Christians Can Laugh Too

Today, having a Christmas tree is second nature. But, have you ever wondered how that tradition started? Do the beginnings of the tree relate to the Birth of Jesus?

Long ago, In the Northern Hemisphere during the winter, ancient people believed it was cold because their sun god was ill. The Winter Solstice on December 21st, which is the shortest day of the year, was celebrated with evergreen plants to remind the people that spring was on it’s way, and to celebrate that their sun god was becoming well again.

The same reasoning took place for the Egyptians, except they worshipped their god named Ra.

Early Romans marked the solstice with a feast called the Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. To mark the occasion, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreens. Thinking that it was because of Saturn that these trees could survive the longest night of winter.

These Christmas tree traditions eventually started occurring in Germany, and spread from there to the rest of Europe. Christians, however, were much slower to accept this tradition.

Up until the 19th century, Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. As late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

These Christians were citing the bible, from Jeremiah 10:1-4

1 Hear what the LORD says to you, people of Israel.
2 This is what the LORD says:
  “Do not learn the ways of the nations
  or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
  though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
  they cut a tree out of the forest,
  and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
  they fasten it with hammer and nails
  so it will not totter.

For some reason, Americans today have accepted Christmas trees as normal, and have even created songs that are even sung in Churches to glorify these trees such as the song, “Oh Christmas Tree.”
Now that I’ve completely destroyed your love of Christmas trees, I’d like to give you a few reasons not to go back home and burn your family’s tree down.

1. We use them to celebrate Jesus. Look at your ornaments. A lot of them are probably Nativity story related.
2. They have lost a lot of their pagan meaning. None of us, when we see a Christmas tree, suddenly feel the urge to worship the sun God. Hopefully we instead think of the Son of God.
3. With the death of Jesus on the cross, many of the old laws of the Bible became nullified, such as the need to sacrifice animals. Could this passage in Jeremiah be one of those?

What do you think? Is the Christmas tree a Pagan Symbol?

Sep 13

Gary Larson - Funny Cartoonist

First off, I’d like to say sorry for not posting the last few days, I’ve had my full focus on the ACT.

On that sad note, I’d like to review a hilarious cartoonist who I just now discovered. You see, I was with my family (a couple hours after the ACT) at an extremely cheap book sale at a public library. My dad saw the Gary Larson books and decided that we MUST buy them. Leaving the book store $1.50 poorer, I pulled one of the books out of the bag and started reading. Immediately I was hooked. 30 minutes later, I found myself flinching because my cheeks hurt from laughing.

Gary Larson is a cartoonist, but not just so, he is one with a twisted mind and a scientific brain. While I’m unaware of Larson’s religious background, I do know that he does a ton of making fun of evolutionary theory in his work. Often including a pun or three, each cartoon fills my eyes to the brim with laughter. Upon doing a quick search for Gary Larson on Google, I found the following cartoon.

This cartoon, featuring a couple of cows living in a furnished home, is funny because they have tons of appliances which obviously require the use of thumbs. These cows are a great example of Gary’s humor, which often includes animals and funny things about them.

None of his cartoons, out of the hundreds I’ve read, contain anything rated over PG. He doesn’t use bad language, but he occasionally makes slightly violent references, funny ways people can get hurt, and jokes about taking vacations to the underworld. These are all in good taste though, as they are always meant to be funny rather than offensive, and are never overly brutal. Compared to most cartoonists, Gary is a pretty appropriate dude. Again, these are only out of the hundreds I’ve read, so if you find anything please do not waste your money on a torch, and especially not a pitchfork (those are expensive these days.)

Sep 07

“God is the creator so I’m not a hater.” — A random button I won in a drawing.

Sep 03

Flaws of Biblical Proportions - Christian Video

This is a funny video with the premise of finding the “perfect” small group leader for a church youth group. The people searching for the leader go through a ton of famous Bible characters and in the process decide that none of them are right for their group due to various small reasons (murder, causing plagues, and denying Jesus three times.) The characters are basically funny versions of their respective Bible people, and make this video awesome.

The video teaches us that while we might feel unworthy to serve God because of our history or qualifications, we must remember that even the heroes of the Bible had major flaws and mess-ups yet God still let them do great things. In the end of the video, a regular guy just like us was chosen to be the small group leader. As long as you let God use you, he will allow you to do great things.

Sep 01

Skit Guys - Comedian Review

One very famous christian funny group is Skit Guys. They write all sorts of plays and make humorous videos. I was searching the most popular comedy videos at Godtube and this one caught my eye. It is probably one of the most disturbing Christian videos I’ve seen because it almost hints at cannibalism, but this sort of humor isn’t necessarily considered dirty. That being said, this video was obviously made for teens based on the humor used, but can be enjoyed by all ages.

This video portrays the very vital lesson that there is a ton of things to be thankful for in life. While most people would post something like this on Thanksgiving, I think it is important to be thankful all year round. The obvious humor in this clip helps to play off the message, and makes it stick in your mind for longer than one dinner. Please comment and/or re-blog this post and tell me what you think of the video and being thankful.

Aug 30

Funny Facebook Comments 1

Most people would say it is weird to sit there singing along to the whine of a vacuum. My friends aren’t most people…

Aug 26

How To Craft a Knock-Knock Joke

This guide will teach you how to create a knock-knock joke that will knock-knock your audience’s socks off. If you want further reading, I suggest you attempt to master the pundamentals.

Joke: A funny statement or conversation predetermined to end in a punchline which delivers a humorous feeling to the receiving audience.

Layman: A person who is not specialized in a specified area (In this case knock-knock jokes.)

Now that you know how the knock-knock joke works, it will be much easier for you to learn the following steps and suggestions.

Aug 20

Knock-Knock Joke 1

Aug 19

AP Physics…

Today I found out that in a school of 2000+ students, there are only 18 students taking AP Physics, and half of that taking the harder version, AP Physics C (which I’m in.) The teacher assigned us two large text books. One of them is for easy reading and the other can be used for weightlifting.

“I think, therefore I am. Therefore anything not thinking, isn’t. Therefore, every rock or wall you get hit by or crash into is just an illusion, so don’t sweat it.” — Kyle Mook Quotes of the Day - An awesome Facebook page.