USA . . . war on the horrizon? The Sequel (Golden Rainbow)

X-mas was created to combat the only pagan festival that survived the coming of christ; namely saturnalia.

MM: one does not have to be fluent in a language, as long as one gets information from respectable sources that ARE fluent in that language; and yes, while the "vulgate" was very badly translated, it has been noted that if God did want to write a religion, he should not have done it in Greek, or at least should have learned it better.

But, this whole conversation reminds me of a the parable of the mad man in the market place... you know the one; he carried a lantern and kept crying out: "God is dead."

You aren't referring to Christmas, but to its date. I consider it a pretty ingenious move... One of the best I've ever seen. Live and learn.

For all I know, we should be celebrating Christmas somewhen around March and April.

Yes, my bad. Should have phrased it better. Its date was chosen to coincide with the Saturnalia, and it took almost all of it's "rituals".

Personally, I think Saturnalia was better: two weeks of gift giving, instead of one night. But, hey, that's progress. ;)

And, I totally agree - and history judges with you - that the move was very effective.

Most religions have a winter festival. And, like most religions, they're based on earlier pagan festivals celebrating the passing of mid-winter (longest night of the year) with a feast.

You find simmilar festivals in the southern hemisphere during the mid-year months.

Yes... But the Catholic Church purposely implemented Christmas on the 25th of December with the intention to assimilate and suppress other cults.

If we really were to celebrate the birth of the Messiah, it should be, as I already said, around March or April.

Other rituals simply slipped into Catholicism. Carnival, for instance, and... not sure about Halloween. I believe Halloween is on the 31st of October. We have a similar thing on the 2nd of November, spiritually speaking.

There are other several more, but small, regional rituals that became 'catholic' as well, even though they changed nearly nothing.

This practice to assimilate rituals from other religions isn't unique to the Catholicism, though. I believe all religions with a large number of practitioners have assimilated other rituals.

I like using the term Catholicism referring to Christianity before the Great Schism.

Oh, yeah, considering I just saw the quotes of Occam,and "absence of evidence", and world being made perfect for life;

answer, by parable:
You walk on a beach, and find a watch. Does that argue for the watch being created by someone? Yes. However, looking at the workmanship, you see faults, and imperfections.

You cannot argue from an imperfect creation, to a perfect creator. And, the world is not OPTIMALLY designed for life; it could be better, hence it's not perfect, but imperfect.

The forces of man have made the world imperfect. For if nature took it's course, life would have plenty of time to adapt to the changing enviroment, creating a perfect condition for the sustainability of life.
But as man's influence have accelerated the change in the enviroment to a speed that life is unable to adapt quick enough to, now we see faults and imperfection's.

But in a day or so we might, due to man's thurst for God like perfect in knowledge, see the destruction of the earth.

BANG

The world is not perfectly adapted for life. Life is perfectly adapted for the earth.

"The world is not perfectly adapted for life. Life is perfectly adapted for the earth. "

My bad, I meant our world, is in a narrow band of worlds that are suitable for life; but those parameters could be adjusted, to make life on our world better. Hence, the world is not perfect, and you can't use it to argue for a perfect creator.

"The forces of man have made the world imperfect. For if nature took it's course, life would have plenty of time to adapt to the changing enviroment, creating a perfect condition for the sustainability of life.
But as man's influence have accelerated the change in the enviroment to a speed that life is unable to adapt quick enough to, now we see faults and imperfection's."
Am I to get from that, that you're referring to natural selection? That's not exactly how it works. But, anyhow, adaption is key in natural selection. It is not survival of the fittest, but surv

"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."
Ambrose Bierce