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It has been estimated that as much as 90 per cent of the
literature of antiquity perished in the onslaught. The Christians took the fallen stones of temples to build their churches, and over-wrote the manuscripts of the philosophers and poets with their scripture texts. It is hard to comprehend, still less to forgive, the immense loss of literature, philosophy, history and general culture this represented. Moreover, at the time Christianity existed in a number of mutually hostile and competing versions, and the effort - eventually successful - to achieve a degree of consensus on a 'right' version required treating the others as heresies and aberrations requiring suppression, including violent suppression."

There are other examples of the deliberate destruction of the records of the past. Christianity is not the only culprit.

I mourn the loss of thinkers and scientists. The murder of Hypatia, a woman who was the greatest mathematician, astronomer and mathematician of her time by a Christian mob in 415 AD, the burning at the stake of Servetus, a polymath who discovered pulmonary circulation and doubted the Trinity in 1553 AD, the burning at the stake of Giordano Bruno, a polymath who speculated that there are other solar systems and other worlds besides ours in 1600 and the murder of Vanini in 1619 are examples of the fate of such thinkers. Vanini had a great mind. He saw the universe as governed by natural laws and humans and apes as having a common ancestry. His end was especially brutal. In November 1618, he was arrested and, after a prolonged trial, was condemned to have his tongue cut out, to be strangled at the stake and to have his body burned to ashes. The sentence was executed on 9 February 1619.

I mourn the suffering and anguish of Jews. The Nazis didn’t invent Jew hatred. Centuries of Christian persecution preceded Nazism. Nazism exploited a feeling already endemic in the German psyche. The Holocaust was a culmination of Christian ideology.

I mourn the destruction of indigenous people and cultures by Christian imperialists and missionaries.

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I mourn the loss of the ancient philosophies of Stoicism, Epicureanism and Cynicism to be replaced by the superstition of Christianity.

I mourn the suffering and death in the Wars of the Reformation where Christians killed Christians.

I mourn the suffering and horrible deaths caused by the Inquisition.
A number of years ago I was in Lubeck, Germany during the Christmas season. In Lubeck are twin towers with a passageway from one to the other near the top. At the bottom of one of the towers is a torture museum exhibiting thumbscrews, rack, iron maiden and other instruments. As I gazed in horror and fascination the strains of the carol, “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht” drifted in the window. Thinking of the Inquisition it seemed a very Christian moment to me.

I regard Christmas as a day of mourning. I am fascinated by Christianity and have read a bit of its history. One of the books I have read is a A History of Christianity by MacCulloch.

Diarmaid Ninian John MacCulloch (born 31 October 1951) is an English historian and academic, specialising in ecclesiastical history and the history of Christianity. Since 1995, he has been a fellow of St Cross College, Oxford; he was formerly the senior tutor. Since 1997, he has been Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford.

Though ordained a deacon in the Church of England, he declined ordination to the priesthood because of the church's attitude to homosexuality. In 2009 he encapsulated the evolution of his religious beliefs: "I was brought up in the presence of the Bible, and I remember with affection what it was like to hold a dogmatic position on the statements of Christian belief. I would now describe myself as a candid friend of Christianity." MacCulloch sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Ecclesiastical History.

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2 quotes from his book:

"I seek to give weight in these narratives to the tangled and often tragic story of the relations between Christianity and its mother-monotheism, Judaism, as well as with its mother-monotheistic younger cousin, Islam. For most of its existence, Christianity has been the most intolerant of world faiths, doing its best to eliminate all competitors, with Judaism a qualified exception, for which (thanks to some thoughts from Augustine of Hippo) it found space to serve its own theological and social purposes." P. 4

"I still appreciate the seriousness which a religious mentality brings to the mystery and misery of human existence, and I appreciate the solemnity of religious liturgy as a way of confronting these problems. I live with the puzzle of wondering how something so apparently crazy can be so captivating to millions of other members of my species." P. 11

Merry Christmas is an oxymoron.

One cannot live in a vacuum but must believe in something. And that is not myth and fable that for the most part is true of all religious philosophies. Christian, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism etc.

Even those whose teachings are founded on a grain of truth. But then persecute that which is born different

Believe in something we must because we cannot exist in a vacuum. That something is the mighty irrefutable truth.

It is not plausible theory. A theory remains a theory until and if proven, at which time it ceases to be theory, but the truth.
Alan B.

Dear David F.,

«To me Christmas is a day of mourning.»

Are you aware that Jesus could not have been born on Christmas day, not according to the Biblical story anyway, but was most likely born around June (the pilgrimage festival of Shavuot, as nobody goes on pilgrimage or is otherwise expected to walk such distances in winter with all the rain, mud, even snow)?

Are you aware that Christmas evolved from a pagan festival, celebrating the return of the sun (in the northern hemisphere)?

«I mourn the suffering due to the hate promoted by the words of Jesus. Possibly he did not say those words and they were ascribed to him by those who wrote the New Testament.»

And even if he did say those words, they must have been said in a particular context to particular disciples and not out of hate, a context which now is likely lost forever.

Jesus cannot be held responsible for the stupid misdeeds of those who claimed to be his followers hundreds of years later (including the faking of his birthday).

This essay provides a unique Understanding of the function of religious practice on the well-being of the body.
http://www.beezone.com/beezones-main-stack/stresschemistry.html