A Christmas prayer

At this moment in our history the transformative idea we most desperately need is to acknowledge that there is in fact no "god", that we must stop indulging fantasy and take personal responsibility for our moral and material lives...

"Today many take for granted what the Enlightenment thinker John Locke did not permit himself to assume - that unaided "reason" is sufficient to discover and defend grounds of inherent and equal human dignity." -- Patrick J. Deneen

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So what did that radical and innovative moral philosopher Jesus say against slavery, the ubiquitous 1st century practice that virtually institutionalized human inequality and indignity? Nothing. Not a word. His silence and the other Biblical authors' ambivalence on this subject was used by many of his followers to justify the continuation of this evil for another 18 centuries until unaided reason alone put a stop to it.

Christianity has always flourished among the downtrodden and disenfranchised so maybe it's no surprise that Jesus and his church had, and have, a vested interest in keeping them that way.

Locke was born before we had knowledge of our closest relatives, the great apes, and their social structure. Not to mention the habits of social animals everywhere.

And by saying that Jesus was born in a barn, you're choosing to believe only "Luke." "Matthew" has him born in a house in Bethlehem - with no mention of traveling there, or a census. No shepherds, either. And Luke has no flight into Egypt.

"Mark," "John," and Paul don't mention his birth at all.

The "Christmas Story" that most Christians have in their heads takes bits and pieces from Luke and Matthew and melds them into a third story - different from what either of them wrote. Dishonest at best.

Cheers from a fellow Magnificat reader--a gem of a publication.

There is just no arguing with the fact Western civilization owes profound debts to Christian moral thought.

Blessings of the Incarnation to everyone!

A Hanukkah prayer:

That all watch Julia Sweeny's "Letting Go Of God" where she, in a humorous style, brings reality to the flaws and errors of the world's major religions especially Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.

A Hanakkah prayer:

That all watch Julia Sweeny's "Letting Go Of God" where she, in a humorous style, brings reality to the flaws and errors of the world's major religions especially Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.

A Christmas prayer:

The religionists, including the Catholic Church, will keep their hands off Congress.
This includes their representatives, such as Sen. Ben Nelson, who can be partially baught off.

That the Catholics will stop killing people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the rest of the world.

That Georgetown will decline funding from the oil companies and Saudi Arabia.

That priests will stop molesting children.

That Catholics will stop trying to control women's bodies.

That Catholics will stop lobbying the UN to cease distributing condoms in Africa and other countries.

That the Church will cease its anti-Jewish racism once and for all.

That the racist, sexist, homophobic NT will be reformed as so many have asked for (although not the Catholic HItler who used it for propaganda)

Amen

Interesting that "the reason-based philosophy of the pre-Christians (such as Plato and Aristotle) went as far toward ascertaining morality as was possible, but still - from the perspective of those living after the birth of Christ - fell short." Why then did it take 1,500 years after the supposed birth of Christ to start advancing any further, with the Enlightenment? That is, coming out of the Dark Ages, 0000 to 1499, when the church had been in charge and stifled progess. In those 1,500 years, what kind of advancement beyond reason-based philosophy? Finally progress after 1,500 years, but thanks only to free thinkers who cast aside the chains of religion.

Should we really care what a professor from a university that sold its soul to the horror and terror religion of the 21st century i.e. Islam says about any subject??

What the professor should have said had he done the proper research:

Christmas, the embellished story of the birth of a simple, preacher man named Jesus.

As per most contemporary NT exegetes, his parents were Mary and Joseph although some say Jesus was a mamzer, the result of a pre-marital relationship between Mary and a Roman soldier.

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

Jesus was not born in Bethlehem at least the one we are familiar with and there were no pretty wingie thingies singing from on high, no slaughter of the innocents by Herod, no visiting wise men and no escape to Egypt.

"John P. Meier - Professor at Notre Dame

Meier [Marginal Jew I,216-219] notes that the "affirmation of Jesus' descent from David might easily be placed alongside his birth at Bethlehem as a theologoumenon (a theological insight narrated as a historical event) if it were not for the fact that numerous and diverse streams of NT tradition also affirm Jesus' Davidic lineage."

"Meier suggests that the belief that Jesus was "son of David" may have been held by Jesus' followers prior to his death, with his resurrection then being understood as a form of enthronement. However, he notes that such messianic views, whatever their provenance, cannot prove Jesus was "literally, biologically of Davidic stock."

http://wiki.faithfutures.org/index.php?title=007_Of_Davids_Lineage

Conclusion: the holyday of Christmas is historically a non-event. Ditto for the Feast of the Magi and the solemnity of Mary aka New Years day.

Christianity is the worship of a three-in-one god, born of a virgin that he impregnated himself, who then sacrificed himself on the cross, to himself, to spare his own creation from his own wrath.

So apt that the humanly insane would worship the divinely insane!

Seriously, Mary was NOT a virgin! And there is NO evidence (NONE, NADA, ZIPPO) in the gospels to show Jesus, if he ever lived, has his birthday on December 25th.

Get real people, this is the 21st century!