Happy Birthday of the Sun

Before Christianity became the required police-state religion it had already merged with the non-Christian beliefs of Rome. Constantine saw no difference between Christianity, Sol Invictus and Mithras. The leaders of the Church consented to be part of the Empire, rulers instead of a hunted underground, and further merged beliefs and practices already common in the empire. Christmas has no connection with the birthday of Christ.

As a side note, I see historians are again making the case for the Dark Ages, a term and belief which had fallen out of favor. Unsurprisingly, it was conservatives and/or Catholic historians who seemed to lead in claims that the Dark Ages and the Enlightenment were erroneous terms without factual basis as part of a humanist ideological campaign to foster one cultural ideal over another and paint the Middle Ages in a negative pejorative light.

Tags: history, religion, Roman Empire, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, historians, Christmas, Enlightenment