It’s near Christmas, and the neopagans have begun their Winter Solstice celebration on Vernon’s town green. Some of the celebrants, it is said, are atheists – a hopeful sign. The real pagans who once celebrate the Winter Solstice at least believed in resurrection deities -- Osiris, Adonis, Attis, Baal, Tammuz -- though not in the Christian God whose manger will lie but a few feet from the Vernon atheist’s… ummm… posting. If one has progressed from atheism to paganism, it is but a leap and a jump into theism. The village idiots, crawling towards Bethlehem, may make it yet -- God willing.
I am writing this for members of my family, and for others who may be interested. My twin sister Donna died a few hours ago of stage three lung cancer. The end came quickly and somewhat unexpectedly. She was preceded in death by Lisa Pesci, my brother’s daughter, a woman of great courage who died still full of years, and my sister’s husband Craig Tobey Senior, who left her at a young age with a great gift: her accomplished son, Craig Tobey Jr. My sister was a woman of great strength, persistence and humor. To the end, she loved life and those who loved her. Her son Craig, a mere sapling when his father died, has grown up strong and straight. There is no crookedness in him. Thanks to Donna’s persistence and his own native talents, he graduated from Yale, taught school in Japan, there married Miyuki, a blessing from God. They moved to California – when that state, I may add, was yet full of opportunity – and both began to carve a living for them...
Comments
The sign only refers to the solstice to send the message that science is more worthy of our respect than dogma. Jesus is not the real reason for the season--the earth's rotation and its axis are.
So I guess there is less hope than you thought.
Dan Senatro, Vice Coordinator, Connecticut Valley Atheists
If you are not celebrating the Winter Solstice then why have you chosen to place your marker on Vernon’s Town green, a place set aside, this time of year, for festive celebrations? Wouldn’t a letter to the editor have been more rational?
It is quite true that December 25th is just a day on the calendar – for atheists, pagans and non-Christians. But saying the day itself is “just” a day on the calendar is like saying the ocean is “just” a big puddle. Or it may be like saying that because some Islamic fundamentalists are terrorists anyone who believes in Islam is a terrorist. It may be true for you Dan, but a real scientist would have trouble forcing that preposterous notion down his throat.