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Ah, the Holiday seasons are here. The air is crisp and cold, the smell of pine tickles the nose, and white will cover the land as surely as red and green will cover the trailer park. It's Christmas time, everyone! Back again, for yet another six month marathon, that jolly old holiday known for it's infectious cheerful nature, and a steep rise in suicide related deaths. And we all know what Christmas is about: commerce. That's right, the very thing that makes our society work, the need to give and recieve presents.

But some people have another image in their heads when Christmas time comes around. Instead of brightly colored packages, all done up in bows, and good hot cocoa on a cold winter day, these people are determined to bring gloom to the holiday. Their icon is a crummy old dead guy on a stick, and their message is clear: "Christmas is about Jesus."

Sick and tired of hearing about this "Jesus" character during a season that is supposed to be about shopping? Three easy steps to put the mas back in Christmas, and get god out of the mall.

1. Shop early. The earlier you shop, the less likely you'll run into this "Jesus" character, or any of his freaky followers at the mall.

2. Support Santa. Santa is an excellent secular representitive of the holiday season, symbolizing economic progress in the form of consumerism, fat people, and the color red. Saint Nick may have once had religious conotations, but we've stripped those away very neatly.

3. Take the blasphemy challenge on Youtube! The Rational Response Squad is still giving away dvds to those willing to make a video of them stating "I deny the holy spirit" (the one unforgivable sin according to the New Testament). Two birds in one stone! Promote commerce and chase Jesus right out of the holidays!

But don't stop there. Come up with your own ideas to keep Jesus the hell out of the shopping season, and post them here

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

Christmas is a sham Holiday, but not because it's evolved into a mercantile orgy. The Christians co-opted the Saturnalia, the Natalis Solis Invicti, and the Yule from pagans in order to increase pagan conversions to the church. (Hey, you can still party. We'll just call it Christ mass now.)

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Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

Christmas is a sham Holiday, but not because it's evolved into a mercantile orgy. The Christians co-opted the Saturnalia, the Natalis Solis Invicti, and the Yule from pagans in order to increase pagan conversions to the church. (Hey, you can still party. We'll just call it Christ mass now.)

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Actually this is not really true. December 25 was adopted as a Christian holiday because it was a sacred festival in the pre-Christian Roman religion. When the Romans became Christian they simply adopted their own festivals for their new religion – it never had anything to do with forcing pagans to become Christians (at least not in the sense that most people mean). That is a fallacy that has propagated through popular thought.

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Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

-- Cicero

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Around 300 years after Jesus was dead, Origen Adamantius, one of the fathers of the Christian church, frowned on the idea of celebrating Christmas. Between 350 and 430, Christmas was abruptly embraced. The dates were set to coincide with existing pagan celebrations. Keep in mind that there were plenty of Christians before this, and they didn't celebrate Christmas. But when you make Christianity the official religion of the Empire, you've got to sell it.

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Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
It's sad how some people have ...

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:


Jesus of Nazareth was most likely not born on Christmas day, nor even in close proximity to it.

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
What a bunch of sad, pathetic, grumpy GRINCHES you are! Christmas is for THE KIDS!

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Originally posted by oldenglanddry:

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:


Jesus of Nazareth was most likely not born on Christmas day, nor even in close proximity to it.

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Or indeed in Nazareth, or, indeed at all.

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Christians absolutely adopted, re-purposed, and re-named the pagan celebrations. It was the P.C. solution, precisely because people didn't want to drop their pantheon of parties, and the church couldn't allow pagan festivals to continue to be celebrated amongst their adherents. So the pagan festivals and practices were allowed to continue... but no longer under their original names or pretext.

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
And the idea that Pagans exalted the state is even funnier given how the Romans treated them,

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
How can you say the Christians did not, when the State of the time was in lockstep with their purposes.

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello Finn,

I can tell you have a broader understanding of history than I do, but my research disagrees with your assertions.

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"Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you,
O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD,
Learn not the way of the heathen.
For the customs of the people are vain:
for one cutteth a tree out of the forest,
the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
They deck it with silver and with gold;
they fasten it with nails and with hammers,
that it move not.
They are upright as the palm tree.
Every man is brutish in his knowledge.
My tabernacle is spoiled.
For the pastors are become brutish,
and have not sought the LORD:
therefore they shall not prosper,
and all their flocks shall be scattered.
Behold, the noise of the bruit is come,
and a great commotion out of the north country,
to make the cities of Judah desolate,
and a den of dragons.
Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not."
-Jeremiah 10 (King James Bible)

Jeremiah 10 Christmas Cards from the White House
http://www.cafepress.com/piratenews.39079634

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Originally posted by rue:
How do you screen it out ? Turn up the music ?

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Originally posted by rue:
You must not have kids whining at you for every little thing - which is what I see when I go to the stores this time of year. How do you screen it out ? Turn up the music ?

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