I Love Christmas!

[Pirrip]

Tis the season!

Who else loves Christmas? What's not to love? The wonderful weather, the getting together of friends and family, the presents!

Do you plan on gifting this year? Or are you hoping for Santa to bring you something special?

[BIG OLAF]

Tis the season!

Who else loves Christmas? What's not to love? The wonderful weather, the getting together of friends and family, the presents!

Do you plan on gifting this year? Or are you hoping for Santa to bring you something special?

B-but, you just said... (http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=184133)

Anyway, I don't like Christmas, as I said in that other thread. Don't believe in God, so there goes the religious aspect. I'm kind of the "black sheep" of the family so I don't really fit in with them, and I don't have many friends, so there goes the togetherness aspect. And, I haven't gotten any Christmas presents in years, since everyone's broke all the time.

Bah.

[Split]

B-but, you just said... (http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=184133)lol wut?

[McLaughlin]

I love Christmas. I go all out decorating my house and the giant pine in my backyard. I just love the way everything looks covered in snow and lights, and the atmosphere is always great too.

Plus everything gets dirt cheap and I make off like a bandit on Boxing Day.

I give out a lot of presents, but I always tell everyone not to get me anything, because I never really need anything. My birthday falls on the 19th as well, so I usually tell people if they really want to get me something to just give me money. I take all the money I get between my birthday and Christmas and donate it to local the food shelter.

[BIG OLAF]

lol wut?

^Obviously didn't click the link, or else you would've understood my shock because of Pirrip making a thread claiming a dislike for Christmas only a couple days ago, and now making a thread claiming a love of the holiday. It's confusing.

[MetaZedlen]

Thinking, probably not one of OP's finer qualities...

[Chukie sue]

It's ok. I believe I am clinically depressed so it isnt that great anymore.

Anyway, after Christmas this year I'm going to a conference with a bunch of people from my Church. That part will probably piss me off, as they blindly accept what's taught at the conference without thinking about it critically (and running it through our religious text). That's one reason why it tends to irritate me... Or at least, this time of year - not Christmas per se.

[Split]

^Obviously didn't click the link, or else you would've understood my shock because of Pirrip making a thread claiming a dislike for Christmas only a couple days ago, and now making a thread claiming a love of the holiday. It's confusing.You misunderstand me; the lol wut was reacting to the link. This Original Poster character must suffer from a severe case of multiple personality disorder...

[Firocket1690]

I'm not so much for religious Christmas, butI do love the holiday season as a whole. As of yesterday, I pretty much finished shopping. Sent about $40 of stuff to toys for tots, and bought a few books to mail out to old friends. The city seems brighter, coffee tastes better, and there's a general sense of optimism.

Well, 'cept my dad. he's a grinch 'cause he doesn't let me keep my inflatable santa in the hallway. :/

[BIG OLAF]

You misunderstand me; the lol wut was reacting to the link. This Original Poster character must suffer from a severe case of multiple personality disorder...

Oh, I see, sorry. I don't know; maybe Pirrip does....

...or maybe she was visited by the Three Ghosts of Christmas.

[Sinue_v2]

Anyway, after Christmas this year I'm going to a conference with a bunch of people from my Church. That part will probably piss me off, as they blindly accept what's taught at the conference without thinking about it critically (and running it through our religious text).

If you like your religion, you might want to take a page out of their hymnals. Critical Thinking has no place within religious institutions, nor is it welcome - lest one start applying that critical thinking to the foundations of their own religious beliefs.

[spoiler-box]http://unreasonablefaith.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/reason_faith.jpg[/spoiler-box]

[sCI]

I hate the weather(and living in CA, that says somethin'...). I don't need and never ask for presents. The gatherings and food are awesome.

It's also nice to have a little change in scenery when it comes to town, and places around town, but the music I can definitely live without. Some of the only christmas songs I like can be heard in Home Alone 2.



Oh yeah, and a shout out goes to the fool who created a thread that literally--in textual form--completely contradicts what they stated in another thread they also made. Yay for not thinking:lol:

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

Do you plan on gifting this year? Or are you hoping for Santa to bring you something special?
Yeah, I do want the: "What you gave to other people this year" thread up, not the "I asked for and got all of this (bitches!)" requisite gamer forum thread. And you know those people are probably not having kids and giving them several hundred dollar Christmases like they got.

