Funny...
...I just came off being on Gene Cook's "Unchained Radio". And I dunno about these christians....
I presented my "Argument from Devine Delusion (AfDD)" argument, and... I dunno... I suspect Gene is either being deliberately obtuse, or I dunno. It's like he isn't even listening to 5% of what I'm saying.
First, he when I present the Fristianity refutation of his "impossibility of the contrary" he goes back and back and back and back to the fact that I am posting a Christian-like worldview for the sake of argument, even though I repeatedly stated exactly why I did this in my introduction, he went back to the completely vacuous canard that "You see, to try to refute me you have to posit something christian-like".
No I don't, but to get you to listen to me I have to posit something Christian-like. And then, while positing something Christian-like I demonstrate that there is an infinite set of Christian-like views that all satisfy your "criteria" (and probably an infinite set of non-christian-like, but it'll be much more painful to get him to admit that, which is exactly the reason for the Christian-like example), meaning, the "impossibility of the contrary" argument is refuted, and the modal logic gets to ~G from there (God doesn't exist) which has been shown previously.
But that's okay, I don't expect a presupper to ever admit to be refuted on his own turf - so I took it to mine; the "Devine Delusion" argument.
But it's so funny... it's like these people don't have ears on.
After I quit, some maroon called in and claimed some "argument" against mine which was so inanely stupid that it was clear the two braincells he had probably had overheated trying to find the right side up on the telephone or something. I had explicitly and clearly explained my argument, and yet he comes in with a completely irrelevant "refutation" saying "But if a god is delusional he can't be omnnicient- HAH!"
Well, knucklehead, that's my point. And that some random calling cuckoo can say that is understandable, but then having Gene say "that's a good argument" made my heart sink. At least I thought Gene had grokked what I said.
But it was quite clear that he hadn't, or that he was desperately grasping at straws since I had clearly, and irrefutably, nullified a basic principle of his worldview. (And I'm not kidding, I honestly believe the AfDD is that strong - it completely refutes omniscience and shows it to be a logically incoherent concept.)
But it was funnies at all, at the end, though, when Gene refuted himself. He said, quoting from memory, "Well, I dont allow arguments with hypothetical gods, because then my impossibility of the contrary argument doesn't work"
LOL. I almost fell of my chair. He said, in princple, "I don't like your type of argument, because they prove me wrong, and therefore I don't allow them". ROFL. Big score for Atheism there, and by Gene of all people!! It was really funny.
I dunno, we'll see when Jonathan comes back if he dares to actually interact with my real argument, but I doubt it. My experience is that Gene's intellectual honesty has actually gone backwards since Jonathan arrived on the show, because they do way too much high-fiving of eachother and too much "checkup from the neckup" nonsense. It's "funny" but with very little substance.
No, the AfDD reigned supreme tonight, and I hope any intellectually honest listeners (assuming Gene has any) sees that. I honestly hope to see some converts from this, or at least some really juicy crisis of faith. That would be sweet. ;)
/Z
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Argument from Devine Delusion
While I was over in San Diego, I "did lunch" with my internet pal pastor Gene Cook Jr.
During lunch an argument against theism hit me out of the blue, which I immediately tried out on my good friend the Pastor. He wasn't to impressed, but probably because he didn't understand that in fact.... it's pretty devestating.
Allow me to expand this argument a hair. What follows is the "slightly refined" version.
Note that to truly understand this type of argument in it's full depth, you must understand the concept of isomorphism, i.e. when two things are for all practical purpouses identical. (I wholeheartedly recommend reading Douglas Hofstadters "Gödel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Briad", since my argument is akin to Gödels incompleteness theorem).
Here's a slightly expanded variant compared to what I presented to Gene over Fish'n'Chips at the Yardhouse in San Diego:
- Imagine hypothetical God A. This God thinks he is omniscient and is right, he knows everything, including the fact that he is Omniscient. I.e. in his own opinion, as far as he knows, he is Omniscient. I.e. the mental state of God A which describes God A is 100% set that God A is indeed omniscient.
