Your parents must be Southern Baptists, because my uncle who was Southern Baptist Preacher and a racist, homophobic, misogynistic adultering asshole (forced me to be baptized at 17 because the church elders were scandalized by my behavior and the fact that I was not "born again", he also said that Jesus drank grape juice, when their Bibl…
Your parents must be Southern Baptists, because my uncle who was Southern Baptist Preacher and a racist, homophobic, misogynistic adultering asshole (forced me to be baptized at 17 because the church elders were scandalized by my behavior and the fact that I was not "born again", he also said that Jesus drank grape juice, when their Bible clearly said he turned water into wine. Which by the way was the trick of the Greek god of Wine, Dionysos, (actually means son of God, the Latin word for god, Dios, is their rendition of Zeus. So the Jewish apostles spread through the Roman World spreading a religion based on Dionysos ( Bacchus).
You got it right. My mother was Southern Baptist, my stepfather, a lapsed Catholic who converted at my mother's insistence. Neither of them were church goers, except very rarely. I went regularly, sang in the choir and often was at church several times a week. It was the only place I was allowed to go as a teen. I only saw my stepfather go one time - when he was baptized. Christian rituals are derivative from pagan rites and rituals. The Catholics integrated a lot of these rituals into Christianity to bring pagans into the fold. Christmas was never the birth time of Jesus (if He ever existed in the material world); estimates by historians say He was likely born in late summer. But the winter solstice is ~Dec 21, a huge pagan holiday. I'm not pagan, but I like holidays, so my family celebrates on the solstice. Easter was originally Ēostre and the Spring Equinox, another pagan holiday. There are others - almost all of them, actually.
I've read and I do believe that the Christian contribution to humanity's moral progress has been the concept of confession and forgiveness. Protestants prefer to skip the confession part and I suspect the Catholic Church has the right of it - confessing ones shortcomings to another helps put one's own behaviors at the forefront. In earlier times, once God or the Gods were peeved at you, that was it. Game over. The idea of being born again gives people a chance to move on from mistakes they truly regret and do better. Evangelical/Modern Christianity seems to desire the "I'm forgiven, so I'll just move on" part, without ever considering the "do-better" part. They've reduced the potential for transcendence to a series of "thou shalt nots," which, surprise!, are mostly applied to things other people do that they don't personally like. I'm not Christian; if I were, I'd lean towards Catholicism, despite its bloody and brutal history. At least there's some history and consistency there, as well as some beautiful rituals. For example, while they are anti-choice, they are also anti-death penalty (now, anyway, not in the past) - consistency. Protestantism contains a mess of extremism and outright nutty ideas. Pastors adhere to no common canon and often make things up as they go along. While Catholics do beat their children, Protestantism turns beating children into an art form with the whole "spare the rod, spoil the child" business. Cults all over the USA are victimizing children, legally, as we converse here. I've seen and experienced real brutality from this mindset. When I confronted my mother about the violence visited upon me and my siblings (violence never used by her own parents), her only response was "I did the best I could and Jesus forgives me," never bothering to ask for forgiveness from the those she harmed or to even acknowledging that harm. I'm likely biased, but that, to me, is the essence of Evangelicalism. There is precious little self-awareness or self-reflection involved.
Let me start by explaining why Christmas and the Bacchanalia are celebrated on Dec 25th
After the summer solstice the sun , from the point of view of the ancients, starts it's descent into the grave. The ancients, as far as I know, thought they earth was flat, and the place that the sun went every night was the underworld or the grave.
After the solstice they days got progressively shorter, and by Dec 21st there is the winter solstice All of this you and everyone else knows.
However the ancients, neolithic peoples, who were farmers knowing nothing of celestial mechanics and thinking that the sun, moon and stars were gods. (ex: Mercury the messenger, has, what appears from earth, a retrograde orbit, meaning that it appears to move between Mars and Jupiter hence messenger of the gods). Were fearful that the sun was dying and descending into the grave. This would occasion pleas, sacrifices (sometimes human). To prove that they loved "god".
Then on Dec 21st the sun stopped it's descent, lay three days, in it's grave, then praise ye Ia (Ya) or Halleluia , the son arose from the grave and started it's ascent again And there was tthe promise that so long as the son rises, there will be everlasting life. So every Dec 25th there was a massive celebration, the Greeks called Dionysia and the Romans the Bacchanalia.