2nd, one, Hell no. That dude doesn't exist as a regular St. Nick being anymore


& http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ysRg6gfNemY/SUjZQr0TbfI/AAAAAAAAAjI/j-hO2iQ2kPs/s400/Special+Forces+Santa.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ysRg6gfNemY/SUjY7wKjO5I/AAAAAAAAAig/OoAuXTiclvQ/s400/ninja_santa.jpg


brings it! (http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182447)

[Orange_Coconut]

Interesting psychological experiment. I wonder who will comment on both threads and add a point to reflect positively on the topic itself. :]

[Chukie sue]

If you like your religion, you might want to take a page out of their hymnals. Critical Thinking has no place within religious institutions, nor is it welcome - lest one start applying that critical thinking to the foundations of their own religious beliefs.




Critical thinking is certainly often (but not often enough Im sure) applied in Christianity regarding the Bible's teachings. (Lets use Christianity and the bible as an example since they're the most popular) It's a commonly held belief among Christians that God is omnibenevolent. What are they then to conclude when a pastor presents Luke 19:27 which seems to contradict that claim? Should they then blindly accept what said pastor teaches? Certainly not. And they certainly dont... Usually. Critical thinking certainly has a place when it comes to what a religious text states or means to imply. Imo :o


Working on a pm for you now...

[Bomber The Cosmonaut]

The best things about the Holidays is and always will be food.

[Feischutz]

The only thing I like about Christmas is "Free days off from work." :shy:

[Kion]

In Japan Christmas isn't a big deal. The holiday has pretty much been adapted as far as coka cola commercials and going drinking with you're friends. Since I work as said alcohol distribution center, I'll probably be working my ass off (fuck this country).

As far as Christmas even though I'm not religious I can definitely appreciate the holiday. Without all the happiness, presents, cookies, family and crap i'm sure that winter depression would run rampant. So eat a lot, rest, see family and friends and have a merry fucking Christmas!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Qytdn4dpI

[Sinue_v2]

Critical thinking is certainly often (but not often enough Im sure) applied in Christianity regarding the Bible's teachings. (Lets use Christianity and the bible as an example since they're the most popular) It's a commonly held belief among Christians that God is omnibenevolent. What are they then to conclude when a pastor presents Luke 19:27 which seems to contradict that claim? Should they then blindly accept what said pastor teaches? Certainly not. And they certainly dont... Usually. Critical thinking certainly has a place when it comes to what a religious text states or means to imply. Imo :o

It's not the claims of omnibenevolence that bother me so much, but rather the claims of omnipotence. This opens up a whole holy host of paradoxes and contradictions that are all too often simply brushed aside as being part of the mystery, or as being "too complex for our frail mortal minds to comprehend". While I do retain a faith in a god, I've found I cannot seem to reconcile commonly ascribed properties such as being all powerful and all knowing... nor have I yet heard a convincing argument to that position. Even if I did want to define the properties of such a being that is beyond inspection or interrogation, there's nothing that I've come across that can objectively validate such a claim. However, if you drop those descriptive qualities, then you also drop the vast bulk of accompanying paradoxes. However, that also puts much of the bible written under those assumed qualities either inapplicable or unnecessary.

As for specific biblical points, there are too many areas where critical thinking can debunk parables, descriptions, miracles, etc. Not even all the gospels can agree, whether on little details like the method of Judas's death, or whether or not hordes of zombies walked the streets of Jerusalem alongside Jesus after the resurrection (Matthew 27). Certainly no outside source can be found which validates either points, no matter the gospel. That's not even getting into the episodic nature of the gospels, and the evidence that most of the bible was likely written by a wide range of different authors. Especially the books of Moses, the pentateuch.


I wouldn't mind discussing this more, and I promise that I at least can keep the conversation civil and rational. But that's probably too much to hope for out in the public area of the forum. Besides, we're already well off topic. If you want to keep discussing this via PM though, I'd be up for the discussion. If you're brave, you could even open a new topic on this - however short lived it may be.

[washuguy]

Santa=Satan... And Jesus was not born on Christmas. For those that think he was, do some research, the results are shocking... Anyway, i don't like Christmas to much anymore, to commecialistic for me...

[Pirrip]

Santa=Satan... And Jesus was not born on Christmas. For those that think he was, do some research, the results are shocking... Anyway, i don't like Christmas to much anymore, to commecialistic for me...

Then I think this (http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=184133) is the link you're looking for... You must not have noticed that there was a thread for that very opinion.

[Neo Flint]

My feelings for Christmas are slowly fading away. I'm all for togetherness, but when it comes to giving, I tend to feel guilty because I'm very stingy. >___>

Also, I've realized I don't believe in God anymore. :/

[washuguy]

Then I think this (http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=184133) is the link you're looking for... You must not have noticed that there was a thread for that very opinion.

You're awesome... :)

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

to commecialistic for me...
I know you're not going 100% Buddhist, but words on the Internet doesn't = you give away all the gifts you've ever gotten for XMAS back to Santa/secret Santa/some Goodwill donations.