- Imagine hypothetical God B. This God thinks he is omniscient, but he is wrong. However, he is delusional, and hence thinks he knows everything, including the fact that he is Omniscient. I.e. in his own opinion, as far as he knows, he is Omniscient. I.e. the mental state of God B which describes God B is 100% set that God B is indeed omniscient.
- God A's view of God A's situation vis-a-vis omniscience is 100% isomorphic (i.e. identical) to God B's view of God B's situation under the same subject. I.e. their mental states are completely indistinguisable from one another.
- Since no external objective measure exists (according to theistic logic), it is impossible for God B to actually know that it is indeed not omniscient.
- Congruently (from symmetry), since there is no external objective measure, it is impossible for God A to actually know that he indeed IS Omniscient!
- Since we now have proven, indisputably, that no God (either A or B) actually can know if he himself is omniscient (due to having a mental state totally isomorphic with that of God B), we have cast a doubt over the claims of the Bible.
- Hence, we have put up a defeater for the presuppositionalist claim that God works as a precondition for intelligebility, since on the presupp. view, the "revelation from an omniscient creator" is needed for knoweledge, however, since we demonstrated that God's omniscience cannot be relied on, this compeltely topples their little circular house of cards.
- Furthermore, this argument falsifies omniscience itself, since we have proven there is at least one thing that no God actually can know.
*Badoom Psch*
Incidentally, meeting Gene was fun, the Fisn'n'Chips was very tasty, and I thank Jonathan "Vanvos" Goundry for treatin' me to them.
It's just a pity that grown (well, in Gene's case at least ;) ) men actually believe the kind of thing Gene believes, when it's simply so blatantly false.
/Z
Friday, May 04, 2007
Why do I listen to "Unchained Radio"
Yes, I am a "narrow mind addict". I listen to Gene Cook's show "the narrow mind" on Unchained Radio
But why, I hear you yell, it's a Christian radio show??
Well, basically, I listen to Gene Cook for the same reason I listen to Mysterious Universe - not because I believe half a percent of what is presented, but because I find it so extremely entertaining to see how far people can delude themselves.
Perhaps I'm just easily amused? I admit to being addicted to podcasting in general, but it's difficult to find truly entertaining content. I find blatant delusion entertaining - so sue me ;)
Gene has a particular amusing segment on tuesdays called "Covenant Theology" (whatever that means). It's a couple of guys arguing - vehemently - insane minutiae of the Bible, and it reminds me the fervor with which some geeks fight over if the Enterprise D's phaser would blow up the Death Star or not.... I just shake my head about the level of emotion discussion of obvious fiction can sustain!
Another show that used to be fun is his "Atheistic Wednesday". Gene used to have Atheist callers, but I guessed he scared them off... of course, not because he has an actual argument, although he seems to think so (he had a smug comment in his last show about why Atheists no longer "dare" to call in, insinuating that he had somehow out-argued them).
The reality is that Gene actually doesn't have any argument at all. He is a presuppositionalist.
For those not "into" the whole thing: "Pressupositionalism" isn't an argument, it's an apologetic method. Gene even admits this, point blank. To make a long long story short, presuppositionalism is a complicated shell game of circular reasoning, shift-the-blame tactics, and other nifty little "tricks" that makes the unprepared atheist "appear" to lose face (but only if you don't see through the blatnatly transparent "argument" itself).
Presuppositionalism is really a fancy way of holding your hands to your ears and saying "la la la, not listening", but with a lot more words, but a lot less substance.
Gene even had a 7-part "exposé" of presuppositionalism, which I think was a big mistake (from his point of view). Before we all suspected pressupositionalism was totally vacuous - now we know it is totally vacuous.