Originally Dionysus was the Greek god of fertility. Later, he came to be known chiefly as the god of wine and pleasure. The Romans called him Bacchus. Dionysus was the son of the supreme god Zeus and Semele, the daughter of a king.
In Greek Dionysos (Dionysus) means son of god (god being Dios, (familiar huh, as in Gracia Dios) we know Dios as Zeus.
The Roman's chief god was named Jupiter, not Zeus, I guess there is a limit to how much you can crib from another culture, so you integrate theirs with yours.
There is one characteristic that Dionysos and Jesus have in common. Dionysos was the god of wine, and both are said to have changed water into wine. (Actually the Greek philosopher Heron invented a vessel that you could fill with water, then pour at as wine, via a hidden chamber.
And there you have the reason behind Dec 25th. I agree though that the cult of Rome needed something to supplant the Bacchanalia, so it preempted it with Christmans, leaving them a quandary later on, as to how to celebrate the birth.
The polytheists providedd a solution, coopt the fertility rites of the Greeks, Celts, Germans, a rite that often included human sacrifice, and took place in late spring, when the ground warmed enough to sow seed. The hare (Easter bunny ) was the totem of the fertility rite, because of its prolific reproduction. The Goddess that brought fertility was Easter in the north of Europe, Also known as Astarte, Astar, Ashera, Esther. and to the pre Islamic Arabs as al Uzza.
Different names for the planet Venus, besides fertility she was the most fearsome and feared goddess of War in the pre Roman world.
I want nothing to do with the Catholic cult. I spent 7 years as a trad Catholic. I too converted to marry, at first cognitive dissonance took over and I became a traditional, ()Latin mass) Catholic even joined the Catholic Truth, subscribed to the Wayfarer (a trad Catholic paper, that called Pope John Paul II, the anti Christ.
It took some time for the nonsense to wear off. I must confess I enjoyed Latin Masses, sang in a choir even, (Latin songs), but when the priest, after finishing his homily, said "That is the word of god". my prefrontal cortex was being nudged into awakening, and I realized that these people who stood in front of a congregation lecturing them were using something they called God as a marionette, I prefer the modern term of sock puppet.
Your parents must be Southern Baptists, because my uncle who was Southern Baptist Preacher and a racist, homophobic, misogynistic adultering asshole (forced me to be baptized at 17 because the church elders were scandalized by my behavior and the fact that I was not "born again", he also said that Jesus drank grape juice, when their Bible clearly said he turned water into wine. Which by the way was the trick of the Greek god of Wine, Dionysos, (actually means son of God, the Latin word for god, Dios, is their rendition of Zeus. So the Jewish apostles spread through the Roman World spreading a religion based on Dionysos ( Bacchus).
You got it right. My mother was Southern Baptist, my stepfather, a lapsed Catholic who converted at my mother's insistence. Neither of them were church goers, except very rarely. I went regularly, sang in the choir and often was at church several times a week. It was the only place I was allowed to go as a teen. I only saw my stepfather go one time - when he was baptized. Christian rituals are derivative from pagan rites and rituals. The Catholics integrated a lot of these rituals into Christianity to bring pagans into the fold. Christmas was never the birth time of Jesus (if He ever existed in the material world); estimates by historians say He was likely born in late summer. But the winter solstice is ~Dec 21, a huge pagan holiday. I'm not pagan, but I like holidays, so my family celebrates on the solstice. Easter was originally Ēostre and the Spring Equinox, another pagan holiday. There are others - almost all of them, actually.
