this is actually the the sanctification this is making you know making sacred this is bringing religion into more and more of society as opposed to less and less so interestingly that's actually discourse all of my viewers who have a PhD in German philosophy you know I was talking about but that's actually a rare case of something in academic velocity that's still relevant and ok so let's let's click on this video big mean thing thanks I mean oh I'm glad you said all that and I think it's really true again the first thing I said in this video this isn't a dry academic lecture this is sung as part of our real lives what for me whether I'm walking the streets of Montreal or I'm walking the streets of Paris France whether it's you know Vancouver or Toronto or London England the world was on my mind I Christmas is like for me growing up there was like two sets of lies that I had to find out where lies you know first was Santa Claus yeah I remember the exact day I think I was probably like six but I remember I was on a swing set at my cousin's house my my cousin that I've told you about that's kind of a kind of a [ __ ] okay oh yeah yeah I know the cousin yes she spilled the beans to me as they say it was just like the spring and you know I don't know I guess she thought it would be funny to tell me like you know she was a couple years old man says a lie yeah and so yeah but of course that's not that big a deal because you still get presents and it's still like it's really not that big yeah my parents just lied to me about this fictional creature that comes down the chimney right I mean I guess I'm six years old you may think that a child could just come to that conclusion naturally that size six is a tough age but going yeah I was you know yeah and say what's same with Christianity or same with religion you know like like I was a it was a very obedient child like you know I I did what my parents told me so like when when I was learning about Christianity and going to Christian Bible school and stuff and you know I just took it took my work took my parents word for it like every night I would say prayers with my mom and stuff and you know when I was getting into my teenage years I started having like really more more philosophical thoughts about it and thinking like I mean more basic atheist thought is is that you know if there is all this all this pain and suffering in the world like why would God inflict that if you know if God knows all and can is is if he's omnipotent and omniscient why would he do this so then you know I I came to know about atheism somehow I really don't even know like I guess it was like maybe friends like I noticed that some friends of mine just didn't go to church and you know just like okay there's a different way to live your life and you know not say prayers at night just I think that's the parents at night until a bedtime story but not not say prayer I think it still is a rift I think it still is a rift in your family today yeah oh yeah definitely oh yeah well no I just said within your family there are the people who lean towards atheism and the people is still really remain with the church yeah it's not like a super overt now it's just screaming at the dinner table thing but you can see it you can see who leans that's actually not a theist like his wife is a theist like you know mapped eyes done like you know do all these things so any work that out before you get married to people you wanna fit you don't leave that though after anyway don't leave that till after pregnancy that's a real bad move yeah yeah after I you know started realizing on my own or just like you know somehow I don't remember like how I first came into that God isn't real I guess it was probably just whatever I was reading in at school mmm but yeah then it was like a whole other set of lies that I had to write peel back right so Christmas is just to me like lying to children in multiple ways more ways than one yeah so anyway I just say really briefly I've done videos in the past I could do more videos but I was raised by communists and they could say they were communists extremists or communists fundamentalists which created very different conflicts but like Alan right but like I landed both tones this showed out a video that went up within the last 24 hours emotional state it's a new video but like a landable tone it is fair to say both of my parents really yearned for really desired the accoutrement of religion they still really wanted religion and religiosity in their lives and I don't I would not say that's true of the majority of communist I don't but there is definitely a minority of Communists that you meet often enough who still really want and value religion one way or another and of course one of the one of the big lies in my family was the extent to which my father really had been religious for a significant part of his life before I was born so life - so there were a lot of lies along and yeah it shows yeah so you know but communism also as I was raised with it the the form of extreme were fundamental economies it is also a religion built on lies and there was a different process of figuring out what what those lies were yeah yeah okay yes for you like you grew up with these writings that you actually you know you as a teenager you read and you were able to die seven as a child but going yeah but like again I feel like there's another layer of like was I really raised Christian because as I've been with you like you've you've talked about you've read the bike yeah I know the Bible way but like she knows this right right you got just sort of Noah's Ark presented as a separate little story without my mom would like read to me or like Erik or whatever the sermon was at church you know like there was the passage of the Bible but I and I would sing songs hymns that's right yeah music music was a big part of Education yeah hopefully oh yeah and it's funny like even in choir but it is fair to say when you started this relationship you had no knowledge of the history of the Bible like where the text comes from and those questions of yeah we're like what it was who wrote the story this kind of thing right yeah I'm it's great like I feel more enriched and in that that I've been uncovering these lies are uncovering these half-truths that was told as a child but you know that's another layer of it what's with Christmas that I just want to say like you know you're not really like if you're Christian and reading about Jesus Christ like I mean this is oh no no it's it's not really what is focused on today if with Christmas but it is where it's from you know it's just like why are we celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and that's really what you know they look same