Merry Christmas!

[Jakemaster]

Over the past few days, Ive been acting pretty negative towards Christmas.  Being Jewish, the commercialization of christmas makes this time of year almost unbearable.  Every day it almost seems like Christianity is the only religion in the world because thats all you hear about.

The truth is, its not.  We all need to learn to respect other peoples religions, including myself.

So, to start making up for some stuff that I said, here:

Merry Christmas

Cheers,
Jake

[Alphajet_Enthusiast]

Thanks Jake!  :)
Pretty deep stuff you posted there, you obviously considered it carefully.. But I agree!  ;)
Happy Chanukah to you! Its on December 25th aswell, isnt it?  :)

[Jakemaster]

The first night of hannukah is Dec. 25 this year

[FLAPS_DOWN]

Coexist!

[Marlin]

Cheers, and good New Year too!

[The_Joker_Flyer]

Lovely shot!!!!!!  ;D

and a Merry Chanukah too you too!!!!!

[cspyro21]

Happy Hannukah Jake!!

And have a Happy New Year as well!  :D
Cheers  ;)

[lemoncat]

i personaly fully respect all races and religion's..but havent got a clue what it's all about
with so many different religion's it's a wonder anyone knows what they believe is believable....
anyway great christmas card jake and have real ding dong time

[Jakemaster]

Well, one of my 'crackpot' theories is that Religion isnt as important today as it was many years ago(many years being hundreds).  You see, religion gives us answers to all our questions.  It explains how the world came to be, and in the past, whenever something strange happened, it was a sign of god, or some sort of divine intervention.  But now that we know a lot more, such as we know that the world was created by the Big Bang, and that volcanoes erupt because magma builds up in a chamber underground until it erupts, we dont need to tie everything to god, but instead use our Intellect to figure out what is happening.  But there is one thing that religion is needed for: what happens after death.  The one thing we cant explain.  My rabbi gave a great sermon on yom kippur on what is believed to happen after death.First of all, you need to understand that in judaism, there is no hell.  The afterlife is determined by your deeds, which is why every year we celebrat Yom Kippur, which translated means Day of Judgement.  Starting on Rosh Hashanah, god rights names in the book of life, and on Yom Kippur we repent our sins and pray to be written in the book of life before it is sealed.

My rabbi told that there was this person researching the afterlife.  He would interview people with near death experiences, and after compiling hundreds of cases, this is what he said:  You are lying on the hospital bed.  Suddenly, you feel this great pain, like a sort of pressure.  Then, after a few minutes of this, you suddenly see your own body lying on the bed.  Your family and doctors are all around you.  Then, you see a very bright light, and someone in the light.  You see your deceased family members, and they are coming, raching out their hands to you.  you suddenly are comforted, because you know you are safe.  But then, you suddenly find yourself back in your body as the doctors resusitated you.

No one can proove this is true, so religion is still necessary for the unknown.  In the period of the enlightenment, a religion called Deism arose.  They believed that some divine being created a universe governed by natural laws, but doesnt intervene unless absolutely necessary.

So you see, religion in modern time has sort of taken a back seat.  It is no longer our main concern.  Honestly, how many of you go to church every single sunday?  Ill be candid, I only go to temple twice a year on the High Holidays.

But religion is important to some people, and we all need to respect that.  Even if you have something against it, or have a complaint, we need to keep it inside.  Respect is needed to keep peace.  Wars start because of a loss of respect.  Think about the Revolutionary War, it started because the US felt that Britain was not respecting their rights.

My 7th grade Science teacher put the purpose of god in a very simple, yet complex way.  She said that even though the big bang created the universe, some divine being had to create the big bang.

Religion is complicated.  There are hundreds of different religions in this world.  Some may be frightening, others welcoming.  Some occlude certain people, while many others let all who want join.  No matter what, every religion needs to respect each other

So, in order to show my respect, Happy holidays, whatever holiday you are celebrating now or whenever.

[The_Joker_Flyer]

Great speach Jakemaster.. great speach  ;D

*claps his hands*

[edzmen]

Ah good, you've now started your own thread to talk about Christmas.

