Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christimas and Happy New Year

Ironic as it may sound, many non-Christians celebrate Christ’s birthday with as much enthusiasm as Christians and irony upon irony, it’s not Christ’s birthday at all. If they were alive today, perhaps Solis Invictus gods might have sued Christ and his Churchmen for stealing their trademark. :)

I think Christianity, among all the world’s religions, stands out as a masterpiece of - what needs to be said- “theological plagiarism”. Try finding any “cardinal” belief or ritual in Christianity that happens to be original and one will be left looking for a needle in the haystack. Trinity, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, baptism, Crucifx, - it's truly amazing how successfully Church “hijacked” pagan symbols and gave them a Christian flavor as ransom. It's hard to imagine if Christianity would have become the world's largest religion today without this knack for "dogmatic adaptability", not to mention successful marketing by "God's men" (and women). :)

Pedantic nitpicking aside, Christmas today no longer remains the prerogative of Christians. If the Christians of the yore stole this festival from heathens in an attempt to overshadow paganism, the adherents of "Marketism" are playing the same trick with Christianity today. As things stand, Christmas has become the most commercialized of all religious festivals the world over - and consequently, it has lost much of its religious appeal under the hubris of secular consumerism. Many devout Christians rightly resent the commercialization of Christmas. Not to be outdone, many devout adherents of non-Christian religions look askance at the proliferation of Christmas in their households - which has been possible only because of its massive commercialization. :)

Enough of these boring thoughts! At the end of the day, Merry Christimas and Happy New Year to all the friends... (and to foes as well? ) :)

2 comments:

Jeremy Pierce said...

I'm curious where you think Christians must have hijacked the idea of eating food that's supposed to represent a divine being from. I've never heard of anyone doing anything like it prior to Christianity. The non-Christian Jews of the time were offended by it. The Romans thought it was cannibalism. There are plenty of other examples, but that one's the most obvious.

Ainslee said...

I'm a Philosophy major, originally I was a believer of God, then I moved onto agnosticism, now I feel I am an atheist moreso than agnostic. I treat Christmas as a time to cherish being with the ones I love.