A white Christmas?

[chrisname]

Finally? I've heard lots of Americans are getting heavy snow; well, I just looked out my window (it's 10 past 1 am here) and there's quite a lot of snow. I might not even go into school tomorrow today. I have a feeling it will last a week...

And before anyone says "atheists don't celebrate Christmas," you're wrong. We have Athiest Christmas, which is just like normal Christmas (what with the comercialism and pretending to celebrate Jesus' birthday while really just looking for exscuses to make people buy you things) but with double presents and you don't have to like the people you're spending it with or believe that the person it's about existed.

[firedraco]

I don't have snow here...****! I demand a reroll!

[chrisname]

#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>
#include <limits>

int main(void) {
    srand((unsigned)time(0));

    int  min   = 0,
         max   = 6,
         range = (max - min) + 1,
         i     = 0,
         rnd   = min + int((range * rand()) / (RAND_MAX + 1.0));
    char c     = 0;

    do {
        std::cout << ((i >= 1) ? "\nRer" : "R") << "olling...\n";

        rnd = min + int((range * rand()) / (RAND_MAX + 1.0));
        i++;
        std::cout << "Got " << rnd << ".\nRe-roll [Y/n]? ";
        c = std::cin.get();
        std::cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n');

        if (c == 'Y' || c == 'y' || c == '\n')
            continue;
        else
            return 0;
    } while (true);

    return 0;
}

[z05DSL3A]

"atheists don't celebrate Christmas"

Christians just hi-jack several Pagan rituals/traditions for their own ends, to try to get Pagan's to convert.

[chrisname]

You know, I was actually going to put about it being a Pagan thing; but I wasn't completely sure it was true.

I was very interested in the Anglo-Saxons and Jutes at one point (I think it's good to take an interest in your ancestors)... I even learnt the names of about 5 gods and what they were gods of (they had a lot of Gods, I think every woman was considered one because they could create life).

[iw0XoG1T]

Christians did not hijack pagan rituals to convert pagans. The Christmas date was chosen for symbolic reasons; days start lengthening after Christmas and the birth of Christ represents light coming to the world. Not surprisingly many if not all religions tie some celebration to this same time period; it is a day that begs for a celebration.
As for the adoption of local customs combining with the Christian celebration i.e. tree decorating, the giving of gifts, etcetera, the only way to stop locals from practicing local customs would have been for the Church to forbid these practices (believe me I am sure that many local customs were forbidden or forgotten).
It you wish to bad-month the Church there is actually a long list of incidents where the church actually did commit what can only be called non-Christian acts and ignored crimes being committed when it should have taken a stand.
I normally ignore comments about religion, because when religion is discussed logic seems to go out the window. Still this particular comment is a perfect example of people assuming the date of Christmas was a plot to convert and never asking the obvious question of why so many religions also celebrate this day.

[chrisname]

Point taken.

[z05DSL3A]

chwsks wrote:

Still this particular comment is a perfect example of people assuming the date of Christmas was a plot to convert and never asking the obvious question of why so many religions also celebrate this day.

First, I do not believe that I mentioned anything about why Christians ‘chose’ December the 25th to celebrate the ‘birth’ but now you mention it:

I believe it was Pop Benedict who said that the 25th of December was chosen because it was nine months after March 25, celebrated the day of Jesus’ conception (the Feast of the Annunciation)...but hang on, that is the vernal equinox where again Pagans have their own rituals and traditions. Is this purely coincidence or planned? The argument that they these dates mark changes so should be celebrated is a good one, which is probably why Pagans where doing it long before Christianity was thought of. But that argument kind of falls down a bit when, in Luke, the event (The Annunciation) is said to have happened in the sixth month, I know calendars have changed over the years but...

On to what I actual mentioned, the hi-jacking of Pagan rituals/traditions, call me cynical if you want but I don’t believe that the Christian church would condone Pagan rituals without putting a Christian spin on them. Do you really think that the Christian church would be liberal enough to say ‘you can carry on with your other worship if you want, we don’t mind’?

[iw0XoG1T]

reply to Grey Wolf:

I believe it was Pop Benedict who said that the 25th of December was chosen because it was nine months after March 25, celebrated the day of Jesus’ conception (the Feast of the Annunciation)...

Do you really think that the Christian church would be liberal enough to say ‘you can carry on with your other worship if you want, we don’t mind’?

