What do you like about Christmas?

The only thing I've really liked about Christmas since I was 30 apart from sometimes the giving of the presents (bah, humbug) is the actual message / idea itself. 

I know a LOT of you are turned off by Christianity, and very few believe in it, but for those of you who missed it, I'd like to share the concept as I understand it, in simple modern day non-religious English because, if it's true, it is a genuinely lovely, lovely, idea.

As human beings evolved from being cave-dwellers, nomads, whatever we were thousands of years go, moving towards having I-phones and Covid like the magnificent beings we are today, obviously the relationship between us and our creator also needed updating, about 2023 years ago...

Now being the creator of all, must make the problems I have with communicating effectively with my cat, look like NOTHING, even for God. Demonstrably the human race is as thick as a brick! We all know that to be true, right?

SO. God decided to meet us halfway, by giving us his only son. (out of wedlock! But that's HIS business, WAY above my paygrade, I'm just telling the story as I know it..)

BIG Christmas present for the human race, and way better than all those floods and smiting. etc.

As if that was not enough, The birth of Jesus represented a new deal for us and God. Now it was not just the Israelites who were chosen of God, it was anyone who took to their hearts the teachings of Jesus. That my friends, means people like you, and (possibly) me!

SO that's what it's all about.

It's the Idea of God, taking time out from doing other things, and intimately joining himself to the human race, by means of producing a son, to renew and "certify" the loving relationship that exists between created and creator. It must have been very hard for god to figure out a way that we could actually hurt him, then give it to us...

Christmas is about Love guys, in all the three or four definitions that the Greeks have for it, and I hope as many of you get to give and receive some as you can. 

I wrote a whole reaction to this and then deleted it because it would derail the thread. But a lot of us have reasons for avoiding Christianity. It's not a lovely idea that someone has to die to curb divine wrath. And the church does not welcome everyone unconditionally. I prefer to focus on the love that is tangible to me in the real world.  The Christian meaning is no more "true" than the pagan traditions it absorbed into itself, and has no superior value over an agnostic or atheist celebration of the season.

I wrote a whole reaction to this and then deleted it because it would derail the thread. But a lot of us have reasons for avoiding Christianity. It's not a lovely idea that someone has to die to curb divine wrath. And the church does not welcome everyone unconditionally. I prefer to focus on the love that is tangible to me in the real world.  The Christian meaning is no more "true" than the pagan traditions it absorbed into itself, and has no superior value over an agnostic or atheist celebration of the season.

T.L.D.R! I'll save you the bother...

Meanwhile in Russia they are currenlty running several space missions a week and have been doing so for several months.

I suspect, (In my paranoid imagination, just as a literary device to grab the users attention!) that they are building an orbiting nuclear force in order to abruptly wipe the godless plague of teh UK and US alliance as they see it from the earth, all in the name of Orthodox Christianity...

They miss the point of Christianity too. As do the popes, and the inquisitors and (of course) the Satanists.

The Amish kinda seem to live close to the real principles. A lot of the alledged "intolerance" of Christianity is that it simply repels some people very strongly, and they don't like having to own it, Their legendary keeping apart from the modern world is somewhat overblown I believe, but I've not yet had the chance to meet any. Essentially the idea is to just go about your life and do no harm, whilst being grateful for having been created, and try and live well whilst doing that. Christianity is different from Judeo-Christianity which is the one most people get exposed to. 

I'm fairly simple, really, I just like the real idea, as I got it when I took my own self motivated dive into the gospel of Matthew when I was a kid, trying to figure out a way to get people to stop hitting me. Some of it helped me, quite profoundly, so I guess I'm predisposed to liking it.

I don't need anyone else to "change" in order to feel validated, but there will be a few people out there felling a bit "under the cosh", who will get some pleasure from that message.

It's a good message that I understand, and felt inclined to share, but clearly some see it differently. That's O.K. I am told. It's "Diversity" and we need more of it.. Sometimes of course, we don't like the others "diversity" and wish they wouldn't "shove it in our faces" but that feels the same whichever side of the fence you sit!

We all feel those feeling at one point or another I feel, only which "diversity" is popular, and which is not changes... 

Across the world, (some will be pleased to learn) Christianity is shrinking fast. There are both ongoing genocides of Christian sects and enclaves in some countries, and generally it is not at all popular in all western media and the churches en mass have been sold and converted into mosques or other more useful social buildings. In America the church of Satan is doing brisk street business peforming "unbaptisings"! 

Will we Christians eventually vanish from the face of the earth, as some predict? 

As the bible predicts too...

Fortunately, all I need to do to "win" this is trust in Jesus and God whilst getting on with living my life as well as I can.

And if I am wrong? Well, I did my best to live a life that is as beneficial to me and others as I could manage, whilst doing no harm. Although I might have strongly held beliefs about certain things, the belief system also tells me it is wrong to IMPOSE those on others.

Paradoxically it also tells me it is a kindness to expose others to the ideas occasionally, and my life as I have lived it gives me knowledge of the truth of the matter, that it's a good thing for some of us. 

The only thing I really KNOW to be true is the vastness of human ignorance and ability to get the wrong end of the stick. I am quite sure you are right in your assertion that Christianity is not the only way for humans to have a valid relationship with the ultimate creative force. There's a guy hereabouts who has learned of the ways of Bhuddism, which also seems to be a powerfully "civilising" belief system, based around having a little bit of humility and not believing that you are the "apex of existence".

I'm sure there are many perfectly good ways to get where we are all going, lets just hope those silly sods in big hats don't get us all there in a rush, eh? 

However you spend it, it is kinda hard to take the Christ out of "Christmas"... 

I just wish there was more of that peace and good will idea, like there observably was when I was younger, even amongst the adults! It was across the board a good time. Nowadays  it's different...