"Atheists Searching For Their Place in Heavily Catholic Philippines"

[Luap]

I'm enjoying my "third eye" so far! pag ayaw ko sya gamitin nasa loob lang sya ng brip

[fourtheboys96]

ang atheists ba ay hindi tumatanggap ng Christmas gifts?

[zap.FREEDOM]

"Atheists Searching For Their Place in Heavily Catholic Philippines"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It's More Fun in the Philippines. =D

[pop3corn]

ang atheists ba ay hindi tumatanggap ng Christmas gifts?

atheists maintain that the practice of gift giving on Christmas season is a pagan tradition. a tradition that has since been existing even before the time of Christ. and there are so many "proofs" around the net about this, even to the extent that the Christians naki-ride on lang sa issue. well, sa akin naman ok lang whether it's true or not. it's not like us Christians will exempt them sa holidays tradition. masyado lang siguro nila jina-justify kasi nga hirap din atake ng atake sa God natin, tapos pag gift giving na nasa isang sulok lang sila. kawawa naman. I mean we don't even question them why they take vacations / leaves during Holy week.

sa dami ng religion-related holidays per year, eh kung me0maintain talaga ng mga atheists ang pride nila, baka wala na tlaga sila bakasyon

kaya nga yun thread title sa forum na ito, di ko alam kumbakit parang kasalanan pa nating mga Katoliko na wala sila lugar sa'tin. The Philippines is religious nation, it even says so in our constitution bec. God is mentioned there. the religious farmers - sila ang nag-aani, nag-poulty /cattle. mga ito dasal ng dasal sa maykapal para mailigtas sa sakuna ang ani/produce nila. pero wala eh it seems that atheist just take this for granted. syempre, argue nila me pambili kami eh oh
well

---

iisa lang talaga napansin ko, usually mga atheist mga kabataan. I rarely meet older people who admits that he/she doesn't believe in God. so I guess, atheism is just like wearing tatoo on any part of the body. it's a phase. pag-dumating na ang katandaan, ang kahinaan at kabagalan ng katawan, ang uncertainty kung pano ma-isalba ang pamilya at anak sa napakahirap ng mundong ito, there will come a time that these so called "cool and hip "atheists will re-evaluate their lives

[ghosthunter]

atheists maintain that the practice of gift giving on Christmas season is a pagan tradition. a tradition that has since been existing even before the time of Christ. and there are so many "proofs" around the net about this, even to the extent that the Christians naki-ride on lang sa issue. well, sa akin naman ok lang whether it's true or not. it's not like us Christians will exempt them sa holidays tradition. masyado lang siguro nila jina-justify kasi nga hirap din atake ng atake sa God natin, tapos pag gift giving na nasa isang sulok lang sila. kawawa naman. I mean we don't even question them why they take vacations / leaves during Holy week.

The Origins of Christmas Customs

A. The Origin of Christmas Tree

Just as early Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, so too worshippers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning “Christmas Trees”.[7] Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian veneer by the Church.

B. The Origin of Mistletoe

Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was killed using a mistletoe arrow by his rival god Hoder while fighting for the female Nanna. Druid rituals use mistletoe to poison their human sacrificial victim.[8] The Christian custom of “kissing under the mistletoe” is a later synthesis of the ***ual license of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult.[9]

C. The Origin of Christmas Presents

In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). Later, this ritual expanded to include gift-giving among the general populace. The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavor by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas (see below).[10]

D. The Origin of Santa Claus

a. Nicholas was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6th. He was only named a saint in the 19th century.

b. Nicholas was among the most senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New Testament. The text they produced portrayed Jews as “the children of the devil”[11] who sentenced Jesus to death.

c. In 1087, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones from Turkey to a sanctuary in Bari, Italy. There Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania, who used to fill the children's stockings with her gifts. The Grandmother was ousted from her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts during a pageant they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas’ death, December 6.

d. The Nicholas cult spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped a pantheon led by Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, rescheduled his flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing.

e. In a bid for pagan adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas cult and taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts on December 25th instead of December 6th.

f. In 1809, the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.

g. Dr. Clement Moore, a professor at Union Seminary, read Knickerbocker History, and in 1822 he published a poem based on the character Santa Claus: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…” Moore innovated by portraying a Santa with eight reindeer who descended through chimneys.

h. The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Santa Claus. From 1862 through 1886, based on Moore’s poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Santa for Harper’s Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like figure in a frock. Nast also gave Santa a home at the North Pole, his workshop filled with elves, and his list of the good and bad children of the world. All Santa was missing was his red outfit.

i. In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his cheerful, chubby face. The corporation insisted that Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca Cola red. And Santa was born – a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.

[ghosthunter]

iisa lang talaga napansin ko, usually mga atheist mga kabataan. I rarely meet older people who admits that he/she doesn't believe in God. so I guess, atheism is just like wearing tatoo on any part of the body. it's a phase. pag-dumating na ang katandaan, ang kahinaan at kabagalan ng katawan, ang uncertainty kung pano ma-isalba ang pamilya at anak sa napakahirap ng mundong ito, there will come a time that these so called "cool and hip "atheists will re-evaluate their lives

Or.... it simply because the younger modern generation are living in the information age where we can all find the answers to our questions. Where technology has matured enough to answer many of man's basic questions about himself including his own origin. Where knowledge can be freely be found at the tips of everyone's fingers.

In comparison, such things (like readily available information) were not readily available in the time of our fathers and grandparents, hence such questions like the origin of man was still tightly believed in the pages of the Bible. In fact, I can remember the days when the personal computer was no more powerful than the Apple II and the internet wasn't even thought about yet.

I guess it's nice to view the world in religion colored glasses.

[Harangody]

Lagi sinasabi ng friend ko: Thank God, I'm an Atheist. Haha!

[pop3corn]

Or.... it simply because the younger modern generation are living in the information age where we can all find the answers to our questions. Where technology has matured enough to answer many of man's basic questions about himself including his own origin. Where knowledge can be freely be found at the tips of everyone's fingers.

i don't think it's technology that's answering man's basic questions, unless AI na tayo. what we read in the internet are written by others, or perhaps a collective of information that may appear like truth. what's only happening right now is we can read/communicate ideas from somebody located in Siberia or a province China and vice versa.

naging mas magulo pa nga ngaun eh. kung dati there is lack of information, now it's information overload. and with so much information, then the probability of getting misinformed is greater.

[uls]

yes there's a lot of info out there

kaya you use something called DISCERNMENT

you filter out bullshit info and retain accurate info

you ask how can you tell which is which

dyan papasok ang intelligence... which many are deficient in

kaya naniniwala sa lahat ng nababasa. kaya madali ma-i-scam. naniniwala sa mga chain email. may natanggap na text o email na nagsasabi magkaka-earthquake mamaya... so di papasok sa trabaho

[ghosthunter]

i don't think it's technology that's answering man's basic questions, unless AI na tayo. what we read in the internet are written by others, or perhaps a collective of information that may appear like truth. what's only happening right now is we can read/communicate ideas from somebody located in Siberia or a province China and vice versa.

naging mas magulo pa nga ngaun eh. kung dati there is lack of information, now it's information overload. and with so much information, then the probability of getting misinformed is greater.

It is the pure ease of access to information that is what I was talking about. Technology has made access to information easy & universal for anyone with a computer and internet access. In the past, accurate information is hard to come by due to limited access to anything.

Information overload in not an issue.

We already have learned to filter out what is important and unimportant.

Unless you still believe in ancient fairy tales...