[djmcmath]

I won't offer any argument that the date that we celebrate as Jesus' birthday is the same as holidays for other deities. I would note, however, that there's a reason for that, and it's even obvious: that date was chosen somewhat arbitrarily about 325AD, by Constantine, iirc. His concept was to take a pre-existing holiday and celebrate a religious festival on the same day.* Given that there is no evidence for any particular date of Jesus' birth, any day works as well as any other.

Um, so, sure, the 25th of December carries the significance that the solstice officially ends that day. It's also, quite arbitrarily, the day that we pay homage to capitalism by spending billions of dollars on gifts for each other. And, completely arbitrarily, it's also the day that some of us celebrate the birth of our saviour -- but we could have picked any other day, because we don't know what day he was really born on.


Your turn -- have you considered extra-biblical accounts of Jesus life, ministry, and death? What, pray tell, do you do with the account of Pliny the Elder? What do you do with the numerous martyrs -- men and women who proclaimed that they had seen the risen saviour, were given opportunity to recant, and did not? What do you do with first-hand eyewitnesses who proclaimed the story to their deaths?


Dan





*Constantine's idea is excellent, imho, with some problems as it nears its logical conclusion. If you merge other religions into the theological base of Christianity, you end up with some crazy stuff -- worshipping Mary as the goddess, paying cash sacrifices as an atonement for sins, that sort of thing.