Recent comments in /f/Washington

iamlucky13 t1_j1al8st wrote

Reply to comment by okileggs1992 in Next to the manger at Capitol Campus by LoudLemming

> Why would I read Wikipedia

Because it was a convenient place for me to suggest for some further discussion of the challenge of knowing when Jesus' birth actually took place (I ask you to at least consider for the sake of discussion Jesus as a real person, regardless of whether you personally believe He existed), and how Christmas came to be celebrated when it is.

> as for the birth of Christ it was not Christmas Eve

Don't you think there is at least a 1 in 365 chance?

Personally as a Christian, I never worried about whether we identified the correct date to celebrate Christmas. Who we believe Jesus to be and why His birth would be worth celebrating is really the point.

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iamlucky13 t1_j1ajb54 wrote

Reply to comment by Final-Mycologist7785 in Next to the manger at Capitol Campus by LoudLemming

  1. I will start by restating my main point to be more clear. Your comment on solstice being chosen to convert pagans is not need to know information because:

A) A person who considers the birth of Jesus to be significant (presumably due to their religious beliefs) is not going to find their beliefs challenged by the point, "nobody recorded the actual date Jesus was born, but because some early Christians thought celebrating it on a date that pagans already used for a holiday might help convert some of them* they chose to also use that holiday."

If you think the theory that Christians would want to convert pagans is shocking news to Christians that will scandalize them away from their faith, you don't seem to know much about Christianity.

B) Nobody who doesn't consider the birth of Jesus significant is going to change their observance or non-observance of Christmas based on the same.

  1. I didn't offer a Wikipedia reference as proof. I offered it as a place where there is a summary of some of the discussion illustrating the complexity of understanding how Christmas came to be celebrate around the time of the solstice.

There are two very common corallary forms of the argumentum ad hominem fallacy that I like to call "argumentum ad Wikipediam" and "argumentum contra Wikipediam." You are demonstrating the latter.

Which is ironic, because the alternative that has been presented is to accept the authority of an unknown person posting on the internet. Or to follow the argument back to its known source with the 18th century Lutheran preacher Paul Jablonski who promoted the idea the date was chosen for pagan reasons in order to portray Catholicism as a pagan-influenced corruption of Christianity.

  1. The rest of your post seems like it might be in reference to the Bible. You really didn't clarify what you're talking about. But the topic now at hand was about the date of Christmas, which the Bible does not give any obvious clues about, and I don't see a useful reason to expand the discussion to the Bible in this thread.

* Edit - I apologize for not noticing before your are not the same poster as I previously respond to. I have edited my post to remove an reference to the prior poster's words as your own.

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tinykitchentyrant t1_j1aj6m0 wrote

Reply to comment by Mistyslate in Brrr! It's cold tonight in Winthrop. I've never felt this much cold in my life. by WashingtonPass

Yes! Prior to Alaska, we lived in Texas, and wow. One summer it was three straight months of triple digit heat, plus Houston humidity thrown in for good measure. I made the mistake of taking the kids to the pool and not getting in the water myself. After a while, I felt kinda sick, and realized I was just way too hot. Got in the pool and felt so much better.

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