But I like Gene. I think he is sincere, and his heart is basically in the right place. He is simply not intelligent enough, philosophically sophisticated enough, or cynical enough to see through the blatant silliness of what he believes.
He has some friends, though, which are a pretty nasty bunch. His old moderator "TreyFrog" (from the time he used to have a forum) explicitly said he though "heretics should be killed".
Other "friends" of his are more philosophically sophisticated than Gene, but much less intellectually honest, just parroting the presuppositional shell-game retoric with razor precision, without actually presenting any arguments of any kind.
I've advocated multiple time to be a guest on his "Atheistic Wednesday" but never received a reply on the subject. We'll see. This coming Wednesday I will actually have time, but we'll see what happens.
Anyhow, Gene recently dubbed me "narrow mind addict of the week", which is fun, but smells like a sign of desperation, if he has to dub his atheist listeners as the top addict... ;)
/Z
But why, I hear you yell, it's a Christian radio show??
Well, basically, I listen to Gene Cook for the same reason I listen to Mysterious Universe - not because I believe half a percent of what is presented, but because I find it so extremely entertaining to see how far people can delude themselves.
Perhaps I'm just easily amused? I admit to being addicted to podcasting in general, but it's difficult to find truly entertaining content. I find blatant delusion entertaining - so sue me ;)
Gene has a particular amusing segment on tuesdays called "Covenant Theology" (whatever that means). It's a couple of guys arguing - vehemently - insane minutiae of the Bible, and it reminds me the fervor with which some geeks fight over if the Enterprise D's phaser would blow up the Death Star or not.... I just shake my head about the level of emotion discussion of obvious fiction can sustain!
Another show that used to be fun is his "Atheistic Wednesday". Gene used to have Atheist callers, but I guessed he scared them off... of course, not because he has an actual argument, although he seems to think so (he had a smug comment in his last show about why Atheists no longer "dare" to call in, insinuating that he had somehow out-argued them).
The reality is that Gene actually doesn't have any argument at all. He is a presuppositionalist.
For those not "into" the whole thing: "Pressupositionalism" isn't an argument, it's an apologetic method. Gene even admits this, point blank. To make a long long story short, presuppositionalism is a complicated shell game of circular reasoning, shift-the-blame tactics, and other nifty little "tricks" that makes the unprepared atheist "appear" to lose face (but only if you don't see through the blatnatly transparent "argument" itself).
Presuppositionalism is really a fancy way of holding your hands to your ears and saying "la la la, not listening", but with a lot more words, but a lot less substance.
Gene even had a 7-part "exposé" of presuppositionalism, which I think was a big mistake (from his point of view). Before we all suspected pressupositionalism was totally vacuous - now we know it is totally vacuous.
But I like Gene. I think he is sincere, and his heart is basically in the right place. He is simply not intelligent enough, philosophically sophisticated enough, or cynical enough to see through the blatant silliness of what he believes.
He has some friends, though, which are a pretty nasty bunch. His old moderator "TreyFrog" (from the time he used to have a forum) explicitly said he though "heretics should be killed".
Other "friends" of his are more philosophically sophisticated than Gene, but much less intellectually honest, just parroting the presuppositional shell-game retoric with razor precision, without actually presenting any arguments of any kind.
I've advocated multiple time to be a guest on his "Atheistic Wednesday" but never received a reply on the subject. We'll see. This coming Wednesday I will actually have time, but we'll see what happens.
Anyhow, Gene recently dubbed me "narrow mind addict of the week", which is fun, but smells like a sign of desperation, if he has to dub his atheist listeners as the top addict... ;)
/Z
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Gene Is Teh Funny
LOL
Gene made me "Narrow Mind Addict of the Week" even though I didn't have time to write my Narrow Mind post on my blog yet.
Getting desperate there, Gene? ;)
Time permitting, I'll actually post something, but I'm a busy guy. Real world stuff, y'know.
