2.20 The Origins of Christmas

Is Jesus really the “reason for the season?” Find out in this podcast all about Saint Nicholas, mistletoe, Christmas trees, winter solstice festivals, Saturnalia, and Coca-Cola. Also, an expanded Skunk Dick section featuring a couple of Fox News blondes being outraged by their misunderstanding of the holiday.

20 Responses to “2.20 The Origins of Christmas”

  1. Fivegoldenrats says:

    Thank you Santa! But must I wait until Christmas before I listen?

  2. Thanks for getting another episode out so quickly!
    I imagine you both have family obligations at this time of year so thank you very much.

  3. Oh, how I loved the Skunk Dick segment! The racism is such a foundational part of the LDS paradigm, I don’t think that throwing Brigham Young under the bus is an effective strategy for externalizing blame.

  4. Gandolf was based on (W)Oden. Tolkien “borrowed” a lot from Norse mythology for Middle Earth. Even the name Middle Earth is a translation of Midgar, the middle of the tree of life, where the earth is, Asgard being in the high branches.
    Some of Gandolf’s nicknames and the fact that he has so many, is also “borrowed” from Oden, who has something like 200 names.
    I saw an episode of Clash of the Gods on History that went into it.

  5. somewhere in greece says:

    Don’t tell Megyn Kelly that there are Black Madonnas. Or that in traditional spanish carols Virgin Mary is called Marimorena. Brunette Mary.

    Great work, as always. I was wondering though, Odin hanged himself (as a sacrifice to himself) from a tree for nine days, as a sacrifice to himself, so that he would learn the secrets of the runes. So, in sweden, every nine years male humans and animals sacrificed to Odin were hung from trees. Was this something that you ran across?

  6. Actually, Mandela spend 27 years in prison.

  7. Citizen Wolf says:

    What?! Wait….. there was no Charlie Brown in ancient Jerusalem?

    Damn you, I don’t believe it. You’re just sprouting more Obama-care socialist propaganda.

  8. Citizen Wolf says:

    Oops, I meant spouting, not sprouting.

  9. I’m obsessing about the LDS racism thing. Still. Because my BOM from childhood contains very explicit “white and delightsome” nonsense. And I was steeped in the racism growing up. I couldn’t figure out how the nouveau apologists dismiss this history. So, I’m listening to a Mormon FAIR podcast about the priesthood ban.

    It’s fascinating on at least two counts: first, a woman is speaking. Agreeing, softball questioning, etc, but still. Speaking in public for the church; and second, the apologist she interviews attempts to draw a line of demarcation between the official prophet/seer/revelator doctrine, and “off-the-cuff” remarks that give the laity the impression that racism is an official stance. Then the laity runs with this false impression.

    Progress that the contemporaries see racism as a problem, though and are attempting to address that? Is this because even though African American men can now officially hold the priesthood, individual members still view them as having the mark of Cain or of sitting on the fence in the preexistence? Can I just have you on my podcast to talk about this?

  10. somewhere in greece says:

    I saw the video of Gretchen Carlsen, and realised: she was asking Rabbi Boteach wether the mockery of Christianity has gone too far.

    This is a whole other dimension of cluelessness.

  11. Thank you for the excellent podcasts Chuck and Matt… and Hail, Sol Invictus!

  12. Thanks for an excellent christmas podcast! Can you let us know when the next one is coming? We’re all waiting for the ego hour here!

  13. Busiest time of the year for me. Matt has convinced me to record a “SkunkDick of the Year” episode on January 10th, so I should be able to edit and upload it by the 15th.

  14. The SkunkDick(TM) of the year should go to my manager who asked me in a meeting (in front of another manager) if I was Mormon. How classy.
    Can’t wait to hear the actual SkunkDick show! Thanks!

  15. You guys should start out 2014 with a few interviews. I always enjoyed your interviews, with the exception of Kerry Jackson, that was a waste of everyones time.

  16. Hey Chuck, just for the hell of it I listened to the debate analysis on the evidence 4 faith podcast and in the intro “dr mike” says they discovered the soul through a pet scan. Just thought you might get a kick out of it. Its hard to get through cause every time Kirk opens his fat mouth I wanted to stick thick knives into my ears. The rest of the podcast is ludicrous, but you already knew that!

  17. I liked the interviews too.
    Quite a few points in my thinking evolution can be traced back to some of those interviews.

  18. Ty – I am fascinated to know how you would see a soul, which by all previous accounts has no physical manifestation (according to believers), on a test devised to observe physical processes. Wait, I take that back, I don’t want to know. 🙂

  19. Cricket- They don’t go into details, he just makes the comment in passing and they all accept it without hesitation. Its possible they went into it another time, but I personally can’t stomach more than a few minutes of Kirks voice before I start getting angry. And the humour on e4f is atrocious.