I've read and I do believe that the Christian contribution to humanity's moral progress has been the concept of confession and forgiveness. Protestants prefer to skip the confession part and I suspect the Catholic Church has the right of it - confessing ones shortcomings to another helps put one's own behaviors at the forefront. In earlier times, once God or the Gods were peeved at you, that was it. Game over. The idea of being born again gives people a chance to move on from mistakes they truly regret and do better. Evangelical/Modern Christianity seems to desire the "I'm forgiven, so I'll just move on" part, without ever considering the "do-better" part. They've reduced the potential for transcendence to a series of "thou shalt nots," which, surprise!, are mostly applied to things other people do that they don't personally like. I'm not Christian; if I were, I'd lean towards Catholicism, despite its bloody and brutal history. At least there's some history and consistency there, as well as some beautiful rituals. For example, while they are anti-choice, they are also anti-death penalty (now, anyway, not in the past) - consistency. Protestantism contains a mess of extremism and outright nutty ideas. Pastors adhere to no common canon and often make things up as they go along. While Catholics do beat their children, Protestantism turns beating children into an art form with the whole "spare the rod, spoil the child" business. Cults all over the USA are victimizing children, legally, as we converse here. I've seen and experienced real brutality from this mindset. When I confronted my mother about the violence visited upon me and my siblings (violence never used by her own parents), her only response was "I did the best I could and Jesus forgives me," never bothering to ask for forgiveness from the those she harmed or to even acknowledging that harm. I'm likely biased, but that, to me, is the essence of Evangelicalism. There is precious little self-awareness or self-reflection involved.
Seems we share experiences somewhat
Let me start by explaining why Christmas and the Bacchanalia are celebrated on Dec 25th
After the summer solstice the sun , from the point of view of the ancients, starts it's descent into the grave. The ancients, as far as I know, thought they earth was flat, and the place that the sun went every night was the underworld or the grave.
After the solstice they days got progressively shorter, and by Dec 21st there is the winter solstice All of this you and everyone else knows.
However the ancients, neolithic peoples, who were farmers knowing nothing of celestial mechanics and thinking that the sun, moon and stars were gods. (ex: Mercury the messenger, has, what appears from earth, a retrograde orbit, meaning that it appears to move between Mars and Jupiter hence messenger of the gods). Were fearful that the sun was dying and descending into the grave. This would occasion pleas, sacrifices (sometimes human). To prove that they loved "god".
Then on Dec 21st the sun stopped it's descent, lay three days, in it's grave, then praise ye Ia (Ya) or Halleluia , the son arose from the grave and started it's ascent again And there was tthe promise that so long as the son rises, there will be everlasting life. So every Dec 25th there was a massive celebration, the Greeks called Dionysia and the Romans the Bacchanalia.
Originally Dionysus was the Greek god of fertility. Later, he came to be known chiefly as the god of wine and pleasure. The Romans called him Bacchus. Dionysus was the son of the supreme god Zeus and Semele, the daughter of a king.
In Greek Dionysos (Dionysus) means son of god (god being Dios, (familiar huh, as in Gracia Dios) we know Dios as Zeus.
The Roman's chief god was named Jupiter, not Zeus, I guess there is a limit to how much you can crib from another culture, so you integrate theirs with yours.
There is one characteristic that Dionysos and Jesus have in common. Dionysos was the god of wine, and both are said to have changed water into wine. (Actually the Greek philosopher Heron invented a vessel that you could fill with water, then pour at as wine, via a hidden chamber.
And there you have the reason behind Dec 25th. I agree though that the cult of Rome needed something to supplant the Bacchanalia, so it preempted it with Christmans, leaving them a quandary later on, as to how to celebrate the birth.
The polytheists providedd a solution, coopt the fertility rites of the Greeks, Celts, Germans, a rite that often included human sacrifice, and took place in late spring, when the ground warmed enough to sow seed. The hare (Easter bunny ) was the totem of the fertility rite, because of its prolific reproduction. The Goddess that brought fertility was Easter in the north of Europe, Also known as Astarte, Astar, Ashera, Esther. and to the pre Islamic Arabs as al Uzza.
Different names for the planet Venus, besides fertility she was the most fearsome and feared goddess of War in the pre Roman world.
I want nothing to do with the Catholic cult. I spent 7 years as a trad Catholic. I too converted to marry, at first cognitive dissonance took over and I became a traditional, ()Latin mass) Catholic even joined the Catholic Truth, subscribed to the Wayfarer (a trad Catholic paper, that called Pope John Paul II, the anti Christ.
It took some time for the nonsense to wear off. I must confess I enjoyed Latin Masses, sang in a choir even, (Latin songs), but when the priest, after finishing his homily, said "That is the word of god". my prefrontal cortex was being nudged into awakening, and I realized that these people who stood in front of a congregation lecturing them were using something they called God as a marionette, I prefer the modern term of sock puppet.