In the 1860s, the concept of variation through natural selection first came to be widely understood. Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) published The Origin of Species in 1859 suggesting that species had evolved by the process of natural selection. The theory of evolution would later develop through the 20th century; see history of evolutionary thought. Darwin's book ignited a furious controversy in Victorian Britain, as it posed fundamental questions about the relationship between religion and science. Though Origin did not e ...

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History of creationism, History of creationism - Early history, History of creationism - Greek and Roman times, History of creationism - Renaissance to Darwin, History of creationism - Darwin, History of creationism - Differing beliefs, History of creationism - Early 20th century, History of creationism - Post-war, History of creationism - Intelligent design

Read more here: » History of creationism: Encyclopedia II - History of creationism - Darwin

See also monotheism, Abrahamic religion. The religions that are monotheistic today are often thought of as having been of relatively recent historical origin—although efforts at comparison are usually beset by claims of most religions to being very ancient or eternal. Eastern religions, especially in China and India, that have concepts of panentheism, are notably difficult to classify along ...

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God, God - Definition, God - Concept of God, God - Attributes of God, God - Etymology, God - Capitalization, God - Names of God, God - History of monotheism, God - Theology, God - Conceptions of God, God - Abrahamic conceptions, God - Conceptions of God in Hinduism, God - Christian Monism, God - The Ultimate, God - Aristotelian definition of God, God - Modern views, God - Notes and references, God - Popular Culture

Read more here: » God: Encyclopedia II - God - History of monotheism

The Westboro Baptist Church attributes membership of most religious groups, such as the Roman Catholic Church or Islam, as akin to devil worship. All non-Christian entities, non-Protestant Christian churches, as well as all Protestant Christian churches which don't strongly condemn homosexuality, are said to be sending their members to Hell. While the Westboro Baptist Church says that racial discrimination[34] is a sin, it and Phelps Sr. have b ...

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Westboro Baptist Church, Westboro Baptist Church - Overview, Westboro Baptist Church - The Westboro compound, Westboro Baptist Church - Composition of the Westboro membership, Westboro Baptist Church - Purpose, Westboro Baptist Church - Theology, Westboro Baptist Church - Sky Television report, Westboro Baptist Church - Quotes from Phelps' Sermons, Westboro Baptist Church - Similarities to the Christian Identity movement, Westboro Baptist Church - Activities and statements, Westboro Baptist Church - Criminal record, Westboro Baptist Church - Violence against Westboro, Westboro Baptist Church - Claiming divine vengeance, Westboro Baptist Church - September 11 attacks and the space shuttle Columbia, Westboro Baptist Church - London terrorist attacks, Westboro Baptist Church - God Hates Canada and God Hates Sweden, Westboro Baptist Church - Indian Ocean earthquake, Westboro Baptist Church - Stance on adoption by same-sex couples, Westboro Baptist Church - Hurricane Katrina, Westboro Baptist Church - Picketing of Rehnquist's funeral, Westboro Baptist Church - Picketing of Fred Rogers' memorial, Westboro Baptist Church - Soldiers in Iraq, Westboro Baptist Church - Other prejudices, Westboro Baptist Church - Responses, Westboro Baptist Church - Criticism, Westboro Baptist Church - Opposition to Westboro's theology, Westboro Baptist Church - Parodies, Westboro Baptist Church - WBC Websites

Read more here: » Westboro Baptist Church: Encyclopedia II - Westboro Baptist Church - Other prejudices

By now, the main positions regarding evolution had been established. Generally, the advent of evolution theory divided people into two main camps: those who opposed theories of evolution, and those who accepted or promoted such theories. Those opposed to theories of evolution: Young Earth creationists, who believed that evolution was scientifically untenable, and merely an attempt to justify atheism, reacted by asserting Biblical inerrancy and a biblically literal creation. Old Earth creationists, who accepted th ...