Would have been nice if you'd done that in the first place Jake...

[Mobius]

That is a great post Jake, you have showed us all new and different ways to think about the religions of the world and what they are for, and for that, I think most of us are grateful.

...and I thought the Big Bang was caused by a quantum-mechanical fluctuation in a vacuum?  ...but if there was nothing before the Big Bang, how was there a vacuum? Those silly scientists and their crackpot ideas again...;D

[cspyro21]

Well, one of my 'crackpot' theories is that Religion isnt as important today as it was many years ago(many years being hundreds).  You see, religion gives us answers to all our questions.  It explains how the world came to be, and in the past, whenever something strange happened, it was a sign of god, or some sort of divine intervention.  But now that we know a lot more, such as we know that the world was created by the Big Bang, and that volcanoes erupt because magma builds up in a chamber underground until it erupts, we dont need to tie everything to god, but instead use our Intellect to figure out what is happening.  But there is one thing that religion is needed for: what happens after death.  The one thing we cant explain.  My rabbi gave a great sermon on yom kippur on what is believed to happen after death.First of all, you need to understand that in judaism, there is no hell.  The afterlife is determined by your deeds, which is why every year we celebrat Yom Kippur, which translated means Day of Judgement.  Starting on Rosh Hashanah, god rights names in the book of life, and on Yom Kippur we repent our sins and pray to be written in the book of life before it is sealed.

My rabbi told that there was this person researching the afterlife.  He would interview people with near death experiences, and after compiling hundreds of cases, this is what he said:  You are lying on the hospital bed.  Suddenly, you feel this great pain, like a sort of pressure.  Then, after a few minutes of this, you suddenly see your own body lying on the bed.  Your family and doctors are all around you.  Then, you see a very bright light, and someone in the light.  You see your deceased family members, and they are coming, raching out their hands to you.  you suddenly are comforted, because you know you are safe.  But then, you suddenly find yourself back in your body as the doctors resusitated you.

No one can proove this is true, so religion is still necessary for the unknown.  In the period of the enlightenment, a religion called Deism arose.  They believed that some divine being created a universe governed by natural laws, but doesnt intervene unless absolutely necessary.

So you see, religion in modern time has sort of taken a back seat.  It is no longer our main concern.  Honestly, how many of you go to church every single sunday?  Ill be candid, I only go to temple twice a year on the High Holidays.  

But religion is important to some people, and we all need to respect that.  Even if you have something against it, or have a complaint, we need to keep it inside.  Respect is needed to keep peace.  Wars start because of a loss of respect.  Think about the Revolutionary War, it started because the US felt that Britain was not respecting their rights.

My 7th grade Science teacher put the purpose of god in a very simple, yet complex way.  She said that even though the big bang created the universe, some divine being had to create the big bang.

Religion is complicated.  There are hundreds of different religions in this world.  Some may be frightening, others welcoming.  Some occlude certain people, while many others let all who want join.  No matter what, every religion needs to respect each other

So, in order to show my respect, Happy holidays, whatever holiday you are celebrating now or whenever.

Jake, I totally agree. Religion can be used for the unknown, not most things (back in the "olden days".)

Have a good Hannukah (once again! )

...and I thought the Big Bang was caused by a quantum-mechanical fluctuation in a vacuum? ...but if there was nothing before the Big Bang, how was there a vacuum? Those silly scientists and their crackpot ideas again...

I'll tell you something now, which the sceinetists of SimV have recently worked out:

"...After years of research we have come to a conclusion. The Big bang was indeed caused by the quantum-mechanical fluctuation in a vacuum, however, this fluctuation was caused by a violent reaction between the marmalde matter and the anti marmalade matter......."

Cheers  

[flyboy 28]

No need to apologize, Jake. Fully understandable. Again, me being Christian I can't stand the commercialization of Christmas either because it takes away from it's meaning.

Nice shot, too.

[killerbunny]

Well, I don't care much bout the real meaning of Christmas (birth of christ etc. etc...)  All I care about is having a nice day/evening together with family and friends, exchanging presents,  having a good time.  So I wish the same to all of you.

Happy holidays everyone