What Is Easter?

Posted by Herb7734 8 years ago to Culture
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There's a lot I don't get about religion. However, one thing that I don't get the most is the popular manifestation of Easter. Supposedly, It commemorates when God in the form of a man was asphyxiated by being nailed to a cross and left to hang on the upright cross until death overcame him. A particularly hideous way to die. So in order to commemorate this grisly act, we are inundated with cute bunnies laying candy coated chocolate eggs and having our kids pictures taken at the malls with 6 foot tall rabbits who if they were real would scare the pants of kids more than the myriad of Santas during Christmas. Can anyone explain this phenomenon to me?


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  • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I have a reverse perception of what you call the truth.
    I also prefer lite beer, not being a teetotaler kinda Christian.
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    • Posted by 7 years, 12 months ago
      I'm sorry, but I don't know what a reverse perception is. My definition of truth is that which corresponds to reality. Or pertains to reality if that makes you more comfortable. Reverse of that would be that which doesn't correspond to reality. To that, my only reply would be, huh?
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      • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 12 months ago
        Short answer: I believe in God.
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        • Posted by 7 years, 12 months ago
          In a free society --
          It's your right.
          I don't, it's my right
          So...what else is new?.
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          • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 12 months ago
            A couple of months ago I looked up that standardized Gulch board put-down "mysticism" word and found out all religions do indeed fall under that definition.
            That left me feeling cheated.
            I want my magic wand and pointy-tipped Gandalf the wizard hat.
            At least the mystics in The Dark Crystal were kinda cool~

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRSjh...
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            • Posted by 7 years, 12 months ago
              I understand that there's a web site where you can purchase such items.
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              • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 12 months ago
                Just kidding around . . .
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                • Posted by 7 years, 12 months ago
                  Me too.
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                  • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 12 months ago
                    What I really want is me precious so I can turn invisible to steal all kinds of mystical stuff.
                    Me precious.
                    Me precious.
                    Mmmmmmmmmm~.
                    ME PRECIOUS!
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                    • Posted by 7 years, 12 months ago
                      You want a ring story? Here's one, I bet you never heard:
                      A man studied the black arts. Then he married a beautiful woman. He was very jealous of her He summoned up the Devil. He asked the Devil to keep his wife from cheating on him. The Devil said that in exchange for his soul, he'd give him a ring, and as long as he worn that ring she could never cheat on him. The man agreed. The Devil said, you will sleep now and when you wake the ring will be upon your finger. That morning when the man awoke he found his finger in his wife's vagina.
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                      • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 11 months ago
                        Bet that made going outside difficult.
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                        • Posted by 7 years, 11 months ago
                          You sir, are an old guy even weirder than me.
                          We must be related.
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                          • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 11 months ago
                            Gene check: I'm half Swedish and a quarter Irish.
                            As for my other quarter, they came over first or more accurately some of them did.
                            This info was learned by my American born full-blooded (fully gened?) passed away Swedish father at a Mormon institute that specializes in ancestry.
                            Half of mother traces back to French colonists kicked out of Acadia (no longer exists in Canada) by the Brits. Some became Cajuns. Mine became Yankees and that makes me some kind of a quarter mongrelized Frenchie.
                            That's OK. If a full Frenchie, I'd still be mongrel anyways.
                            I've heard it said mongrels make the best dogs.
                            No, I will not bark like Hitlery. .
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                            • Posted by 7 years, 11 months ago
                              My wife is working out our ancestral heritage. It is nothing like yours, being mostly eastern European and northern African. But you know that we are only 6 degrees at most different from one another. Or so it is said. Related can also mean intellectually rather than from the gene pool.
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                              • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 11 months ago
                                I agree. Our only difference appears to be that of a mystical faith issue.
                                Well--
                                I'm a mystic! I'm a mystic!
                                Ooga freakin' booga!
                                No one here is gonna intimidate me with that.
                                Someone calls me the zombie that caused Susanne43 to leave?
                                Well, I'm The Bulletproof Monk (I actually saw that forgettable flick).
                                In other words, save for faith, I love the way most people think in the Gulch.
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                                • Posted by 7 years, 11 months ago
                                  Poor Susanne. I think she was overly sensitive. I gave her friggin' point back, and tried to explain our differences. I wonder how she copes with the real world. I have a friend who years ago converted to Catholicism. I kidded him for years asking him to genuflect for me. I told him he can't enter my house unless he genuflects first. He calls me J.K. It stands for Jesus Killer. We've known each other for 65 years. He asked me why I always want him to genuflect and I told him I just like saying the word.
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                                  • allosaur replied 7 years, 11 months ago
                                  • Suzanne43 replied 7 years, 11 months ago
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 7 years, 12 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Actually my source translated them exactly and with great care. They were very very close to the same thing. Along with the common factor of being ignored.

