Ben Stein On Christmas

[M.Dancer]

How did the ancient babylonians celebrate christmas on the 25th when:

They didn't have our calendar......

Their calendar didn't have 365 days....

.....and so accordingly our dec 25th would fall on different times that there, giiven that seven out of 19 years would have an extra leap month....

Coincidental holidays as a precurser to Christmas should be looked at skeptically.

[jazzer]

How did the ancient babylonians celebrate christmas on the 25th when:

They didn't have our calendar......

Their calendar didn't have 365 days....

.....and so accordingly our dec 25th would fall on different times that there, giiven that seven out of 19 years would have an extra leap month....

Coincidental holidays as a precurser to Christmas should be looked at skeptically.

They didn't need a calendar to know when solstice or changing season appears.

[Drea]

How did the ancient babylonians celebrate christmas on the 25th when:

They didn't have our calendar......

Their calendar didn't have 365 days....

.....and so accordingly our dec 25th would fall on different times that there, giiven that seven out of 19 years would have an extra leap month....

Coincidental holidays as a precurser to Christmas should be looked at skeptically.

No, it's the Chrisian holidays that have hijacked previous celebrations should be looked upon skeptically.

and how did ancients know when to get up in the morning?

We know that the sun is at it's lowest point on or very close to Dec 21.

We know this for sure without a shadow of a doubt.

The "birthday" celebration for Jesus is not a certainty.

That would be like me celebrating my birthday on July 1st (not the day of my birth) simply because the rest of the country celebrates and then telling everyone that their celebration has nothing to do with the country's anniversary, that it must be in honour of me!

Now bow down heathens!

Silly innit?

Edited November 28, 2007 by Drea

[ScottSA]

Yuppers... god is watching our backs! That's why the trade centres fell... that's why Katrina hit... that's why Krakatoa exploded... And what about Mexico city? They are chock full of devout catholics, yet your dastardly god saw fit to hit even them with an earthquake. What gives? God only likes whites that speak english or what? What a bas**rd he is! I would hate him if he were real.

Technological advancement....? Western civilization was killing each other for some "heretical" reason or another... while the rest of the world had actual CIVILizations.

This is, however, a really really good example of the logical "scientific" deduction of the religious...

Gosh, what an angry person you must be.

[Drea]

Yah all those smilies are the mark of a veeeerrrry angry person.

I have had a grrrreat day and your insults mean dick.

"Let's blame all the natural disasters on people who don't believe in Jesus"

see those thingies up there (above this line of text) they are smiling -- just like me!

Cheers!

[kengs333]

I am constantly reminded of Christ's birth throughout the year, and I can live with that. Some people need to "celebrate" things in an outward manner--that is only human, and I doubt that there is a problem with this. How it is celebrated is another matter. And the date is unfortunate, but I can live with it.

[jawapunk]

I don't mind that the Christians used pagan holidays and superceded their own to match. As stated it helped spread Christianity and ease peoples transitions to it. It is unfortunate that we don't know the actuasl birthdate of Christ, but it really doesn't matter.

Christmas still retains much of its pagan character as much as it was attempted to make it a purely religious holiday. It is a great time of year and a good excuse to be among family and friends. There can't be much wrong with that no matter what it's name is.

[M.Dancer]

It is unfortunate that we don't know the actuasl birthdate of Christ, but it really doesn't matter.

We have an idea though....the clue is there were shepherds in their fields by night....the only time shepherds are in the fields by night is lambing season. That takes place January- February in the Mid East

[guyser]

We have an idea though....the clue is there were shepherds in their fields by night....the only time shepherds are in the fields by night is lambing season. That takes place January- February in the Mid East

...not to mention Saturday nights when the bar emptied............

[kengs333]

We have an idea though....the clue is there were shepherds in their fields by night....the only time shepherds are in the fields by night is lambing season. That takes place January- February in the Mid East

Google "when was Jesus born?" and you'll get many intresting theories as to day and year, but in the end it's not significant--only the fact that he was born, how he was born, and who he was is.

[Frankie]

Well, Christianity is an agressive religion. Spreading the word of god and jesus is an important facet. I have been approached many times by this. I don't blow up at people but I dislike when a polite refusal is not taken. I also dislike being told I will be going to hell. I believe that is up to God to decide and not some schmuck knocking doors.

Some how I feel like you're lying...but maybe not. Again, It might seem as if it depends where you live, and who you socialize with and what you're exposed too. Like I mentioned in another post I live in a normal suburban area just above Toronto, and also live from time to time in Chicago, and none of that stuff has ever happened to me. Although Jehova Witnesses come to my door maybe twice a year, if I'm not busy, I enjoy the time conversing with them. It's interesting what they have to say, they're very polite and they never mention anything about hell or my sins, mostly the good things about their faith, what it can do for you, and why they chose it. I would hardly consider it "aggressive". But that could just be my experience. Perhaps if you lived here your whole life you wouldn't have the same feelings about Christianity as you do now. I mean, why would you, if there's nothing here to base it on. Maybe you experience this because you live in a rural area, and I donno, people are more traditional in those places, so they take religion more seriously. Or maybe your family members try to "shove it down your throat", or forced you to go to church, which you disagree with. Which you couldn't base all of Christianity on, because family tend to be aggressive in general when it comes to values and such. Or maybe even you base your experiences on articles you read or newstalk radio. Wouldn't be surprising as a lot of politically involved people, and people on these kind of forums tend to do that. But who knows maybe strangers from all different kind of Christain churches approach you constantly through out the year trying to convict you, telling you you're going to hell persistantly and not taking no for an answer. Possibly.

[Liam]

This may not directly answer your question, but I've always found it interesting how there were some really monstrous volcanic explosions in the Mediterranean region in the pre-Christian times but none since (to my knowledge). Turkey continues to get rocked by massive, deadly earthquakes, the rest of Europe does not. The modern industrialized world, technological advancement essentially originates in protestant north central Europe and England.

Bangladesh and India are pretty religious societies, yet get ravaged by monsoons and floods every year. India also occasionally suffers horrible earthquakes and other natural disasters. No one can say that Iran is a secular nation, yet it gets rocked by quakes worse than any seen in California. The Caribbean is a very conservative, Christian part of the world, yet gets hammered by hurricanes each and every year. Likewise, Africa is much more conservative and literal in its religious expression, but no one can say they have it easy from a natural disaster standpoint.

For someone to say that natural disasters are related to one's piety (or lack thereof) is simply looking for some link to justify a preconceived notion.

[M.Dancer]

The modern industrialized world, technological advancement essentially originates in protestant north central Europe and England.

Except the groundwork for those advances up north started in Italy in cities like Florence, and their ground work was started by trade and interactions with the Muslims.

No society is an island.

[M.Dancer]

This may not directly answer your question, but I've always found it interesting how there were some really monstrous volcanic explosions in the Mediterranean region in the pre-Christian times but none since (to my knowledge)..

Vesuvius has a number of serious eruptions since it wiped out Pompeii aand Hercaculeum in AD 79.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesuvius#Later_eruptions

As well Greek islands like Santorini have has serious eruptions all through the 1st and 2 nd millenia. The last major Santorini event was in the 19th century.