AMERICAN ATHEISTS, INC. P O Box 140195 Austin, TX 78714-0195 Press Release December 19, 19

  
AMERICAN ATHEISTS, INC. 
P O Box 140195 
Austin, TX 78714-0195 
 
  
Press Release  
  
December 19, 1990  
  
  
     Jon Murray, President of American Atheists, today called 
upon all Atheists everywhere in the nation and the world to 
remember the Winter Solstice (10:07 P.M. EST, 21 December, 1990)
and to celebrate it appropriately.  
  
     "This remarkable natural phenomenon, stolen by the 
Christians as the alleged birthday of their mythological Christ,
stolen by the Jews as a contrived celebration of Hanukkah, 
remains as one of the four days -- prescribed by nature -- which
all persons in the world can see, feel, measure, and affirm.  
  
     "Verifiable by the observations of every human being in all
of human history these legendary and actual manifestations of the
journey of our world around the sun were universally celebrated.
Seeing that such festive and joyous occasions could not be  
suppressed by their death-exalting religion, the Judeo-Christians
of the world simply stole the days and imposed their fantasy  
stories upon them while they suppressed the celebrations of the 
solstices and the equinoxes.  
  
     "The shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice, is the 
harbinger of the point at which  **the sun is reborn** -- that 
is, the motion of the earth travelling around the sun, and the 
tilt of the earth's axis, begin to make the days longer with the
promise that winter and the annual darkening of the skies is 
over, that spring, summer, and the autumn harvests will come 
again.   
  
     "American Atheists urge you to take the day off, relax, eat,
drink, and be merry. Decorate your solstice tree. Give presents 
to one another, even as nature gives the present and the promise
of 'another year around the sun' for that old ball called the 
earth."  
  
     See attached scientific explanation - never before given to
the media, but available now in a clear and understandable form.

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