Robin Schumacher: To try and dissolve
the spirit behind today’s Christmas celebrations, some atheists attempt to
lecture Christians on the origins of the holiday. They talk about the fact that,
before Christmas sprung into being as we know it, the early Roman culture
already celebrated various holidays on and around December 25 (Saturnalia and
Juvenalia), a period sometimes referred to as the winter solstice. They go on to
explain that Christianity originally celebrated only the resurrection of Christ,
but when Rome instituted Christianity as the state religion in the fourth
century, the Roman church converted the pagan celebrations into a Christian
holiday in order to commemorate Jesus’ birth.
Which means Christmas as a holiday has only been around for a
little over 1,700 years…
If you’re an atheist, please don’t commit the genetic logical
fallacy, which is where a current end result is suggested as being based solely
on something’s origin rather than its current meaning or context, with the
motivation typically being to transfer the negative esteem from the earlier
context. Instead, just understand that Christmas, as celebrated today by
Christians, is what it is.
Or, put another way, when Charlie Brown screams out in the famous
Peanuts cartoon, “Isn’t there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all
about?” the answer that Linus supplied was spot on. Christian News.
