ANSWERS: 4
  • In a society where the state and religion are separate there should certainly be no paid national holidays for any religious event. To single out specific religious events (e.g Christmas) and make them national holidays is discriminatory. Thats not to say there shouldnt be national holidays - there should - but they should be in celebration of national (non-religious) events and achievements. Meanwhile, followers of religions should be allowed to make whatever celebrations their religion demands - but confined to their own group, at their own cost and negotiated with the individual's employer. If you want to celebrate every holiday associated with every religion there is no reason why you cant - but your employer may have something to say about it - so might your bank manager!
  • It depends on the situation. Something like Christmas or Easter in the UK and US is theoretically a religious holiday and you could argue it should only be taken by Christians. However, Christmas has become so much a part of Western culture that it is essentially a cultural rather than a specifically religious holiday. Whilst some still celebrate it for religious reasons, for most people it is more of a traditional time to see family and friends and spend time together and give and receive gifts- the religious aspect is of secondary, if any, importance. Most traditional holidays in the UK are based in religious origins, although these days the holiday is more of a point than the religion. We would also be in a bit of a mess from an organisational point of view. One of the reasons public holidays work is that everyone takes a holiday at the same time. We know that its a waste of time calling a bank on Boxing Day or Easter Monday because they'll be closed- but we'd get mighty annoyed if we called up unwittingly on Divali and couldn't get through. Plus it would be unfair- some religions have far more holy days than others, if every religion had its holy days honoured we'd spend most of the year off work. If we were only allowed our own religious holidays Muslims and Hindus would get very bored twiddling their thumbs at work on Christmas day. Atheists and Agnostics would get fed up and start inventing their own holidays- it would be a complete mess. I think the best system is to work with the traditional cultural structure of a society - which is usually built around one or two dominant religions (even if those religions are no longer widely practiced) and give everybody those holidays off. Anyone who is a devout member of another religion should be able to request religious holidays off (as part of their normal holiday quota).
  • All religious holidays or none. Schools were closed for Yom Kippur even though no students are jewish.
  • As a Christian I only take holidays related to Christianity, but other people of other religions are entitled to take holidays relating to their religions, whatever they may be.

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