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Angry about lack of Christ in Xmas?
12 years ago
General
Things that for whatever reason, I feel need to be said in an addendum to my profile in a blog-type fashion.
Well, it seems enough religious nut-jobs seem to be able to use the internet, and boy are they complaining!
If only they could see and understand that Christianity was not the "first" religion, and it definitely won't be the last. If only they would accept that other religions came before, and they had holidays and celebrations during this time of year. If only they would accept that the primary reason there is "Christmas" this time of year is because the Christian church wanted to compete with Pagans, Wiccans, et cetera who celebrate Festivus and Beltane this time of year.
Perhaps they'll never understand.
I'd actually argue that a decent chunk of religious folks don't actually believe in their respective religions. They were just raised and brought up in a religious environment, they never heard anything different, and really they are just continuing tradition as opposed to actually questioning the actual Doctrine and belief-system. They are too afraid to rock the boat, and the holiday seasons are so much more about partying, socializing, family-time, traveling, and of course, rampant consumerism... barely attached to the original sentiments of the religion.
As more people hear about Atheism and the holes in religious Doctrine, and learn to break away from religion, maybe we'll get lucky and religion will die out. Heck, even my own father says, "I'm NOT religious, I am a man of FAITH." In my opinion, that's just a fancy way of saying that you barely believe in the things you follow. You want to believe that there is some super-natural entity out there in control of everything, but you're not certain. If that is true, then that is a common definition of an Agnostic.
If only they could see and understand that Christianity was not the "first" religion, and it definitely won't be the last. If only they would accept that other religions came before, and they had holidays and celebrations during this time of year. If only they would accept that the primary reason there is "Christmas" this time of year is because the Christian church wanted to compete with Pagans, Wiccans, et cetera who celebrate Festivus and Beltane this time of year.
Perhaps they'll never understand.
I'd actually argue that a decent chunk of religious folks don't actually believe in their respective religions. They were just raised and brought up in a religious environment, they never heard anything different, and really they are just continuing tradition as opposed to actually questioning the actual Doctrine and belief-system. They are too afraid to rock the boat, and the holiday seasons are so much more about partying, socializing, family-time, traveling, and of course, rampant consumerism... barely attached to the original sentiments of the religion.
As more people hear about Atheism and the holes in religious Doctrine, and learn to break away from religion, maybe we'll get lucky and religion will die out. Heck, even my own father says, "I'm NOT religious, I am a man of FAITH." In my opinion, that's just a fancy way of saying that you barely believe in the things you follow. You want to believe that there is some super-natural entity out there in control of everything, but you're not certain. If that is true, then that is a common definition of an Agnostic.
tsuneshikoi
~tsuneshikoi
Fun fact, the date of December 25th was a Roman holiday, 'Dies natalis Sol invicti,' the "Birth day of the unconquered Sun."
indigo_the_cat
~indigothecat
OP
It's really interesting to learn about honest and unbiased religious history. We'd learn that so much of modern day religion is based on thousands of years worth of traditions. Some of them have gone, others have remained, many have been modernized. Few people seem to remember, "Krampus," the evil friend of Santa. They would actually both visit each house in turn during the time of Yule. If the children behaved well, they received presents from Santa Claus (St. Nicholas), but if they were very naughty, Krampus would spirit them away to his lair, never to be seen again.
MartianObserver
~martianobserver
But surely you don't want Islam to die out.
