Happy Solstice
Happy Solstice everyone! I’ve already wished everyone a merry christmas. However the BBC hasn’t half been banging on about how everyone was out celebrating Jesus’ birthday, and I felt moved to post. Come off it people! Everyone already knows that today is not Jesus’ birthday at all. Of course while most people know that the 25th is actually a Pagan festival and nothing at all to do with Jesus (except the fact that the church absorbed the pagans and their festivals rather than out and out converting them) most people are sketchy on the details. Well here are the details:
Today is the birthday of Mithras!
So happy Mithras’ birthday to you all. Of course I’m not going into who Mithras was in detail, he was of course a Roman / Pagan deity. If you are very interested, you know where wikipedia is. There was a time when the churches / temples of Christ and Mithras were battling each other for space in Rome - each having equal standing in the eyes of the people. Given the fact that you’re all celebrating on Mithras’ birthday, I think it’s worth giving a few moment’s pause and thinking about that, about what it means, about how much chance played a part in us celebrating christmas. Jesus, god, christianity, was in no way a sure thing - history could just have easily gone another way (indeed in a paralell universe it may well have gone that other way) and 2 billion people could all be worshiping Mithras today. Think about the role that chance plays in religion. Most people get their parent’s religion forced upon them. If any group in particular just happened to be right, then the other 2 thirds of the world would be damned just by virtue of their geographical location. The another massive number of those have ever lived would also be damned because of their temporal (as well as geographic location) - i.e. living before said religion existed or among those who would be geographically isolated from it. The ’singular’ religion (which claims you must follow it or you’re going to burn in hell) is a relatively recent invention. So I don’t personally believe that any supreme being would create a race of children just to see 9(ish) billion of them (so far) roasting in hell. That sounds more like the behaviour of ASBOs* spawning kids who are going to spiral into the circular whirlpool about the toilet bowl and not giving a shit about it them. Ahh yes - but he loves you - 