And you still probably want at least one gift that day.
Even those non-$$$ :cheese: ones like "family" or "someone brought food."

[Sinue_v2]

Also, I've realized I don't believe in God anymore. :/

Oh? Mind if I ask which one? It's not that I'd try to change your mind or anything, but I was just hoping it was maybe one of those glittery moon goddess or fru-fru wood-land sprite deities the New Agers get on about. You never hear about people losing their faith in them... but then you never

*Rant Ahead*
[spoiler-box]Seems like they're reproducing divine bastards faster than Chronos on a bender due to their shamelessly buffet style of spirituality that not just gets to pick and choose from one theology... oh no... it's all fair game now. Do you really like the message of the Bhagavad Gita, but find yourself missing the exotic thrill and ambiance of Voodoo rituals? Why not Voodhindu, with a chaser of afterlife beliefs taken from The Book of the Dead. Or was that Evil Dead? Doesn't really matter, because you can go balls out full custom by just making shit as you go and pass off childish platitudes as the "evolved" wisdom at the core of Extraterrestrial religion! No shit, revealed by channeling your best invisible friend - the 50,000 year old Atlantian King who used to hang with them back when they rented this place out.

Speaking of which, if you're going to make up or just snag onto any alien religious doctrines... take some time to think it out first... like L. Ron did. The conspiracy theory forums are just bloated with pseudo-religious revelations of the what the "Alien Agenda" really is... and almost every goddamned time it is just stock Judeo-Christian beliefs stripped down, tweaked, whitewashed and covered with XFiles posters. Seriously... it's so blatantly obvious that a few of the more attentive New Age "Aluminum Foilers" picked up on it... and from which somehow they came to the conclusion that it was evidence of Christ being an alien emissary trying to "evolve us to a higher vibration". One of the "Space Brothers"... but not a "Space Brothas". Apparently it seems, black people can't survive in space since of the half-dozen or another independently originating "Human" species claimed to exist are uniquely of the white Anglo-Saxon variety. Isn't that an interesting tidbit to mull over while considering the salvation parallels and the role we play in them.

I don't mean to suggest that New Age spiritualists or Conspiracy Theorists are inherently bigoted or actively in pushing racist message. It's probably more the case that, at least on the more anal probe prone of the two, some of the modern interpretations of the "UFO Agenda" having roots in the testimonials and artistic renderings from times when racial stereotypes were far more common and so deeply ingrained that they were just assumed as self-evident. So yeah... certain assumptions made based on cultural perceptions by predominantly white male enthusiasts of surprise anal probing and also aliens would skew the brightness level on their expectation of how a "more evolved" super culture of humans would look like. This shit is just regurgitated over and over and becomes the foundation for the each successive generation of crack-pot Olympiads. "UFOology" is itself a sort of religious movement really, and it has it's dogmas, sects, and heretics.

So yeah, I'm not a fan of New Age-y spiritualists, or anyone who thinks that hiding behind a thin postmodernist (borderline solipsistic) veneer is some kind open license to have everything and anything they say or do shielded from criticism or accountability while demanding their opinions be given equal validity and respect no matter how far detached from reality ~ then have the audacity to smugly point fingers and call everyone else assholes for being close minded to hostile to new ideas.

I'm not a fan of religion by any means, but even I think it's a tragedy what they do to them. They are to religion what what white men on the railway were to the buffalo herds. It strips all cultural, historic, and human significance out of these institutions and traditions for a few bits and bobs that sound nice or profound, then leave the rest to rot. The ease and pleasure gotten from making collages of processed bits of religion which when isolated have no meaning or context or value, and at times juxtaposed against other bits regardless of contradiction or irony or any kind of sense at all.

That's not any kind of religion or spirituality that I can recognize. That's just scrap booking, and there's a reason why tomes of collected quotations from various political and inspirational papers are valued for their inspirational and conversational utility... but none will ever go down in history as notable works of literature.

Again, they are to religion and culture what those old Geocities personal webpages were to the internet.
[/spoiler-box]

Ahem... anyhow. Well Neo, if you ever decide to change your mind and start worshiping a god again... I would suggest looking into worshiping Amaterasu. I don't know much about her, or Shintoism really at all, but I do know that Okami was a kick ass game and that scores some points in my book.

[Unionhack]

I love pretty much everything to do with Christmas. What with being in a marching band, we get to go to all kinds of concerts and parades, which are incredibly fun...
And then there's presents, of course. Presents and money.
Not to mention the fact that I love spending time with my family and friends.
Also, my town is dominantly catholic, and me being catholic myself, it's very fun to just stroll the town by the church. Everything's always lit up and it's so beautiful.
So yes, I'm pretty sure it really is the 'most wonderful time' of the year, at least for me.

