Birthdays presented in a bad light?

Now I was reading a little about birthdays and their origin and what I found out about the custom of celebrating birthdays was quite surprising to me.
Being a Christian I asked, "Is celebrating a birthday the Christian thing to do?"
I found these articles.

Are birthday celibrations christian?
Were is the origin of birthday celebrations?
Birthday Traditions
The origin of birthday celebrations.

These are just a few of the article that I found on birthdays, and they all seem to point to paganism and "demon worship."
I was pretty surprised by this, kinda.......well.....freaked me out.
What got me thinking on this was I had one of those Jehovah's witnesses come to my door and they gave me a magazine that had some of this stuff in it.
I didn't believe them......then I started looking on line and ill be damned if that JW wasn't right about the whole damn thing.

The used the illustration of a piece of candy being in a gutter, it is just a piece of candy but would you pick it up and eat it? Its origin is in a gutter.
The same with birthdays, theres nothing wrong with them now but their origin is in the "gutter" so to speak from a Christian standpoint.

I never really celebrated my birthday anyways but now I think I might not ever celebrate it.

What are your thought on this subject. (subject being birthdays origin not my not celebrating them anymore.)

Then maybe it is right for you to celebrate birthdays.

I want to try and get more out of this so please explain?

Of course not.

But this analogy is asinine.

For one thing, the piece of candy has long since gone and we're currently eating the candy based on the in the ingredients in the candy, not the gutter.

For another, note that even christmas (Christ's birthday, ZONG!) and easter (Christ's resurrection) have pagan origins. I assume that means christans are actually devil worshippers in disguise. I'm more partial to think that people who believe that celebrating birthdays is devil worship have their brains in the gutter instead.

I said the same thing, though the response I got from the lady in the store I was talking to basically said that it was indeed the same piece of candy, we had just forgotten were we had originally gotten that piece of candy.

Also by what I have read Christians may be wrong when celebrating Christs birth during Christmas time. At that time off year Jerusalem is much to cold for an infant to be born in a stable. The scripture that outlines his birth also says that the Shepperd's were living "out of doors" meaning that they may have been spending all night with their sheep outside or in the barn which would have been impossible if it was December 25 since at that time it would have nearly been below zero outside.

Mind you this is just stuff I have read online, the internet doesn't have the best track record in reliability.

For the Candy 'analogy':
Let me get this straight, are we saying that we are eating the "same" candy in the gutter?
So they are basically saying that if something has evil/bad/etc roots, it is evil till the end?
Could this be applied to a person?
If it could, then we are all fucked, since Adam and Eve fucked us over (Original Sin) and so there is no way we are ever going to see the light of day. That means Jesus wasted his time. Seeing how we are all "Sinners" to begin with, anyway.

I'm not sure if they ever heard of the word "Change"?

I didn't know there were really birthday customs. Some do cake, or whatever, but otherwise, nothing.

When faced with cultural exchange, there are two necessary actions:
1. Keep the practical use in mind. Birthdays mark the existence of another human being, be thankful.
2. Get over yourself. Saying that "demon worshippers" invented birthdays is like saying "godless infidels" invented the lightbulb. You celebrate this, they use that. Whoop-de-do.

Don't care if birthdays are started by demon worshipers or pagans, or whatever. i still will celebrate them. i will also celebrate christmas even though i am an atheist. Over the year people have put their own beliefs and ideas and culture in events. i should i not alter these traditions for my very own.
Every born life is sacred why not celebrate it?
also the candy analogy is asinine.
if you find a diamond in the earth would you not see it's value?
if you find a priest in the slums would you cast him away?
Sometimes we can find the greatest of things in dark places, whether it be hope or humanity.

First of all, Protip: Making your thread about religion is fine and all that, but dropping too much of a religious bias on things (Especially things that could be unintentionally insulting to someone, like saying paganism is the "gutter") makes it seem like you're a "Bible thumper" and your thread may get trolled until there's nothing left. I personally had to try and resist the temptation to flat out insult your views, because you made it so obvious that they were heavily influenced by your religion.
The articles by the way,

On topic: Halloween is extremely pagan, and even things that fatman mentioned, like easter and christmas, have very heavy pagan influences, and all of those are still fine to celebrate to you (I'm just guessing about halloween) So to say that birthdays are pagan celebrations holds yourself to a double standard that makes you look like a hypocrite.
The articles are also written by people who I would not hesitate to call idiots, so I wouldn't base any life calls on what is written by those clods. I'm almost bursting at the seams with things to say about how stupid it is to not celebrate your birthday because you read that it originated in paganism, as if paganism was inherently terrible, which it isn't.

Since you seem to be relatively new to the forums, I'll just give you one last tip: Don't wear your religion on your sleeve here, as it is a huge bait to get people to not take you seriously, especially considering that most of the forum population is non-religious. (Estimating)

This. If it wasn't so god-damned early in the morning I'd be having a field day.