thing wrong and so you know yeah celebrating celebrating these communist communist leaders right yeah so look just to bring it back to the core point this video and we're gonna get we're gonna hit play we're gonna respond to this this other video about me um you know my reaction to all of this is to try to do something positive to try to create something new in the culture to try to write new children's literature and I would be very interested not just in publishing storybooks or children but in doing a cartoon on Netflix or YouTube or whatever you know I'm interested in the production of new cultural forms and of course when I'm making you've seen the stories Christians could also consume the Muslims and Theory closer to you wouldn't I mean it's you know same with Disney probably plenty of people who believe in religion consume Disney yeah but Disney is it is secular they actually have a corporate commitment to only doing secular children's entertainment they don't have religious content and their films or in the actual park the actual Walt Disney World Walt Disney lantern parks but another element of this that reflects how cosmopolitan we are in our lives and I'm not boasting I've no choice I travel all around the world constantly and have done for the last 20 years or more really all my life it's not just the cultural poverty of children's literature in English that I'm complaining about in all these other languages have studied including German but Chinese Japanese loschen Thai Cambodian I've been looking at what's available in terms of you know new culture for children's literature and this is a need all around the world and also a part of this is about atheism versus religion part of it is about nihilism versus communism because I also reject communism but you know part of it is also about new versus old that we just do need new culture to replace old culture because even the secular fables for children in German like Max and Moritz I mean the stuff that exists in German and French culture from 100 years ago or even stories like Little Red Riding Hood Little Red Riding Hood is about girls being raped and that's what it's about guys I've read the original text and you know it's actually they are you know to be shared with children you know we really do have a challenge we have a challenge to generate new culture for the next generation that is an acute need in every culture I've studied in every language of study not just English and not just in rejecting Christianity or Islam let's say a play but even the most hardcore intellectual atheists here on YouTube who posture as some kind of I know extreme secularists who are out to transform study even they say that the celebration of Christmas is just no problem at all why it says secular as the American Constitution or um taking your vows on a stack of Bibles when you go to court it's perfectly secular there's no problem with that there's no problem with Santa Claus Santa Claus isn't in the Bible [Music] maybe we don't mean to comment it will just end our video by just playing this in fact mr. ray theists you're as cuddly as a cactus you're as charming as an eel mr. e do use these same people these secularists and atheists would never make the same excuses for raising their children with the annual celebration of a Muslim holiday if you actually look at some of the Hindu and Buddhist holidays what actually happens in them thinking of a certain Hindu celebration in Nepal that involves slaughtering and sacrificing large numbers of cattle we still have that going on in some sects of Judaism also you might be surprised at the durability of animal sacrifice as a concept in the 21st century so the Hindu event you're referencing here is the gadhimai festival which is a mass slaughter of animals meant to appease you guessed it gaudy my a goddess of power now on the left side of your screen you'll see a photo of the aftermath of this disgusting festival in 2014 somewhere in the vicinity of three hundred thousand animals were beheaded during that particular festival on the right you're going to see a nativity scene comparing the two seems unfair to say the least there's a distinct what sorry how many turkeys are slaughtered for Christmas how I'm sorry what Wow there's not a huge field like this sorry homeboy were vegan I mean you're barking up the log right now three hundred thousand cows e [ __ ] compared to the amount of beef consumers but also the examples I gave I was include it wasn't a direct comparison I said there are Muslim holidays that involve animal sacrifice there were Jewish holidays sorry I mean it within Israel which forms of Judaism still perform those but some of them do still carry out the biblical and if you've read the Old Testament animal sacrifice is part of Old Testament Judaism very few Christians still do it but in Israel it's a thing for Jews to slaughter a lamb it's in there but do you think there's a difference between slaughtering a cow outdoors and doing it indoors think it's morally superior to do it on a stainless steel slaughter I don't yeah and have it I mean isn't it just a sacrifice look you're asking the wrong guy I assume they I assume they don't but one thing hey this is a comparison look what a ridiculous response like oh but here's a picture of dead cows and here's a picture of one element Christianity how can you compare it well I compare it I'm sorry so which one is which one has committed genocide on more Kaunas Hinduism or Christianity sorry who who wiped out the indigenous people of South America Australia Canada who was it Hindus was it Hindus who do that would you Hindus go around the world conquering people by the sword and forcing them to convert to Hinduism I mean I'm sorry which one is more like celebrating Adolf Hitler or Mao Zedong cuz the Hindus they these Hindus specifically in Nepal they may still sacrifice cattle but they're not guilty of the crimes of the British Empire let alone getting into the Spanish Empire with the other great empires of Christendom and celebrating the suppose at birth of Jesus with an eel placed nativity scene prayers and some Christmas carols I'm not sure what Buddhist holidays you're referencing here but since Buddhism is compatible with atheism I'm not sure how it's relevant to your overall so much about photos of my dude cuz you know so much about Buddhism compared to me oh you're barking up the wrong tree right now homie in fact the main point of your video is that atheists need to replace the rituals songs etc normally associated with Christmas with something else and you can do that well let me just be clear again hey I have a five-year-old daughter who memorizes the cartoons she watches you may also I mean I don't have to but many children