    That last caveat provides your proof.

    The first statement supports mine.
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  • Posted by Watcher55 7 years, 12 months ago
    Like many Christian festivals including Christmas, Easter had pagan origins or equivalents. In the case of Easter it directly derives from the Jewish Passover because according to the Bible, Jesus was killed during Passover. However Passover itself is a Spring festival and has many fertility-related cousins in other agricultural societies, hence the fertility symbols of eggs and bunnies, which have nothing to do with Easter in the Bible. They came from pagan festivals celebrated around the same time.
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  • Posted by LibertyBelle 7 years, 12 months ago
    Not being a Christian, I do not celebrate the sup-
    posed Resurection (neither do I condone the hid-
    eous murder of the Cruficifixion). But I think, that
    while Good Friday is celebrated as a solemn day
    of mourning, the Resurection Day (Easter) is supposed to be a day of great joy (although
    somewhat solemn, too). Given the official and
    expressed belief of Christian doctrine, that would
    be understandable. But it is my understanding
    that there are two different traditions involved
    here, and that "Easter" (which in other Europe-
    an languages is referred to by some corruption
    of Pesach, the Hebrew Passover), was also
    a pagan spring festival. In fact, I have heard
    a Christian preacher on the radio complain
    about that very circumstance.
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  • Posted by teri-amborn 8 years ago
    It is supposed to be the commemoration of Passover. The Sedur is a litany of "types and shadows" ...or as we would say in Objectivism: Abstractions
    ...about Jesus.
    Why it is bunnies, eggs and chocolate (yum...much better than horseradish) is because it was mixed with the celebration of Spring or "Ashtar" (easter) when Constantine mixed paganism with early Christianity to create Catholicism.
    No big deal...I am personally celebrating the melting of the snow in my yard. 👍
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  • Posted by term2 8 years ago
    There are a number of believers in mystical religions on this forum who at least think freedom is a good thing.
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    • Posted by cksawyer 8 years ago
      Actually, I have scanned through these post, and perhaps I am missing something, but I have not seen any evidence of mystical belief.

