I might be confused or drunk

BeachyBecky

Awesomeness!

ahavoc

ok wait why do are so may holidays that have to do with jesus all tangled up with the much older pagan religions?

It was a way for the Church to say, "nuh uh, it's mine!" over and over and over again until enough time had passed that everyone just believed what they said. They stole traditions, characters, and stories from many other belief systems, religions and faiths in order to diminish the importance of them and to keep the Church in a position of power and superiority. They did an amazing job, really. They tortured and killed whomever stood in their way and now they're basically allowed to do or say whatever they wish. I am mainly referring to the Catholic faith here, but the same applies to all sects of Christianity as a collective. They're "evil".

A little exaggeration there, but pretty much. It was Christianity's way of converting others. By adopting all these Pagan holidays as their own, they could more easily convince the pagans to convert. The problems started when the pagans just added the Christian God and rituals to their own group, after all, they had aplenty of gods already, what was one more? Christians didn't like that much, so that's when they started the killing and such.

Wrong-o. It was the Roman Emporer Constantine who needed to quell not only Christians, but Pagans as well. He decided to legalize Christianity and all other religions, but as a worshipper of Mithras, decided to blend that with Christianity. The idea of a sacrificed saviour is Mithraist, so is the symbolism of bulls, rams, sheep, the blood of a transformed saviour washing away sins and granting eternal life, the 7 sacraments, the banishing of an evil host from heaven, apocalyptic end of time when God/Ormuzd sends the wicked to hell and establishes peace. Roman Emperors, Mithraist then Christian, mixed the rituals and laws of both religions into one. Emperor Constantine established 25th of Dec, the birthdate of Mithras, to be the birthdate of Jesus too. The principal day of worship of the Jews, The Sabbath, was replaced by the Mithraistic Sun Day as the Christian holy day. The Catholic Church, based in Rome and founded on top of the most venerated Mithraist temple, wiped out all competing son-of-god religions within the Roman Empire, giving us modern literalist Christianity.

McKayMachina

This has lead me to question if Jesus was the first instance of a reanimated corpse in literature/popular folklore.

I know "Zombie" is a Haitian term but there's got to be an instance of Zomming pre-year zero anno domini. Right?

Anyone know?

Hes not the first. Have you guys seen the documentary Religulous by Bill Maher? Not only is it hilarious, it sheds some light on this. (Coming from a Catholic, as I am).

Egyptologist Gerald Massey argued that the deity of Horus and Jesus shared identical mythological origins in his 1907 book Ancient Egypt, the light of the world.[43] These ideas are repeated in the movie by Bill Maher.[44] Christian Theologian W. Ward Gasque composed an e-mail to twenty Egyptologists, including Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Liverpool Kenneth Kitchen, and Professor of Egyptology at the University of Toronto Ron Leprohan. The e-mail detailed the comparisons alleged by Massey. The scholars were unanimous in dismissing any similarities suggested by Massey, and one Egyptologist criticized the comparison as "fringe nonsense."[45]

GAH! Thank you! I was thinking, "There has got to be SOMETHING in ancient Egyptian lore..." but had completely forgotten about what I've heard on Religulous/Zeitgeist about Horus and the recycled mythologies.

THANK YOU! Horus!

So, now, wait. You're saying there are NOT similarities?

Ireshgurl

I myself being an athiest and working retail, I feel your pain. However, for me, I was more annoyed when people would wish me "Happy Easter". My response, "yes, maybe for those who celebrate it". HInt, hint. Not every one does, so don't assume. I never say Happy Anything these days, don't know who I might offend and why should I if I myself do not believe?

cbh142

I work in retail and I have said "happy easter" and "merry christmas" to hundreds of people and no one has ever yelled at me or complained, maybe I'm just lucky.


Bill O'Reily vs Jon Stewart was awesome last year!

Why do all these people who are non believers celebrate Easter and Christmas?

PapaverSomniferum

Zombie Jesus Enthusiasts: I dedicate this song to YOU!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m44woEaiJM


:drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou:

LizKurz

I work in retail and I have said "happy easter" and "merry christmas" to hundreds of people and no one has ever yelled at me or complained, maybe I'm just lucky.


Bill O'Reily vs Jon Stewart was awesome last year!

Why do all these people who are non believers celebrate Easter and Christmas?

Because they have pagan and even more ancient origins? And because they're secular holidays.

cbh142

I work in retail and I have said "happy easter" and "merry christmas" to hundreds of people and no one has ever yelled at me or complained, maybe I'm just lucky.


Bill O'Reily vs Jon Stewart was awesome last year!

Why do all these people who are non believers celebrate Easter and Christmas?

Because they have pagan and even more ancient origins? And because they're secular holidays.

Is that really why? I'm not trying to battle you or anything, I really would like to know. Are you saying its celebrated by non believers due to tradition? That would make sense I guess.

liog

I work in retail and I have said "happy easter" and "merry christmas" to hundreds of people and no one has ever yelled at me or complained, maybe I'm just lucky.


Bill O'Reily vs Jon Stewart was awesome last year!

Why do all these people who are non believers celebrate Easter and Christmas?

I don't think you have to be religious to celebrate the secular side of those holidays.

For us Easter is all about the bunny and everything that comes with that like coloring eggs, candy, and egg hunts. Once the kids don't believe in the bunny any more, we probably won't celebrate it. Christmas for us is about celebrating our relationships with family and friends. We do things like Santa for the kids, send out cards, decorate the house, exchange small gifts, sing carols, and watch old school Rudolph and Frosty.

Someone asked me last Christmas why I like listening to religious carols and my response was "I like listening to carols about Rudolph and Santa too, but I don't believe in them either. "

Not trying to be snarky, this is just what we do.

cloud2011

I think i am just tired of being yelled at. I am an athiest,but I want everyone to have a Happy whatever holiday they are celebrating. I have never been yelled at by so many diffrent people for saying happy easter (christmas is a whole nother story) seriously im just saying happy holidays for everything from christmas to arbor day and people can get thier panties in a bunch all they want

Are you serious? Are you supposed to say Happy Resurrection Day? That's a new one, never heard that before.

LizKurz

I would venture its the same reason we celebrate birthdays.

Having a winter festival, completely with Yule logs, decorating evergreens, and gift giving was around about 2000 years before the Christ was put into Christmas.

Christmas began long before the birth of Jesus Christ. Alexander Hislop's book The Two Babylons explores many historical sources showing that the holiday precedes Christ by at least 2,000 years, as earlier mentioned (1957, pp. 97-98).
A nativity celebration for pagan gods was observed near the winter solstice in both Syria and Egypt. Later, some 400 years before Christ, the Mithraic religion, centering on the Persian sun god Mithras, provided the foundation for the Christmas celebration. Mithraism became very popular in the Roman Empire, and many elements of its worship survive today in Roman Catholicism.