/Z
Gene made me "Narrow Mind Addict of the Week" even though I didn't have time to write my Narrow Mind post on my blog yet.
Getting desperate there, Gene? ;)
Time permitting, I'll actually post something, but I'm a busy guy. Real world stuff, y'know.
/Z
Friday, January 05, 2007
Christmas Without Christ but.... who?
Ah, finally I have a few post-Xmas second to type in this long overdue blog entry.
Christmas. Mmm. I love it.
But first, understand one thing, Christmas in Sweden is not about Christ. The word is "Jul", meaning, our word doesn't even contain "Christ".
To us, Christmas is about a bunch of things...
Gathering the family
Every year we gather up the family and have a big Jul event. It can sometimes be tricky, as in "should we celebrate with your parents or mine this year" (and in today's modern "broken families" with multiple sets of in-laws, fathers, and mothers, it can be mind-numbingly difficult). Myself has "decided" since we built our own house, to celebrate Jul at home... whoever wants to do it with us, is welcome here - we don't go nowhere. Of course we havn't actually held this rule stricly, we celebrated it at my brothers place once, and at the in-laws once.... but that's about it.
Food, food and food
The Jul dinner (remember, this is december 24:th, not 25:th!) is a very traditional thing, involving ham, pickled herring, smoked salmon, potatoes, meatballs, mini-sausages, and many other things, most importantly perhaps the Schnapps! ;)
And the most important thing is....
The most important event on Swedish christmas, the Holy Event, around which everything else circles, occurs at 15.00 hours on christmas eve, Swedish national television, channel #1.
It's DONALD DUCK.
Yes, you read that right. Disneys whacked out duck is the most important thing of all on a Swedish Christmas.
Every year, a special "Disney Christmas Special" is broadcast, and even though it's just a medley of pieces from well known films, everyone watches. Religiously.
WHY, I hear you scream?
Well, as with all religious traditions origin... happenstance.
'tis like this:
TV was adopted fairly early in Sweden, officially launched in 1956 but actually begun in 1954, but it was a "serious" medium, for news, and other things. Maybe some light frivolity now and again, but very much a "important" thing... especially in the early early super early days where there were no channels (just "the TV") and perhaps two broadcasts a week.
So when Swedish television one christmas on a lark back in the 60's to purchas and show a Disney "christmas special" on Christmas eve. This would be, most likely, the first time a Swedish child saw actual cartoons outside the context of going to an expensive movie theater! It was a tremendous sucess, children loved it, and parents demanded it be repeated the next year. So it was. And again.
So imagine growing up in a world where you only see actual Disney cartoons once a year, unless you go to the theater. Yes, there was, when I grew up, some "Childrens Programming"... mostly wierd Chech puppetry, or some really really screwed up stuff like "Vilse i Pannkakan" (= "lost in the pancake"), a TV show that many adults my age have recurring nightmares of, and many cite as the main thing "ruining their childhood forever".
Alas, here we have this world where Donald Duck is seen once a year. The tradition was so strong, that when the "ferdinand the bull" segment was edited out one year, the outrage was so high that I think even the King had to go in and fix it ;)
This "Donald Duck is Christmas" is slowly waning now, though, and will perhaps die out with my generation, because honestly, my kids have all the films in multiple formats, and why should they set down seeing a bad sixties transfer of "highlight clips" from films they can just pop in their DVD player? It makes little sense to them... still... they are being indoctrinated by us adults that "Christmas Is Donald Duck" and who knows, it may stick with them too... we'll let the future decide that.
So be aware, if you meet a Swede, that when they think about the important things on Christmas, they are Donald Duck, Food, Family, and presents. If you poke a Swede for a while, he may remember "Oh yeah, it was something about that Jesus guy, wasn't it?"
Of course, if he said that he would be wrong because the Jul festival predates Christianity, and we are just treating it the "real and original" way. ;)
/Z
Christmas. Mmm. I love it.
