Who Are The Xians? What Is Xmas?

Christ-lam? What on earth would that be?

That Catholic churches are hostile to Christianity?Prophex what the fuck are you talking about?

it looks a lot like final pehs and final tsadis in hebrew cursive (not print).of course, i doubt it's related.

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אָרַח

you must have misread me. i don't consider it insulting. most of the people in chat here tend to call me that, or "spidey."do you particularly mind "buz" or is that demeaning to the "saw" portion of your name? i've been to just about every kind church there is, from catholic mass, to lutheran services, to fundamentalist tent-revivals, to mormon meetings (actually my favourite, so far). the only bits i've avoided are the jw's (no particular reason) and the kind that dances with snakes and drinks poison.i think what your problem is is this: you don't actually know what the majority is, because you often don't consider or count other christians. this is a case in point. i'm not "biblicalist" so i don't count. you insult my faith at every turn, buz. how is that a christian thing to do?i talk about interpretation of the bible, and literalism, and fundamentalism, and paleontology on here, sure. have i ever once told you or anyone else that their faith didn't count? that they weren't real christians? i'll argue a lot of points, sure, but it's not to me, or you, who is saved and who is not.now, i kindly ask you: stop making insinuations about my faith. you know nothing of my relationship with my god. nothing. yes, this thread is about the anti-christian conspiracy. facts and history and language don't matter -- what matters is that a group that [i]claims to be[/b] the majority of christianity feels offended where no offense was ever intended.you have yet to substantiate your "majority" position.

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אָרַח

wrong user. i may not use many dimunitives, but i sure use dimuntive letters. i'm sorry, christ-gnostics? they're not around anymore. because it's just silly, buzsaw. in "X-mas" the "X" stands for something specific. you're just making up rules. why not axnostic? of agnostix? or agxotics? or agnoxics?it doesn't make sense, because "X" isn't used to replace a letter, it's an abbreviation for "christ" which was carred from greek, to latin, to english.think about for a second, and answer my question. if you can use "X" to replace anything, how do you know that X-ian means CHRISTian? why not pediatrician? how do you know it's not x-ing out medical care for children? there's lots of words that end in -ian, "Xian" could be any one of them.why does it mean "CHRISTian" do you think? it's a made-up non-word because you just made it up. "christ-lam" doesn't make sense. "Xian" and "Xmas" have been part of the english language, as abreviations, since the 1500's. we have a lot of "real" words that aren't that old. i think you'd get laughed at.

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אָרַח

buzsaw writes:

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We're English speaking Americans, my friend.

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Then why is so much of our language borrowed from Greek?I mean for crying out loud, buzsaw, where do you think the word "bible" comes from? That's right...the Greek word "biblos" meaning "book." If you can't handle English derivations of Greek words, then you are going to have a hard time speaking.There goes history (from the Greek "histor" meaning "knowledge"). The alphabet (do I really need to explain that?)And also one of the big sayings of your saviour: "I am the Alpha and the Omega."Damn...doncha just hate it when they do something sneaky like that?Besides "Xian" was a common abbreviation in English. The OED cites is useage back to 1551. XC and IC were the common abbreviations for "Christ" and "Jesus" (the C being representative of the ending form of the Greek letter sigma). The Duke Divinity School uses "XTIANTHE" in its course catalog for classes on Christian theology.Are you one of those people, buzsaw, who simply cannot be happy unless he's pissed off?

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Rrhain

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Thank you for your submission to Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.

No, but other users might ask "what are you trying to say?"You've been told that X = Christ, but X can also = Cross.
While "Cross-ian" doesn't make any sense, neither would "railroad Christ-ing"Do you think that railroad Xing signs are anti Christian because they X out the word cross.Or do you think in that case it's because the two legs of the letter X cross each other.You want so bad for people to be attacking you that you go to great lengths to try to bait them into it.Maybe you should ask yourself why your religious beliefs require you to feel so bad about yourself? Maybe it's time to take a look at Xfusionism, or perhap Zen Xhism.

crashfrog writes:

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But I don't get it about the integral sign. "Integral" doesn't begin with an S.

