Well, It's Christmas, that wonderful time of year when enough wrapping paper and unwanted presents are thrown away to fill several landfill. And what is my atheist butt thinking about? Why Christmas, and Jesus of Nazareth's birth have to be completely unrelated.
It actually draws from a simple, yet obvious point: Why would the Romans, a practical people, collect taxes in the middle of winter? It may seem like a dumb point, but supposedly (Here's the Bible sourced info), Jesus was born during the time of tax collection, which was the whole reason that Mary was in Bethlehem in the first place. Now, based on doctrine, the holiday of Christmas falls on an absolutely dreary day in late December. Italy this time of year, and Rome more specifically, has an average high of 57.0F and a low of 41.2F. This doesn't sound like much, but when you don't have central heating, and cars with heaters, being out in that kind of weather is unpleasant. Also, December is one of the wettest months in the Roman year. Now, the tax collectors have to come to Rome from all over to deliver the tax money. Why would a practical people like the Romans have them do this in a time when it will be cold and wet for the next few months? Why not collect in early spring for distribution in the mid summer?
That is why I feel it is HIGHLY unlikely that Jesus was born on what we call Christmas Day. (Oh, and all of this is unrelated to my atheism... That stems from a concept called Instantaneous Consciousness that I'll discuss at length somewhere, sometime...)



- posted by Jim The Cactus @ 12/25/2003 09:04:30 AM | Permalink | (0) Comments. Add your own!