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History of creationism, History of creationism - Early history, History of creationism - Greek and Roman times, History of creationism - Renaissance to Darwin, History of creationism - Darwin, History of creationism - Differing beliefs, History of creationism - Early 20th century, History of creationism - Post-war, History of creationism - Intelligent design

Read more here: » History of creationism: Encyclopedia II - History of creationism - Differing beliefs

Sociologists of religion, analysing the functioning of religious faiths and institutions as social structures without specific regard to their doctrines, have observed that religions operate differently, require different institutional forms, depending on how integrated they are with the surrounding society. Labels that have been given to some of these relationships include cult, sect, denomination, and ecclesia. In roughly ascending order, these terms relate ...

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Divine grace, Divine grace - Shared concepts of grace, Divine grace - Biblical concepts of grace, Divine grace - Ideas of grace in the Hebrew Bible, Divine grace - New Testament ideas of grace, Divine grace - Tension between grace and works in the New Testament, Divine grace - Efforts to resolve the tension, Divine grace - Concepts of grace in the history of Christianity, Divine grace - Grace in Western Christianity, Divine grace - Pelagius vs. St Augustine, Divine grace - Grace and merit, Divine grace - Grace in Eastern Christianity, Divine grace - Grace in the Protestant Reformation:, Divine grace - Calvinism and Arminianism, Divine grace - Jansenism versus the Jesuits, Divine grace - The Protestant Reformation and ecclesiology, Divine grace - Latter-day Saint Perspective, Divine grace - For further reading, Divine grace - Orthodox, Divine grace - Roman Catholic, Divine grace - Protestant

Read more here: » Divine grace: Encyclopedia II - Divine grace - Concepts of grace in the history of Christianity

The period immediately after Darwin's death in 1882 is known as the Eclipse of Darwinism, where Darwinian natural selection was considered inadequate by the scientific community. Evolution itself was assumed, but the mechanism of how it happened was in considerable debate, and none had anything near to a consensus. Among these theories were neo-Lamarckism (which merged certain aspects of Lamarck's theory of acquired characteristics with certain aspects of Darwinian evolution), orthogenesis ("straight-line" evolution, which talked abou ...

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History of creationism, History of creationism - Early history, History of creationism - Greek and Roman times, History of creationism - Renaissance to Darwin, History of creationism - Darwin, History of creationism - Differing beliefs, History of creationism - Early 20th century, History of creationism - Post-war, History of creationism - Intelligent design

Read more here: » History of creationism: Encyclopedia II - History of creationism - Early 20th century

Modern geocentrists point to some passages in the Bible, which, when taken literally, indicate that the daily apparent motions of the Sun and the Moon are due to their actual motions around the Earth rather than due to the rotation of the Earth about its axis. One is Ecclesiastes 1:5: The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. Another is in Joshua 10, 10–14, where the Sun and Moon are said to stop in the sky: Then Joshua spoke to the Lord, in the ...

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Modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - Overview of modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - History of modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - Biblical references, Modern geocentrism - Catholic geocentricity, Modern geocentrism - The modern scientific point of view, Modern geocentrism - There is no special position., Modern geocentrism - The cosmic microwave background radiation determines the only special velocity., Modern geocentrism - The inertial frame is the only special rotation., Modern geocentrism - Non-falsifiability of geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - Modern geocentrism and astronomical observations, Modern geocentrism - Gamma ray bursts, Modern geocentrism - Quantization of redshifts, Modern geocentrism - Forms of modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - The observations, Modern geocentrism - Geocentrism based on classical gravitation, Modern geocentrism - Geocentrism based on a rigid aether, Modern geocentrism - Geocentrism based on a radically different cosmology

Read more here: » Modern geocentrism: Encyclopedia II - Modern geocentrism - Biblical references

c. 45 BC – Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC) made a teleological argument, anticipating the watchmaker analogy, in De natura deorum, ii. 34 When you see a sundial or a water-clock, you see that it tells the time by design and not by chance. How then can you imagine that the universe as a whole is devoid of purpose and intelligence, when it embraces everything, including these artifacts themselves and their artificer ...

