Considering Christianity has only been in existance for 2,000 years, many traditions have been borrowed from other sources that predate them.

The cross was just a Roman torture device. Yes, the Christians did bring introduce it as a symbol. But, Angels, Mary, the Three Kings, Jesus, the manger, and many Christmas carols are of Christian origin. Saint Nicholas is also of Christian origin. St. Nicholas inspired Santa Claus.

For a Chriastian, Christmas is about Christianity and tradition. For an atheist it's just a tradition, at the most. To each his own.

Merry Christmas,

Whitey

 

Not true, Whitey. The Romans didn't use a cross, but a T-shaped structure, consisting of a vertical pillar on which the prisoner was hoisted. The prisoner had the horizontal top piece bound to arms and shoulders and had to carry that beam to the spot where he was to be 'crucified'...

The cross comes from the circle of the Zodiac, divided in the four quarters (N, S, E & W). That's why most older or orthodox churches all have a circle on the cross.

Before Jesus of Nazareth ('christ' or 'christened' just means the salved one. There's thousands of people who were salved. Among them Barabas and Judas), there's umpteen characters who were born out of a virgin called Mary, who performed miracles, who died on the cross, stayed dead for three days and ascended to the heavens...

Among those umpteen candidates, there's Horus (situated between 10000 and 4500BC --no-one knows exactly-- in Egypt), Dionysus (Greece), Joseph (from the Old Testament), etc, etc...

 

Man everything about that statement was intelligent, It made me realize why you think your the internet God of smarts.

 

Santa is an amalgamation of several different ideas from many different cultures. The current jolly fat man was invented by Coca Cola to sell soft drinks. Angels are also not a uniquely Christian idea. And I believe it's only in one gospel that talks about the birth of christ in a manger with the three magi. The rest of them leave that out. Each gospel has a different story to tell and the current popular celebration is a mix of all four gospels. The early church rejected any celebration of the now Christmas holiday because they knew it was pagan in origins. Many early Christian Americans also detested the idea. For awhile the puritans banned the holiday trees.

As I said, I don't mind the holiday. I get together with family, eat the food, exchange gifts, etc. But for Christians to act like they own the day only shows their ignorance of their own origins and their arrogance about it offends me. So when they throw it in my face, I correct them. Politely sometimes, not so politely at others. It really depends on how they approach me with it.

-S-

 

A tiresome subject at best!

 

Good:excited:

 

See, like this cock knocker.

-S-

 

I know about the Coke Santa and that he was a marketing ploy, but the Coke people got the idea from St. Nicholas, indirectly. There were mythical figures in existance like Father Christmas from Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol as well. But, St. Nicholas certainly was a real person that has a lot to do with the Santa Claus mythical figure.

Santa means Saint in Spanish. Nicholas can be spelled Nickolaus in German. In the Netherlands, he is known as Sinterklaas or Sinter Claes. Santa Claus is a distortion of the name St. Nicholas. Also, St. Nicholas depiction is of an old man with a big white beard. However, he wore a bishop's head dress and had a shepard's crook.

St. Nicholas was born in Turkey and his parents died while he was young. His parents left him a large inheritance. He gave his money away to help the poor. A poor man with three young daughters were contemplating lives of prostitution until Nicholas secretly threw bags of money through their windows at night. He also helped feed orphan children. Nicholas became a Bishop and was eventually sanctified after his death for he had several miracles attributed to him as well.

 

Is Santa Real?

Scientists have pointed to the scope of Santa's task as evidence of the preposterousness of the Santa legend. Taking advantage of the Earth's rotation and the resulting time zones, Santa would have 31 hours to complete visits along a nearly 212,030,000 miles (341,230,000 km) long route which equates a speed of 6,650,000 miles per hour (10,700,000 km/h) or approximately 3,000 times the speed of sound (nearly 200 times the speed of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, the fastest man made object). Assuming each child receives a single gift weighing an average of two pounds each, the payload would be 321,300 tons. Reindeer are capable pulling an average of 300 pounds (140 kg) each, making Santa's team of nine reindeer over 2.1 million reindeer short. 700 exajoules of energy would be required to move this payload, the equivalent of 11.7 million atomic bombs the size of the one which exploded over Hiroshima.[61][62]

----------------------

Apparently not...

 

interesting.

 

It is absolutely pathetic how hard people like JimmyJump and ShakeZula try to come off as intelligent, but certainly amusing.

Christmas was not stolen from anybody, first of all. It was changed to that date to attract the "barbarians" who caused the fall of Rome. Also, you're a fucking idiot if you think the Romans ever embraced Christianity.

Christmas is much more than a Christian thing these days. I'm sick and fucking tired of seeing atheists act like they're victims of anything and trying to ruin everybody else's lives. The "free thought societies" as they always name themselves make me laugh my ass off. Do you not get what it is to be a freethinker? Freethinkers don't have fucking labels, you idiots! They don't put themselves into groups, you frauds! They don't feel threatened by other people celebrating their faiths, as they have every right to do by the CONSTITUTION. People who call themselves atheists on here in this thread seem to be able to enjoy the Holidays (I personally consider from Thanksgiving to New Years "The Holdiays"). Maybe that's because they don't use their beliefs to identify themselves and to try to come off as something they're not.

Christmas is about family, friends, and being good to one another. This one time in the year when people think about others and try to do right by others would not fucking exist at all if it weren't for Christians. You can actually take it one step further and say it wouldn't exist if it weren't for Europeans as they're the ones who made the holiday season what it is now. It's the one thing they imported to places that they should actually be thanked for.

Remember that sometime, and remember that Christmas is only a Christian thing for Christians. For everybody else, it's a time of year to remember the things we often take for granted and to try to think of others for once.

 

-S-

 

ShakeZula,

ShakeZula,

What does baller16's earlier revelation have to do with his post about Christmas?

 

It is a reminder that whatever baller posts cannot be considered remotely credible

 

-S-

 

On internet forums anyone can claim any identity. By admitting that he had embellished his resume I believe baller16 deserves more credibility, rather than less.

 

So we're now supposed to accept that the Catholic faith was invented in Pittsburg. We shouldn't talk about Roman Catholics, but Pittsburg Catholics? Nice idea if you can convince the pope to move there.:laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

"embellished his resume".. how cute.. it's called Lying. Dishonesty. Misleading.

If one does not lie, one does not need to confess. If one is that desperate for friends they need to lie about themselves online in order to impress, perhaps it is time to turn off the computer and learn some social skills.

 

Anybody special in mind?