No offense but popularity among who exactly, the Silicon Valley crowd? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_of_same-sex_marr...
Christianity has over 2 billion "members" worldwide and Easter is a major holiday.
Christianity has over 2 billion "members" worldwide and Easter is a major holiday.
In short: not everything is about Jesus. Hopefully, this trend will continue.
I'm a Christian and I think it's cool when I see a religious and non-Christian theme. It helps to make me more aware of other religions and their holidays. You may think that's strange for a Christian, but it isn't actually. Just strange for the ones you hear from in the media.
Not sure if they are any doodles for Mohammed or Ramadan in Arabic and largely Muslim countries but I don't see why they should be any in countries where Islam barely registers. That applies to any other religion of course. Google would be insane to put a Christmas doodle in Pakistan, Indonesia or Saudi Arabia for example. Local sensitivities should apply.
>>In short: not everything is about Jesus. Hopefully, this trend will continue.
Like I said, this is Google's page but simply because they did it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Google surely loves to take boatload of adwords money for Easter and Christmas. Why do they respect local sensitivities when it comes to making money?
OTOH, why not? Spreading knowledge is usually a good thing...
As long as <non-local-religious/cultural-event X> doesn't conflict with something local, and isn't the sort of thing that raises local hackles (a few things do; most things, not really), why not show it, and teach some people a little thing about another culture...?
Of course, most people don't bother even if they aren't actually religious, so the Church still claims 80% of us are Catholic, even though many don't even get married in a religious ceremony anymore, much less attend mass.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy#International_law