Shortpacked! by David Willis

Discussion (36) ¬

1. 
   BigHans

   June 29, 2010 at 5:50 am | # | Reply

   THANK YOU!

   • 
     Phixed

     December 4, 2010 at 11:07 pm | # | Reply

     heh heh the “tree” jeremiah was talking about was fashioned into an idol, a physical form to depict ashera; which the the hebrews then worshiped instead of G-D.
     ———–
     my definition of ‘pagan’ :: a believer of a religion that is not my religion
     some other definitions for ‘pagan’
     http://www.ehow.com/about_5152163_pagan-mean.html
     http://www.religioustolerance.org/paganism.htm

     • 
       Wackd

       December 15, 2010 at 7:05 pm | # | Reply

       The Hebrews? You mean the Jews? The Jews, who have an entire section of the Bible after the commandments are brought down from Sinai on why worship idols is bad?

       Huh. Odd, that.

       • 
         chrisleech

         December 16, 2010 at 4:24 pm | # | Reply

         no not the Jews it was originally the Hebrews and a bit after they got back from their stay in Egypt they started fighting dividing into Israel and Judah until they were both weak enough to be conquered the Israelites were wiped out but some of the people of Judah survived and escaped into Babylon and those people came to be the Jews

         • 
           ChrisAshtear

           December 22, 2010 at 7:43 pm | # | Reply

           well not exactly- they werent ‘wiped out’ – they were moved from palestine to another area of the babylon empire. They were uprooted because they had proven troublesome, which apparently was the way that both babylon and assyria dealt with uprisings.
         • 
           taekwondogirl

           April 5, 2011 at 1:43 pm | # | Reply

           You realize the Romans orchestrated that divide to ensure the Israelites weren’t strong enough to pose a threat to them, right?

           • 
             Lukkai

             November 1, 2012 at 1:52 pm | # | Reply

             That was long before Rom was more than an unimportant little speck some thousand kilometres further west that nobody except its direct neighbours ever cared about.

             So: No, definitely not. Off by several centuries.
     • 
       chrisleech

       December 16, 2010 at 4:19 pm | # | Reply

       Ashera? when did we start getting into Fire Emblem mythology specifically from Path to Radiance and Radiant Dawn

       • 
         Whitecrow256

         May 12, 2011 at 4:34 pm | # | Reply

         Or Mortal Kombat?
2. 
   Old_Crow

   July 14, 2010 at 3:34 am | # | Reply

   Well, yeah. It was designed by the church for the secular. It was supposed to be a way of bridging our similarities across our differences. Ironic.

   • 
     David

     September 21, 2010 at 4:11 pm | # | Reply

     It was actually more along the lines of the church supplanting pagan holidays as their own to undermine the pagan religion. The church (in this case, the catholic church) has rarely done anything in the spirit of bridging anything.

     • 
       J.H.

       October 31, 2010 at 2:52 am | # | Reply

       Oh, so you watched Black X-Mas too?
3. 
   Rodrigo

   July 21, 2010 at 8:29 pm | # | Reply

   It’s the Saturnalia, the beggining of the winter, tottaly pagan! Like the Easter was actually the festival of Eostera, the fertility godness.

   • 
     AdInfinitumSpero

     August 6, 2011 at 1:32 am | # | Reply

     Saturnalia, and Yule, and a bunch of other things. There are two or three possible reasons, but in the end almost all nature/archetype worshiping religions end up with the same holidays at the same time of year (at least when they live in similar climate areas) You could say there was one base religion for most of them, that they worshiped the same gods (aknowledging the prior situation and adding in that there were/are actual gods to worship) or that humans are just similar enough that they’ll need to blow off steam about the same times in the year. Life was pretty fucking harsh in the old days.
4. 
   Outof theloop

   September 19, 2010 at 9:58 am | # | Reply

   The church equals religious plagiarism. Am i right?
5. 
   Moop8000

   September 23, 2010 at 4:21 pm | # | Reply

   All religions are LIES, I walked into a church the other day during a surmon, disproved a few things, then converted 7 of them to Aetheism!

   • 
     Ristar

     December 7, 2010 at 1:26 pm | # | Reply

     I highly doubt that, and even if you did I’d view you as a worse person than most people who go to church and just as bad as a christian going to an athiest group to tell them they are wrong. What gives you the right to remove a foundation of someones life, whether or not their religion is correct. If you complain that a christian is trying to force their religion onto you, you are foring your anti-religion onto them. In the end you both lose.

     • 
       chrisleech

       December 16, 2010 at 4:13 pm | # | Reply

       atheists aren’t neccessarily anti-religion they just don’t believe in God

       • 
         DannKast

         December 27, 2010 at 5:14 am | # | Reply

         What he “did” was still wrong.