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History of creationism, History of creationism - Early history, History of creationism - Greek and Roman times, History of creationism - Renaissance to Darwin, History of creationism - Darwin, History of creationism - Differing beliefs, History of creationism - Early 20th century, History of creationism - Post-war, History of creationism - Intelligent design

Read more here: » History of creationism: Encyclopedia II - History of creationism - Greek and Roman times

The Second World War (1939 - 1945) saw the horrors of the Holocaust. The Holocaust had been driven in part by eugenics, or the principle that individuals with "undesirable" genetic characteristics should be removed from the gene pool. Eugenics was based in part on principles of cultural evolutionary theory, though many biologists had long opposed it. Although eugenics was rejected by other nations after the war, the memory of it did not quickly fade, and professional scientists sought to distance themselves from it and other racial ideologie ...

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History of creationism, History of creationism - Early history, History of creationism - Greek and Roman times, History of creationism - Renaissance to Darwin, History of creationism - Darwin, History of creationism - Differing beliefs, History of creationism - Early 20th century, History of creationism - Post-war, History of creationism - Intelligent design

Read more here: » History of creationism: Encyclopedia II - History of creationism - Post-war

Research done by the Topeka Capital Journal in 1994 indicated that the church has roughly 100 to 200 congregants, most of whom are related to Phelps Sr. by blood or marriage. Individuals who followed Phelps Sr. after he was voted out of his old congregation, Eastside Baptist Church (a traditional Baptist church), consisted of the Hockenbargers (whose offspring later married into the Phelps clan), George Stutzman (who reportedly has never married, but internet rumors claim had an affair with one of the unmarried daughters of Phelps Sr.), Chri ...

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Westboro Baptist Church, Westboro Baptist Church - Overview, Westboro Baptist Church - The Westboro compound, Westboro Baptist Church - Composition of the Westboro membership, Westboro Baptist Church - Purpose, Westboro Baptist Church - Theology, Westboro Baptist Church - Sky Television report, Westboro Baptist Church - Quotes from Phelps' Sermons, Westboro Baptist Church - Similarities to the Christian Identity movement, Westboro Baptist Church - Activities and statements, Westboro Baptist Church - Criminal record, Westboro Baptist Church - Violence against Westboro, Westboro Baptist Church - Claiming divine vengeance, Westboro Baptist Church - September 11 attacks and the space shuttle Columbia, Westboro Baptist Church - London terrorist attacks, Westboro Baptist Church - God Hates Canada and God Hates Sweden, Westboro Baptist Church - Indian Ocean earthquake, Westboro Baptist Church - Stance on adoption by same-sex couples, Westboro Baptist Church - Hurricane Katrina, Westboro Baptist Church - Picketing of Rehnquist's funeral, Westboro Baptist Church - Picketing of Fred Rogers' memorial, Westboro Baptist Church - Soldiers in Iraq, Westboro Baptist Church - Other prejudices, Westboro Baptist Church - Responses, Westboro Baptist Church - Criticism, Westboro Baptist Church - Opposition to Westboro's theology, Westboro Baptist Church - Parodies, Westboro Baptist Church - WBC Websites

Read more here: » Westboro Baptist Church: Encyclopedia II - Westboro Baptist Church - Composition of the Westboro membership

Responses include the creation of an opposing website, godlovesfags.com a pro-gay rights website, launched by Kris Haight on March 1 1999. The site focuses on the debate surrounding religion and homosexuality and especially homosexuality and Christianity. On August 18 1999, an unidentified hacker transferred ownership of the domain www.godhatesfags.com to Kris Haight. Apparently, this was done by forging an email message from Phelps. Haight promptly redirected all traffic to godlovesfags.com. After much media attention, Phelps threatened ...

