Christmas anyone?
Do you celebrate Christmas?
Joseph
I no longer celebrate pagan rituals like the Festival of Santa Claus. Dead or plastic trees with glitter on them represent the extreme of the pagan idolatry.
Living in Nature puts me in the different Perspective.
Tom
What if 100% of the people I know all celebrate Christmas with high enthusiasm and would find it 'bizarre' and offensive to even hear any criticisms of Christmas? I mean, wouldn't you say that, given our need for belongingness, it then becomes rather hard for someone like me to openly reject the idea of Christmas, especially knowing that I will be looked at as 'bizzare' and that no one I know will share my opinion? I have to say that the need to belong, in my opinion, seems to be the major factor in keeping us among society and participating in the society's activities - I mean, when everyone sees the pagan ritual called Christmas as normal, and you want their company, it's kind of difficult not to also participate, wouldn't you say, even though my thinking is totally different? Isolation is the other alternative, but it doesn't seem to appeal to me at this stage of my life when 'it feels good to belong'.
rafal
You should do what you think is best for you and let other people do whatever they think is best for them. It is all about The Freedom of Choice.
There is no need to CONFRONT anyone who celebrates a ridiculous ritual. You can always become a witness - to learn by observing others.
If someone confronts me and I sense that my answer may shake them up - before I express what I really think I ask: "Do you REALLY want to know? Are you SURE ???"
Only when they insist, I ask one of my teasing questions or make a brief statement, in the style of my first two sentences on this page.
The MOST difficult is to prepare yourself and choose what you want to say and when. Too many times I said things that I regretted immediately after I heard them aloud. Gradually I have learn't to LISTEN and to THINK rather than get entangled in emotional discussions that lead nowhere.
Tom
What about traditional Christmas presents? Isn't it a nice tradition?
Pauline
Please search this Forum for Xmas to find out what I gave my children last year.
Tom
Dear Tom, you mentioned that the Festival of Santa Claus is pagan ritual. Can you explain where does this ritual come from (historically)? I do feel that celebrating dead trees and such rituals as Santa Claus, especially when they are commercialised to the present extent, is stupid idolatry but I would like to get more insight to this particular one.
Franc
I really have no idea. Knowing the human nature a little, however, I suspect that around @200AD, some leader of a big empire that was falling apart was making an effort to hold his people together.
People in his empire had some customs and beliefs, but objects of their worship must have been very boring.
At the same time a new belief system, based on the fascinating story of of a "miracle man" who came back to life after being killed on the cross, was spreading around and people were becoming curious about it. This belief competed with the "official" rituals that existed in the empire and made people THINK (which has been identified as a major danger to the empire).
Rather than fight and compete with the fascinating true story that had a potential to inspire people to THINK, the intelligent leader of the empire decided to make the story official (the key element of a good propaganda).
However, to achieve his purpose of controlling people in his empire, he distorted the story, by deliberately disregarding and degrading the most important details (such as the immortality of consciousness) and putting emphasis on idolatry. In order to achieve some similarity (and continuation) to the existing "spring festival" in his empire, he initiated worshipping the resurrection of the guy on the cross by celebrating "golden eggs" instead - as a symbol of a new life.
Most likely, the celebration of the Birthday of the guy who died on the cross was introduced for a similar reason. I wouldn't be surprised if a tree decorated with glitter closely resembled some other glittered "symbol" that was already worshipped in the empire before "introducing Christianity".
To make both festivals beneficial for the economy of the empire, and easy to become accepted by everyone (especially the business establishment), key celebrations in both festivals were focused around EATING together without fighting too much.
Needless to say, neither the eggs, nor a dead tree with glitter had never had anything to do with the message of the guy who died on the cross. JC accepted brutal tortures and violent death just to rise from the dead and prove the immortality of consciousness...
Now you can explore historical records and find out how much of the above hypothesis is true.
Tom
After the death of Jesus, Christianity was spread throughout the Roman Empire. To do this the Christians had to challenge the culture of Caesar. So the Christians began to use versions of Roman holidays. One of the biggest of the Roman celebrations was winter solstice. They also sought to compete with Caesar's image as the savior of the world. (Sources: Michael Eric Dyson, DePaul University)
Tommy
In every country there was a slightly different scenario to "introducing christianity". What about the Byzatine empire with its capital Constantinopolis (now Istanbul)? Weren't the first christian church officials (popes) and their meetings (synods) based in Constantinopol?
Tom
does anyone have any clue where the tradition of christmas turkey in the US comes from?
Joe
It wouldn't surprise me if a "christmas turkey" in the USA actually commemorates introduction of christianity to Turkey. The logic of the entire celebrations is bizarre.
Anyway, it seems that humanity on Earth hasn't made any conscious progress since the time of the Bizantyne empire in Turkey.
For example, one of the main "achievements" of our "science" is a well-promoted conclusion that the Universe is mainly composed from "missing matter" and "black holes" and that it has no purpose whatsoever to exist.
Does this "explanation that there is no explanation" appeal to anyone? Aren't you curious what assumptions our "scientists" make to reach their conclusions? May be it is THEM who actually miss the essence of the Universe? Have you read this article?
Tom
I saw a BBC documentary last night on 'supermassive black holes'. I know the scientists' definition of a black hole, but I wanted to learn about their purpose (if any) in the Universe.
Apparently every galaxy has one - correlated to the size of the galaxy. They said that a black hole is the reason every galaxy exist today, that they were the reason solar systems, planets etc, were created in the first place.
I am curious about your understanding of black holes (if they exist) and their purpose (if any)in the Universe.
Magnus
You haven't searched this Forum for "black holes". If you did, you would find the following explanation:
Physics deals with simplified (and sometimes very primitive) MODELS of Reality. Most physicists get so attached to models (and associated theories), that they cannot even begin thinking about the Real Universe, especially the Great Intellect and its MOTIVES.
Take for example gravity. Even though every competent scientist knows that no one on Earth understands the origin of gravity, people USE the MODEL of gravity developed by Newton to explain the Universe.
To cover up for the obvious lack of agreement with observations, they invent "black holes", "missing dark matter" and other miraculously unverifiable objects, not even noticing that their conclusions are based on the TOTAL lack of understanding of gravity.
Result of this acivity is a totally confusing picture of the Universe, full of "black holes", "dark energy" and other purely imaginary things that have no purpose whatsoever to exist. Would you like to study this?
Would you trust your tax calculations to someone who openly admits the lack of understanding of arithmetic? Why should we believe scientists who openly admit that they cannot explain gravity but try to explain the Universe? Keep thinking.
A wise man @2000 years ago said: "If what can be seen is obscure to you, how can you comprehend what cannot be seen?" [2]. It applies to gravity - everyone experiences it everyday and yet - no one can really explain how it is generated...
Tom