         • 
           David Willis

           December 27, 2010 at 7:59 am | # | Reply

           What he’s “doing” is “trolling” “you guys.”

           • 
             Narf

             March 5, 2013 at 9:29 pm | # | Reply

             Seriously. Who the fuck believes that ANY number of christians ANYWHERE were converted by what someone walking in off the street said to them, IN CHURCH?

             Moop8000 got 3 people to at least consider his actions plausible, and wins at trolling. *tips cap*
6. 
   Rigugonkai

   October 9, 2010 at 11:09 pm | # | Reply

   the church did bridge one thing. it took medeval knights painted there armour then sent them on a rampage through europe to convert other to there religion by force.
   knights of templar.

   • 
     ELeeMacFall

     July 19, 2011 at 9:43 pm | # | Reply

     The templar were independent of the Roman church. That’s why the Pope had them exterminated – they were a challenge to the political power of the Papacy.

     Not that the Roman church was entirely blameless in the crusades, though.
7. 
   Tomb

   October 12, 2010 at 7:28 am | # | Reply

   Io Saturnalia!
8. 
   The Pletch

   November 11, 2010 at 7:48 pm | # | Reply

   Well, this isn’t specifically talking about a christmas tree, it’s talking about maypoles, hence the “work of the axe” part.

   Christmas trees are also pagan, but they’re not described in that chapter.
9. 
   Phoequinox

   March 22, 2011 at 3:29 pm | # | Reply

   lol controversy
10. 
    Grach

    April 5, 2011 at 8:15 am | # | Reply

    “In what you believe?”
    If the answer is not as yours, your opponent is pagan. Convert him/her. If he doesn’t want kill him/her.
    “How you believe?”
    If the answer is not as yours, your opponent is a heretic. Kill him/her.

    • 
      ViceOfGreed

      June 4, 2011 at 6:44 pm | # | Reply

      … If the answer is as yours, they’re obviously a religious zealot trying to show you up or an infidel in disguise. Kill him/her.
11. 
    Echoloco

    May 8, 2011 at 12:18 pm | # | Reply

    Did you have to poke fun at Peanuts?

    • 
      Historyman68

      September 25, 2011 at 1:44 am | # | Reply

      THAT’s where you draw the line?
    • 
      Narf

      March 5, 2013 at 9:31 pm | # | Reply

      How the hell is he poking fun at peanuts? This is more like a tribute, unless I’m very mistaken.
12. 
    Innocence

    June 29, 2011 at 6:55 pm | # | Reply

    Linus is right though about Christmas being a pagan holiday so is Halloween and other holidays as at the time Christian influence was spreading the Celtic pagans were at first opposed to Christianity but some of the religious leaders at the time decided instead of forcing them to accept it they would merge it by making holidays based on the pagan holidays that way the pagans would be more open to the idea and stray away from their religion.

    • 
      Innocence

      June 29, 2011 at 7:00 pm | # | Reply

      And over time those holidays just evolved into what most Americans see today. The more you know the more you’ll grow. ^_^

      • 
        Michelle J Caboose

        October 6, 2011 at 5:40 pm | # | Reply

        And knowing is HALF the battle!

        [thumbs up]
13. 
    Mira

    February 10, 2012 at 11:10 pm | # | Reply

    YAY PRESENTS
14. 
    Raen

    November 28, 2012 at 11:58 pm | # | Reply

    If you keep reading, it’s made clear that the tree in question is an idol; most churches will say that provided you don’t worship it, you’re not taking up their ways in the way forbidden here, any more than you are by finding North from the stars. The thing about the Christmas tree in particular, though, is that it’s not only a modern tradition, not as often claimed directly handed down from pre-Christian times, but a reaction to perceived idolatry: iconoclastic Protestants disliked the Catholic tradition of using images of Jesus and Mary to celebrate Christmas, and so came up with their own symbol, a simple symbol of winter.

    The date of the holiday may come from Roman sun-worshippers (not the cults of Mithras, Horus, or Dionysus as often claimed – no real evidence for that date there, although there are other parallels), although that’s not as certain as many counterapologists claim. The official line is that although the birthdate of Jesus is unknown, from calculations pertaining to Passover, the Annunciation – Gabriel’s visit to Mary – was held in antiquity to be on March 25, so December 25 was the logical date for the Nativity. Certainly there are sources mentioning March 25 in connection with the Annunciation dating back to the third century, although sporadic sources mentioning December 25 in connection with Sol can be found as early as the second.

    Certainly winter festivals are nigh-universal in Europe (although not so much in Western Asia), for the obvious reason.