they really do memorize and mimic and repeat the cultural forms they're expose - my daughter is not a unique example of this yes I do not want my daughter memorizing and repeating this kind of crap I think you also do not want your daughter or your son memorizing and repeating back Islamic rituals Islamic texts Islamic you know dogmatic songs and statements like why is it so hard to sympathize with if you are an atheist I can understand I was talking to a fundamentalist Christian but if you are an atheist and you reject Islam and you reject Buddhism and you reject Hinduism why is there this unique exception for this one festival for this one only where you can't sympathize mom says hey I want to provide my daughter with something better because there the Curious George better than Santa Claus presents better than Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer cookies Muslims have cookies too let's be honest right Hinduism has cookies too I'll link a few sources below but some Buddhist sites recommend celebrating Christmas by meditating focusing on charity work or by oh my gosh or are you an atheist at all yes because endorsing meditation is so different from it from endorsing prayer oh my upping a suffering animal Buddhism also has a whole set of holidays to replete with rituals and all that other good stuff that many people sorry you think I don't know this I was the one referencing Buddhist annual rituals I was a poly scholar I was a scholar of Buddhism for more than ten years I have peer-reviewed publications on Buddhism I've lived in Buddhist countries for years and years in Southeast Asia I studied there languages history and politics you're quoting Wikipedia to prove what here what does he think he's proving to me I made a mention of Buddhism in passing parallel to Judaism Christianity Islam is just being another religion and you think this is a refutation of my view oh my god this is mouth-breathing level of ignorance larger on - you wouldn't have your children participating in any of these supernatural jewels moreover okay since your question guys look up right now any any of these mass Buddhist rituals where you have a bunch of people meditating in front of a statue and they're playing music and they're chanting magical words mostly in garbled Sanskrit I'm sorry if you just do the little bit of research just as you looked at that field of slaughtered cows and you think I don't want my daughter being there participating in slogging this cows I do not want my daughter being brainwashed by any of the big mainstream Buddhist groups and I think it's if anything it's much more dangerous precisely because on the surface level the aesthetics are more appealing like if I actually took my daughter to witness those cows being slaughtered she'd probably become a militant vegan she probably while this is terrible this is disgusting just even the smell of slaughtered cows up guess what Buddhism sure you can go and there's this real nice tranquil surface layer and there's a guy playing a wooden drum and chanting and horribly mispronounced Sanskrit and repeating these magical ideas that come from various sutras and wearing these appealing robes and people sit and meditate that's much more dangerous I don't want my daughter doing it I don't want you doing it and if anything it's because the exterior is more seductive look it up but are you an atheist are you a skeptic you don't look at a bunch of people sitting in formation chanting an ancient Sanskrit text and meditating which is just so different from prayer to a magical ritual trying to get magical effects or magic locums and you see no problem with that stamp of approval I'm sorry this is just a contrast me people who are real atheists and people who are fake atheists in this book whereas it is genuinely disputed and contested today whether or not Jesus Christ ever was an historical figure or if his origins are entirely mythological whereas it is disputed whether or not Moses ever was an historically real person or if he's just a mythological figure there's no debate about Adolf Hitler and there are certain segments of society who celebrate the birthday of Adolf Hitler there are still segments of society who celebrate and revere Joseph Stalin Mao Zedong Lenin your choice why why would you want to keep your child separate from all of these these holidays all these celebrations have any of them killed as many people as Christianity let's just say that Jesus did live let's say he was a real man who lived preached and had a small gathering of followers not aware of him killing millions of people in the Bible he doesn't call for the mass extermination Oh neither did Karl Marx you idiot I don't want my daughter worshipping the Communist Manifesto either Yoji the fictional character of Jesus didn't personally murder much neither did Mao Zedong's he didn't personally murder millions people celebrating the life of Mao Zedong represents your approval of oh my god this is just the stupidest or use is this guy still in high school I can't guess his age by his voice this is twelve-year-old level just misrepresenting what I've said and what I said was so clear there how can you miss her this isn't subtext this is on the level of the surface layer of the text misinterpreting and misrepresenting what I've said I this is just debating with an idiot an idiot who's not who identifies as an atheist but who isn't in the Bible he doesn't call for the mass extermination of Jews he doesn't set up ghoul eggs or concentration camps he didn't starve to torture or imprison his political adversaries to compare Jesus to Hitler or Stalin is silly now I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I did not you're just misrepresenting me I compared Christianity the empires of Christendom to the Nazi Empire and the various communist empires such as the Soviet Union and China it was very clear what I said and I asked you a question that you dodged you didn't answer I said which one has killed more people okay who why is why is Australia full of white people speaking English how did that happen homie do you think the Christian Church here in Chrismukkah is all of North America South America full of people speaking Spanish in South America how did Spanish and Portuguese become the majority language of Mexico and everything south of there you got you got the impact inside on that how did Spanish and Portuguese become such widely spoken language of white why isn't it one of the languages of India why isn't everyone speaking Sanskrit homey well what do you think about that I mean the history of genocide committed in Jesus's name is real and you are dismissing that on the grounds that Jesus personally didn't commit genocide Oh gore yeah and you know what