Ah... Easter... shops full of tinsel-covered chocolate eggs... an ancient tradition of our forbears who celebrated the end of a bleak and hungry winter with a festival to welcome spring. Australians, of course, are not starving and are probably celebrating the end of a heat wave or rain, rather than looking forward to winter. But a bellyful of chocolate might cushion the blow of another interest rate hike.

Christianity puts its own spin on the ancient celebration. Instead of celebrating the ‘death’ of winter and the ‘rebirth’ of spring, Christians celebrate the murder of a god/man on Friday, and his re-birth the following Sunday. And if this isn't miraculous enough, this sacrificial victim is also a ‘scapegoat’.

Instead of sacrificing goats and sheep to keep god happy, Christians sacrificed a living human, so their god would forgive the sins of everyone else!

We should be happy about this, but the morality is troublesome. If someone does an ‘evil’ act, is it ok for the courts to send an innocent man to jail instead? If not, why not? The Christian god did it. It’s scarcely a good example to set children. Wouldn’t it be better for people to take responsibility for their own actions and enjoy the cycles of nature without symbolic sacrificial murder?”

Peter Taylor
Public Relations Team
Atheist Foundation of Australia Inc

Phone: (08) 8835 2269

Website: http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/mediarelease.htm

One trick pony is back in town.

Welcome to the 'drone

Why do you need an Atheist foundation? Its not like you believe in anything.

Dear Peter, providing your real name in this context might be a tad dangerous and potentially costly.

You said "Christians celebrate the murder of".... and I rather think that suggesting a particular class of people 'celebrate murder' is very much to hold them up to 'severe ridicule and public contempt'.

Claiming a class of people 'celebrate murder' is also to incite hatred and revulsion against them.

In Victoria this is illegal and could (should some person decide to sue you) be costly in the extreme under the RRT2001.(Being in WA would not prevent you from being jailed in Vic.)

You should also be aware, that your MOTIVE is irrelevant (section 9 of the Act).... what counts is 'how people feel' about what you say.. do they feel 'vilified' ? Well I sure do, I feel insulted, vilified and held up to public contempt and ridicule.

All you had to do to change that was.. use the word 'execution' or 'death of' rather than 'murder'. Jesus was executed by the State...not murdered in some back alley by muggers.

All that aside. Christians have not placed 'spin' on an existing event. They have SUBstituted the remembrance of Christs sacrifice for us, for a pagan fertility ceremony. Socially and Culturally, the timing is more appropriate, to have that remembrance at the same time as the pagan celebration.

But your title got one thing right.. "Scapegoat".. sus it out.. there is much more in that than you may think.

<<He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd>>

Peter, you might question the morality of Christs substitutionary death, (and call it murder) but if you had to pay for your own sins, how do you think you would stand in the presense of the Holiness of Almighty God.

The World has gone nuts.

We could all use a little more love, hope, faith
and forgiveness.

Peter

You have misunderstood the central element of Chrostianity - its not that "Christians sacrificed a living human, so their god would forgive the sins of everyone else!" but that God (in human flesh) would sacrifice himself for every person's sins. And in doing so, he beat the power of death and the grave.

Chappy