This is so true; we all have temptations to deal with each day.  I hope I am tempted each day to stop and enjoy nature as symbolized by the tree and remind myself with pages from books that without education, we have prejudice and intolerance.

Gail Gladstone, Long Island Realtor

Trey, I could not agree with you more!  It is sad to see the way people think these days, it makes me appreciate everything I have and believe in a little more everytime I see those people's negative views on life. 

Hi Trey:  I really fail to see how the struggle between right and wrong can center around a tree.  There are so many other evils out there to stand up against.  I truly hope this coming Christmas season will not be filled by pleadings about imagined sins and the imagined battle between good and evil.  Aren't there more important fights to fight ?

Karen,

 I was referring simply to the story of Adam and Eve. Obviously that story suggests that the struggle between good and evil began around that tree.  Christmas Trees celebrate Christ . The atheist tree symbol according to the athiest  rep , celebrates knowledge and nature.   My opinion is the atheist symbol is nothing more than an mockery and a hidden desire to be a part of Christmas.  Honestly if you think our sins are imagined and that there is no struggle between good and evil in this world , then my little blog on the news story won't mean much to you...unless you want it to of course.  There isn't anything more important than the battle against evil.  Would you classify the crazed dictator in Venezuela who decided he wants to be president, by law for 50 more years as a good person or an evil person? Would you classify Osama as a good person?  

The Atheist Tree symbol siuation is symbolic of the greater fights you refer to. 

Merry Christmas

Hi Trey, I understand your analogy. I could never identify with an atheist. I had lunch with my old high school best friend a few years back. She expressed that she was an atheist. I was dumbfounded. It hurt but I could no longer associate with her. She was raised a Christian. She got her Doctorate in Philosophy, same as my mom, but my mom remained a Christian. We will always battle the two. We will always win. Deb

Deb,  Thanks for your comment. I know how you feel about your friend. 

Hi Trey:  I am not quite sure how a comment about a decorated tree is connected to a crazed dictator in Venezuala, nor how it is connected to Osama bin Laden.

All of my comments above concerned the tree... and only the tree.  Sure there are many evils in this world, and to struggle against them is only right.  And by the way, the tree was a symbol long before the time of Christ.  Long before.  How can something that came way before Christ's birth mock an event... Christ's birth... that happened thousands of years later?  This is my last comment on this thread.  Take care...

And for you... may your Christmas be Merry, too.

When I see these things I just pass on by but it does make me stronger in spirit.

Merry Christmas my friend!

Trey:

Excellent post.  Congrats on this post making a featured post on Silent Majority.

Bill

Thanks a lot.  I don't know .....but this has become an issue for me lately.

True enough.....

God will win....

I want to be one the winning side!!

;-)

I second Alexander's statement! 

Alexander and Sondra.

I can't believe how many folks honestly believe there is no such struggle in this world.