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"There is no mention of animals in the Gospels," he wrote in the third and last volume of his biography of Jesus Christ . . . The inclusion of domestic animals in the Nativity scene may have been inspired by pre-Christian traditions, for instance in the Book of Habakkuk, a part of the Hebrew Bible which was probably written by an early prophet in the seventh century BC, Benedict wrote." Nativity donkeys and cattle are a myth, says Pope - Telegraph
And the angels didn't even sing.
So much for the Christian holiday. Merry Consumerism Christmas, everyone!
Honestly, Easter is the Christian holiday that should be the biggie. That's the one that the whole Christian faith is really built on - Christ fulfilled the prophecy by rising from the dead as foretold in the OT. Maybe co-opting Pagan rituals just worked better???
Honestly, Easter is the Christian holiday that should be the biggie. That's the one that the whole Christian faith is really built on - Christ fulfilled the prophecy by rising from the dead as foretold in the OT. Maybe co-opting Pagan rituals just worked better???
As an outside observer (Jewish), if I knew nothing of western culture and read the new testament I would assume Easter would be more significant than Christmas. That's just me though.
As an outside observer (Jewish), if I knew nothing of western culture and read the new testament I would assume Easter would be more significant than Christmas. That's just me though.
I'm a former Christian and I never understood why Christmas was such a huge deal - especially compared to Easter. It really makes no sense to me. Maybe the birth of a cute baby in a barn has more marketing appeal than a Jewish philosopher being nailed to a cross for questioning the status quo & promoting peace/love?
Honestly, Easter is the Christian holiday that should be the biggie. That's the one that the whole Christian faith is really built on - Christ fulfilled the prophecy by rising from the dead as foretold in the OT. Maybe co-opting Pagan rituals just worked better???
Merchants haven't figured out a way to really capitalize on Easter--yet. If they ever did, you would would suddenly see it become a big holiday. Really, there is very little that is religious about Christmas in this country any longer. It's become a consumer holiday, created by retailers, many of whom derive close to 40% of their annual revenue on holiday sales alone.
Which is why the annual whining by the right that liberals are trying to kill Christmas always strikes me as funny. They should be railing at corporate America--they are the ones who took the "Christ" out of Christmas a long time ago, for the benefit of their bottom line. Liberals and atheists and whoever else the fundamentalists traditionally blame could never have done half so good a job at killing the true meaning of Christmas as those corporations have done chasing the almighty buck. All one has to do is watch people trampling each other on Black Friday every year to scoop up as much crap as possible to see how successful they've been at turning Christmas into a secular holiday.
"There is no mention of animals in the Gospels," he wrote in the third and last volume of his biography of Jesus Christ . . . The inclusion of domestic animals in the Nativity scene may have been inspired by pre-Christian traditions, for instance in the Book of Habakkuk, a part of the Hebrew Bible which was probably written by an early prophet in the seventh century BC, Benedict wrote." Nativity donkeys and cattle are a myth, says Pope - Telegraph
And the angels didn't even sing.
So much for the Christian holiday. Merry Consumerism Christmas, everyone!
Do you accept the words of the Pope that point out what atheists believe and fail to accept those that are about Christianity? I think that may well be what has happened here.
"There is no mention of animals in the Gospels," he wrote in the third and last volume of his biography of Jesus Christ . . . The inclusion of domestic animals in the Nativity scene may have been inspired by pre-Christian traditions, for instance in the Book of Habakkuk, a part of the Hebrew Bible which was probably written by an early prophet in the seventh century BC, Benedict wrote." Nativity donkeys and cattle are a myth, says Pope - Telegraph
And the angels didn't even sing.
So much for the Christian holiday. Merry Consumerism Christmas, everyone!
So ya lost a donkey and a few sheep and camels and no angels sang when your Jesus was born so now you can't....what?
What did you lose?
Did the Pope tell you you couldn't get drunk and overspend and get stressed out and cook until you're exhausted or watch football or go to church .....what?
The Pope is only one Christian out of 2.2+ billion...
Chrismas is the birth of Christ, and everything else just symbolizes his birth and him
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