[Fox]

I watched the A History Channel Thanksgiving episode of South Park, it was hilarious. The kids needed to do a homework about thanksgiving, and decided to watch the History Channel holiday specials instead of studying. The program itself basically says that thanksgiving was invented by extraterrestrials.

[Yatta]

On average I spend about 10 minutes pooping per day.

[Forge]

10 minutes a day is the average time i'm not touching myself inappropriately

[Radar]

Yatta, on 26 December 2013 - 01:11 AM, said:

On average I spend about 10 minutes pooping per day.

What an inappropriate post. Mods, ban this man.

[Master Fibbles]

Fox, on 25 December 2013 - 10:35 PM, said:

I watched the A History Channel Thanksgiving episode of South Park, it was hilarious. The kids needed to do a homework about thanksgiving, and decided to watch the History Channel holiday specials instead of studying. The program itself basically says that thanksgiving was invented by extraterrestrials.

That's awesome. And it fits the History Channel.

I have a MA in Bible and I live with a PhD in Bible and we watched one of their recent mini-series on the bible. I only recorded it because I recognized two people as leaders in the field.

Well, we had a fun time watching it because the people I knew were actual scholars in the bible never got much talking time. They just let a crazy lady who thinks she is a descendent of Jesus and Mary Magdele talk her head off.

[Hendricks266]

Element of Kindness, on 26 December 2013 - 08:16 AM, said:

What an inappropriate post. Mods, ban this man.

Backseat moderating. Go sit in the corner with the dunce hat on for five minutes.

[Radar]

[Forge]

[Jeff]

Read in the news, the guy who made the AK-47 rifle died a couple days ago.

[Lunick]

[The Commander]

http://www.trademe.c...gn=TM_Regifting

Interesting range of unwanted Christmas gifts. lol

[ReaperMan]

I put in sheep.... apparently everyone wants to keep theirs.

Edit:
Never mind some are for sale.

[Zaxtor]

Simpsons in legos.

[Lunick]

[faked]

Lunick,where ever did you find this picture of me?I makes me look sooooo much better!

[Helixhorned]

Mr.Flibble, on 24 December 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

I am not going to wish anyone "Happy Holidays" because there aren't any other nationally or globally celebrated holidays this time of year this year.

There's Kwanzaa.

Original source: The Simpsons 2013 fun calendar. Pretty useful.

[High Treason]

Seems about right.

[Master Fibbles]

Helixhorned, on 27 December 2013 - 04:54 AM, said:

There's Kwanzaa.

Original source: The Simpsons 2013 fun calendar. Pretty useful.

Kwanzaa is celebrated in the US pretty much exclusively. I said globally celebrated. Hanukah was in November this year so there are no other international holidays. It is also a wholly made up holiday.

I mean, fucking atheist communist China celebrates Christmas as a national holiday. What is wrong with saying "Merry Christmas"? "Happy Holidays" is a phony way of celebrating Christmas without admitting that the day is a holy day for Christians around the world and has been for nearly 2 millennia. It is an act of maintaining ignorance so that people can participate in radical capitalism and self-righteous charity.

[Kathy]

Mr.Flibble, on 27 December 2013 - 07:59 AM, said:

I mean, fucking atheist communist China celebrates Christmas as a national holiday.

You're wrong.

[Ronin]

Mr.Flibble, on 27 December 2013 - 07:59 AM, said:

Kwanzaa is celebrated in the US pretty much exclusively. I said globally celebrated. Hanukah was in November this year so there are no other international holidays. It is also a wholly made up holiday.

I mean, fucking atheist communist China celebrates Christmas as a national holiday. What is wrong with saying "Merry Christmas"? "Happy Holidays" is a phony way of celebrating Christmas without admitting that the day is a holy day for Christians around the world and has been for nearly 2 millennia. It is an act of maintaining ignorance so that people can participate in radical capitalism and self-righteous charity.

Sorry man Christmas was just "borrowed" from the Pagans including the tree. They just used the already celebrated Pagan days and wrapped their story around them. People can take what ever meaning they want from Christmas, it's just a name for a day that people come together and try to be positive and have fun. Capitalism is just the latest religion to borrow Christmas.

[Forge]

Mr.Flibble, on 27 December 2013 - 07:59 AM, said:

It is also a wholly made up holiday.

other than holidays that celebrate a country's accomplishments (i.e. independence), and those that recognize the birthday of specific individuals (i.e. Martin Luther King Jr.), all holidays are "made up"

you could argue that Christ-Mas celebrates the birth of Jesus, but there is more evidence that he was born 3 bce during the Roman Census, and going off astronomical data from that year based off rare planetary conjunctions, the month was most likely June, (but could have been August or September based off more common astronomical phenomenon)

as Ronan stated, the Catholic church in Britannia took pagan rituals celebrated in December that they were unable to quash and wrapped them up in their own belief system to bring the heathens into the flock and to prevent dissent and rebellion. (they also did the same with what is called Halloween)

so Christmas can be construed as a "made up" holiday

[Radar]

Lunick, on 26 December 2013 - 06:26 PM, said:

OMG. SkiFree and Chip's Challenge were my childhood.

[Helixhorned]

Mr.Flibble, on 27 December 2013 - 07:59 AM, said:

I said globally celebrated.

Um, no you didn't?

Mr.Flibble, on 24 December 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

I am not going to wish anyone "Happy Holidays" because there aren't any other nationally or globally celebrated holidays this time of year this year.

Mr.Flibble, on 27 December 2013 - 07:59 AM, said:

What is wrong with saying "Merry Christmas"?

Nothing at all.