the principles that made communism so violent they are in the writing of Karl Marx and that's why I reject even the writing of Karl Marx it's not the case there's some clear moral division where Marx is good but Stalin is evil Joseph Stalin was very sincerely trying to interpret and implement the philosophy of Karl Marx now as the dong was also those guys knew Marxism they had somewhat different interpretations and took it in different ways the Communists in Cambodia were really sincere communists they read Karl Marx and all of these people were sincere Christians the Catholic Church the sickest thing of all is understanding that the Catholic Church from their perspective had good intentions in carrying out that genocide because they they believed good and evil as they got it from the Bible oh my god I'm debating with a mental twelve-year-old here I have argued that the Christian belief in hell is a pourraient and most Christians I've talked to say that hell was taught by Jesus so I'll give you that if Jesus was a real person and if he did indeed teach that we deserve to be tortured for eternity then he was an awful human being but to say that teaching people that they deserve hell is on the same scale as literally killing millions of people it's just ludicrous and again not a fair comparison and the cold hard truth of rational nihilistic atheism is that there are no excuses the Christmas tree is beautiful I mean it's not nearly as beautiful as my baby puppy Dexter here but I do like it you know you won't find in my house around my Christmas tree anything remotely religious there are no Jesus ornaments or little Wiseman figurines you'll just find pretty lights a few superhero ornaments and some colorful bulbs has to be thrown on the dustbin of history along with circumcision burning witches conversion by the sword so many barbaric regretable traditions again there's a world of difference between burning witches and celebrating christmas it's like you just think up the worst possible examples and then put them up with a holiday that is largely benign if we start stringing up witches on those trees then I'll gladly take your comparison into consideration you're not just competing with the I don't know how I don't know no no I just you just said that somebody had responded to their to you III lose a huge apartment he doesn't look like he's 12 years old he has own apartment it's just stupid it's not saying yeah I know sorry but he doesn't respond to any no is isn't Ramadan anaphase I'm sorry isn't worshiping the Kaaba in Mecca beautiful everyone wearing matching costumes and doing this dance around the Kaaba what about isn't it beautiful celebrating that the standard Zen ritual every morning of waking up and that this particular wooden drum being being played and chanting this garbled Sanskrit Sutra and how about in whatever we can get into Taiwanese folk religion and Taoism isn't it beautiful is it right or is it wrong and I'm sorry you know do you think you could have this perspective whiteboy if you were born cree or a jib way or an indigenous person of the hawaiian islands do you think you would have this perspective that christianity and christmas is harmless if you were one of the last people struggling to speak the indigenous languages of California like Yurok or out in the middle of the Arizona desert trying to cling to the last of the den a languages if you were ethnically a member of one of the peoples destroyed by Christianity okay ethnically I'm Jewish how do you think I feel about Martin Luther and Luther ISM there's a very direct connection between Luther ISM in 1870 Luther basically reinvented eighty semitism you guys look into it you wrote a book in German called D Juden and Aaron lugan the Jews and their lies it totally galvanized and redefined anti-semitism and it was held up you can see photographs of this the photographs of the crowds at Hitler rallies when they did this build there were people there holding up Martin Luther's book were the the form of Nazi anti-semitism was very much a direct inheritance of an expansion of the anti-semitism of Martin Luther obviously the Gospels are less anti-semitic than Martin Luther and Martin Luther is less anti-semitic than Adolf Hitler but nevertheless Martin Luther was an extreme anti-semite and he created a whole new moon Edison that led to eventually the deaths of nice people how do you think I feel walking past Lutheran Church and knowing that and yes my relatives my ancestors did die in the Holocaust they were exterminated I also have relatives and ancestors who were exterminated by communism to some extent by the way um you know end up and I've known people face-to-face who were external suffered terribly and their relatives were exterminated by eg communism but the American bombing of of Southeast Asia these things are not unique it's not just Christianity there's plenty of suffering to go around do you think you could divorce the symbols of Christianity from what they symbolize if you were an indigenous person in Hawaii if you work reor a Jib way if you were one of the peoples any of the peoples who've suffered under christian imperialism and again if you go to north africa there are people there who know that they've suffered under Islamic imperialism anyone who pose the Islamization of their society because they know the history III there's one guy I knew I mean there are very few of these there was one guy I knew who was ethnically from central Afghanistan so and he really knew that his people on his tribe used to be Buddhists and they were forced to convert to Islam at the sword and he was genuinely interested in reviving Buddhism as a religion within Afghanistan obviously the guy was really an atheist obviously was a modern atheist it wasn't interesting going back to medieval Buddhism or something but he thought it was really important to emphasize look Islam is not the indigenous religion of Afghanistan this was done to us you know we were conquered by an empire our Buddhist monuments were destroyed our temples were burned down and we were given a choice to either to convert to this religion or die and here in Canada that is not ancient history that was still going on in my childhood and [ __ ] you all you've got to say is the Christmas tree is beautiful so it's ok if I was choosing my religion based on the architecture I would choose his Lomb there are Muslim temples with gorgeous architecture all around the world if I was choosing my religion based on the food probably I choose Taoism Daoists have good food actually a south korean buddhism they have pretty good food Shifu you know if I was choosing my religion based on the tea and coffee I mean the home the aesthetics of what religions are when are we going