The Church is a generic term that means the Universal Church, if you are Roman Catholic the Universal Church and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same. The Roman Catholic Church is a conservative church by nature, but has always had liberal theologians (there was a very well known modernist movement within the Roman Catholic during the last century.)
While there are more Roman Catholics than any other type of Christian they neither represent the majority, or all Christians.
I am sure you are aware that there are two Christmas dates that are used (December 25, and January 6). I far as I know even “Fundamentalist” do not say Christ was literally born on December 25. Lots of Christians have said stupid things and I am not going to defend random statements made by Catholic popes translated from Latin into English and published on Wikipedia by nitwits.
To me you are the perfect example of an intelligent person who refuses to use logic when examining a religion. Christmas is obviously a symbolic date. I suspect the Christian Church has hurt you get over it.

[chrisname]

Ah man, can we not do this again???

[Bazzy]

BTW, Conservapedia says this:

It wasn't until around AD 350 that 25 December was appointed to be the Mass of Christ, probably to coincide with the date of the Winter Solstice. The early Catholic Church concurred, probably in order to draw parishioners away from licentious pagan festivals occurring at about the same time of year.

http://www.conservapedia.com/Christmas

[chrisname]

:(

Please? We've had one big thing on religion... we don't need more.

[z05DSL3A]

To me you are the perfect example of an intelligent person who refuses to use logic when examining a religion. Christmas is obviously a symbolic date. I suspect the Christian Church has hurt you get over it.

I have use logic to examine religions, both theist and non-theist. That is probably the problem, I don't see how you can look at any theist religion purely logically and not come to the conclusion that it is wrong. But that is another matter that has been done to death.

I know that Christmas is a symbolic date. I have also have heard several different reasons why the 25th of december, and that Christians are so easy to wind up.

Have a good Christmas.

[iw0XoG1T]

To Grey Wolf:

I suspect the Christian Church has hurt you get over it.

I taunted you and you responded intelligently. You really are no fun. In my trolling I have found atheist are much easier to bait than theist. You are obviously not a fool.
Merry Christmas.

[chrisname]

LOL!

I now give you the gift of nostalgia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFHvxuuOymo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtqz0bdq30Q

[Bazzy]

I've once took apart a dial-up modem, if connected to electricity it could still produce the same noise even disassembled

[chrisname]

Cool. I always loved that sound.

[helios]

What a weak troll.
When trolling or flamebaiting, you have to go for low punches, like how I'm about to say that Jesus is in fact a rehashing of old Sun myths, going as far back as the Egyptian god Horus. The halo was originally used for Sun deities (look for example, representations of Apollo). The crown of thorns is another Sun symbol, and bears a remarkable resemblance to the crown worn by Helios, which represents the sun rays. Seriously, look up a picture of the Colossus of Rhodes.
The whole "death and rebirth after three days" refers to the northern winter solstice, during which the the Earth is tilted the most in relation to the Sun. Why Easter is celebrated in April instead of December, when Christmas is celebrated, is beyond me.
See? It's easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtqz0bdq30Q

*Sniff*
It's beautiful.

http://www.wikifortio.com/789246/Robotnik.mp3

[chrisname]

@http://www.wikifortio.com/789246/Robotnik.mp3
This is my collection of Pokemon, Sonic and Mario music.

http://i45.tinypic.com/21cv3q0.png

It's pretty apalling at the moment, it consists only of Pokemon RBY (I don't plan to change that, Red/Blue/Yellow are the only good Pokemon games IMO), Super Mario Bros 1 and Sonic 1. I'mma get Super Mario Bros 2, SM Land and SM World and Sonic 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog (only the music in that game was good... I almost regret buying it) and some more 8-bit game music.

Also I need to borrow Halo 1->ODST OSTs from my friend.

Edit: Forgot to post link...

[iw0XoG1T]

What a weak troll.

I am not a very good troll, and this site doesn't have enough regulars to be worth any real effort. I am also not knowledgeable enough in C++ to have any fun here. If you wanted to troll at this site you need to be able to mock an individual as programmer, and only individuals who were proficient in programming could be baited , a novice like myself would probably stop posting if attacked.
But I know the rules to be a good troll start small and feign politeness (it pisses people off). If you hit them hard and fast they will spot you early and ignore you. To be ignored is trolling failure. To obtain a win you have bait them long enough that they compare you to Hitler or Nazi (without making either a racist/xenophobic comment).