[blam]

Ping.

[dandelion]

Jeez, like I guess they never heard of Saturnalia or Winter Solstice...

[dead]

Then Jesus taught them how to spell "celebrated".

[Khepera]

SO?

[ex-snook]

Maybe they found a coin marked 300 BC??

[Michael121]

Science seems to always go OUT OF ITS WAY to attack religion.

I am sure we can find someone celebrating the 4th of July before the US.... but we call it INDEPENDANCE DAY.... the druids mught have called it Tree Hugging or Human sacrifice day......

Science needs to find better uses for its time and money.... how about GETTING US TO MARS..... Better Space Ships......Better Coffee.....better cheese.....any of these would be worthwhile human endeavors...

[Ichneumon]

Many people would be surprised to learn how recently Christmas as we know it is (even leaving aside the whole "Santa Claus" mythos and focusing simply on the religious aspect), and how it was not always considered a "proper" religious day:

In colonial New England Thanksgiving, not Christmas, was the important seasonal holiday. Puritans passed an anti-Christmas law in 1659, repealed 1681. Christmas celebration was resisted by the Congregationalist Cotton Mather (1663-1728). First recorded post-repeal celebration was in 1686. Christmas was declared a holiday in Louisiana, 1837. Christmas was unimportant in the United States until 1880's when the church relented. In 1885 a law was enacted giving federal employees Christmas day off. Christmas declared a legal holiday in U.S. late (1894 or in this century).

The above passage is from American Christmas Origins, a fascinating look at the evolving nature of the holiday and its traditions.

[StonyBurk]

Pastor Arnold Murray ,Shepherds Chapel does an interesting
study of the biblical record of Christs' birth and suggests
(as have others that Christ was concieved in late Dec. and
a babe in the manger in March.Bears consideration for its'
logic.Our modern centrism ignores the fact that in the
Scripture there is evidence the Jews did recognize life
in the womb.

[steplock]

Yeah --- and WHAT else have you discovered? (the scientists?) The sun rises in east and sets in the west?

Halloween is a pagan holiday? What else have these ignorant excuses discovered that everyone else (over 40) has know all their lives?

[Campion]

Malachi 4:2

[nutmeg]

read later bump

[Campion]

And then there's Revelation 1:16.

[icydanger]

great links, Ty
i was wondering

it doesn't seem like an attack from archeology to me, we are simply looking at roots of rituals.

[Revolting cat!]

It's a well known historical fact that at the time, they were celebrating the birth of Batboy!

[joesnuffy]

One of the decrees sent out from Caesar Augustus that Judeans must return to their birth places to register for tax purposes has been found..
Which was the reason that Joseph took his pregnant wife to Bethlehem...and due to the crowd
ended up in the stable where it was prophesied Jesus would be born

[icydanger]

cough

[eastsider]

Archeologists say they have traced the origins of the first Christmas to be celebrated on 25 December, 300 years before the birth of Christ.

HO! HO! HO!

[Don Corleone]

Archeologists say they have traced the origins of the first Christmas to be celebrated on 25 December, 300 years before the birth of Christ. The original event marked the consecration of the ancient world's largest sun god statue, the 34m tall, 200 ton Colossus of Rhodes.

Was that date under the "OLD STYLE" or "New Style" calandar? Those dirt sifters are as nuts as can be.

[Lloyd227]

this is news?

[Havoc]

Constantine was anything but Christian though he may have used Christianity politically, he worshipped Mithra, the pagan god of the soldiers of Rome. He followed those rites all his life and was, on his death, put through Mithraic rites to make him a god. There are a great many things stated about Constantine that are not much more than celebrated myth. If these guys had bothered look beyond the end of their noses they might have noted the import of December 25 to the followers of Mithra. Not a well written or researched piece.