      I have seen, lots of scorn and derision, some fun and folly, and some poetic metaphor and symbolism, in most everything seems grounded in concrete reality.
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      • Posted by term2 8 years ago
        try discussing the upcoming presidential election and see how many people "believe" in mystical religions promoted by Cruz and Carson, not to mention Huckabee and grounded in some book they call the "bible".
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        • Posted by Dobrien 8 years ago
          You love Trump a self promoting ,egotistical ,shallow thinking leftist inheritor who has used govt for his own benifit .An Authoritarian who will further erode all our rights and will likely murder many innocents. Carson actually put his money where his mouth was by promoting education and providing scholarships. His belief in the bible maybe a fault but so is " might makes right" Trump mantra is to promote fear and greed.
          Carson came from the ghetto and became a brain surgeon I think he offered a great example how to pull oneself up by the bootstraps.
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          • Posted by 8 years ago
            As I have said, anyone is better than Hillary, who is a felon and a traitor. I don't like Trump, but think of the alternative.
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            • Posted by $ puzzlelady 7 years, 12 months ago
              That's why we should all vote for Gary Johnson and go viral with getting everyone else to discover that he is the only right choice. See www.garyjohnson2016.com - Libertarian candidate for president.
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              • Posted by 7 years, 12 months ago
                The more I read about Johnson, the more I like him. But it is not just that a vote for him is useless. If that vote would at least enter the consciousness of the voters. But to all voters except way less than 1% he doesn't exist. All votes for him will not even be a tiny blip on anyone's scale. If he had the funds to at least advertise himself, or enough followers to impinge upon the minds of at least 1% of the voters, I would vote for him. But it's not happening.
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                • Posted by $ puzzlelady 7 years, 12 months ago
                  He got more than 1% in 2012. We can all help voters discover him. If the repubs and dems didn't have a monopoly on the debates and media coverage, Johnson would be heard as much as the others and get an equal share of voter consciousness. Not voting for him becomes a case of evil triumphing when good men do nothing.
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                  • Posted by 7 years, 12 months ago
                    What do you suggest to do in order to bring him to the public, other than just voting for him?
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                    • Posted by $ puzzlelady 7 years, 12 months ago
                      Post about him everywhere, now till November; interject a referral (as I did here) wherever you discuss politics; tell your friends. One mind at a time, or to many through the media. If you have the time, volunteer as a delegate. If you can afford it, send his campaign a contribution. Thanks.
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          • Posted by term2 8 years ago
            I liked Carson actually. He appears to really think things through before he speaks, but he is way too quiet and unassuming to ever win in this election circus. I dont love Trump actually. I intensely dislike Hillary and dont want her as our president. She is an admitted socialist, and simply tells us whatever she needs to get votes, so she can pander once electd to the wall street people who paid for her. Unless someone else is elected, we will get Hillary. She would be the worst possible candidate of all of them (given that Sanders is out of the running THIS time). Trump is the only one with a snowball's chance in hell of beating her, and he would not be nearly as bad as her by a long shot
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 8 years ago
    You know...catholic mysticism's and their penchant for combining other pagan practices are bewildering...but at the heart of it, first the sacrifice, (good Friday) which is forgiveness for our past bicameral ways as we would hopefully appreciate as we became aware of them (consciousness) [That's what Jesus was preparing us for] then easter (his Resurrection-immortal identity-(which is quantum physics) demonstrates for us an identity beyond our brains, our bodies or egos and a connection to creation through the ether...A mystic would explain it bicamerally...I explain it quantum physically....the easter bunny? that's not quantum physical...laughing.
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    • Posted by term2 8 years ago
      And Easter egg hunts?? And how does this Jesus character dying on a cross pay forward for unknown future sins? if people turned out to especially good later or particularly bad.
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      • Posted by 8 years ago
        This is all Constantine's wife's fault.
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        • Posted by term2 8 years ago
          All these logical inconsistencies led me away from catholicism at an early age, fortunately. I just never got the "guilt trip" part of it, which let me off the hook moe easily. Its disturbing to think that one day we all die and thats IT for life. But, all the evidence points to just that. If its so, its so. Believing that we "go on" somehow when we don't just makes no sense.
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          • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 8 years ago
            I dropped the whole thing my first day...being maybe 5 and being told that if you didn't attend every sunday you go to hell...it's like...HEY! no one told me That! I'm only 5!
            The pagan mysticism's were embarrassing but always felt there was a bigger more mature lesson there...turns out I was correct.
            It's not meant to be mystical because it's quantum physical.
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  • Posted by jtrikakis 8 years ago
    So I made a comment about Easter explaining its history and importance. Hum, the gulch must not like the truth being posted here. Anyway, today is Palm Sunday. Anyone want to explain it away?
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  • Posted by jtrikakis 8 years ago
    Easter is about Jesus dying for humanity to be forgiven of sin. Death is the final act for all of us, so for humans to live in peace after death only if they choose to believe. No religion or non religion has a savior who is living, only Chistainity. The Easter bunny and the rest came from pagan practices that the Chathlic church adopted to gain followers. It has splilled over to the Christain church over the years. Jesus doesn't force anyone to believe in him, but he can't help anyone whom refuses' to believe once death comes upon that person. His grace is free. Pretty simple.
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