Just what I wanted!
Well, it’s that time of year again, when Christians begin to whine that atheists are trying to steal Christmas from them. Even Jerry Falwell has been quoted as saying, “There’s been a concerted effort to steal Christmas.” Of course, they are right to be worried, just as a cheating husband or wife is worried that their spouse is having an affair. The thought being, if I did it, then they must be doing it too. After all Christians stole the holiday we now know as Christmas from several different places. Let’s begin with the myth within the myth, Santa Claus.
The legend of Santa Claus is somewhat like that party game where you whisper a sentence to one person and they whisper it to the next person and so on down the line until the last person tells it back to you and it now only has a remote resemblance to the original sentence. The origin begins with an actual person, a Greek bishop named Nicholas who had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him. Or was it Basil of Caesarea, another Greek who was a theologian and monk who was born into wealth and gave all his possessions to underprivileged children? Actually, Santa Claus is a combination of both Basil and Nicholas with a sprinkle of fairy dust to make him, not just generous, but magical.
But Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our lord and savior, I hear the Christians argue. The legend of Jesus was also appropriated from several places.
But Jesus was the only one of them to be flesh and bone and actually walk on earth, those others were figures from mythology, say the Christians. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that Jesus did exist. Do you actually think he’d be thrilled about the way you choose to celebrate his birthday? This was a man who, by all accounts, hated commercialism. His teachings and sermons were all very anti-money. Then there was that little temper tantrum he had in the temple with the money changers As for the other gods being figures from mythology, let’s look at the meaning of the word myth for a moment, shall we? The dictionary defines myth as “a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.” Great Christly Jesus, that sure sounds like the bio of the Christian son of god to me.
Today marks the first day of Saturnalia. Lo Saturnalia!
Winter festivals have been around far longer than Christianity. For instance Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival that consisted of a public banquet followed by private gift giving (Christmas dinner and presents) and merriment among other festivities. Then there was Yule, the festival we associate with the Christmas tree. While it’s true that the festival of Yule gave us the decorated and lighted tree, the idea of bringing the tree inside is much older than that. According to the encyclopedia Britannica, “The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands to symbolize eternal life was a custom of the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. Tree worship was common among the pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmastime.” Oh, let’s not forget Yalda, the winter festival honouring the birth of Mithra, the Persian version of Jesus which celebrates the victory of light and goodness over darkness and evil. (naughty and nice anyone?) The one major thing that these festivals (and many others) have in common is that they all occur at or near the time of the winter solstice.
We humans sure do love to spin a good yarn, the sad part is that we’re so good with the tall tale-telling that we actually believe our own bullshit. If I’m going to buy into a myth every winter, I prefer it to be the story of Sandy Paws, the little kitten who melted the heart of even the cruelest of men by just being as cute as he could be. At least that story is original and isn’t nearly as hard to swallow as all of the others floating around this time of year.
The Pope, yes, THAT Pope, just came out with a new book and in it he claims that Jesus was born just before the 25th, but all the cool kids know that dude was born in the spring. Just another example of the Greatest story ever sold being sold some more. Merrier secular holidays to you and yours,
Kriss
Why am I not surprised? Thanks for sharing (both the info and the abs). Happy winter (and the rest of the year too) to you and yours.
Perfect. There is so much bullshit from religion this time of year it’s sad. I love Maher’s reaction at the end when the jebus guy pulls out Pascal’s Wager.
That’s my favourite bit as well… along with the kid who brings Star Wars into the conversation.
Reblogged this on myatheistlife and commented:
There are tons of posts telling us what and where the bullshit is that there are too many to read. This is a pretty good one. So not only do I get to point that out, if you haven’t been over to Windupmyskirt.com you should try it out.
There is so much bullshit from religion this time of year it’s sad. I love Maher’s reaction at the end when the jebus guy pulls out Pascal’s Wager.
Amen, sista’! Great post… I had a similar tirade last year… check out Nimrod 🙂
http://erikagardner.com/2011/12/29/nimrod-and-jesus-go-to-wal-mart/
Nice to know I am not alone!!!
I totally agree with you, and I am a Christian. Do what you like to celebrate your religious holiday. No one is stopping you. Quit whining that everyone else doesn’t celebrate it the way you want. If the world practiced your faith for you, it wouldn’t be faith. Oh, and I’ve heard scholars give a very good argument for Christ being born in September, using facts from the scriptures themselves, so the Pope may want to re-read some of it.
Reblogged this on windupmyskirt and commented:
Worthy of a second look.