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Westboro Baptist Church, Westboro Baptist Church - Overview, Westboro Baptist Church - The Westboro compound, Westboro Baptist Church - Composition of the Westboro membership, Westboro Baptist Church - Purpose, Westboro Baptist Church - Theology, Westboro Baptist Church - Sky Television report, Westboro Baptist Church - Quotes from Phelps' Sermons, Westboro Baptist Church - Similarities to the Christian Identity movement, Westboro Baptist Church - Activities and statements, Westboro Baptist Church - Criminal record, Westboro Baptist Church - Violence against Westboro, Westboro Baptist Church - Claiming divine vengeance, Westboro Baptist Church - September 11 attacks and the space shuttle Columbia, Westboro Baptist Church - London terrorist attacks, Westboro Baptist Church - God Hates Canada and God Hates Sweden, Westboro Baptist Church - Indian Ocean earthquake, Westboro Baptist Church - Stance on adoption by same-sex couples, Westboro Baptist Church - Hurricane Katrina, Westboro Baptist Church - Picketing of Rehnquist's funeral, Westboro Baptist Church - Picketing of Fred Rogers' memorial, Westboro Baptist Church - Soldiers in Iraq, Westboro Baptist Church - Other prejudices, Westboro Baptist Church - Responses, Westboro Baptist Church - Criticism, Westboro Baptist Church - Opposition to Westboro's theology, Westboro Baptist Church - Parodies, Westboro Baptist Church - WBC Websites

Read more here: » Westboro Baptist Church: Encyclopedia II - Westboro Baptist Church - Responses

In Norse mythology, the earth was believed to be a flat disc. This disk is situated in the branches of the world tree, or Yggdrasil. Asgard, where the gods lived, was located at the centre of the disc, and could only be reached by walking across the rainbow (the Bifröst bridge). The Giants lived in an abode called Jötunheimr (giant realm). A cold, dark underground abode called Niflheim was ruled by Hel, daughter of Loki. According to the Prose Edda this was the eventual dwelling-place of most of the dead. Located somewhere in ...

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Norse mythology, Norse mythology - Sources, Norse mythology - Cosmology, Norse mythology - Supernatural beings, Norse mythology - Völuspá: the origin and end of the world, Norse mythology - Kings and heroes, Norse mythology - Norse worship, Norse mythology - Centres of faith, Norse mythology - Priests, Norse mythology - Human sacrifice, Norse mythology - Interactions with Christianity, Norse mythology - Modern influences, Norse mythology - Bibliography

Read more here: » Norse mythology: Encyclopedia II - Norse mythology - Cosmology

Phelps has stated many purposes for Westboro, some of which appear to be inherently contradictory. Note the statements below, which indicate that their purpose is to cause people not to repent and to repent at the same time: We don't picket to win people over, idiot. It's to harden people's hearts. Make them hate. Make them hate God even more than they already do. Our goal is to preach the Word of God to this crooked and perverse generation. By our words, some will repent. By our words, some ...

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Westboro Baptist Church, Westboro Baptist Church - Overview, Westboro Baptist Church - The Westboro compound, Westboro Baptist Church - Composition of the Westboro membership, Westboro Baptist Church - Purpose, Westboro Baptist Church - Theology, Westboro Baptist Church - Sky Television report, Westboro Baptist Church - Quotes from Phelps' Sermons, Westboro Baptist Church - Similarities to the Christian Identity movement, Westboro Baptist Church - Activities and statements, Westboro Baptist Church - Criminal record, Westboro Baptist Church - Violence against Westboro, Westboro Baptist Church - Claiming divine vengeance, Westboro Baptist Church - September 11 attacks and the space shuttle Columbia, Westboro Baptist Church - London terrorist attacks, Westboro Baptist Church - God Hates Canada and God Hates Sweden, Westboro Baptist Church - Indian Ocean earthquake, Westboro Baptist Church - Stance on adoption by same-sex couples, Westboro Baptist Church - Hurricane Katrina, Westboro Baptist Church - Picketing of Rehnquist's funeral, Westboro Baptist Church - Picketing of Fred Rogers' memorial, Westboro Baptist Church - Soldiers in Iraq, Westboro Baptist Church - Other prejudices, Westboro Baptist Church - Responses, Westboro Baptist Church - Criticism, Westboro Baptist Church - Opposition to Westboro's theology, Westboro Baptist Church - Parodies, Westboro Baptist Church - WBC Websites

