I learnt something new about Easter this year.

[Islandman]

I knew about the pagan history of December 25th and the origins of the flood and virgin stories, but I didn't know this.

Is Christianity little more than a pagan religion with Roman decorations? Maybe more accurately it is a Jewish cult with pagan traditions.

[Lazie]

Just learned about this as well. Thanks for sharing.

[Hortical]

Yes, December 25 was a pagan holiday. Also, the early Christians embraced a lot of idol traditions from groups to make the religion more palatable to the people they were converting. In pagan Germany, the oak was considered sacred and worshiped, and from this came the Christmas tree.

[Za]

I knew about the pagan history of December 25th and the origins of the flood and virgin stories, but I didn't know this.

Is Christianity little more than a pagan religion with Roman decorations? Maybe more accurately it is a Jewish cult with pagan traditions.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...htar-okay.html

[Islandman]

Thanks. Always good to get the clarification on the details. The central point on the pagan contribution to Christianity is valid though.

The points that the writer makes are reasonable. However I doubt that her experience described below is representitive of Christians worldwide. Most of them do not know these things.

Know what else? Most Christians know this. Or, at least, most of the Christians that I’m friends with (which is, admittedly, a fairly small sampling). They know that Jesus wasn’t really born on December 25th, and they know that there were never any actual snakes in Ireland, and they know that rabbits and eggs are fertility symbols. But they don’t care, because they realize that religions evolve and change and that that’s actually a good thing, not a bad thing. The fact that many Christian saints are just re-imagined pagan gods and goddesses doesn’t alter their faith one iota; because faith isn’t about reason or sense, it’s about belief.