Posted on 10/22/2002 5:11:40 AM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood
It never ceases to amaze me that most Christians would criticize me for being an atheist, yet they will "celebrate" a macabre pagan holiday. They inculcate their children into the practice of it and feed them the most unhealthful things you could give a child to eat.
Likewise, many atheists criticize me for being a "right-winger." Most atheists are so caught up in their polemics, they have become nothing more than anti-Christians - or what I call the Religious Left (a collaboration of the Marxist religion, neo-pagan animal/tree/earth worshipper eco-fascists and general technophobes).
Why do you "celebrate" on certain "holidays," what are you celebrating, do you really know? Or have you been so lost in the conformity of it all to really take a look at what you partake in?
As you ponder this, two noted Christian philosophers support my secular argument...
Søren Kierkegaard from The Sickness Unto Death:
The fantastic is, of course, most closely related to the imagination [Phantasien], but the imagination is related in it’s turn to feeling, understanding, and will, so that a person’s feelings, understanding and will may be fantastic. Fantasy is, in general the medium of infinitization… (emphasis mine)
The fantastic is generally speaking what carries a person into the infinite in such a way that it only leads him away from himself and thus prevents him from coming back to himself.
Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan:
Part IV. Of the Kingdom of DarknessChap. xlv. Of Demonology and other Relics of the Religion of the Gentiles.
[14] An image, in the most strict signification of the word, is the resemblance of something visible: in which sense the fantastical forms, apparitions, or seemings of visible bodies to the sight, are only images; such as are the show of a man or other thing in the water, by reflection or refraction; or of the sun or stars by direct vision in the air; which are nothing real in the things seen, nor in the place where they seem to be; nor are their magnitudes and figures the same with that of the object, but changeable, by the variation of the organs of sight, or by glasses; and are present oftentimes in our imagination, and in our dreams, when the object is absent; or changed into other colours, and shapes, as things that depend only upon the fancy. And these are the images which are originally and most properly called ideas and idols, and derived from the language of the Grecians, with whom the word eido signifieth to see. They are also called phantasms, which is in the same language, apparitions. And from these images it is that one of the faculties of man's nature is called the imagination. And from hence it is manifest that there neither is, nor can be, any image made of a thing invisible.
[15] It is also evident that there can be no image of a thing infinite: for all the images and phantasms that are made by the impression of things visible are figured. But figure is quantity every way determined, and therefore there can be no image of God, nor of the soul of man, nor of spirits; but only of bodies visible, that is, bodies that have light in themselves, or are by such enlightened.
[16] And whereas a man can fancy shapes he never saw, making up a figure out of the parts of divers creatures, as the poets make their centaurs, chimeras and other monsters never seen, so can he also give matter to those shapes, and make them in wood, clay or metal. And these are also called images, not for the resemblance of any corporeal thing, but for the resemblance of some phantastical inhabitants of the brain of the maker. But in these idols, as they are originally in the brain, and as they are painted, carved moulded or molten in matter, there is a similitude of one to the other, for which the material body made by art may be said to be the image of the fantastical idol made by nature.
As you think further, exactly what is Halloween?
Originally, All Hallows' Eve was one of the great fire festivals of Britain at the time of the Druids. In Scotland it was associated with the time when the spirits of the dead, the demons, witches, and sorcerers were usually active and propitious.
Paradoxically, All Hallows' Eve was also a night when young people performed magical rituals to determine their future marriage partners. The youth of the villages carried on with much merry-making and sensual revelry, but the older people took great care to safeguard their homes from the evil spirits, witches, and demons who had exceptional power that night...
Can you guess my source here???
Poisoning yourselves. Fine with me. Satanism, like reading can be fundamental...
"Fantasy is, in general the medium of infinitization…"
Me, I am taking some relatives trick or treating. I get 10% of all candy they receive.
Speaking of which, my kids went the the local Halloween party dressed as a Kangaroo and a Cow--new, no big meanings there, ya know?
I find it interesting that so man that hang lights for the "bithday" of Jesus also hang orange lights for this "celebration"
Halloween is a Satanic High Holy day..
"The fantastic is, of course, most closely related to the imagination [Phantasien], but the imagination is related in it’s turn to feeling, understanding, and will, so that a person’s feelings, understanding and will may be fantastic. Fantasy is, in general the medium of infinitization… (emphasis mine)
The fantastic is generally speaking what carries a person into the infinite in such a way that it only leads him away from himself and thus prevents him from coming back to himself.
Wow. This is a both a complete misundertanding and misrepresentation of what Kierkegaard was talking about.
It most certainly does not support your 'argument'.
I'm in total agreement with RnMom on this one. Isn't it amazing and predictable how Satan has made evil seem fun?
I suspect Halloween is a spiritually dangerous time for the kids..but then we live in a world where satan is the god
Kierkegaard was the progenitor of existentialism. Elaborate for us professor...
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It most certainly does not support your 'argument'.
Fallacy of begging the question.
Thomas Hobbes?
Red herring, false dichotomy, weak analogy, ad hominem...
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That makes for a very boring life to have no fantasy.
ad hominem
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So please tell me how pumpkins and M&M's are turning my children towards evil.
argumentum misericordian
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Are there satanists out there that get their jollies on Halloween?
They get their "jollies" knowing you conform to it and inculcate others into the practice thereof...
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SOME of us just like to see our children have fun dressing up and eating sugary snacks.
Like I said, fine with me. Satanism is a lot of fun. Poison their bodies with sugar and their minds with phantasms. Free country.
I'm not partial to standing on the corner downtown. Although, I do have a number of friends that put me at the top of the invite list for parties and other social gatherings...
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Tell me, are you just going to have your porch light turned off on Halloween or will you be one of those annoying fools in front of City Hall protesting that Halloween is "allowed"?
False dichotomy.
No to both. I'll be at a nightclub with someone like Gene Harris playing the piano or J.J. Cale playing those blues...
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