FreeThinkingAtheist.com

    "Happy Holidays" is definitely more correct than saying "Merry Christmas". For one thing, not everybody celebrates Christmas. And for the ones who are celebrating Christmas for biblical reasons, well, Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible.

    Most people do not know that Christmas was stolen from an ancient Pagan holiday. This Pagan holiday was around way before Christ allegedly existed. In fact, most people who have studied the subject believe that Christ was born most likely in the Fall, most say September. A winter birth seems entirely out of the question considering it says that during Christ's birth: "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night." This is from the beginning of Luke 2 Certainly, shepherds would not be tending to their fields in the dead of winter, considering the seasons are from Spring until Fall. This raises an interesting question to me: Where do Christians get Christmas, Dec. 25th from?

    Although I have much respect for the Roman Empire, leave it to the Romans to dilute some holiday in order to ease in converting the masses. The Catholic Church in particular decided on Dec. 25th. Now why would they choose Dec. 25th?

    Well it turns out that an ancient Roman Pagan holiday took place on Dec. 25^th. That holiday is “Saturnalia”, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. The entire season celebrates the birthday of the Sun. In fact, this season was largely celebrated as the birthday of the Gods in Pagan countries throughout Europe.

Now, for the striking parts:

1) It is Rome that spawned the tradition of the Mummers: groups of singers and dancers who entertained from house to house during this Pagan season. This is where the idea of “Christmas Carols” were lifted from.

2) Mistletoe was considered to be a “sacred plant” to Pagans. And since it was considered to be a symbol of fertility, it was a custom to kiss under the mistletoe.

3) Evergreen “Christmas” trees were a symbol of life, and were highly celebrated throughout the Pagan world in the dead of winter. They were considered good luck, and symbolize the fertile seasons to come.

    All of these non-Christian qualities are highly present even today in Christmas. These traditions have been around longer than the idea of Christ. Even so, it took the Church 350 years to decide that Christ’s birth will be celebrated on Dec. 25^th. This was a rough time in Europe, as masses of Pagans were being converted into Christians, and this no doubt eased the burden on the converters. The church simply modified one of the most important existing Pagan holidays in Rome, and kept it, as opposed to taking it away for being unholy. Considering that Pagans were in the majority at the time, it could have been disastrous had they taken away their Winters Festival, discarding it and banning it for being unholy. So they converted the holiday to Christianity, and so followed the Pagans. This is really just one of many, many, many tactics the Catholic Church used to convert masses.

    But really, the joke is on Christians. Consider flying a Nazi Flag next July 4th. This should pretty much get the same effect as celebrating Christmas as a Christian. The symbols we associate with Christmas today are all Pagan symbols, not Christian. Christmas represents everything that a Christian is not, as Pagans are their biggest enemies of all time. It's funny too, because Christians gets upset that the world around them is easing towards the more political correct "Happy Holidays" as opposed to "Merry Christmas". But really, saying "Merry Christmas" is blasphemous, so they should be happy it about it, not upset. Hell, if Christians want to say "Merry Christmas", they might as wall run around screaming "Jesus Fucking Christ".

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     It is repulsive that God allows so much pain, famine, death, and sin in this world that appears to serve no purpose in a spiritual nor biblical sense. If God was all-knowing, then he knew Eve would eat from the tree, he wanted to bring us pain. If that’s the case, and God exists and is just content with sitting on the sidelines, then this world has no use for God. This so-called God is merely cosmetic and not worthy of devotion. Humans are obsessed with themselves and many can’t accept the fact that we don’t mean a damn thing in this universe, that we are just a mere nothing, in the blink of time. No, they must think that they are all important and have a purpose in life and that somebody is watching over them.

     Humans are social creatures, and they can’t stand the thought of being alone, but we are on our own. We live by our choices and we die alone just like any other animal. We are without a supreme deity who guides us through life and moral choices. Those moral choices come from within. Religion can only form a thin yet deceiving veil over an immoral person. Religion is natural way of humans to act in their obsessive compulsive ways, and is nothing more than a crutch for all to lean on in trying times, at its best. However, it is also responsible for some of the most bloodiest and gruesome conflicts in human history and can bring as much misery as it relieves. We should live by our own code of decency. We don’t need organized religion to guide us, nor hinder us in our choices.

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