to move past this it's it's mind-blowing to me this is a lot stupider than I could have possibly imagined christmas-tree you're competing with the Sistine Chapel you're competing with the assembled beauty and sculpture and works of art and architecture accomplishments and traditions and songs and poetry of centuries and millennia and what are you gonna replace it with I'm glad you asked we're replacing it with a secularized version of Christmas about eight hours of kids right yeah okay so if that's good enough for you I don't think this guy's kids if that's good enough for you fine but if you're an atheist you should be able to sympathize with me saying that's not good enough for my daughter I also don't really want my daughter growing up with Curious George not the Curious George is evil I'd like her to have something better and more meaningful than Curious George I'd like to have something better and more meaningful than Mickey Mouse and Batman and Superman and spider-man and those are secular icons and their icons and their cultural influential nonetheless my childhood was influenced by Batman I've talked about that before in many ways Batman may be more influential than Christianity maybe in Manhattan Island today and the most secular parts the United States today you know among certain kinds of cynical teenagers growing up if that's good enough for you I think you really have to question the sincerity of your own atheism I think you're being very insincere and duplicitous I don't think you're lying to us I think you're lying to yourself but why would you be incapable of sympathizing with me in my position when I just had to say that is not good enough I took this unscientific poll on Twitter where I asked whether it was a good idea for atheists to celebrate Christmas so far the overwhelming majority think it's fine and if you comb through those responses you'll find atheists who don't think about religion at all but who celebrate family food presents friends but you never answer any of the questions I posed so what about Muslims how is that how this culture Saudi Arabia is gonna change is that other culture of Malaysia or Turkey you know relatively moderate so just so everything's gonna stay the same in the next hundred years and in your lifetime nothing's gonna change you're not gonna challenge the Christian is that which were in any way not even with your own child or the school your child is enrolled at and you're fine with your child going to a majority Muslim school that celebrates and teaches Muslim holidays you say oh just conform just go with the flow just celebrate you know family and love and generosity and another ABS and the food and enjoy the architecture and enjoy the beauty of the Christmas tree and enjoy the decorations in the mosque enjoy the mosque architecture enjoy the music enjoy the aesthetics of it while not believing in it and then you know Christian dominated society never has to change and Muslim dominated society never changed think about the next hundred years homeboy think about the next thousand years yeah you know what you got 82 of your followers on Twitter support your position that's not surprised and guess what those are the people who are not going to lift a finger to make any kind of positive cultural change or any kind of positive political change we can do a poll of vegans hey who thinks veganism is just a lifestyle who thinks veganism is just about being healthy and sexy and fit and probably it's 82 percent of vegans okay what percentage of people actually want to get organized and go Lobby provincial Parliament go Lobby the state legislature on this animal rights issue involving elephants or dolphins or something maybe it's 1% maybe it's 2% that's the 2% that's gonna change the world who do you think means seatbelts mandatory we'll do a poll back in 1952 what percentage of people want seatbelts to be mandatory 2% who cared 80 85 percent of I don't give a [ __ ] about seatbelts [ __ ] air guess what 2% of people got organized and change the world cuz they cared they wanted to make the world a better place and exactly what's odd early lacking in this contemporary ideas discourse is any sincere impulse try to make the world a better place and a few days off work this closely mirrors something I read in an article recently here's what it said quote such friction as long roots in American history says Boston University of religion professor Steven Prothero Christmas may be a religious holiday but it's also deeply secular creating a natural conflict there have always been people in America who want to make it more religious more Christian he said but the reason they're doing that is that Christians have largely lost control of the holiday his 2003 book American Jesus talks about how Jesus has been claimed and remade by other faiths and cultures in the United States the same has happened with Christmas he says it isn't just a Christian holiday anymore it's a lot of other things he said ironically he adds maintaining that balance probably helps keep Christmas front and center end quote some atheist have replaced it with things like Newton Mass but the bottom line here is that like the Grinch Christians stole Christmas not from the who in Whoville but from the pagans who celebrated the winter solstice and since then it is evolved further it has been largely secularized and you can celebrate the holiday without celebrating Christ to be honest it's a bit funny to me that Christians will often talk about giving up worldly wealth but they're stolen sacred holiday is now a day built on rampant consumerism I don't feel I'm stepping into the shoes of anyone else who's who's made this ever before that's the that's the weirdest thing if you come on the internet and say you want to start a new fad have you idea you normally you have a lot of precedents to look around that you're a real trailblazer my friend the groundwork is already done now feel free to make up your own way of celebrating Yule or whatever you want to call it but millions of us have already done that and continue to do you haven't made up anything you're just doing exactly what you were taught by your parents I mean things have not changed for decades no but show me country is this is how you celebrate Christmas what do you mean that you think show me the story book you read show me the story book you reach your daughter show me the cartoon you show your kids instead of the Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer could show me the alternative you show me the songs you sing because again partly for language practice I'm looking for that in Chinese and in the past Japanese not stoned Japanese more I've looked at it in French and German not just English but English is