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Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

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Re: Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

#31

Post by throwaway-11-1 »

aristofun wrote: post #23
asacrowflies wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about all the horror death and suffering done in his name ? Like a huge proportion of these Christmas culture things come from pagan Norse culture that was very forcibly christianized in a rather brutal way??? You seem to be overlooking a lot to make someone "awesome" or at least the horrors done in their name long after death.

All those horrors are not unique to human nature unfortunately, nor to the religion. Same or worth things were done in the name of any deity you can think of. It’s not something that he brought to this world. But what he brought was powerful and radical enough to slowly and eventually overcome many of the terrible animal-like human traits. Christian societies were the first that got rid of slavery, introduced human r…

Absolutely not true and highly ahistorical. Seriously grow up

Re: Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

#32

Post by morgan814 »

aristofun wrote: post #22
asacrowflies wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The man who influenced MY life for the better are you INSANE.... I AM NATIVE AMERICAN LMAO

Tell me honestly. Would you rather live today in a pagan war oriented society (and likely die or be enslaved in the next clan war) without all the technological achievements of the last centuries than in the society where you have all the opportunities to work at home or in a comfortable office and argue with a stranger on HN forum without risk of being scalped alive?

> war oriented society

Christianity loves going to war to “spread the word”. See the Crusades. See what’s going on in Israel. See Manifest Destiny. Or, I presume, those “don’t count” because they weren’t “real Christians”.

> and likely die or be enslaved in the next clan war

The Old Testament is full of slavery references and doesn’t indicate a problem with it. Yes, I know slaves must be set free after seven years. That doesn’t suddenly make it okay and it’s painful to watch people use that as a justification.

> technological achievements of the last centuries

Christians love to claim these advancements for themselves as long as it fits their story. Much of our mathematical advancements come from the Muslim world. And plenty of scientists that changed the world were under prosecution of Christianity.

But it is convenient that a doctor (who has spent years learning about the human body) can remove your bad gallbladder then attributing it to your god. Unless you’re a type of Christian that doesn’t believe in surgery, then it’s “of the devil”.

> without risk of being scalped alive?

Well, as long as you’re not a Palestinian trying to survive a genocide that is in part supported by fundamentalist Christians on the other side of the planet.

Frankly, your comment reeks of “white Jesus saved the world” or what many might refer to as racism. Your example of scalping really, really gives you away.

Re: Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

#33

Post by comprev »

For many people Christmas is an annual holiday with a strong emphasis on family with virtually no religious aspect, thanks partly to the commercialisation of 25th December. Hollywood has no doubt played a big part in this too.

I appreciate it must be frustrating for Christians to see society forgetting what they consider should be the primary focus but surely there is some joy in seeing people caring for each other?

Re: Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

#34

Post by andyjohnson0 »

I'm not religious at all, but I celebrate Christmas as a pause between the solstice and the end of the year.

Tree goes up about five days before Christmas day and comes down just after new years day. Presents under the tree. Lights, because it gets dark here this far north. Good food and drink. Time off work to relax and, hopefully, at least once get hazy about which day of the week it is. Play board games with my children, watch films, read, sit in the silence.

And I enjoy the lights in the darkness, which every year are a new joy to me.

Re: Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

#35

Post by errru »

aristofun wrote: post #30
krapp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>one should celebrate the birthday of the most influential and awesome man in the history of mankind. Cool. So why don't you celebrate the birthday of Siddhartha Gautama? Or Confucius? Genghis Khan? Julius Caesar? Because Jesus was not the most influential man in the history of the world. He was influential, but the world is bigger and history deeper than Christians want to believe. Hell, the only reason anyone even…

> Siddhartha Gautama? Or Confucius? Genghis Khan? Julius Caesar? Valid question. Mentioned people are not as nearly influential. Buddha is close though. But there were many enlightened men before and after him. There were many other emperors. But no more figures like jesus, even modern eastern gurus often mention him and reference him as an example. Paul and others were important for the religion yes, but without jes…

jfc

>But no more figures like jesus, even modern eastern gurus often mention him and reference him as an example

Yeah, because they recognise good outside of some strictly foolish religious form because they are not christians.