Read more here: » Westboro Baptist Church: Encyclopedia II - Westboro Baptist Church - Purpose

In Norse mythology, the earth is represented as a flat disc. This disk is situated in the branches of the world tree, or Yggdrasil. Asgard, where the gods lived, was located at the centre of the disc, and could only be reached by walking across the rainbow (the Bifröst bridge). The Giants lived in an abode called Jötunheimr (giant realm). A cold, dark underground abode called Niflheim was ruled by Hel, daughter of Loki. According to the Prose Edda this was the eventual dwelling-place of mos ...

See also:

Norse mythology, Norse mythology - Overview, Norse mythology - Sources, Norse mythology - Cosmology, Norse mythology - Supernatural beings, Norse mythology - Völuspá: the origin and end of the world, Norse mythology - Kings and heroes, Norse mythology - Norse worship, Norse mythology - Centres of faith, Norse mythology - Priests, Norse mythology - Human sacrifice, Norse mythology - Interactions with Christianity, Norse mythology - Modern influences, Norse mythology - Bibliography

Read more here: » Norse mythology: Encyclopedia II - Norse mythology - Cosmology

Mary The Christian ecclesiastical teachings as to Mary's perpetual virginity, her absolute sinlessness, and the role of intercessor were unknown during the ministry of Jesus and the immediately succeeding beliefs of the primitive Christians; although these three ideas in connection with the cosmic Virgin-Mother were familiar to exoteric and mythologic thought worldwide for ages preceding their adoption by Christian theologians some time after primitive Christianity. As to the idea of the perpetual virgin, as early as the latter part of the 2nd century Clement of Alexandria mentions it, but without accepting it, and not until the 4th century did it become a doctrine of the Church. Absolute sinlessness as a dogma seems to have been accepted as reluctantly as the former idea. Both Augustine and Anselm state their view that Mary the mother "was conceived in iniquity," and born "in original sin." The dogma of the intercession was not recognized by the Church until the 3rd century, when a wave of popular emotion initiated feast and holy days that are still observed.

The month of May was made sacred to Mary by the Christians, copying an ancient Greco-Latin view and practice, for the same month had been sacred to the Greek Maia or the Latin Vesta.

Blavatsky associates Mary with the Egyptian Isis and the Hindu Devaki (mother of Krishna) -- both of whom are represented as suckling an infant; with Maya, the mother of Gautama Buddha, there is an interesting association of both similarity in name and idea. By Southern European mariners after the Christian era Mary has been associated with Mare, the Latin word for the sea -- there being here again an early pagan teaching of the sea of space, or the representation of the cosmic Virgin-Mother. In another distinctly mystical sense the sea, like the Sanskrit Maya (illusion), symbolizes the illusory nature of all phenomenal life -- illusory because noneternal and yet the womb or matrix in and from which universes are born; and in the case of individual human beings, the birth of wisdom from experience in the illusions of life.

Thus the Christian Mary became clothed with various religio-mystical ideas and teachings associated from immemorial time with both cosmic events and with human experiences in life and initiation. The Christ in man is born as a child of the virgin-mother spirit, man's own higher consciousness -- a mother which remains perpetually virginal, by its nature intrinsically sinless, and which functions between the personal man of flesh and the god within us as the intercessor, as indeed the inner Christ itself is.

See also ANA; ANAITIA

(See also: Mary, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Westboro refers to itself as a Primitive or "Old School" Baptist[10] and claims to adhere to the philosophy of John Calvin and the principles of the acronym TULIP.[11] The "stated" theology of Westboro reads as follows (it is no longer available on the church website): The Bible is the Word of God and to be taken literally. The s ...

