From Time.com
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How do you atone for something terrible, like the Inquisition? Joseph Ratzinger attempted to do just that for the Roman Catholic Church during a grandiose display of Vatican penance — the Day of Pardon on March 12, 2000, a ritual presided over by Pope John Paul II and meant to purify two millenniums of church history.
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Where do you think this quote comes from? “He who will not eat of my body and drink of my blood, so that he will be made one with me and I with him, the same shall not know salvation” Sounds like it came from John’s gospel and indeed, John did say something very similar when he put these word’s into Jesus’ mouth: “Unless you eat of the flesh of the son of Man and drink his blood, you have not life in yourselves. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live in me and I in him” The first quote is from the Mysteries of Mithra, a deity who was worshiped hundreds of years before the gospel writers. Mithra’s popularity as a deity grew alongside Christianity, with it’s high point occurring in the 3rd Century AD. Mithra’s narrative parallels that of Jesus with striking similarity.
Get information on the Documentary at TheGodMovie.com
An unbiased look at the history of December festivities and traditions by the History Channel: Watch all 5 clips
The history of the celebration of Christmas is not surprisingly devoid of anything Christian.
The Winter Solstice is the real ‘reason for the season’, and it belongs to everyone. When man first looked up into the sky and began to take note of the patterns of the celestial holidaybodies, Winter Solstice has stood as a turning point in the seasons.
Many of the Christmas traditions that American Christians celebrate harken back to distinct pagan origins. The tradition of bringing a tree in the home and decorating it was practiced by pagans in northern European countries who celebrated the Winter Solstice or “Yuletide”. The evergreen, holly and ivy were some of the few greenery that could be found in the cold winter. They were used as part of the winter solstice celebrations. The Yule Log gets its name from the Norse god, Jul. In recognition of the return of the sun, fathers and sons would bring home large logs, which they would set on fire. Also around the time of the winter solstice, Romans observed Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of Rome.
Winter Solstice was a month long celebration in the month of December that celebrated the turning of days from getting shorter to getting longer because of the earth’s rotation on its axis around the sun. In other words, the reason for the season is the axial tilt of the earth, to put it bluntly.
On December 25th the Romans celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun. Mithra, was an infant god said to have been born of a rock. However, when Christianity began to spread, the Christians simply adopted the pagan holidays and laid a Christian “reason” for the celebration over the existing celebration because they could not stop the festivities. The actual date of Jesus’ birth is never mentioned biblically and in the time when Jesus was born birthdays where not celebrated.
So athiest, humanist and non-theist, feel free to celebrate on December 25th.
Do it in thanks to the mythical gods and fairy tales if you wish: Santa and Jesus and Mithra alike, but say “Happy Solstice!” with a drink in your hand, for that is the way it all began.
I hesitated to post this for many months because it made the human race so deplorable (similarly to what Gulliver in Gulliver’s travels felt like after living with the Whinnem). But here it is. Knowledge is power. Just don’t get to down on humanity and do something uplifting after you watch it. Volunteer or donate …
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