But first, understand one thing, Christmas in Sweden is not about Christ. The word is "Jul", meaning, our word doesn't even contain "Christ".
To us, Christmas is about a bunch of things...
Gathering the family
Every year we gather up the family and have a big Jul event. It can sometimes be tricky, as in "should we celebrate with your parents or mine this year" (and in today's modern "broken families" with multiple sets of in-laws, fathers, and mothers, it can be mind-numbingly difficult). Myself has "decided" since we built our own house, to celebrate Jul at home... whoever wants to do it with us, is welcome here - we don't go nowhere. Of course we havn't actually held this rule stricly, we celebrated it at my brothers place once, and at the in-laws once.... but that's about it.
Food, food and food
The Jul dinner (remember, this is december 24:th, not 25:th!) is a very traditional thing, involving ham, pickled herring, smoked salmon, potatoes, meatballs, mini-sausages, and many other things, most importantly perhaps the Schnapps! ;)
And the most important thing is....
The most important event on Swedish christmas, the Holy Event, around which everything else circles, occurs at 15.00 hours on christmas eve, Swedish national television, channel #1.
It's DONALD DUCK.
Yes, you read that right. Disneys whacked out duck is the most important thing of all on a Swedish Christmas.
Every year, a special "Disney Christmas Special" is broadcast, and even though it's just a medley of pieces from well known films, everyone watches. Religiously.
WHY, I hear you scream?
Well, as with all religious traditions origin... happenstance.
'tis like this:
TV was adopted fairly early in Sweden, officially launched in 1956 but actually begun in 1954, but it was a "serious" medium, for news, and other things. Maybe some light frivolity now and again, but very much a "important" thing... especially in the early early super early days where there were no channels (just "the TV") and perhaps two broadcasts a week.
So when Swedish television one christmas on a lark back in the 60's to purchas and show a Disney "christmas special" on Christmas eve. This would be, most likely, the first time a Swedish child saw actual cartoons outside the context of going to an expensive movie theater! It was a tremendous sucess, children loved it, and parents demanded it be repeated the next year. So it was. And again.
So imagine growing up in a world where you only see actual Disney cartoons once a year, unless you go to the theater. Yes, there was, when I grew up, some "Childrens Programming"... mostly wierd Chech puppetry, or some really really screwed up stuff like "Vilse i Pannkakan" (= "lost in the pancake"), a TV show that many adults my age have recurring nightmares of, and many cite as the main thing "ruining their childhood forever".
Alas, here we have this world where Donald Duck is seen once a year. The tradition was so strong, that when the "ferdinand the bull" segment was edited out one year, the outrage was so high that I think even the King had to go in and fix it ;)
This "Donald Duck is Christmas" is slowly waning now, though, and will perhaps die out with my generation, because honestly, my kids have all the films in multiple formats, and why should they set down seeing a bad sixties transfer of "highlight clips" from films they can just pop in their DVD player? It makes little sense to them... still... they are being indoctrinated by us adults that "Christmas Is Donald Duck" and who knows, it may stick with them too... we'll let the future decide that.
So be aware, if you meet a Swede, that when they think about the important things on Christmas, they are Donald Duck, Food, Family, and presents. If you poke a Swede for a while, he may remember "Oh yeah, it was something about that Jesus guy, wasn't it?"
Of course, if he said that he would be wrong because the Jul festival predates Christianity, and we are just treating it the "real and original" way. ;)
/Z
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Satanism and Sicilian Saints
When December 13:th rolls around, Swedes go into Lucia mode. What happens is that women in nightgowns (plus some sidekicks like ginger-bread men and little santas) come singing, and one particular chick has candles in her hair and is "Lucia".
This Bizzare custom is very strange, and it is actually so strange that even us Swedes don't really know where the heck we came up with it exactly.
