Jesus wasn't ACTUALLY born on 25th December 2008 years ago, was he???!

[Alambil]

RE issue at school.

It's a C of E school and I was asked this in RE today, so I said

"well, no - we aren't sure exactly what day he was born on, but the festival of lights was at the time, so the Christians use this to remember the birth of Jesus because they believe Jesus is the light of the world."

It transpires that one MUST tell the children that Jesus was born on Christmas day. As in 25th December. Because word of mouth from the time of his birth confirms this

Is it me, or is that a tad ..... false?!

False, I believe! The shepherds and lambs and what-not imply it was springtime, methinks.

it's rubbish - no RE teacher does that.

Calender totally wrong, he was born around Easter time actually.

I think most Christians these days accept that 25th december is a convention rather than gospel truth.

The Christians tied it in to pagan celebrations and to cheer up winter

Totally false - records which allow the time to be calculated put his birth at around 4 to 6 BC - more recent stuff which wasn't available when the current calendar was set means that the oroginal calculations were found to be slightly inaccurate.

Also, not likely to have been December - I think October is one theory, possibly to do with making people travel for the census, or possibly to do with there being lambs (not sure on that one!)

25th December was chosen to "hijack" the pagan solstice festivities and replace with the "light" of Christ.

Faith does not have to equal unquestioning acceptance of that sort of incidental detail!

Yes, precisely.

I was floored when the teacher told me off for it!!

She made this big issue of doing RE again after lunch for "damage control" and told them all that he was born on 25th Dec or thereabouts; some day in the 20ths anyway!!

I am actually shocked.

I mean, COME ONNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Well, if she can point to the chapter and verse in the Bible where it says that, I'd be impressed...

hahahahahahaha
what a crock of shit.
let's lie to the children, because that teaches them.........
oh I forget now

immaterial when so called jesus was born,he doesnt exist. at best a pleasant fairy tale.

Jesus of Nazareth was born. He lived and died, and had followers who went to their deaths rather than renounce their belief in him.

The rest is optional, that much has some historical evidence.

Didn't they change the calendar at some point anyway? Extra months here and lost days there. So that would have cocked the dates up something rotten.

I think it completely devalues the Christmas story to try to pretend it is histoircal fact.
I celebrate the story of the nativity because the theme is so powerful and universal, and it is only right to acknowledge that the story borrows from lots of traditional stories I think.
it doesn't detract from the "truth" of the nativity to acknowledge that.
anyone who tells you otherwise is being a bit literal and a bit thick tbh

a measured christian response!do you always squawk if disagreed with.touch raw nerve?frankly no i don't believe your circumstantial evidence - all that water into wine guff.haha i have no particular issue with this commonly held delusional belief and nor do i go about shouting "crap" if someone has the temerity to say otherwise

ScottishMummy, I think you'll find that Jesus (the man) did actually exist. Whether he was/is God is of course another thing and depends on your particular beliefs.

yep, I am a total non-believer but have done much looking into christianity and Jesus and he definitely did exist. this is fact.

so, tmmj was right, you were talking crap. sorry!

agree with satsuma though, whether or not he was the son of God is an entirely different kettle of fish

You can find the exact time if you have a star map programme. We know it would have to be more like April time because of the shepherds being on the hills (apparently even in Israel shepherds aren't daft enough to spend December nights on the hills!) and with a star map you can see the amazing alignments that happened at that time which are what drew the Wise Men.

There is better evidence that Jesus was a real person than there is for most of the Roman Emperors. If you want to believe anything other than he existed and spent his last three years preaching that's optional, but it is an historical fact he lived and died by crucifixion and that his followers carried on preaching his word after his death and even died for it.

hokey cokey i am not minded to argue a circular argument essentially your "faith" guides your belief and obviously i don't share the faith

just y'all a bit touchy

jesus h christ is this really first time someone has suggested there is no jesus/god and faith a flawed social construct

naturally,this is my personally held opinion.i respect your right to your beliefs, just don't share them

well there is no need to use HIS name in the way you just did

sounds like someone just wants to wind people up a bit more
bit unnecessary eh?

who is that addressed to tiy?

was referring to scottishmummy's blasphemy

erm sm- a man named Jesus Christ was born c.2000 years ago in the Middle East- I don't think people couls actually deny this. There are many people who do not believe he was the Son of God though- me included.
There is no call for insulting people in that manner regardless of your personal beliefs.

oh unclench for god sake ladies,can you honestly not bear a mere sniff of dissent?is it all so fragile

you know what i responded to the OP and i see many posters are correctly asserting no not 25/12 as the calendars changed etc.

the rest was my spontaneous responses.not purposefully a wind up as you suggest.i do find it curious though the touchiness.i believe i am in the majority of people in the county by not attending church (so not a wacky minority opinion)

just wondering how you all handle a more robust challenge if this is a wind up

ah ,ok, i was going to call it that too