Re: Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

#36

Post by aristofun »

errru wrote: post #35
aristofun wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Siddhartha Gautama? Or Confucius? Genghis Khan? Julius Caesar? Valid question. Mentioned people are not as nearly influential. Buddha is close though. But there were many enlightened men before and after him. There were many other emperors. But no more figures like jesus, even modern eastern gurus often mention him and reference him as an example. Paul and others were important for the religion yes, but without jes…

jfc >But no more figures like jesus, even modern eastern gurus often mention him and reference him as an example Yeah, because they recognise good outside of some strictly foolish religious form because they are not christians.

Dumb comment, not bringing any points to the discussion

Re: Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

#37

Post by aristofun »

throwaway-11-1 wrote: post #31
aristofun wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All those horrors are not unique to human nature unfortunately, nor to the religion. Same or worth things were done in the name of any deity you can think of. It’s not something that he brought to this world. But what he brought was powerful and radical enough to slowly and eventually overcome many of the terrible animal-like human traits. Christian societies were the first that got rid of slavery, introduced human r…

Absolutely not true and highly ahistorical. Seriously grow up

Seriously grow up and learn to prove your points with some logic or examples.

Re: Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

#38

Post by aristofun »

morgan814 wrote: post #32
aristofun wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me honestly. Would you rather live today in a pagan war oriented society (and likely die or be enslaved in the next clan war) without all the technological achievements of the last centuries than in the society where you have all the opportunities to work at home or in a comfortable office and argue with a stranger on HN forum without risk of being scalped alive?

> war oriented society Christianity loves going to war to “spread the word”. See the Crusades. See what’s going on in Israel. See Manifest Destiny. Or, I presume, those “don’t count” because they weren’t “real Christians”. > and likely die or be enslaved in the next clan war The Old Testament is full of slavery references and doesn’t indicate a problem with it. Yes, I know slaves must be set free after seven years. T…

> See the Crusades. See what’s going on in Israel

Really, christians are to blame for what’s going on today in Israel??

80th level of dumb, congrats! :)))

> Christians love to claim these advancements for themselves

If you play the game of putting hanging all the dead dogs to christianity, it’s only fair to also attribute all the good achievements to it.

Otherwise it doesn’t look fair or logical, isn’t it? Though I doubt you know what logic is :) you just want to spread hatred

Ps: crusades were pretty symmetrical and reasonable response to arabic expansion and aggression back then. Also it wasn’t in any way unique or more cruel than countless other conflicts and wars throughout the history, there is nothing uniquely “Christian” about it.

Re: Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

#39

Post by errru »

aristofun wrote: post #36
errru wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

jfc >But no more figures like jesus, even modern eastern gurus often mention him and reference him as an example Yeah, because they recognise good outside of some strictly foolish religious form because they are not christians.

Dumb comment, not bringing any points to the discussion

You're a programmer, you should be able to extrapolate the point about the statistic I was making.

Re: Ask HN: How many HN'ers Celebrate Christmas vs. ?

#40

Post by dang »

gist wrote: post #15
dang wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you mean it sincerely but please don't do this here. HN isn't the place to proselytize.

I recognize that this wasn't your decision but I would say having that HN Christmas banner (or any religious holiday banner) is a form of proselytizing. (Not disagreeing with what you said in reply btw.) I feel that having a banner like that shows a sense of entitlement that people who celebrate (or have been raised to believe in Christ or another religion) have with this entire time of year. (This is irrespective if…

I hear you and want you to know that this is a concern I/we take seriously.

I've thought about it quite a bit over the years and wanted to give you a proper reply, but unfortunately the time to write it didn't materialize.

Not that it would be a satisfactory answer but I would like to at least engage with this question. Perhaps another time.

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