Actually one big thing almost every year on TV is some historian trying to untangle the mess that is our "Lucia" festivity, which all come back to maybe it being originally a pagan or even satanistic ritual originally, since there are lots of word with the prefix Lusse- connected to the festivity ("Lussebulle", a special type of bun, e.t.c.), which sounds bit more "Lucifer" than "Lucia" plus is said to preceed the Christening of Sweden.
The real why's of how a particular Saint became important to Sweden is something you'd have to Google for coz frankly, I don't have a clue.
No Lucia festivity is complete without the song "Sankta Lucia". However this song choice has two particular quirks:
First, the actual original italian song is actually about the village of Lucia, and has nothing at all to do with the Swedish lyrics in any way, shape or form (which talks about a chick "bearing light", coming 11 days before Christmas saying, "yo, folks, X-mas is coming")
The second is that nobody thinks of this as a religious song per so. Now, while the title means "Saint Lucia", the word "Sankta" for "Sainted" is so baroque and ancient (the normal Swedish word would be "Helgon") that most people don't even understand it's meaning, and actually think it's the chicks name. If you ask any Swedish child what "Sankta" means, they'll say "It's Lucias first name".
For us, Lucia is about a "chick bearing light" that comes 11 days before X-mas, and... passes out ginger snaps. And coffee.
An amusing detail is that they play out the Lucia festivity early for the Nobel Prize winners (the Prize is always given Dec 10:th) and it is always funny to see their reaction, noted was literature Prize winnder Dario Fo's comment "I've died and gone to heaven". He probably never had a bunch of Swedish blondes in nightgown coming into his bedroom in the morning with coffee before.
To us, it happens every December 13:th.
I'll write a little more about this bizzarro event later.
/Z
This Bizzare custom is very strange, and it is actually so strange that even us Swedes don't really know where the heck we came up with it exactly.
Actually one big thing almost every year on TV is some historian trying to untangle the mess that is our "Lucia" festivity, which all come back to maybe it being originally a pagan or even satanistic ritual originally, since there are lots of word with the prefix Lusse- connected to the festivity ("Lussebulle", a special type of bun, e.t.c.), which sounds bit more "Lucifer" than "Lucia" plus is said to preceed the Christening of Sweden.
The real why's of how a particular Saint became important to Sweden is something you'd have to Google for coz frankly, I don't have a clue.
No Lucia festivity is complete without the song "Sankta Lucia". However this song choice has two particular quirks:
First, the actual original italian song is actually about the village of Lucia, and has nothing at all to do with the Swedish lyrics in any way, shape or form (which talks about a chick "bearing light", coming 11 days before Christmas saying, "yo, folks, X-mas is coming")
The second is that nobody thinks of this as a religious song per so. Now, while the title means "Saint Lucia", the word "Sankta" for "Sainted" is so baroque and ancient (the normal Swedish word would be "Helgon") that most people don't even understand it's meaning, and actually think it's the chicks name. If you ask any Swedish child what "Sankta" means, they'll say "It's Lucias first name".
For us, Lucia is about a "chick bearing light" that comes 11 days before X-mas, and... passes out ginger snaps. And coffee.
An amusing detail is that they play out the Lucia festivity early for the Nobel Prize winners (the Prize is always given Dec 10:th) and it is always funny to see their reaction, noted was literature Prize winnder Dario Fo's comment "I've died and gone to heaven". He probably never had a bunch of Swedish blondes in nightgown coming into his bedroom in the morning with coffee before.
To us, it happens every December 13:th.
I'll write a little more about this bizzarro event later.
/Z
Monday, December 04, 2006
Swedes - the Advent Children
Sunday was "1st Advent" in Sweden. That's the 4:th sunday before Christmas.
Swedes have a bizzare relationship to Christmas. It's one of the biggest "feasts" of the year to a Swede, but Christ is not the main character (we get to who is later).
Christmas is a not a religious feast to most Swedes. This is because everyone stole our Midvinterblot anyway!!!.