this mega language globally you're not producing that you're not engaged in cultural reduction you're not competing with Rudolph and Santa you're not competing with these nests where recycle bells let's just right I mean the name is Ray Price has Christian in its base and look I this came up there was a vegan on YouTube who wore a Nazi t-shirt he wore a swastika on his t-shirt so in that context I mentioned this ok him wearing a t-shirt that is Pro Adolf Hitler that has a swastika on it and his Pro Nancy had the word Nancy on it also the particular t-shirt okay so it's completely explicit it was a Nazi swastika it's not a Buddhist swastika cars Lee why is that bad it's not bad because he's directly hurting anybody or killing anybody I think the particular guy has never hurt anyone he's never assaulted a Jewish person or burned down a synagogue it's not bad because he's in any way involved in or implicated in or morally responsible for the atrocities committed by Nazis okay the symbol is bad because of what it symbolizes because of what it tells me about you it tells me you the guy wearing that Nazi t-shirt is willing to conform with and collaborate with and cooperate with neo-nazis that he approves of and supports in the past tense something Adolf Hitler did so the Nazi Party did okay your Christmas tree and your Lutheran Chapel the the outward trappings of Christianity here in Canada you don't think they're symbolically related to the genocide of our indigenous peoples the disappearance of our native language the whole transformation of this culture on this continent by christened oh you don't think so I think it's much more powerfully connected than the British flag or the current Queen of England the Queen of England can say she's not responsible for that or that her crown doesn't symbolise that that is absolutely what Christianity symbolizes and again what if you were an indigenous person from South America or Hawaii or any of these places that work that were ruled under by Christianity it is true the symbol regarded in isolation is not evil and is not harmful the Christmas tree doesn't harm anyone and that's why these comparisons are important is that you're just less familiar with the other symbol in in Mecca the Kaaba that the celebrations of Islam they in themselves do not hurt anybody there's no harm but what do they symbolize they symbolize the total destruction of Afghanistan which didn't just wiped out Buddhism and animism and what was generally a more permissive open-minded society that easily could have become today that at least as modern and westernized as a place like Japan there was the potential there it created an absolutely horrible society that we all deplore today dominated by the Taliban a society that even moderate Muslims deplore okay that was what was created by that so by approving of that symbol it tells me something about you it's not really a moral judgment on the Nazis and it's not really a moral judgment on the Christmas tree and it's not a moral judgment on the Bible or Jesus it's about you what kind of person you aspire to be and what kind of society you aspire to be a part of and what you're willing to do as an activist or leader of public opinion to try to achieve it and we all know homeboy in your case it's nothing you think it's harmless to raise your kid celebrating Christmas then why don't you think it's harmless to take them down to the mosque and raise them with Islam why don't you think it's harmless to raise them in in Hinduism you think it's harmless because it's familiar you think it's harmless because the constant barrage of advertising has made this particular religion its particular superstitions lies cultural values irrational and in an ADIZ seem so familiar I do sympathise with your point here so why didn't you make a video saying that yeah exactly what when I won the last minute of the video exactly what has been missing here is sympathy you couldn't open with this is a middle-aged man I'm 40 years old I have a five-year-old daughter this is a man who wants to do better for his own daughter and his own family who's struggling to buy Dan an alternative to Christmas and something meaningful in his daughter's life and who's interested in publishing this story book so you also with weight less effort can buy the story book and read your kids something meaningful that's not rooted in Christianity or communism or Islam or something awful why isn't there sympathy and why isn't there a positive tendency like I said before to recruit talent for us to work together having me on your channel I mean the level of hostility self-righteous hostility you sound like a Catholic I know I know it's normal for me to agree with you but like I mean when you say that it's just about being familiar that really is the case and I feel like you you were just going to you are going to encounter criticism right like forever you know by doing this and like you know as you said agreeing to put up a Christmas tree agreeing to do the whole write the whole shebang of getting presents having a Christmas tree putting on another tree blah blah blah having a big celebration with a bunch of meat dairy and horrible food you know this is all the trappings of Christian society and it's saying that you will agree with other Christians you you can cooperate with other Christians and that's really like I think the fundamental difference is that I don't want to cooperate I don't want to just do what my family is done like like if I were still like if I hadn't been you know if I had started relationship with you and moved away you know like if I were still in Michigan I think I would still feel this way I would just not want to celebrate Christmas because even for me like just the food aspect alone makes it like impossible for me to want to sit down at a table with my with my family when they're eating this horrible carnist food and like so the food alone the religion alone I mean all these are factors that make me not want to participate in it and it shows me that like really the only thing that you feel differently about is that you don't believe in God but you're willing to cooperate and like do the same things as everybody else in the society and this is why I like I like I really hope that we do move to Taiwan like I really want to be part of a culture that is not Christianity because and it's it's sad for me like thinking you know like I I am totally like down with with what your coming out I think like the stories that are coming over they're great and I love that it's meaningful and I'm like you know they don't Socrates and yes like I want these these stories to be out there and for other for other families to start celebrating this but I feel like it's gonna be