The right side of atheism

[spectrumc01]

Except that Cecile was correct. The Christian festivals WERE NOT a CONTINUATION of the pagan festivals. They replaced the pagan festivals with Christian festivals. That is a fact that I am quite confident in stating as fact. It does not demean pagans in any way shape or form to state an accurate fact of history any more than it demeans Christians to state an accurate fact of history. Christianity largely replaced paganism throughout the Roman Empire. That is a fact. That they accommodated the traditions and customs of the former pagans is not the same thing as continuing the traditions and customs of paganism.

Except the festivals were not replaced but merged as Christmas is not a completely christian festival nor is it a completly pagan festival. A perfect example of the merging principal is Hatti and the practice of Voodoo. Replacing and merging are different.

I know that is a popular theory of non-Christians and what you find a lot of written by non-Christians on the internet, most especially those who wish to discredit and/or demean Christianity, but we will just have to agree to disagree on that. In my opinion there was no 'merge' if you read the commentary on the major Councils and the writings of the early Church fathers as well as non-Christian historians of those early centuries. The Church leaders were meticulous in distancing themselves from the pagan religions which is why they REPLACED so many of the pagan festivals with Christian ones so that new converts would not be tempted to return to their old ways.

I was born into a Catholic Family and had 12 years of Catholic schooling, and some college study on ancient mythology. I've read some of the same but it has been years, and you keep up on that stuff more than I. I stopped keeping up when I quit being a christian. From independant study, which I did when I left the church, I settled on the general Pagan belief and molded it to my own view of who God is and how God fits into my life.

The church leaders were meticulous at distancing themselves on paper, but in practice it didn't equate. Communication took a long time to reach across their sphere of control, and local people and customs did what they wanted unless the church was there to enforce their dogmas. By placing the church holidays on pagan holidays they did accomplish alot of what they wanted. The pagans over time did convert but not all of them, and the ones that didn't developed a deep hatred for Christians. So when reading the Pagan interpetation of history you have to consider why the Pagans feel the way they do. Christians don't see the harm they've done because they feel they are always right in these matters. It usually isn't until many many years later that they apologize, but by then the damage is done.

This particular conversation we are having would be impossible with someone like Cecile. It would quickly turned into name calling and disrespecting talk of lack of intelligence. There is no give and take with her, and definately no sharing of ideas and knowlege. She is a closed minded person who assumes that everyone is attacking her faith, and she takes it personally. That is too bad for her. I have enjoyed our conversation and seen some things from a different point of view. I still have to agree to disagree on some things.