by Raffael A. Ferri PhD

Created on: December 24, 2011

Although I am in the 'No' part of this debate, I would imagine that Christians will find there way regardless of right or wrong. It is difficult, if not impossible to debate Christmas with someone who believes it would be blasphemous to change anything, the church has taught them. Much of this has to do with the state of mind, of people in a debate, and there ability to alter their state in conversation. The brain waves, Alpha, Beta, Delta, Theta (and sometimes Gamma and Lamda), vary in ratios within the brain. One in a Beta state of mind will have difficulty explaining/instructing or counselling someone in a Delta state of mind. In the course of rhetoric, the speaker is in the Beta state of mind, while the listener could be in any other state of mind. It is therefore, pertinent to bring the listener to the higher frequency state, so that they may follow the logic or reasoning the speaker is undertaking. My arguments, which I will provide, will be followed soon after my attempt to bring the readers into this Beta state of mind.

Please, put aside your emotions, particularly the one you feel right now. Open your mind to another perspective and seek the logic and points presented in this conversation. Try not to speed ahead of me and form your opinion too soon.

During Constantine's time, the Romans were celebrating the Winter Solstice and the empire was quite large. This meant that many people had already grown accustom to a tradition that had been going on for some time. Constantine knew that and to win favor of his people, he chose December to be the month of Christ's birthday. No need to cause a revolt over a holiday; however, Jews have been reluctant to celebrate Christmas, not because they don't believe in Jesus, but because the time factor is fact-fully in error. Even Luke makes reference to 'Spring' being the time of Christ's birth, yet Christians insist that it is December. Most Jews know that celebrating  Christmas on Dec. 25th, they are taking a chance of violating one of the 613 commandments. After all, the Romans were pagans and the Winter Solstice celebration is a pagan custom. Jews do not involve themselves in pagan customs. They learned long time ago, that opinions remain at home. This doesn't necessarily mean that all Jews don't believe in Jesus, it just simply means they are reluctant to follow pagan customs. Why Christians insist on following a pagan tradition (regardless of changing it to customize the fit for marketing) is a surprise to me. Jesus would never celebrate a pagan custom, yet followers of Jesus, do. This is not only hypocritical it is blasphemy. I don't believe anyone would oppose a change of date for Christmas, if they were to use a date closer to His actual birth-date; like sometime in April. But, that would really mess up year end for retailers and marketers, wouldn't it? So, I guess the question to Christians would be; are you a Christian or a capitalist?

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