such a small like minor change and I feel that way about veganism to like I just want to like instead of being up against opposition for the rest of my life and like trying to raise a child in in a society that is so like based on Christianity even if you say like your secular now even if you're celebrating Christmas in a secular way it's still based on it and you're still it's all the trappings of of Christian society I feel like I would rather instead of putting up with that opposition and constantly being on you know up against up against a brick wall you know living in it instead moving somewhere else where like more people are vegan you know more people are not Christian more people are just either secular or Buddhist which is just not look and it's sad for me it's every because I like you said I what I wish there was more crock work cooperation and like would like with veganism what do you first started your channel there was so much backlash like what you were saying but nobody's trying to accrue talent nobody's trying to work with you everyone's working against you why don't you do a fundraiser for my children's story like still want to celebrate your work in the fashion industry you're not like when I first started this bit like when I first start washing this I was thinking in my mind like maybe as well like just appreciate that the show exists at all just because I remember seeing you were like Twitter like nobody is responding to this or like no nobody in there right like rode on YouTube is wanting to cooperate with me or like why not even make a response video to this all I'm getting is negativity and this is it's just it seems to be a negativity and like saying like well it's we we already have the the Atheist alternative to Christmas which is Miss uh Wow novel thinking like really you think that we thinking that way like it like that we want something we don't want something different so yeah I mean it's it's sad that they can't just be like alright you're maybe you're right man like maybe maybe after reflecting on it I haven't been thinking about Christmas in this way and now I can think about it differently you don't try to come up with something else or maybe and support you or keep saying you know right sure or just sympathize did you just say hey that he personally is gonna keep on celebrating Christmas yeah but he sees this as a positive project to write new stories and make new cartoons and new storybooks because the world needs more quality children's entertainment that's raising legitimate philosophical issues and interesting ideas for kids in a relatable way um I also have a background in cult studies I would say the elements of Buddhism and communism that are cult-like and I've talked about the elements of political movements that are called like like within veganism that are cult-like and you know III should be preaching to the converted here when I say to an audience of atheists religion is dangerous right so on I have the option of raising my daughter Jewish right I also have the option of becoming a citizen of Israel by the way if you didn't know if you're Jewish enough you can become a citizen of Israel two month process kind of thing why do you think I don't teach my daughter that she's part of a special magical master race of people that God chose and that the whole world's history is about her and that Israel is the center of the world and the most important people in the history of the world that's all why why do you think I don't teach her that the the ego trip itself is dangerous and again I've caught up look the vast majority of Jews I knew were atheists the majority of Jewish rabbis I have met were atheists there were people who valued the tradition and the ethnicity and the culture and who did not believe in God they did not believe in praying to a God who would listen to you and if they did not believe in that the vast majority of Jews Judaism is still an incredibly dangerous religion partly because it tells people things they want to hear like you're special beautiful you're part of a special master race and the atrocities being committed by the government of Israel don't matter and they're okay because of this specialness the scale of the atrocities the world transforming effect of the empires of Christendom is many orders of magnitude larger and it is I mean most of my time on this channel I'm criticizing communism Mao Zedong is responsible for a minimum 30 million deaths I don't even want probably it's more than 50 million but minimum minimum 30 million deaths Cambodia another one of these one of these disasters and in communism but I mean you know even if you're an atheist Jew you're a Jewish family that is openly atheist and you teach your kid no no God is just a superstitious idea or it's just this version in the Bible but you're only teaching them the other components of secularized duty as or completely secular Zionism that is dangerous and you guys should be able to relate to that and I really think the only reason you can't perceive that danger in Christmas is exactly what I've already said and what was quoted back because it's familiar then because you associate it with I don't know gift-giving and your grandma feeding you food you like or whatever it is you would I said this in all the videos you would expect a Muslim to have more moral courage than that you would expect an ex-muslim to stand up and say no more we've got to change no more arranged marriage no more circumcision no more female genital mutilation no more Ramadan that's what you expect people to do in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia and Indonesia and Turkey you expect them to stand up and say I don't want to live in the medieval past anymore I want to represent an optimistic different better future culture and you won't do that yourself when there's there's no risk and you won't even sympathise with me what I'm doing it and it costs you nothing to just say hey man oh good effort you know not everybody satisfied with Curious George and not everyone is satisfied with Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and it's not just Rudolph the reindeer Davis I mean do you know even in school they're singing and they're hearing songs that say the Lord and Savior is come that is what Christmas is about it's not Rudolph must why is Santa's name Santa do you know the meaning of the word Santa he's a saint I mean at the level of self-deception here what do you think you're celebrating silent night holy night I grew up singing that I don't think you're entirely wrong either you can certainly make a compelling case that Christmas can and sometimes does embolden Christians and make them feel as though we're adding a legitimacy to their nonsense