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Westboro Baptist Church, Westboro Baptist Church - Overview, Westboro Baptist Church - The Westboro compound, Westboro Baptist Church - Composition of the Westboro membership, Westboro Baptist Church - Purpose, Westboro Baptist Church - Theology, Westboro Baptist Church - Sky Television report, Westboro Baptist Church - Quotes from Phelps' Sermons, Westboro Baptist Church - Similarities to the Christian Identity movement, Westboro Baptist Church - Activities and statements, Westboro Baptist Church - Criminal record, Westboro Baptist Church - Violence against Westboro, Westboro Baptist Church - Claiming divine vengeance, Westboro Baptist Church - September 11 attacks and the space shuttle Columbia, Westboro Baptist Church - London terrorist attacks, Westboro Baptist Church - God Hates Canada and God Hates Sweden, Westboro Baptist Church - Indian Ocean earthquake, Westboro Baptist Church - Stance on adoption by same-sex couples, Westboro Baptist Church - Hurricane Katrina, Westboro Baptist Church - Picketing of Rehnquist's funeral, Westboro Baptist Church - Picketing of Fred Rogers' memorial, Westboro Baptist Church - Soldiers in Iraq, Westboro Baptist Church - Other prejudices, Westboro Baptist Church - Responses, Westboro Baptist Church - Criticism, Westboro Baptist Church - Opposition to Westboro's theology, Westboro Baptist Church - Parodies, Westboro Baptist Church - WBC Websites

Read more here: » Westboro Baptist Church: Encyclopedia II - Westboro Baptist Church - Theology

Therianthropy - Description and origins. In recent times, a subculture has developed that has adopted the word therianthropy to describe a sense of inner spiritual or psychological identification with a non-human animal. Members of this subculture typically refer to themselves as therianthropes or therians. (The word were was also common for some time, as a reference to other part human part animal shapeshifting creatures of legend such as werewolves, weretigers and the like, but is mu ...

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Therianthropy, Therianthropy - Scholarly use of the term, Therianthropy - Modern subcultural use of the term, Therianthropy - Description and origins, Therianthropy - Grouping therians, Therianthropy - Subculture social structure, Therianthropy - Comparisons

Read more here: » Therianthropy: Encyclopedia II - Therianthropy - Modern subcultural use of the term

Therianthropy - Description and origins. In recent times, a subculture has developed that has adopted the word therianthropy to describe a sense of inner spiritual or psychological identification with a non-human animal. Members of this subculture typically refer to themselves as therianthropes or therians. (The word were was also common for some time, as a reference to other part-human, part-animal shapeshifting creatures of legend, such as werewolves, weretigers and the like, but is ...

See also:

Therianthropy, Therianthropy - Scholarly use of the term, Therianthropy - Modern subcultural use of the term, Therianthropy - Description and origins, Therianthropy - Grouping therians, Therianthropy - Subculture social structure, Therianthropy - Comparisons

Read more here: » Therianthropy: Encyclopedia II - Therianthropy - Modern subcultural use of the term

The Ptolemaic model of the solar system held sway into the early modern age; from the late 16th century onward it was gradually replaced as the consensus description by the the heliocentric model. Geocentrism as a separate religious belief, however, never completely died out. In the United States between 1870 and 1920, for example, various members of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod published articles disparaging Copernican astronomy, and ...

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Modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - Overview of modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - History of modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - Biblical references, Modern geocentrism - Catholic geocentricity, Modern geocentrism - The modern scientific point of view, Modern geocentrism - There is no special position., Modern geocentrism - The cosmic microwave background radiation determines the only special velocity., Modern geocentrism - The inertial frame is the only special rotation., Modern geocentrism - Non-falsifiability of geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - Modern geocentrism and astronomical observations, Modern geocentrism - Gamma ray bursts, Modern geocentrism - Quantization of redshifts, Modern geocentrism - Forms of modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - The observations, Modern geocentrism - Geocentrism based on classical gravitation, Modern geocentrism - Geocentrism based on a rigid aether, Modern geocentrism - Geocentrism based on a radically different cosmology

Read more here: » Modern geocentrism: Encyclopedia II - Modern geocentrism - History of modern geocentrism

The Ptolemaic model of the solar system held sway into the early modern age; from the late 16th century onward it was gradually replaced as the consensus description by the heliocentric model. Geocentrism as a separate religious belief, however, never completely died out. In the United States between 1870 and 1920, for example, various members of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod published articles disparaging Copernican astronomy, and ...

