Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th? Most people assume that it has always been a Christian holiday and that it is a celebration of the birth of Jesus. But it turns out that Jesus was not born on December 25th. However, a whole bunch of pagan gods were born on that day. In fact, pagans celebrated a festival involving a heroic supernatural figure that visits an evergreen tree and leaves gifts on December 25th long before Jesus was ever born. From its early Babylonian roots, the celebration of the birth or “rebirth” of the sun god on December 25th came to be celebrated under various names all over the ancient world. You see, the winter solstice occurs a few days before December 25th each year. The winter solstice is the day of the year when daylight is the shortest. In ancient times, December 25th was the day each year when the day started to become noticeably longer. Thus it was fitting for the early pagans to designate December 25th as the date of the birth or the “rebirth” of the sun.
The truth is that thousands of years before there was a ”Santa Claus”, there was another supernatural figure who would supposedly visit a tree and leave gifts every December 25th.
His name was Nimrod.
The celebration of December 25th goes all the way back to ancient Babylon.
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This is one of the most in-depth summaries of the origin of Christmas I’ve seen online. Definitely a read worth your time.
There is nothing dogmatic about the Winter Solstice. It is reality. It is the shortest and darkest day of the year.
(via WhyWontGodHealAmputees)
Only Fox News seems to think there’s a “War on Christmas”. I can’t handle how ignorant Laura Ingraham is during this whole thing; it’s almost as if she’s training to be the next O’Reilly.
"Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions."
— Frater Ravus
Until your sensory perceptions can be proven infallible, I’ll just take your “personal arguments” for theism with a grain of salt.
Jesus Had Two Dads… | Unreasonable Faith
Brilliant.
Christopher Hitchens clip from Collision (via WhyWon’tGodHealAmputees)
This might be the most straightforward argument I’ve ever seen Hitchens make during a debate. That’s not to say he’s unreasonable in other debates, but rather that he gets himself a bit convoluted from time to time.
Here’s the gist: North Carolina’s constitution says that no one denying the existence of god can hold public office. The US Constitution says that there shall be no religious test for holding office. Which one trumps the other? I think that should be fairly clear, but to the residents of North Carolina that seem to be stuck in the 1600’s, it is a fight worth fighting. Never mind the fact that Cecil Bothwell was duly elected to the Asheville City Council.
In an article in the Asheville Citizen-Times, H.K. Edgerton, former president of the Asheville NAACP said, “I’m not saying that Cecil Bothwell is not a good man, but if he’s an atheist, he’s not eligible to serve in public office, according to the state constitution.”
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People are going to give Edgerton some grief for this (GodisPretend does), and it might be a bit misplaced since all I’ve ever seen the guy do is reference and try to enforce state laws regardless of whether or not he agrees with the laws themselves.
To that extent, I think Edgerton’s right to bring up the issue. North Carolina has absolutely no room to keep this in their constitution, and by bringing it forth, it will likely (hopefully) be overturned.
[EDIT 12/11/09: And there goes any sort of hope I had for Edgerton… “My father was a Baptist minister. I’m a Christian man. I have problems with people who don’t believe in God,” said Edgerton… (via Yahoo News)]
(Click image to read more about the CHRIST-mas Tree at Jesus Needs New PR)
WTF? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Bill O’Reilly explains why he believes atheists are “jealous” of Christmas.
“Why does the American Humanist Society, who wants to be good for ‘goodness sake’ LOATHE the baby Jesus, HE’S JUST A BABY!”
man, oh, man.
There is just… so.. much.. wrong here… I think I just have to write it off as Fox News doing what it does best: presenting a single bigoted and ignorant side of a story.
Christians Upset Over Government Funding of Medical Reasearch - Atheist Media Blog
I think Art Caplan spoke very well in favor of the scientific community on embryonic stem cells, though, as is typical with Fox News, the interviewer left some impartiality to be desired.
