An Alternative Christmas Message
Let me preface this by saying I am not religious (implying a belief in some kind of creatorwho's existence cannot be proven), and I am not atheist either (implying a belief in no creatorwho's lack of existence cannot be proven).
The pissing competition that goes on between those “of faith” at this time of year really annoys the crap out of me though. Here's why. Modern religions invented what we now know as Christmas in the 1600s to coincide with (and therefore disrupt) the existing pagan Saturnalia festival. Organised religion invented what we now know as Easter to coincide with, and with almost the same name as the much more ancient pagan Eostre festival (again, in order to disrupt it), celebrating fertility, and the arrival of Spring.
The only reason so many people believe the stories (and theyare storiesnot fact) written in a small number of books, is because the curators, editors, and publishers of those books were more organised than those that came before them.
It is no accident that the incredible free access to information brought about by the internet has coincided with a colossal fall in the number of devout believers in religions.
It is easy to forget that education has been a privilege afforded to people in the developed world in the last two centuriesthe blink of an eye in historical terms.
Never has the world changed as quickly as it is changing today. We are fortunate to live at the time we doto see these changes happen, and to know our children will live in a world with less dogma, stigma, oppression, and corruption than generations past.