[Wayu]

I'd like Christmas this year...but unfortunately I have to study AP Biology over the break. Otherwise, go Xmas.

-Wayu

[washuguy]

It's ok. I believe I am clinically depressed so it isnt that great anymore.

Anyway, after Christmas this year I'm going to a conference with a bunch of people from my Church. That part will probably piss me off, as they blindly accept what's taught at the conference without thinking about it critically (and running it through our religious text). That's one reason why it tends to irritate me... Or at least, this time of year - not Christmas per se.

Merry Christmas...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSOW8acNEYk&feature=related

[washuguy]

I know you're not going 100% Buddhist, but words on the Internet doesn't = you give away all the gifts you've ever gotten for XMAS back to Santa/secret Santa/some Goodwill donations.

And you still probably want at least one gift that day.
Even those non-$$$ :cheese: ones like "family" or "someone brought food."

LMAO Thats true, im guilty as charged... I won't get all self-righteous about it, cause i used to do and believe ALL the same things and Christmas hype. I have more reasons for not wanting to celebrate, the money thing is one of the most basic. I believe in Jesus/YHWH, and based on those beliefs, Christmas is a no no for me... And you shouldn't wait for ONE specific day to get or ask for something, if you need it, ask. Don't wait till DEC.25th its no different from any other day. Colder than most, but nothing super mystical. You should wish for the well being of family everyday :)

[Rashiid]

I like it because it means I'll have at least two new games to play over my break. Then I get sad when the semester starts.

[FOkyasuta]

Just the fact that its a break is self-explanatory.

[Kion]

I watched that movie Washguy. The entire tone seemed pretty foreboding. Who cares if it's a Pagan holiday? it's fun. It kind of also seems ironic that they tell people to research the origins of the holiday before celebrating it, when they use the bible as a point of reference. The old testament of the bible is pretty much a collection of popular pagan stories that got bundled up with Christianity. And everyone tends to forget that religious books are written by MEN. If the bible literally descended from the fucking sky one day; I might believe it. But it was written by a bunch of superstitious, uneducated group of men thousands of years ago as a way to define the world and comfort people in death. It was then used a means of power to keep people in check from the time of the Roman empire.

Basically what I'm saying is that religion, like Christmas should be taken as a grain of salt. I like the idea of god, because I find it very humbling. I don't like the god of men, but the god of the universe; the god of the multiverse. I don't think there was a human like god who created everything as that would be too simple. I think of god as physics; the laws of the universe, simple and yet overwhelming.

As for Christmas; who cares if it's a pagan ritual. Cutting down Christmas tree, sending tons of CO2 into the air from the coal power used to generate you're Christmas tree lights and spending too much. These are indeed bad things. But they're not bad; because they're pagan. They're bad because they have negative consequences. Gift giving, spending time with your family are good things. So don't get too spent up in tradition, obligation, or trying to buy affection from other people; focus on the good points and keep everything in moderation. Basically; try not to be a super ego dominated douche bag.

[AOI_Tifa_Lockhart]

Hmm, I never feel that Christmassy. I work for Play.com soo basically you realize how petty, materialistic and irrate people get all because of presents. Get's a bit depressing in all honesty. Especially nowadays, people are getting angrier quicker...and why? "Hard Times"...no spending outside your means. Catering for this generation of kids who expect to be given things in life not to work for them. Stop spending outside your means and relying on credit. You're the one's creating you're own grief so stop it >,< But yeah works just hectic with an unmanagable work load and really angry people. however when I do get time off for Xmas, which this year is 4 days :) I'm not sure. I like being able to unwind, allbeit for a little while. It feels very homely spending it at home with family.

My mum really loves Xmas. She decorates the house, somehow managing to steer clear of tackyness. It's nice, reminds me of childhood when I was always so so excited about Xmas, but scared to go downstairs cos the angel ontop of the tree is this very old doll of my mums. The scary looking dolls... eeek . Anyways reminds me of this X-Files episode where these dolls were possessed and tried to kill people and yeah...haha used to run in there really early. Grab my presents and run away back up to my room where it was "safe" xD

Still it's an enjoyable day but I don't try and hype it up cos it's never as magical as childhood. Still it's a nice day all in all :D

Tifa

[GirrMan66]

if u just feel like posting something do it in here
merry christmas!

[LK1721]

I love Christmas. Gives me an excuse to bake more than I usually do, long school breaks, snow, pine trees, and watching the many different Christmas movies [My dad collects them] with my family.

I honestly don't care if I get gifts or not.