False Analogies

It generally annoys me when I hear people making comparisons between Jesus and other mythical deities, because most of the time, they make false analogies. The most common ones are what people learned from movies like Zeitgeist (which is horrible), and they make bold claims like "The Jesus story was copied directly from pagan religions!" and "All of these gods (10s or 100s of them) were born on December 25th of a virgin and when they died rose 3 days later!"

My biggest gripe with these faux arguments is that there ARE legitimate comparisons to be made. There are quite a number of dying and rising gods in ancient religions. There are a number of mythical man-god figures who were said to have been fathered by gods. There are also other figures who are ascribed many of the same kinds of miracles that Jesus did. These are the comparisons that should be made, and are made by people who know what's what. It isn't a black and white issue and the stories are not identical. I really wish people would stop speaking out their ass and treating movies like Zeitgeist and Religious as scholarly sources.

Easter and Paganism

While some people around the world may be celebrating the death of Jesus this coming weekend, I certainly won't be. Easter is another example of a pagan festival that was hijacked by Christianity. The name Easter is derived from 'Ēostre' which is the Old English name for the Germanic goddess named 'Ôstarâ'. Ôstarâ was the goddess of fertility, so it comes as no surprise that our 'easter bunny' and easter eggs come from this originally pagan fertility festival. Though there is much debate amongst scholars as to whether Ôstarâ was originally a Germanic goddess or rather just a later invention, the origin of the 'eggs and bunnies' is most certainly linked to this goddess.

Christmas

Since it's this time of year I thought I would take the time to write something relevant to the season. Lets talk about the pagan origin of Christmas.
December 25 was the day the Romans celebrated the rebirth of Sol Invictus, the Sun God, and also the day which the winter solstice was celebrated.
Christmas trees are an exceptional example of pagan tradition, so exceptional that they even get a mention in the old testament.
Jeremiah 10:2-5
² This is what the LORD says:
       "Do not learn the ways of the nations
       or be terrified by signs in the sky,
       though the nations are terrified by them.
 ³ For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
       they cut a tree out of the forest,
       and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
 ⁴ They adorn it with silver and gold;
       they fasten it with hammer and nails
       so it will not totter.
 ⁵ Like a scarecrow in a melon patch,
       their idols cannot speak;
       they must be carried
       because they cannot walk.
       Do not fear them;
       they can do no harm
       nor can they do any good."
The concept of Santa comes from Scandinavian paganism, Odin the god of thunder travels the skies during the winter solstice deciding who would die and who would live. The other part comes from some traditional stories of St. Nicholas where the person who would go down the chimneys was not St. Nick himself, but rather a demon he had enslaved. It is no coincidence that Santa is an anagram of Satan. This merging of Pagan imagery and tradition and christian folklore is where we get our modern day perception of what the devil looks like. Odin would often wear a helmet with horns and wield a trident.


The Yule log, was burned during the winter solstice, which was sometimes referred to by the germanic people as Yule. The yule log was a phallic shaped log burned (along with people sometimes) in worship of the scandinavian god of fertility, Yule. I don't know anyone who actually burns a yule log at christmas but the tradition is kept alive with our "Yuletide" songs and so on. This ritual was part of a 12 day process where people, yule logs and other junk were burned, and finished on december 25th. Does this ring any bells? The 12 days of christmas perhaps?

Decking the halls with holly was a pagan tradition to ward off evil spirits. The wiccans tied holly in wreaths and wore them on their heads, and was said to amplify the power of the holly.

Mistletoe was used by druids and wiccans in their spells to open a woman up to be exploited sexually.

So, if you're not a Christian and feel overwhelmed by the Christmas spirit because of it's overtly Christian overtones, fear no more, we can celebrate virtually every element of Christmas without thinking about Christianity, because the Christians stole them off the pagans in the first place.