Pagan Origins of [Insert Holiday]

Hobbit

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Mar 25, 2004
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Ok, I'm sick of having to go after these things in seperate threads all the time, so here it is.

I see all the time some people showing how Christmas, Easter, and all manner of other Christian holidays have pagan origins. The typical point of the article is a very subtle nudge that these holidays don't matter and/or Christians shouldn't celebrate them because some of the aspects of the holiday have their roots in another religion. First off, this is horse hockey. I doubt having an egg hunt at church on Easter is really going to corrupt the message that Jesus rose from the dead. After all, the egg on Easter is supposed to symbolize the new life that Jesus brought to the Earth. So, how did these holidays come about? I'm glad you asked.

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church held sway over much of Europe and was trying to reach the areas it hadn't already. Well, there were a few examples in the Bible of using tenets of another religion to introduce a new populace to Jesus. The most notable was the apostle Paul proclaiming Jesus as the one represented by the statue of the unknown God in Athens. Well, they saw several pagan holidays coinciding with harvesting seasons and the solstices and equinoxes, and decided to capitalise them. The traditional pagan winter festival was a festival of lights, since days got longer after the solstice. Jesus was the light of the world, so they drew a parallel and put Christmas near the winter solstice so that when the newly converted thought of the winter solstice and the lengthening of days, they would think of Jesus as the light of the world.

Next came Easter. In the spring, pagans celebrated the coming of new life as winter passed and plants budded and animals emerged from hibernation. Well, Jesus brought new life with his resurrection, so the church thought this would be a good way to teach the pagans about the resurrection. Thus, Easter was born.

All Saints' Day was put in the spot of the fall harvest festival, when pagans thought the spirits of the dead went on a night of mischief. This didn't stick and the original holiday lives on in a bit more of a harmless way through Halloween, an eventual slurring of All Hallows' Eve.

So, that is the origin of the so-called 'pagan' Christian holidays. No matter how they started, 1500 years of Christian symbolism and celebration have made them Christian holidays, and only a few symbols that have long since shed their original meaning remain of those dead religions.
 
All religions grew out of and incorporate ideas from other religions or previous religions. All religions are related to each other, because they are all man made. Anybody who claims originality for a religion, or who expects a religion to be original is not too bright.
 
Nuc said:
All religions grew out of and incorporate ideas from other religions or previous religions. All religions are related to each other...
Yes! True! In the beginning of the world, there was one religion, one God, known to all people.
... because they are all man made.
See, here's where we disagree. :(
Anybody who claims originality for a religion, or who expects a religion to be original is not too bright.
Yay! We agree again!
 
mom4 said:
Yes! True! In the beginning of the world, there was one religion, one God, known to all people.
See, here's where we disagree. :(

Yay! We agree again!

Whats wrong with religion being man made---After all, who made man?
 
:alco:
Nuc said:
All religions grew out of and incorporate ideas from other religions or previous religions. All religions are related to each other, because they are all man made. Anybody who claims originality for a religion, or who expects a religion to be original is not too bright.

can you say L ron hubbard :alco:

:alco:
 
dilloduck said:
Whats wrong with religion being man made---After all, who made man?
Hmm... Good question. I guess we could get into the difference between religion and faith. But God made every person with the ability (and the PURPOSE) to worship. So I'm sticking to the idea of religion being God-made.
 
Bullypulpit said:
Prove your assertion.
LOL! Just expanding on Nuc's idea that all religions are related, and have similarities. I believe this is because they are all descended from a common source.
 
mom4 said:
Hmm... Good question. I guess we could get into the difference between religion and faith. But God made every person with the ability (and the PURPOSE) to worship. So I'm sticking to the idea of religion being God-made.

Isn't religion the reason and manner of recognizing of recognizing what one sees as truth?
 
dilloduck said:
Isn't religion the reason and manner of recognizing what one sees as truth?
The manner of recognition could be considered manmade. Each person will find his own way to relate to and to worship whatever he sees as spiritual. But the reason for religion is God-made. Every person has a capacity for spirituality that was created in him by God.
 
mom4 said:
Hmm... Good question. I guess we could get into the difference between religion and faith. But God made every person with the ability (and the PURPOSE) to worship. So I'm sticking to the idea of religion being God-made.

What about the religions which worship multiple gods, nature spirits and the like? Monotheism is relatively new in the history of religions. If you look at the history of mankind, we've only been worshipping or believing in "God" for a few thousand years. If religion is God-made it took millions of years of religious evolution for humanity to get to the point of worshipping God.
 
mom4 said:
The manner of recognition could be considered manmade. Each person will find his own way to relate to and to worship whatever he sees as spiritual. But the reason for religion is God-made. Every person has a capacity for spirituality that was created in him by God.

Are you sure God didn't instill the manner of recognition in every human?
 
Nuc said:
What about the religions which worship multiple gods, nature spirits and the like? Monotheism is relatively new in the history of religions. If you look at the history of mankind, we've only been worshipping or believing in "God" for a few thousand years. If religion is God-made it took millions of years of religious evolution for humanity to get to the point of worshipping God.
See, now what can of worms you've opened up? :D

Don't believe in macroevolution.
 
dilloduck said:
Are you sure God didn't instill the manner of recognition in every human?
Dillo, as usual, I'm not really sure what we're arguing about. :D
What's your position? Is religion manmade or God-made?
 
mom4 said:
See, now what can of worms you've opened up? :D

Don't believe in macroevolution.

ah worms are fun---why would God hide himself in man and not give him the ability to find his way back?
 
Nuc said:
What about the religions which worship multiple gods, nature spirits and the like? Monotheism is relatively new in the history of religions. If you look at the history of mankind, we've only been worshipping or believing in "God" for a few thousand years. If religion is God-made it took millions of years of religious evolution for humanity to get to the point of worshipping God.

Hey--practice makes perfect !
 
Nuc said:
If as Mom4 said, and it's a nice idea, God planted the seed for us to seek truth, then does God care what form of belief or worship we use?

Got me---that's way over my pay grade.
 

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