Is it true that COca-Cola owns the trademark on santa's image but allows it to be used as if it were in the public domain?

Maybe YOU should get YOUR facts straight... before publishing them on the world-wide web. Christians didn't high-jack anything. True Christianity is far more ancient than the Romans or their Saturnalia. Far more ancient than Judaism from which Jesus was born. Far more ancient than any world religion or philosophy. I invite your correspondence. Sounds like you might be on the right line, but have the wrong attitude.

I am intrigued by your assertion Skadi, can you elaborate.

The most commonly accepted definition of Christianity is "the religion derived from Jesus Christ, based on the Bible as sacred scripture, and professed by Eastern, Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies"

It is almost universally accepted that Jesus was a jew by birth and until approximately 100AD Christianity was regarded as a messianic sect of Judaism. Christianity as a religion in its own right was born about this time.

If Christianity originated from Judiasm I fail to understand how it could have predated it.

Regarding December 25th being Christs birthday I refer to this quote from Gospelcom.net (http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/DAILYF/2003/11/daily-11-17-2003.shtml)

"Many speculated that since shepherds were in the field the night Christ was born, it must have been in spring or summer. Some said May 20; others fixed the date on April l9th or 20th. Still others thought March 25th most likely. No one really knew.

In 354, the Bishop of Rome started to observe December 25th as the date of Christ's birth. Four major Roman festivals were held in December, including Saturnalia which celebrated the returning Sun-god. It was easy to adapt this to the Christian celebration of the coming of the Son of God."

You said:I am intrigued by your assertion Skadi, can you elaborate.The most commonly accepted definition of Christianity is "the religion derived from Jesus Christ, based on the Bible as sacred scripture, and professed by Eastern, Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies"

>> Just because this is the most common definition of Christianity, does that make it the most correct one? Consider the source of the definition. One or all three of the mainline groups. Notice that it discludes Celtic Christianity (destroyed by both Pelagius and Augustine, who fought over the issue of whether a person can become Christlike alone or with the sole help of the Spirit of Christ), and all other forms of Christianity to include Judaic Christianity of the extant Aramaic and Syriac speakers, Thomassinian Christians of southern India (who date their experience back to the Apostle Thomas)and Johannine Christianity (my own particular path). I am sure, because of the multiplicity of ideas in the world, that there are other forms.

You said:It is almost universally accepted that Jesus was a Jew by birth...

>> Jesus WAS a Jew by birth, but this was because He, being the realised Dionysus (Tammuz, Adonis, Osiris, the Gallic god Esus,and even "the Green Man", i.e. John Barleycorn, etc.) was bringing life back to the universal Order of Melchizedek via the specific Order of Abraham, the latter which perished once the job was finished. Two, and there are more, of the extant paths in the Order of Melchizedek are Dhyana Buddhism (Zen)and Lao Tzu Taoism.

You said:
and until approximately 100AD Christianity was regarded as a messianic sect of Judaism.

>> This is not a truth. This is what organised Christendom states as a matter of fact, but anyone involved with Christendom (as opposed to true and most ancient Christianity) is either a liar or duped. Judaism may also insist this, but I have not studied their thoughts on Jesus closely. The truth is that the death and resurrection of the Deity through the Jewish stone-mason (that's what biblio-archaeologists are saying now) Jesus is first a ahistorical truth, then a historical one. This means that all the world knew Him when he came, and if one will go and study pre-Jesus (pre-Christian) world mythologies,one will find that the Myth of the Hanged God is everywhere, in every culture, from the Lakota (sundances) to the Norse (Odin hanging on a wind-swept tree).

You assert: Christianity as a religion in its own right was born about this time.

>> This is also wrong, if you mean organised Christendom. Christianity as an organised, unified religion was formed at the Council of Nicea called by the bloodthirsty "Christian" Roman Byzantine emperor Constantine in the Fourth Century AD. If you mean other kinds of Christianity, they seem to have begun with Mary (Semele; or Mara the Sea-Goddess) when she received the news of the birth of the Christ (Ichthys, or IXOYE, and you'll forgive the lack of Greek font) through her. I will argue against myself here and state that True Christianity has always been with us, every since humanity felt the need of reharmonisation. This reharmony, the ancient seers saw, could only be done in one way: the death, and then resurrection, of the Deity.

You ask:If Christianity originated from Judiasm I fail to understand how it could have predated it.

>> Maybe now you can see that Christianity did not, in fact, originate from Judaism, but from antediluvian sources, and notice I make sources plural. I invite further dialogue. We all have much to learn.

Thanks for being more kindly toward unusual ideas than those rabid logicians at Pagan Prattle. I lost my temper with Red Wolf... shouldn't have. But once posted, no going back. Oh, well...

The thing about faith is that it is just that. To attempt to undo faith with logic is doomed to failure and only makes both sides unhappy.

The Green Man presents his own somewhat unusual view of the world. You are equally etitled to yours.

I thought i would put my two cents in. i have looked around at religions,before settling on mine, i would like to say green man was right Christianity did not predate Judaism, Christianity was first a minor sect of Judaism a primitive pagan religion was the first.

-thank you bye