There is no way early Christians in the Middle east knew of reindeer pulling
sleds and the culture of the far north. This stuff along with the practice
of putting greenery in buildings in the dead of winter comes from
celebration of the Winter Solstice. This is the time when the sun starts
coming north again and was very important to primitave peoples, especially
in the north. I think old men giving gifts to children was very common in
these cultures and predates Christianity. Of course, Christians adopded the
practice and made it their own, most likely for the reasons you state.

"Roedy Green" <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:hh4vm312s13anbmqm18voa13e7g3npnd2b@4ax.com...

As you are well aware Vatican has kept hidden some of the Dead Sea
scrolls for fear they would destroy the faith, in much the way some of
the Fatima prophesies have been kept secret.

However, some material has been recently declassified to select
scholars. The gist of it is the Santa Claus myth and the Easter bunny
myth have been with Christianity since the beginning and were designed
to be an integral part of it, much like cub scouts provides experience
for eagle scouts.

My source has told me I am not yet permitted to divulge the original
texts. For reasons I cannot yet disclose, I have had to disguise the
material grossly. However, I think some of the ideas from the
original document will still shine through.

Santaism is the belief that a fat old man sneaks into children's rooms
at night, by slithering down narrow chimneys, to fill their stockings
with goodies. He lives at the north pole. He has a reindeer sled.
Santa Claus is a children's training religion. Its purpose is to
control the behaviour of children with supernatural bribery, and to
soften them up for the even less plausible adult religion. The parents
help foster the Santa illusion by actually providing the goodies. In
the followon adult religion, Christianity, you don't get any goodies
at all, at least not till you die. Advertisers foster the notion of a
very generous Santa in an attempt to arm twist parents into spending
for elaborate gifts to make the child feel accepted by Santa. Guns,
gun games and artificial guns the most common and desired gifts, now
surpassing the perennial favourite, the pony. Most North Americans
outgrow this religion at some point in childhood, with a quite painful
period of disillusionment, (both about Santa not being real, and being
lied and tricked by everyone) though nearly all adults believe in the
religion enough to instill in to their own children. It could be
considered like hazing, an inter-generational cruelty or practical
joke. Or it could be excused as performing bit of stage magic, that
appears real in order to create an experience of bafflement and
wonder. Santa reputedly has spies that watch children 24/7, called
elves. When I was immersed in the Santa religion I made a top to
bottom search in all possible hiding places in the house for these
little traitors. I can still remember looking for them in the blinds.
I strongly resented them watching me. I found both Santa Claus and
clowns terrifying creatures, and I resented the way the Shriner clowns
would persist in engaging me with their psychotic gestures even when
it was obvious they made me extremely uncomfortable.


Easter Bunny is another children's training religion. A large rabbit
hides coloured candy eggs in abundance for children to find. The
rabbit carries these in a basket. The rabbit makes chocolate body
castings of itself to distribute as well, sort of toy Eucharist. This
breaks the kids in gently to the ritual cannibalism of bloody flesh
required of adults. This Easter is the sugar festival to balance the
dark side the force sugar festival on Halloween, when strangers are
strenuously encouraged to give candy to children, under threat of
vandalism, aka trick or treat. The eggs appear whether or not one is
naughty or nice, so the Easter Bunny is not nearly as terrifying to
children as Santa Claus. The funniest thing about Christians is their
religion has even less evidence to support it than the Easter Bunny's,
but they don't seem to notice just how preposterous their religion is.
It does not SEEM utterly potty and absurd only from lifelong
familiarity.
--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
The Java Glossary
http://mindprod.com

Interesting points with some degree of truth but some misconceptions as
well.

I don't think the Vatican has anything to do with or control over the Dead
Sea Scrolls. What I have seen of the Dead Sea Scrolls there is not much in
them that is not already in the Torra and the Old Testament. It's the Gnosic
Gospels that trouble the Vatican with things like the Book of Thomas

that
contradict church littany. The early Church picked and chose what to include
in Christian Theology leaving out 90% of other stuff then available. They
don't want people to see this stuff for obvious reasons.

There is no way early Christians in the Middle east knew of reindeer pulling
sleds and the culture of the far north. This stuff along with the practice
of putting greenery in buildings in the dead of winter comes from
celebration of the Winter Solstice. This is the time when the sun starts
coming north again and was very important to primitave peoples, especially
in the north. I think old men giving gifts to children was very common in
these cultures and predates Christianity. Of course, Christians adopded the
practice and made it their own, most likely for the reasons you state.

Interestingly Christ was NOT born in the winter but probably in March.

Early
Cristians evidently picked the days of the winter solstice as their
celebration time because the dominant Romans were busy with Solstice
celebrations and would leave Christians alone at that time. Maybe the lions
wern't very hungry during the dead of winter!

Easter is the rite of spring. The word Easter comes from sex goddess Ester
and is the same root for the word 'esterous' which is the technical term for
being in heat. Eggs, rabbits and baby chicks are fertility symbols for
spring, they have nothing to do with Christanity.

Even Playboy adopted theT>Bunny as a sex symbol. Easter is about sex and getting pregnant.

Again,
Christians adopted the period for their celebration of death.

Christianity
is a cult of death where death is the most important thing in their
littergy.

Curiously, everybody else was celebrating sex, birth, fertility
and life at that time, but not Christians.

"Roedy Green" <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:hh4vm312s13anbmqm18voa13e7g3npnd2b@4ax.com...

As you are well aware Vatican has kept hidden some of the Dead Sea
scrolls for fear they would destroy the faith, in much the way some of
the Fatima prophesies have been kept secret.

================================

I think you need urgent medical help as your mind creating a lot of stupid
crap.

"Roedy Green"

As you are well aware

Vatican has kept hidden some of the Dead Sea

scrolls

for fear they would destroy the faith,

in much the way some of

the Fatima prophesies have been kept secret.

However, some material has been recently declassified to select
scholars. The gist of it is the Santa Claus myth and the Easter bunny
myth have been with Christianity since the beginning and were designed
to be an integral part of it, much like cub scouts provides experience
for eagle scouts.

My source has told me I am not yet permitted to divulge the original
texts.

For reasons I cannot yet disclose,

I have had to disguise the

material grossly.

However, I think some of the ideas from the

original document will still shine through.

For credibility you rate 0 on a scale from 1 to 10... do you honestly expect
people to believe you?