See also:

Modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - Overview of modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - History of modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - Biblical references, Modern geocentrism - Catholic geocentricity, Modern geocentrism - The modern scientific point of view, Modern geocentrism - There is no special position., Modern geocentrism - The cosmic microwave background radiation determines the only special velocity., Modern geocentrism - The inertial frame is the only special rotation., Modern geocentrism - Non-falsifiability of geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - Modern geocentrism and astronomical observations, Modern geocentrism - Gamma ray bursts, Modern geocentrism - Quantization of redshifts, Modern geocentrism - Forms of modern geocentrism, Modern geocentrism - The observations, Modern geocentrism - Geocentrism based on classical gravitation, Modern geocentrism - Geocentrism based on a rigid aether, Modern geocentrism - Geocentrism based on a radically different cosmology

Read more here: » Modern geocentrism: Encyclopedia II - Modern geocentrism - History of modern geocentrism

Christmas Christmas Day and its festival are a curious blend of Christian, Jewish, Roman, Western pagan, and perhaps other institutions. It arose as a Christian festival as part of the adaptation of the early Christian Church to the world in which it grew up.

The accounts given of the birth of Christ present obvious difficulties against regarding this date as that of his actual birth, and it was looked upon rather as a commemorative festival. Before the 5th century there cannot be said to have been any general consensus as to the date, the choice wavering between that of Epiphany on January 6th, the 25th of March, and the 25th of December. According to Chrysostom, the choice of the first of these dates was due to Western influence; and it is true that the Romans held their Saturnalia at the same time.

The celebration of the winter solstice, often identified with that of the new year, is virtually universal and denotes among Christians the mystic birth of the Christ; the significance has, however, with the Christian Church, been divided between Christmas and Easter. Besides its application to the death and rebirth of the year, and to death and regeneration both cosmic and human, the symbol has special reference to the esoteric rite and exoteric drama performed in the Mysteries at this epoch, where the candidate for initiation was placed in a tomb or coffin, or on a cruciform couch, where his body remained entranced during the experiences of his liberated self, until rebirth or resurrection on the third day.

Christmas customs likewise are derived from various sources: the exchange of gifts or sweets is a common accompaniment of new year celebrations; the tree is a universal symbol of manifested nature, and this appears again as the cross, which however is appropriated to the Friday before Easter. At the winter solstice, the sun enters Capricorn, a house of Saturn -- who appears in such figures as Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, and Old Father Christmas; and the spirit of license and good cheer are more appropriate to the genius of Saturn, especially in the form of Silenus or a satyr, than to the mystic birth of the neophyte.

(See also: Christmas, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

The Renaissance starting in the 14th century saw the establishment of protoscience that eventually would lead to the development of modern science through the Scientific revolution. This was a period of great social change. European colonization of the Americas was driven by people fleeing from religious persecution. The later Enlightenment (beginning in the 17th century) saw improvements in communications and economics (see Industrial Revolution) lead to advances in science and improved education. In the United States, due to the Establishment Clause, no church was given government sanction, so Christianity evo ...

See also:

History of creationism, History of creationism - Early history, History of creationism - Greek and Roman times, History of creationism - Renaissance to Darwin, History of creationism - Darwin, History of creationism - Differing beliefs, History of creationism - Early 20th century, History of creationism - Post-war, History of creationism - Intelligent design

Read more here: » History of creationism: Encyclopedia II - History of creationism - Renaissance to Darwin