That wasn't knowledge you just dropped, that was the ball.

Last night, I was having a conversation with a friend, when his friend, who I didn't know, commented on what we were talking about. It was that comment that not only frustrated me, but drove me to write this blog. Faith, isn't necessarily a bad thing, at least not to George Michael. What is a bad thing though, is blind faith. While we were talking, I mentioned my disbelief in God. This guy's first comment was, "I bet you still celebrate Christmas". I don't even know what to say after this comment. This made me sad and a little scared, how little he understands something he believes. I should have been the one making that comment to him, considering Christmas is one of the most pagan holidays celebrated. Of course I celebrate it, it has nothing to do with God or the birth of Jesus. It does, however, have to do with a lot of violence, rape, and a few human sacrifices sprinkled on top, for good measure.

Christmas actually started as Saturnalia, by the Romans. It was a week of widespread drunkenness, rape, destruction of property, going from house to house, singing naked (ah, if only caroling were still that fun), eating human shaped cookies and finally, on the 25th, human sacrifice. Does that really sound like a party God would throw? 

Now, Que the Christians! In an attempt to convert the pagans, the Christians told them that even after converting, they could still celebrate Saturnalia. Since it had NOTHING to do Christianity, they had to fix this, but how? Let's see what we have to work with, we have alcohol, nudity, rape, violence and human sacrifice. That doesn't give us a whole lot....wait! I got it! Let's just start saying that the final day, the 25th, is Jesus' birthday! Problem solved....or was it? You know us pagan's, ain't nobody gonna hold us down, we got to keep on movin'! You can lead a sinner to God, but you can't take the sin out of a sinner who, once a sinner, always a sinner...or something like that. Basically, they were not able to stop the way Saturnalia was celebrated. The violence, rape and murder continued as if it wasn't anybody's birthday (psst...it wasn't!!).

Celebrating Christmas continued on by Christians, knowing full well, it was a pagan holiday. It was eventually banned by the puritans and became illegal to celebrate in MA. However, to this day, Christmas is celebrated, still, by most Christians. 

So it begs the question, do they even bother to research why they participate in certain rituals or do they just shrug their shoulders, point to a book and in a well rehearsed manner say, "because the bible says so"? Why do they research everything else they do, before they do it, except for the thing they've based their entire life on?? Where would this world be if everyone lived like this, if no one ever questioned anything? Where would this guy be if he would have actually bothered to learn a little about what he has based everything he knows on, instead of having to be told, by an atheist, that what he thought was a burn, actually just ended up being a strange question. I racked my brain trying to think of a comeback, for about a half a second. "Yes, yes I do celebrate the most pagan tradition known to man, do you?"