[Jeff]

Using a RAM based disk cache in combination with a defrag program does help to speed up the defrag process for my large storage drives. Used to take a while to defrag, now it doesn't take very long.

[Forge]

Mr.Flibble, on 24 December 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

Merry Christmas, all you people.

If you don't celebrate Christmas, that is your problem. I am not going to wish anyone "Happy Holidays" because there aren't any other nationally or globally celebrated holidays this time of year this year.

There are many countries where it's not a "public" holiday (mostly from China to North Africa)
though these regions do not recognize it as a "holiday" there are a few countries where they give gifts or perform some other form of celebration that has been adapted from the Western traditions from this time of year (china, japan, etc)
and there are people in those regions (yes, christians in iran) who celebrate it privately in their own home

[Master Fibbles]

Forge, on 27 December 2013 - 09:14 AM, said:

^{[Citation Needed]}

Although I won't disagree that the large majority of how Christmas is celebrated in the West is taken from German pagan traditions, it does not negate the authenticity of the holiday as a whole.

The date of December 25th has been celebrated since the earliest of times in Christianity (formally as early as the 4th century; but informally as early as the 2nd century). There are arguments for and against the winter date but any argument from astronomy makes certain assumptions at the beginning. These are assumptions I prefer to not make (that there was a single "star" or constellation set; that the magi were travelling from a known location [the three gifts mentioned can only be found in Arabia, each of the three can be found in other places, however]). These assumptions are based on both a religious fundamentalism and atheism (that a natural phenomena which can be explained occurred).

The date of 3 bc is not one I have heard tossed around by most scholars. Usually the years 7 - 4 bc are tossed around because they line up with the death of King Herod the Great. Since I'm not sold on the idea of the Matthean account occurring at the same time as the Lukan account (and the Lukan account is roughly dated using a census that was at least a decade AFTER Jesus was likely born), I can accept Jesus being born before that and the Magi visiting a toddler Jesus in or around 4 bc before Herod died. Matthew records the Magi visiting a house, Luke records Jesus being born in a cave (a cave that was venerated as early as the 2nd centuryas the birth place of Jesus).

There are a lot of problems about the date, but there are no truly irrefutable arguments either way. To assume so (and to spout it online or in a History Channel special) is ignorance. When I hear people (PhDs and otherwise) talking about "proof" of a particular date or year for the birth of Jesus, I humor them for a while but then stop listening because I see vey quickly they are assuming too many things and ignoring others.

Was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Who knows? If he is known as being from Nazareth does that preclude the possibility? I can't see how. Being "from" somewhere is not the same thing (even then) as being "born" somewhere. As a tradesman, Jesus and his father Joseph (and brothers) would follow the work so migrating to a town near Sephora is perfectly reasonable after the rise of Herod Antipas who, like his father, had large scale building projects that needed lots of workers. Moving from south of Jerusalem (where there were building projects under Herod the Great) to outside of Sephora is within the realm of possibility for an artisan. There are a lot of works on this and I can't find a specific place to point you. If I had better access to my library and a university library, I would be able to pull out some citations.

As far as the date in the winter, there are as many assumptions based on local and modern knowledge (read: 21st century city dwelling European/American who has never seen a free ranged sheep in their life). This is another place where I think people who talk about the dates and places of Jesus' birth in popular media ought to be ignored. I wish I could find a good study on ancient/Imperial sheepherding practices in Israel but it isn't exactly a well researched area in the English speaking world. Now, it might be in German and there could be something in Hebrew (but not likely since Hebrew publications are almost exclusively Jewish).

So, now, after all of this, I feel inclined to do extensive and exhaustive research on the topic. Unfortunately, I graduated and no longer have access to articles and particularly extensive libraries. I may piggy back onto my roommates' for some research and put together a study. Maybe. I have a different writing project lined up and a publisher on call so it may have to wait.


In Sum:
The particular methods of celebrating Christmas (which, frankly, I mostly don't care for) are Germanic pagan practices merged into Christian theology. This does not negate their value in actuality. Santa Claus is a strange amalgamation of a German mythological figure and a 4th century Christian saint (and some others). I agree with Notre Dame's Dr. Candida Moss who says that Santa Claus hurts Christmas and I'm of the opinion that we shouldn't tell our kids he exists.*
*

Spoiler

Side note: Candida is freaking hot. I met her recently and she has the hottest British accent...oh man..

However, the date and celebration of Christmas are not simply "made up" in the same way as, for example, Kwanzaa.


Really, I hate the commercialization of Christmas and the overall feel of turning November and December into gluttonous months where if you don't spend tons of money on other people you are somehow a terrible person.

[Forge]

i fail to see the difference between Cyprian pulling out of thin air at the end of the 3rd century "O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born, Christ should be born." (winter soltice)

...and lets say, Maulana Karenga creating Kwanzaa in 1966 because he was offended that santa clause is "white" so he shoved his agenda on top of a holiday that annoyed him (original intent)

the date is made up (reasons of subterfuge can be debated)


kwanza is a made up holiday if you like your santa and jesus white
celebrating christmas is a made up holiday if you don't have that religious faith - the rest of the people go for the commercialism and/or the festive celebration during a traditionally crappy time of the year when you're cooped up inside and not out tilling, sowing, and reaping

[Sangman]

Mr.Flibble, on 24 December 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

If you don't celebrate Christmas, that is your problem. I am not going to wish anyone "Happy Holidays" because there aren't any other nationally or globally celebrated holidays this time of year this year.

Uh, okay.

Why are you being such a cunt about this?

[Kathy]

Flibble, are you refering to New Year's celebrations as Christmas also?

[Inspector Lagomorf]

Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's.

Keep your holiday and let everyone else keep theirs.

Excuse me while I take down my Festivus pole.