Yes, the Christmas you all celebrate is our old pagan viking mid-winter party! And just because some guy comes walking into our country with a big X we aren't going to change our partying habits! ;)
Yes, there is a certain (limited) amount of lip-service paid to "Christ", and some church-related stuff, like "julottan", which is going really stupidly early to church on Christmas morning. Mostly the older generations actually do that, and not so much for religious reasons as due to "it's what you do on Christmas morn'".
Thats us in a nutshell, Swedes, we do stuff coz "that's what you do", not due to some massive underlying belief of some sort. Tradition.
And for Christmas we have a lot of tradition, because it's a mess. We are going to come to some of that later.
The first "christmas related" thing (apart from putting up some early christmas decorations, like the christmas curtains) is the four-candle "Adventsljusstake", i.e. a special candle-holder-thingamabob which takes 4 candles, and for each sunday-before-xmas-eve (we celebrate Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day, btw) we light one candle.
So first one,
then next week two,
then the next week three
and the week after that all four
...and just like those sentences generate a staggered appearance, so does the "Adventsljusstake", on Christmas Eve, if there is anything left of the 1st candle, you'll see a staircase looking contraption with a really short candle, a slightly longer, another even longer, and one longer than that.
Bizarre.
And we are big on candles.
I read an article by a Swede that was living temporarily in Japan and invited some japanese friends for a Christmas dinner. They had lit the entire aparment with candles, and the Japanese came in and wonder "oh, is the power out? Want help finding the fusebox". LOL. Also the Japanese guy saw the two lite candles in the "Adventsljusstake" and took out his lighter and lit the remaining two! TEH BLASPHEMER!
More Bizzare Swedish Christmas ritual to follow, next week.... when we mix Satanism with a Sicilian Saint, and setting fire to hair with Ginger Snaps.
Stay Tuned.
/Z
Swedes have a bizzare relationship to Christmas. It's one of the biggest "feasts" of the year to a Swede, but Christ is not the main character (we get to who is later).
Christmas is a not a religious feast to most Swedes. This is because everyone stole our Midvinterblot anyway!!!.
Yes, the Christmas you all celebrate is our old pagan viking mid-winter party! And just because some guy comes walking into our country with a big X we aren't going to change our partying habits! ;)
Yes, there is a certain (limited) amount of lip-service paid to "Christ", and some church-related stuff, like "julottan", which is going really stupidly early to church on Christmas morning. Mostly the older generations actually do that, and not so much for religious reasons as due to "it's what you do on Christmas morn'".
Thats us in a nutshell, Swedes, we do stuff coz "that's what you do", not due to some massive underlying belief of some sort. Tradition.
And for Christmas we have a lot of tradition, because it's a mess. We are going to come to some of that later.
The first "christmas related" thing (apart from putting up some early christmas decorations, like the christmas curtains) is the four-candle "Adventsljusstake", i.e. a special candle-holder-thingamabob which takes 4 candles, and for each sunday-before-xmas-eve (we celebrate Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day, btw) we light one candle.
So first one,
then next week two,
then the next week three
and the week after that all four
...and just like those sentences generate a staggered appearance, so does the "Adventsljusstake", on Christmas Eve, if there is anything left of the 1st candle, you'll see a staircase looking contraption with a really short candle, a slightly longer, another even longer, and one longer than that.
Bizarre.
And we are big on candles.
I read an article by a Swede that was living temporarily in Japan and invited some japanese friends for a Christmas dinner. They had lit the entire aparment with candles, and the Japanese came in and wonder "oh, is the power out? Want help finding the fusebox". LOL. Also the Japanese guy saw the two lite candles in the "Adventsljusstake" and took out his lighter and lit the remaining two! TEH BLASPHEMER!
More Bizzare Swedish Christmas ritual to follow, next week.... when we mix Satanism with a Sicilian Saint, and setting fire to hair with Ginger Snaps.
Stay Tuned.
/Z
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