[Snail]

IT'S DEREK SMART'S BIRTHDAY!!!

[General Battuta]

EDIT for new readers: this thread was split from the Easter thread.

I got kicked out of Sunday school a great many times over this day.

Huh, a post vanished. Perhaps iamzack felt it was best not to douse everything in gasoline.

In celebration of the holiday I read up a bit on the history of Easter and Easter-related traditions. If you're interested in the historical aspects of the holiday as opposed to the theological ones, this is an interesting touch on the Horus/Jesus parallels iamzack mentioned (by way of trolling - actually it may have been Mithras, but I don't remember), and the site seems to be making a fair stab at balance. Some poking around didn't seem to turn up any huge ideological leanings one way or the other on the site, but it's sometimes hard to tell.

Again, this is probably of interest to people who aren't Christian but celebrate Easter as a secular holiday (much like Christmas.) I intend it only as some history, akin to studies of Homer's life or the nine cities of Troy or whatever. I didn't know about a lot of this stuff and found it pretty cool.

Seems to go to show that a lot of religions share these elements. I guess you could take that as evidence of a common divine inspiration, if you were so inclined, or at least as grounds for us to all get along a little better than we do.

Wikipedia, as always, is pretty good; I didn't know about the close links between Easter and Passover and assumed it was just a coincidence.

[iamzack]

happy mithras day

[Snail]

Yeah, common divine inspiration being the birth of Derek Smart.

[General Battuta]

It sent shockwaves through the timeline, man.

Presumably we've discovered why the Council of Nicaea decided to put Easter right here.

[Mura]

I am catholic, if this gets shanted, then we know this people are not turning the other cheek.

Why would you separate from others? why aren't you accepting people?
Why aren't you on this day specially following the teachings of Jesus? i can't understand, i am not a good catholic, but this is just... ah well, god forgives all as he isn't the wrathful god of the old testament anymore, because, like a local author said, he gained a mother

[General Battuta]

For those reading who haven't touched the other thread, it was a post about the history of Jesus and the history of Easter from a mythographic standpoint, akin to a study of Troy for those who don't believe Homer was an actual historian or a history of Mohammed for those who don't see him as the Messenger of God.

I apologize if it offended anyone. I thought it was genuinely interesting and a way for non-Christians to be involved in the discussion.

So I was filing it under

post something cool about Easter

as I found the history really fascinating.

I'm not iamzack over here, I thought I'd get benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, the gist of it was, a lot of religious figures (Horus, Mithras, Krishna) share the general archetypes of Christ and even some of the particulars of the story, which presents a cheerful sort of commonality that one could take as either an indication of common divine inspiration or at least grounds for us all to get along a little better than we do.

Whether you're religious or not, the parallels between these faiths are fascinating, and in a sense lend credit to all of them for speaking to some sort of common truth, whether factual or metaphorical.

[Goober5000]

It's not a question of offense.  It's a question of appropriateness.  (TBH I wasn't offended, but I knew that such posts would drag the thread off topic.)

There's a time and a place for discussions about Horus and Mithras.  That thread isn't it.

[General Battuta]

Okay. Should we stay out of the thread if we're not believers, then? I've always enjoyed Easter as a secular holiday, a celebration of spring and renewal, and a chance to bring families together, but if this thread is specifically about the religious component then that aspect may not fit here.

And the history of the holiday fascinates me (reasoning in the post above, probably edited in after you read it.)

[BengalTiger]

this is an interesting touch on the Horus/Jesus parallels iamzack mentioned (by way of trolling - actually it may have been Mithras, but I don't remember), and the site seems to be making a fair stab at balance.

From the Jesus/Horus thingy:
Foster father: Seb, (a.k.a. Jo-Seph). 4/ Joseph.

Joseph is the English pronunciation of Yosef in Hebrew, and read on now, I've got a little surprize later on.

Up next:
Conception: By a virgin. There is some doubt about this matter (Horus)/ By a virgin. (Jesus)

Here's wikipedia on Horus:
Horus was born to the goddess Isis after she retrieved all the dismembered body parts of her murdered husband Osiris, except his penis which was thrown into the Nile and eaten by a catfish,[3][4] and used her magic powers to resurrect Osiris and fashion a gold phallus[5] to conceive her son. In another version of the story, Isis was impregnated by divine fire.[6] Once Isis knew she was pregnant with Horus, she fled to the Nile Delta marshlands to hide from her brother Set who jealously killed Osiris and whom she knew would want to kill their son.[6] There Isis bore a divine son, Horus.
So now we know that Osiris was post mortem Horus's father. Who was Seb, aka Jo-Seph?
He's Geb, the father of Osiris, and therefore Horus's grandpa. The original Egyptian [name] was "Gebeb"/"Kebeb", meaning probably: 'weak one', perhaps:'lame one'. Seb or Keb were mispronounciations from translations from the early and mid 1900's.

Pretty much what we see in the Bible, huh?

But wait, there's more: http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/horus.htm
The most popular story of Horus is the one in which he grows to manhood to avenge the death of his father Osiris by battling against his cruel uncle Set. In many writings, he is said to continue to battle Set daily to ensure the safety of the world.

[Goober5000]

It was titled "He is risen"; it's pretty specifically about the religious component.

It's the same situation as if someone created a thread celebrating Washington's Birthday, and then someone else came in trying to discussion about how Washington owned slaves and how he's not intrinsically a better person than anyone else in history.  The guy may have a point, but he shouldn't be crashing the thread to make it.

[BengalTiger]

Wooops, sorry...

didn't open this thread earlier.

[General Battuta]

It was titled "He is risen"; it's pretty specifically about the religious component.

It's the same situation as if someone created a thread celebrating Washington's Birthday, and then someone else came in trying to discussion about how Washington owned slaves and how he's not intrinsically a better person than anyone else in history.  The guy may have a point, but he shouldn't be crashing the thread to make it.

Well, in that situation the guy's being a dick by trying to tear down the figure in question (Washington.)

I'm just interested in learning more.

[iamzack]

baaawww

i'm pretty sick of religious holidays. everything is closed just because a bunch of people claim some magic thing happened some time ago.

i can't go a week without my life being interfered with by crazy religious people.

need to cash a check? **** me, it's sunday, and it's a sin to work on sunday or something stupid like that

dshfliuadbhdo

[Snail]

Come on guys it's DSmart's birthday can't we all be friends for once?

[General Battuta]

That was the intent, but somehow a post on history has lead to threadsplits and all this for reasons I'm not totally sure I understand or am comfortable with. I'm far from an aggressive atheist and I take some degree of pride in getting along well with all faiths.

I can understand that Goob would feel targeted on these forums, but targeted by an upstanding gentleman like yours truly is stretching it.

I ARE BEMUSED. However, let's just roll on.

[iamzack]

because god forbid we call a christian holiday stupid

baaawww our savior bawwwwww

[Snail]

Today, I ate a chocolate egg.

[IronBeer]

My grandma sent me some chocolate stuff (a rabbit, an egg, misc. candies and such) for Easter. Gotta love care packages from family. 

[iamzack]

spamthread