For those of you who have not gone to college or have been out for a while, I have made a "career" out of going to college, and have noticed the change there as well. Now, in 2009, many, many professors at major universities are claiming that Christianity is a myth. I quote one professor as saying the "mythical garden of Eden," and "mythical beings such as angels." Someone please tell me how this type of "teaching" is respectful of all cultures and religions? They don't dare say those things about Islam or the Koran, they don't dare say that Muhammed maybe didn't even exist, or that Islam is a myth. This type of liberal disrespect and hypocracy literally makes me sick when I think about it, but I digress.
i have to wonder how truly knowledgeable about college subjects you really are, if you don't have a clue what a myth or mythology means outside of a colloquial use of the words.
myths in the context of say a professor talking about angels or eden doesn't mean a lie. calling something a myth doesn't have anything to do with its truth value at all.
a myth is just a story, or as wiki put it - a myth is conventionally defined as a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind came to be in their present form
being offended by biblical stories being called myths is just silly if the teacher is a folklorist or religious teacher
The point is that when we mix real religious symbols with deep significance with childish, fun time decorations, are we not sending a message that the cross also does not have real meaning? Isn't it like saying the cross is just a toy, to be used as decoration?
can't you say that about any symbol really? or how the symbol is used in day to day life?
what i mean is this; does it offend you that they mass market the cross on everything? from food to tee-shirts to bumper-stickers?
how does crass commercialization keep a symbol "holy"? i've seen some very crass things before exploiting christian symbols, not including the jesus fish magnets.
some genius came up with chocolate crosses! even as an atheist i found that a bit off-putting, who would want to eat a chocolate torture device
An alternative point of view might be that by placing crosses in, say, a cemetery scene, that we are reminded that although Halloween is just a fun little "scary" holiday, that there is good, and there is God, and that we should embrace the using of crosses in such lawn decor, as it exposes those Trick-or-Treaters or passersby to the crucifix, which they may not see or think about at other times.
uh what? they already have crosses in cemeteries, they are staples of cemetery scenes. mostly because people would have crosses in cemeteries, and cemeteries are creepy.
i know that historically christians started out using the fish as a symbol to represent "fishers of men" and it was common around them, since other religions used it as well. then when they could openly call themselves christians they used the cross to represent overcoming death, as jesus did.
I know this seems strange, and is the reason I've made this post, but why would I, as a Christian, want crosses to NOT be used in Halloween decorations. Does anyone else understand this? The cross to me is just too sacred to set up alongside Casper, for the entertainment of kids wanting candy. I would like to read some good discussion about this, as I do see the validity in both arguments.
Any thougts? -LBrize
i'm afraid you are simply over reacting, the cross isn't used by itself as a decoration at all.
as i said the only reason people have crosses on anything is because crosses tended to be in a place that is scary and spooky to people
namely cemeteries, people since the the early part of christianity have marked in someway the dead with a cross.
there are ossuaries found with crosses marked in charcoal from pompeii and other places.
its common to find massive crosses in ireland, england, and scotland and other places around the world.
the reason you don't see the cross very many places other than churches or related places, such as cemeteries is because people don't want to be reminded of being mortal or of death.
the cross has been regulated to a symbol dealing with death more often than to life, because you tend to not contemplate such important matters in your day to day life.
only when you attend church or are worried about your own life or others.
i suppose it also has to do with the fact that to conserve land, and to make it more convenient as well as fitting more people churches also had the grave yard around them.
this also made it more likely that the berried had crosses planted above them.
