Researching religion
(In response to Shala Marks’s April 5 column, “Secular practices disrespect significance.”)
As an active member of the US’s admittedly small non-Christian community, I always find the argument that we are attacking holidays and religiosity with our “secular ways” to be extremely amusing.
This recent piece brought the argument that we of the secular leanings have corrupted the modern celebrations of religious holidays, citing Easter as an example with the “addition” of eggs and rabbits. I would like to call bollocks as most any religious historian worth their salt is aware that the pagan holiday which the Christian celebration of Easter replaced was in fact highly inclusive of rabbits and eggs. To educate those among you who have no idea what I’m talking about, when Christianity began to spread, the Catholic Church strategically placed the holidays on dates of pagan celebrations and feasts to allow easier integration the new religion.
... Why is the original meaning of this great feast day being cast aside in favor of a zombie? I’ve seen “Resident Evil,” zombies are no reason to celebrate! ... It is the religions themselves that are wreaking havoc upon my feasting! Anyone of differing religious views is clearly violating the rights of the pagans in this nation and is just trying to impose their tyrannical view upon me!
To avoid getting even more verbose I will just disregard Ms. Marks’ apparent lack of research on the matter of the religious reasoning and leanings of the founding fathers to the matter of separation of church and state. I will however conclude this with a bow and attempt to forcefully remove my tongue from its implantation into my cheek.
Alec Martinez Undergraduate
