I am tired of all the Evangelical nut jobs proselytizing that they have the right to push their religious beliefs up the country’s ass because Christ is the reason for Christmas. The born-again feel it gives them a mandate to harass whomever they feel the need to. This logic is a lie that they are able to perpetrate by angrily accusing anyone that challenges them with heresy. Jesus is not the reason for Christmas, Christmas is the reason for Jesus.

The shortening days were taken as a sign that the Sun was getting weaker. After the Solstice, the days begin to get longer thus pagan peoples felt that was an indication that the Sun was getting stronger. You have to remember that back then the Sun revolved around a flat Earth. Of course the governing body of the Evangelical Church has just affirmed their belief in Biblical Inerrancy that every word in the Bible is fact and true so for the born-agains the Earth is once again flat, supported by pillars and the Sun goes around us just like God made it with his magic wand.

The Winter Solstice became the "birthday" of several gods. Attis, Frey, Thor, Dionysus, Osiris, Adonis, Tammuz, Cernunnos, Mithra and so forth. It is a "solar holiday," marking the time that the sun becomes apparently stronger day by day.

Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere was celebrated as the night that the Great Mother Goddess gives birth to the baby Sun God. It is also called Yule, the day a huge log is added to a bonfire, around which everyone would dance and sing to awaken the sun. So when you put the Yule log on the fire you are worshiping a pagan god much older than the Jesus myth.

His birth was witnessed by shepherds and magicians (wise men). Mithra raised the dead and healed the sick and cast out demons. After being killed by being nailed to a tree (the original form of crucifixion) he came back to life three days later and returned to heaven at the spring equinox (now Easter) and before doing so had a last supper with his 12 disciples (representing the 12 signs of the zodiac), eating mizd, a piece of bread marked with a cross (an almost universal symbol of the sun). Any of that sound familiar? All long before the invention of Christianity and it’s new man-god.

After a long period of non-acceptance of the Christian faith over Mithraism the framers of the Christian religion made the decision to model a man-god in the image of Mithra and weave it into their holy book after the fact in the hope it would make converting the followers of Mithra easier. For the first three hundred years after the invention of Jesus, there was no festivity of the birth of the new man-god. The Framers had copied many of Mithra's best qualities into their Jesus character along with the best features of several other man-gods of the day except for his birthday. Some churches celebrated Jesus' birthday in the spring time and some celebrated it on January 6 (Epiphany). There are still some Eastern Rite churches that continue to celebrate the Epiphany date.

The Eastern churches refused to accept Christmas until 375C.E., and the churches in Jerusalem rejected the December 25 date until hundreds of years later in the seventh century.

This tactic eventually worked and the Christmas that the church has knowingly mislead people as to the true origins was born.

So when the Jesus freaks cry it is wrong to not allow them to hold public displays forcing Christ on the masses because that is the origin of the holiday, they are in all their good intentions lying to you. The all to familiar battle cry of “that’s why Christ is in the name of Christmas” is all bullshit. Christ is in the name because the Roman leaders dictated that it was or else.

So please worship your copycat mythical man-god all you want. I support whatever belief makes you happy. My most memorable Christmas ever was spent singing Carols in a small grotto outside the town of Bethlehem and then joining the festivities in the small town square on a warm Israeli evening years ago.

But with that comes respect for other's freedom from religion. So please stop the constant public preaching of the coming Revelations. It is insulting to the followers of other religions and to the free thinkers that have taken the time to learn the true history of the world and it's religions rather than blindly following superstitious fairytales that have no more basis in reality than Santa Clause. Those fairytales have filled a lot of good people's lives with purpose and joy and I commend the Church for all the good it has done to enrich people's lives. But at the same time we get tired of the constant drone of starry eyed religious nuts dominating the media and as of late the Republican party and the US government preaching fire and brimstone to the country. Let us all enjoy Christmas for what it is meant to be, a time to rejoice and celebrate with our families and loved ones. Everyone can enjoy the age old and often Pagan traditions without having an Evangelical Christian forcefully shove a Cross down our throats every time we use a radio, TV, newspaper or step out of the house.

Merry Christmas!!!

©R.M.Lavengood