DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: kimba1 on December 24, 2011, 09:47:20 PM
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I'm off to eat, eat,eat
Wish you all good cheer
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I ate, ate ate! Merry Christmas! (urp!)
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Thanks Kimba....but
Today is Christmas!
Almost 80% of Americans identify with Christianity.
Today should be Merry Christmas.....because it is in fact Christmas Day!
It's like on Valentines Day if we stopped saying Happy Valentines Day
because there are other celebratory days near Valentines.
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Kimba whishes us a happy holiday season to spread the good cheer and CU4 gives him a lecture.
Happy Holidays Kimba.
BSB
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Jump on the bandwagon!
Don't get left behind with the 20% atheist, infidel, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu losers!
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Yes lets pretend reality doesnt exist
Lets say "Happy Holiday" on Valentine's Day
Lets say "Happy Holiday" on St. Patricks Day
Lets say "Happy Holiday" on your birthday.
Lets say "Happy Holiday" on Thanksgiving
Lets not ever say what in fact the day is.
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You know why people say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas".
Many Americans are not Christians.
The words "Happy Holidays" includes New Years and Hannukah as well as Christmas. Not to mention Kwanzaa and Festivus.
The other holidays you mention are mentioned by name.
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The chances that Jesus was born on Dec. 25th are slim and none, and Slim's in Texas.
BSB
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I don't think the date being exact is that big of a deal. And i don't think Christians celebrating the birth of Christ on a designated day is that big a burden on people of other faiths.
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I think only one of those is a holiday and I thought as a christian I figured I had the right to say happy holidays also. I never thought the intention of that expression was aniti-christian and figure this would put it to rest by putting my stamp of approval.
oh well ,next year lets hope I`ll get my way. I`ll only gonna get stronger as time passes.
resistance is futile you will see it my way
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Many Americans are not Christians.
Ah but Dec 25 is CHRISTmas....not some other holiday
And Dec 25 which is CHRISTmas is the national holiday....not some other holiday.
Sorry....reality exists.
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People can, and do, do whatever they want, BT, that's my point. Someone decided Dec. 25th was a good day to celebrate Christ's birth, fine. Dec. 25th is a legal holiday in this country, fine. But anyone can call it any damn thing they want, and celebrate any damn thing on Dec. 25th they want. There's no law saying you can't wish someone Happy Holidays and if you do some dipstick is going to throw a fit. Christmas is a made up holiday, get over it.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hannukah, honest to God, who cares?
BSB
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You are correct in that the Roman Rite set the date for Christmas as December 25th. The eastern rite has it around January 6 or 7th. What you do on December 25th is your business. I smoked a turkey breast. My neighbor attended church. Most gatherings involved extended families and friends, which may or may not include Christians, Buddhists, Jews, agnostics and the occasional atheist.
I have no problem wishing some one Happy Hannukah and most of my Jewish friends have no problem wishing me a Merry Christmas, even though i haven't been inside a church in ages and i am just to the theistic side of agnostic.
Anti-theists are a bore and i have no problem telling them that.
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I was surprised that almost 50% of self identified Christians haven't attended church in the last 6 months in one of the polls i posted up thread. And i think that tells us a lot of the blowback and claims about a war on Christmas are coming from cultural Christians vs spiritual Christians.
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http://www.escapeallthesethings.com/ (http://www.escapeallthesethings.com/)
(http://www.escapeallthesethings.com/holy-day-calendar.htm)
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Now that my war on Christmas is over, I can begin my war on New Years.
https://twitter.com/#!/SteveMartinToGo/status/151365206113648641
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I have no problem wishing some one Happy Hannukah and most of my Jewish friends have no problem wishing me a Merry Christmas, even though i haven't been inside a church in ages and i am just to the theistic side of agnostic.
I suppose that depends a lot of the views of the particular jew. Now I've seen everything...
http://brothernathanaelfoundation.org/videos (http://brothernathanaelfoundation.org/videos)
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You are correct in that the Roman Rite set the date for Christmas as December 25th. The eastern rite has it around January 6 or 7th.
The Feast of Epiphany is on January 6th. During the Middle Ages, the entire period between December 25th and January 6th was celebrated as one holiday, with a gift given on each day leading up to the Feast of Epiphany; hence the "Twelve Days of Christmas". The eve before Epiphany was sometimes called "Twelfth Night", and this is the traditional celebration used in the SCA in modern times.
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The whole story: Christmas day is the celebration of the birth of Christ, and was usually spent in church. Then there was a period of time for travel for families to gather, symbolizing the travels of the three wise men from the east. During this time, according to legend, many came to see the Christ child and drop off gifts, which led to the tradition of people giving gifts every day during this period. The Feast of Epiphany on January 6th is the celebration of the arrival of the three wise men and the delivery of their gifts to the Christ child, and is the traditional day that a feast was held for families who had finally gathered during this holiday season. In feudal societies, this was also one of the feast days that a land owner was required to provide a feast to his vassals and serfs (the other was Easter).
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And the reason for celebrating the birth of Christ when we do is also explained by the length of time of this celebration. Christ was most likely born in the spring; however in an agricultural society, taking off 2 weeks in the spring could be disastrous for the crops. So, the celebration is done in a period of time when the harvest and slaughter is already done, and no prep work for the next season is really needed yet. While Easter is (sometimes) celebrated during the spring planting season, it's only a three day celebration and is easier to work into a planting schedule.
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They say that the shepherds would not have been tending their flocks around Bethlehem in late December, according to anthropologists, who have studied where the grass would be abundant. The date suits the time of the year in Europe in which there is one last period in which to have a feast, as there are no crops being harvested and from January through April or May, people had to live on what they had stored or what they hunted until the next growing season. There was also the defunct religion of Mithra, who was said to have been born on December 25th. Mithraism was the main religion practiced by Roman soldiers around the time of Jesus' birth. It was a religion that excluded women, and died out as a result: no women means no church ladies.
I see nothing wrong with wishing anyone a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. I see the "war on Christmas" to be a stupid construct of the ultra right.
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I have no problem wishing some one Happy Hannukah and most of my Jewish friends have no problem wishing me a Merry Christmas, even though i haven't been inside a church in ages and i am just to the theistic side of agnostic.
I suppose that depends a lot of the views of the particular jew. Now I've seen everything...
http://brothernathanaelfoundation.org/videos (http://brothernathanaelfoundation.org/videos)
Brother Nathan seems to be an interesting person. I wonder if he knows Cindy Sheehan?
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Brother Nathan is definitely anti-Semitic, even though apparently he was born a Jew.
He is right on the money about Newt sucking up to Israel, though.
Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem would be expensive, dumb and dangerous. And surely not something that could be accomplished in a year, let alone a day.
The international airport is in Tel Aviv. Most of the business of the Embassy involves visas for travel.
It would be inconvenient for Israelis as well. A dumb idea whose time should never come.