Cancel Christmas - Jesus was born June 17, say scientists

Daily Mail ^ | December 9, 2008

[maggief]

Juneteenth?!

;o)

[weegee]

I celebrate the birth of Jesus throughout the year.

This newscycle isn’t about the date, this is about the recognition of the event.

[eastsider]

It’s not the day he was born. It’s the day we celebrate his birth.

As far as I'm concerned, yours is the last word on the matter.

[weegee]

It was a virgin birth. Or do you have a problem with that?

Christopher Hitchens is an example of an atheism who is even in denial of the existence of Jesus. He gives more credence to the tales of King Arthur.

[alarm rider]

Simple. Keep Christmas in your heart all year long.

Happy Christmas everyone.

[Bertram3]

Somebody help me out here. If you follow a star that is in the east, don’t you have to turn around after the star passes overhead and go west until it sets. Wouldn’t that make your net progress westward for any star not on the eastern horizen at sunset? For a star on the eastern horizon, wouldn’t your progress actually be south if you are in the northern hemisphere?

[Claud]

The early Irish Church apparently celebrated All Saints on April 20. It was the Romans who set the date at November 1st and the Romans didn’t celebrate Samhain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints

Neo-pagans put out a lot of sloppy scholarship trying to take credit for feast days! :)

[mrclean5]

Let’s have a sense of humor here, it’s the middle of the work week

[RikaStrom]

for home

[Claud]

Most Christians know that Jesus was not born on December 25th. Christianity took over a pagan holiday that was celebrated on the 25th. in order to bury that pagan god ....

There's also the possibility that the pagans originally stole the date from Christians. That god you are talking about was Sol Invictus, and his cult was not established at Rome until the AD 200s. It was not an old pagan holiday in Rome by any means.

[SkyDancer]

Thanks but for whoever that date was being celebrated Christianity took it over ...

[Uri’el-2012]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2145929/posts?page=35#35

[Claud]

Thanks but for whoever that date was being celebrated Christianity took it over ...

But the point is I don't know that it was being celebrated by anyone. I am unaware of any other earlier pagan feast on that day; Saturnalia ran from Dec. 19 to 23.

[SkyDancer]

The answer lies in the pagan origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast. So somewhere/sometime when Christianity ruled they took that date to do away with the pagan celebrations and made it into a Christian holiday (???)

[Rightly Biased]

Mel Torme wrote the Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire) in June.

[G L Tirebiter]

Well, I dunno. Santa is gonna have one heckuva tough time towing his sleigh in June.

Things are already dicey for him in Australia & S. Africa this time of year.

[Claud]

But what is the evidence that the cult of Isis had a feast day on Dec. 25th in the Roman Empire?

Here’s the Chronography of 354:

http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_06_calendar.htm

I can see a number of days that look like they are dedicated to Isis. The “Isia” take place October 28th to November 1st. I can’t find anything here in the civil Roman calendar relating to the birth of Horus.

We have to be careful assuming that paganism was the same everywhere. It was a very local phenomenon; and what was standard in Babylon or Egypt often didn’t apply elsewhere.

[SkyDancer]

Well Babylon which is in Iraq was in the influence of Rome. Rome extended from Scotland to Egypt so many forms of winter solstice celebrations happened. December 25th. was for them when the days started to get longer. It’s just that December 25th. played a part in some pagan worship ritual and Christianity took it over to celebrate the birth of Jesus. This I believe was done to overshadow any pagan celebration that occurred over the centuries ...

[Claud]

Any argument you can make from Scripture could have been equally offered in 350 or 250 or 150.

Your argument seems to rely on your being able to easily crack a code which earlier Christians could not. Apologies, but I don’t put that much faith in your exegesis...or mine either for that matter.

[Jim Hill]

As I posted on a similar thread earlier, the irony of this article is that in order to refute the traditional December birthday, the scientists have acknowledged the existence of an actual historical Jesus Christ (i.e. JESUS WAS BORN . . . . .) Non-believers hoist once again upon their own petard.