by Schizm 60 Replies latest jw friends
Ya, I bet Mary, Joseph and Jesus didn't have those funny round 'hats' over their heads either! -- Simplesally.
Yeah, those halo thingys must have been a pain to keep positioned correctly overhead. LOL
BTW, how is my friend Crit doing these days? It's been quite a while since I've spoken with him.
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According to your profile I see that you're a "queer" that is studying for your BA. So you're trying to become an educated "queer"? In view of your comment I can see a need for you attempting to further your education. Hint: This thread is about the "Manger Scene" not Christmas trees and Christmas lights.
So once again you feel the need to resort to personal attacks since you cannot prove your opinions on their own merit. Your big objection, if we want to call it that, to the "Manger Scene" is that it is inaccurate. My point is that there are other customs, embraced by many denominations, such as Christmas trees and Christmas lights that are similarly not accurate to the holiday season but are included in official religious celebrations. If you want your Christmas displays to be entirely accurate you would then have to remove these as well. I do not believe your reply to me has addressed this point, perhaps you would like another chance to do so.
Ad hominem attacks usually indicate one party is failing to come up with plausable support for their point of view, aka: losing. Seriously though can't we have a discussion without this coming down to personal attacks on the poster? It certainly doesn't make more people want to agree with your point of view.
I take it that you had Leolaia in mind when you stated the above.
If you didn't, you should have, since she was the first smart-ass in this thread.
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My point is ....
Your "point"? Who gives a donkey's butt what YOUR point is! Especially when it's off topic.
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Actually I was referring to your reply to pete. Let me refresh your memory (page 2): Being a "smart ass" is actually not the same as an "ad hominem" attack. Ad hominem attacks are aimed directly at the other poster, attacking them on a personal level rather than dealing with their arguments. Being a smart ass often refers to sarcastic or cutting remarks. ie: "I am truly shocked. They ought to be sued" while sarcasm, is not an ad hominem attack, unlike informing a poster that it was a crime he was born. I'll give you a hint who did that one "first". Although the defense that something is okay because someone else started it is rather weak and more in line with playground tactics than serious debating.
The real crime is insisting upon a single literal intepretation of these stories and demeaning those who read them as they were intended, as allegory and meaningful myth. -- peacefulpete.
The "real crime" is that you were born.
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My point is ....Your "point"? Who gives a donkey's butt what YOUR point is! Especially when it's off topic.
Actually I explain why my point was on topic, but you chose not to address it and instead attack me rather than my arguments. Regardless, if you do not wish to read my posts you are free to not do so. However, there is more than just one other person reading this thread.
you would be suprised how many people do know that they came when He was about 2 years old. Alot of people who have a nativity scene in their home, set the wise men farther away to symbolize their delayed arrival. The problem with acuratly displaying it publicy (ie real big), you would have to put them faaaaaar away and then people would really be confused.
you would be suprised how many people do know that they came when He was about 2 years old. Alot of people who have a nativity scene in their home, set the wise men farther away to symbolize their delayed arrival. The problem with acuratly displaying it publicy (ie real big), you would have to put them faaaaaar away and then people would really be confused.
One easy solution would be to dispense with the Manger bit altogether and depict Jesus as living in a house instead. That's where the Magi found Jesus--in a house. Another option would be to place the Magi on the other side of the entrance to the church from where the Manger Scene was set up.
But like I've already insinuated: It's not that Catholics can't figure such things out, it's that they just don't give a sh!t. They could care less if some unlearned soul drives away believing that the Magi were on the scene shortly after Mary gave birth to Jesus. It's just one more lie that the Catholics are guilty of promoting.
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Of course that problem they would state with having Jesus in a house is that it undermines their idea that December 25th is the actual birth date of Jesus thereby necessitating the presence of a manger. Though yes I agree they could put the magi on the other side of the entrance.
But like I've already insinuated: It's not that Catholics can't figure such things out, it's that they just don't give a sh!t. They could care less if some unlearned soul drives away believing that the Magi were on the scene shortly after Mary gave birth to Jesus. It's just one more lie that the Catholics are guilty of promoting.
Catholics are not the only ones that use manger scenes involving the magi, although they do use them quite prominently. If you are going to go after them for biblical inaccuracies then other Christian groups should certainly not be exempt. I also missed the part where salvation is contingent upon understanding that the Magi were not at the manger when Jesus was born.
Schizm, insults aside, did you understand the point of the comments before the line you copied and reposted? There were a number of legends about Jesus' birth. (compare the Ascension of Isaiah or the Gospel of Hebrews or Protoevangelium or Infancy Gospel etc.) The authors of Matt and Luke appear to have expanded upon Mark using independent forms of these legends. (Or author of Luke had an early copy of Matt that did not yet have the birth narrative). The early Christians felt free to expand or rewrite the story for theological reasons. The message was one of hope, not whether there were 3 or 4 Magi or whether the child was born in a house and stable or a cave. This message has value to many even today, why be disparaging of those who understand the story in this way?
