Conservative Christians waged the first “war on Christmas”

The American Puritans, a group of conservative Protestant Christians who were very dominant in Americas early history (and can be considered spiritual precursors to today’s Evangelicals) banned the celebration of Christmas in the 17th century.

Here is the actual law:

“Such festivals [are] superstitiously kept… to the great dishonor of God and offense of others: it is therefore ordered by this court… that whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, by feasting, or any other way, every such person, so offending, shall pay… five shilling as a fine.” (1)

Here is an ancient public notice that calls Christmas a “satanical practice.”

The Puritans in America were not alone, for example, a leading Puritan in England, “Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event” (2)

The celebration of Christmas we are used to is rather new. Then “in 1851, Pastor Henry Schwan of Cleveland OH appears to have been the person responsible for decorating the first Christmas tree in an American church. His parishioners condemned the idea as a Pagan practice; some even threatened the pastor with harm” (2)

Columbus was a “man of God” or a barbarous tyrant, depending on whos telling the story

There are a wide array of pictures of Christopher Columbus, some paint him as a saint with “superb faith in God” others as a genocidal maniac. Below are two of these portraits:

• “He had his faults and his defects, but they were largely the defects of the qualities that made him great-his indomitable will, his superb faith in God and in his own mission as the Christ-bearer to lands beyond the seas, his stubborn persistence despite neglect, poverty and discouragement.” (1)
  (Samuel Morison, Harvard historian 1950’s)

• “As soon as the 1493 expedition got to the Caribbean, before it even reached Haiti, Columbus was rewarding his lieutenants with native women to rape. Columbus himself wrote to a friend in 1500, “girls from 9-10…are in demand.” Bartolomé de las Casas who traveled with Columbus reported that he saw Columbus’s soldiers dismember, behead, or rape over 3,000 native people in a single day. Casas wrote “such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight as no age can parallel. My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that now I tremble as I write.” (2)
  (James Loewen, Harvard historian/sociologist, contemporary)

The Epic of Gilgamesh predates the biblical flood story, and shares very many similarities

There is an ancient Sumerian flood story that shares many elements of the story with Noahs flood. Here is the kicker, this story, the Epic of Gilgamesh is dated many hundred years before the Genesis account. (1)

Evangelicals who claim “immodesty” is a modern phenomenon are ignorant of history

Its common to show the evils of modern society by a picture of the evolution of the female swimsuit, from a swimming-dress to a one piece to a bikini. This “evolution” is a complete lie.

In ancient times people swam naked. Romans, Greeks, Britons, etc all considered it normal for swimmers to be nude. Often it was even coed (women and men together) though some Roman emperors forbid the practice, which only shows how widespread it was. Some women in antiquity did wear two pieces outfits but only while doing exercise, not while swimming. (See attached picture).

So where did swimming suit “modesty” come from? It was only invented by the 17th-19th century Europeans.

Life expectancy changes over the last 200 years

Did you know that you are severely lucky to be living today? With the advent of (medical, sanitation, logistical, agricultural) technology humans were able radically increase life expectancy over the last few centuries.

The average life expectancy two hundred years ago was below 40, today it’s in the high 70’s. Take a look at this very short video, it might just blow your mind.

95% of the people living two centuries ago believed in fairies

As an illustration of the potent superstitious thinking prevalent for most of human history, consider that just a century or two ago, many people held a genuine belief in fairies. To put it more correctly, nasty little fairies who could attack your home or kill your cattle.

In fact, as many as 95% of people in Scotland believed in fairies even up to the 19th century! (According to an article in The Scotsman by Dr Lizanne Henderson, a lecturer of history at the University of Glasgow)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author who invented the Sherlock Holmes stories once wrote an article about fairies, in which he expressed sincere belief in them, and for evidence used the attached photo of the “Cottingley Fairies.” (The series of photos had been faked, but kept circulating as evidence of fairies for quite some time.)

Even C.S. Lewis, the famed Christian apologist once wrote about hearing of a cottage that was feared because it was purportedly possessed by fairies.

 

There are old government documents which assert that “The United states is not a Christian nation”

The US was not founded as a Christian nation but a free nation, in fact, John Adams, the second US president wrote so in a treaty accepted by the Senate.

“As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims] … it is declared … that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever product an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries…. The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.”

— Treaty of Tripoli (1797), the English version of which was carried unanimously by the Senate, signed into law by John Adams, and translated into Arabic