beliefs and you're right that we do celebrate Christmas and not Ramadan because of the culture we were born into but I also think that when atheists do celebrate Christmas they're making it their own in actually lessening or removing the Christian elements over time it will likely be a wholly secular holiday to most accept few fringe Christians who will continue to celebrate it as if it has a religious significance but maybe I'm wrong and you agree with Baz anymore to say I feel like I've said it all it's the ultimate lazy self-indulgent fantasy that Christianity is just going to get weaker and weaker and disappear from this earth and I don't think you're saying that about Islam and you're not saying that about communism so even if it were true of Christianity have you been to Georgia have you been to Las Vegas Las Vegas Nevada is still an intensely Christian town despite the gambling and the prostitution and the strippers I mean it's mind blowing in America you have these juxtapositions but these are intensely Christian places just look at the list of Christian colleges and Christian schools how many people are still going to Catholic school even in my own neighborhood in Canada Christianity is a tremendously powerful force if that were true even if I conceded the point that Christianity is just gonna wither up and dry away without you lifting a finger without you getting uncomfortable without you making the effort to offer an alternative to Curious George and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer you have to recognize that's not gonna happen with Islam how is gonna drag Afghanistan into the 21st century how is that gonna happen you know you you're kidding who is gonna drag China out of communism how is that gonna happen I'm very interest in that also you know I mean I'm sorry but the depth of self-deception here it is a fatuous self-serving deception like I said the beginning of this video that all you have to do is sit back and laugh all you have to do is sit back and scorn these people and you're gonna win I mean we we know somebody we have a friend who you know she knows that God isn't real like I mean like in her own personal belief system she is atheist but because the Christian Church is organized because that's where you can bring your kids for child care where you can other mothers who are raising children of their own where there's a community somebody people around with common values you know like about being a morally upright person I really don't see the church going away if there's no alternative if there's no other community like if the if a theist don't get together and say okay well this is like this is a group of people where we're all involved like we're trying to be bringing families together and stuff like no I mean especially with how society is moving toward being less and less connected I think there might be yeah in a future where there's a backlash like oh let's get more church like more people into church just because we're dealing we're all dealing with loneliness inflicted from inflicted by you know yeah and we we we have lived through so you guys probably guess my girlfriend is younger than I'm we have lived through an era of religious wars since the year 2001 I can remember what the world was like before 2001 my girlfriend somewhat less so yes some memories being here just a lot younger than me your whole life has been in the shadow of wars between the American Empire and Islam broadly speaking just to simplify a little bit and my early childhood was the American Empire versus communist on the Soviet Union particularly and you know that's a big change in the world if you think religion matters less today how about those elections in Iraq I mean couple I mean even if you look at the Republican Party I'm sorry if it's true in the Democrat Party it's true Obama and and you know the Clinton family Bill Clinton go into Church you wouldn't believe all those people went to church like clockwork totally cynical but I mean you know all of those people are reppin that their their good Christian souls you think religion doesn't matter in American Parliament in American Congress and the Senate you think religion doesn't matter in Iraq's Parliament and Senate you must be kidding these are tremendously powerful forces on planet Earth and there are always rewards for being a conformist Melissa you recently met a woman with a PhD face-to-face who knows how evil the Communist Party is and she's a communist party member she's gonna conform her whole life she's gonna March the party line she's gonna tow the party line I want to put it my teacher who I was close personal friends with in China Communist China she's a member of the Communist Party she knows she knows the reality of what communism was and what it still is and she's decided to compromise she's made that she's made that commitment and I noticed I think both of those women they decided to never have children they're both child free which is interesting do you want to raise your children believing that Mao Zedong was a good person or do you want them to know the truth do you want to know about the deaths the heroin horrible deaths of tens of millions of people we're not gonna get into it here do you want to be honest about this do you want to be honest with your kids about why Afghanistan is Muslim and what they were before and how that happened it was conversion by the sword is an unbelievably brutal history the real history of Muslim empires rising and falling what they've left on earth including the slave trading and the forced circumcision of adult males literally with the sword I've read stuff that'll give you nightmares and I've already said this a hundred times in this video if you think the British Empire is prettier in some ways the British Empire is even worse comparisons are odious but they're both incredibly bloody and brutal empires that you know I've had cultural that have resulted in cultural genocide on an enormous scale so you know the question you have to ask yourself is do I want to live a lie and if the answer is no what is the truth worth to you for me it's worth making that little bit of an effort to try to make original stories and probably cartoons and storybooks and puppet shows we got the puppets here for Socrates and the Fox and Socrates in the Panda we're gonna actually act these out make it fun and interesting for my daughter and those stories I'm worried in I I'm totally comfortable with my daughter memorized with performing them year after year after year and they have a fundamentally more positive message than singing silent night holy night and they are fundamentally way more meaningful than Curious George all right one hour 30 minutes babe that's a wrap