But anywho, if you always think about where things came from and not where they are now, you really won't get anywhere. I believe the quote is something like "Learn from the past, but live for the present." Essentially, birthdays now are a way to celebrate a person's life, they don't have a pagan or Satanist connotation unless you personally apply it. Same with Halloween, Christmas and Easter. All of those are from heavy pagan influences: they were just stolen to make converting pagans easy. But, if you look at most modern Christians, celebrating those three holidays is not a problem at all. They may have come from pagan origins, but nowadays they are Christian holidays.

Who ever said I celebrate Halloween? or Christmas? or Easter?
Personally I have found them to be to much of a financial strain, therefore I don't take part in them, "only black Fridays which are my 1 weakness." lol

As for pagans, most Christians don't like their customs therefore they tend to shy as far away from things that could be considered pagan so as to not be looked at like hypocrites.
Now im not saying that I don't like pagans, I just don't agree with their customs.

As for "dropping too much of a religious bias", I have found that to do so can spark good conversation online "as long as no one becomes uncivilized which I thank you for not doing."
So don't be insulted just because I may be worried about the origin of a holiday or custom, by not practicing certain things I am not trying to insult you.
BUT by bringing it up here I am trying to start an discussion that may evolve into something very interesting to read for others.

As for whether people take me serious or not, if they stop taking me serious I'll just start posting in the mindless babble section or what ever its called adjacent to this section of the forum.

Okay, it's a little late for me to tolerate this. This guy is either a bloody troll or a fucking idiot.

First and foremost: Stop saying "most Christians." Actually, stop dropping religions at all. You're terrible at it, your bland generalisations hold no weight or reason, and the word "Pagan" used to be Catholic slang for "goat raping heathen bastard". Every time either word escapes your lips (keyboard...blow me), I die a little inside.
"Too much of a religious bias" is the antithesis of "good conversation." When any one side begins to impose their "unshakable truth" on the other, words of reason (from either side) fall on deaf ears.

Secondly: I doubt the authenticity of this question. Your stories keep changing (I found this on the internet/Jehova's witness/store clerk guru). The reasoning is vague at best ("all Christians" feel this way, because they don't want to be hypocrites*). And, when somebody began to press you, you went full on. "Personally(COMMA! FUCKING COMMA.) I have found them to be too much of a financial strain, therefore(ANOTHER COMMA, FOLLOWING YOUR OVERLY "WRITERLY WRITING") I don't take part in them..."

I originally was cool with playing ball for a bit, but I, for one, stopped taking you seriously at the second post. Leave. Just leave.





(I lost track of my logical fallacy pocket guide. Could somebody else tackle that bit?)
*If that was too swift for you, you assume that everybody shares these beliefs. As through they are clear, common, and universal.

What the hell are you doing on a porn site in the first place? isn't masturbation a sin?

Even worse. Haven't you heard that it is the same as adultery? At least that's what some crazy American politician said in her campaign.

Tis indeed a sin, why I am a hypocrite.



The word rendered "pagan" in the original scriptures was used long before catholics were even here, and it didn't mean "goat raping heathen bastard" it referred to an individual who practiced worship of another god with a specific belief adjacent to the one worshiped primarily in the bible.

I first encountered the JW, then went online, then encountered the woman in the grocery store who I talked to for a little while to put that straight.

Saying you don't celebrate them for financial reasons still doesn't rule out the fact that almost every christian celebrates pagan holidays, and the entire religion is in fact very pagan in its roots.

That is true, many Christians I have seen profess to the things I have said around my area, "not liking pagan customs, trying hard to critique holidays, not liking internet porn" yet they fail to support their own beliefs.
I live in an area chuck full of catholics, JW's, and every other religion you can think of. Yet only the most devout seem to actually appose the things their religion condemn. Now Im not saying every Christian religion should or does appose holidays and birthdays, nor am I saying that just because some one takes part in a holiday or birthday that they are wrong for doing so.

What I am wondering is why so many customs that were once considered wrong are now considered fine?

Because the entire Christian faith is hypocritical down to the roots. These holidays became "fine" when some missionaries came up with some bullshit stories to fit them into their religion. Then they tried to brainwash everyone into believing it, and killed and oppressed those who didn't.

Now as you can tell this is overly simplified, but the point remains.

Makes sense, but I want to know more.

When were they ever considered wrong? They were considered to be pagan, but that isn't the same as being considered wrong. The article quoting from the bible about how it showed birthdays in a bad light, was completely idiotic, and his assumptions were not even soundly founded in the passages. I'm trying not to get started on how retarded christianity as a whole is, so please stop making assumptions and generalizing based upon your christian viewpoint, as each time the temptation to rant at you gets harder to resist.