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No, it doesn't, but "summation" does. An integral is an infinite summation that gives the total area underneath a smooth curve. Thus, if you were to smooth out the angular sigma, you end up with something that looks like an S.The symbol was chosen by Liebniz (codiscoverer of the calculus...we use Newton's methodology but Liebniz's notation) and is, indeed, to stand for "summation."

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Rrhain

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Thank you for your submission to Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.

Exactly! It gets even more amusing when you consider that he calls his saviour Christ, a Greek name, rather than his actual name, or an Americanized version of his actual name. I pointed that out back in Message 135, but didn't get a response, hopefully you will because I'm really interested in buzsaw's response.

As a Xian, and a Roman Catholic (formerly Protestant) I have no problem with the use of the term xian and it's derivatives, but that is because I took the effort to find out exactly what the X in Xmas stood for. Anyway, it's neat that a Christian is someone who believes in Christ and you can also say that a Xian believes in the cross, as in believes in the redeeming power of the cross and all it represents.I made this effort to find out about Xmas before I was 11 years old and I don't have a problem with it. The history of the Christian faith is what shaped it to be what it is today.Buzsaw, the only person on this thread who has consistently demeaned Christians is you. I fully expect a reply telling me that I'm not a "proper" Christian because I don't agree with your wholly uninformed point of view. The snag is, you're now informed and you've stuck your fingers in your ears and shouted "la la la" at the top of your voice. You don't want to hear the truth, you don't want there to be a perfectly simple and religious reason why X is substituted for the word Christ. You just want to have a whinge and you've made a bloody fool of yourself.I would have had more respect for you if you'd taken the information that you'd been given and admitted that the only reason you took offense was because you didn't actually know enough about it and now that you know, you realise it isn't offensive or intended to offend. Sadly, you've chosen to disregard all information given because it doesn't fit with your whinge.Apart from yourself, the only people I've come across who have trouble with the terms Xian or Xmas have been those with not a clue about the beliefs and history of Christianity. Not one single person who knows that X is an abbreviation for Christ and comes from Chi has a problem with it.A second point to consider is that we can't use Chi instead of X because the vast majority of us don't have Chi on our keyboards!!!!!Edited to add: If you think Xmas has an equivalent in Xlam, how do you feel about Allahmas? Putting Christ into Christmas as an abbreviation is a whole different kettle of fish to putting Christ into Islam.This message has been edited by Trixie, 12-10-2005 05:31 PM

It's not about whether I understand it or not, it is a simple concept. It's your intentions that are so horribly messed up.

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these walls are paper thin
and everyone hears every little sound.

This thread is getting bogged down in semantics about technicalities which stray from the specific topic questions asked in the OP. These questions are pertaining to how Christians regard the terms Xianity and Xian when these Christians are called or referred to in these terms. We could argue till the cows come home on semantics, but how about honing in on the specific questions in the OP?I've been swamped with my away from computer workload and am far behind on responding to the posts, being one vs many counterparts who should receive responses. I've been responding to each message in order in the time I've been on this. I've needed to read links, research, et al in order to respond. The technicalities are drawing the focus off topic and the OP questions have become sidelined. Yes there have been some responses relative to the questions on occasion but that's not where the focus is going. I would appreciate if from here on we can focus on the three OP questions below. 1. It has been pointed out that the Xs above are moot, by arguing that the X = Christ. My problem with this, as I've stated is that though Xian is perceived by nearly everyone to mean Christmas, the vast majority of Christians never refer to themselves in writing, posting, typing, printing, and other forms of letter communication as Xian. In nearly 60 years in multitudes of churches and church circles, I don't remember of ever encountering the term until I got on the internet. It's a relatively new and emerging expression which most Christians take in a negative tone. It is also used by and large in communication by those unsupportive of the Bible and Christianity.2. Until this thread, likely many at EVC were not aware of all the semantics of the Greek connection as discussed here. Likely most of the laity active regularly in the churches have never encountered the term, like me until the www and those who have are also not aware of these semantics. They look at the term Xian as a secularist means of referral to Christians in a negative tone.3. Most Christians perceive the X in Xianity as an English language X used either as a secularistic Xing out of Christ or as a cheap shot on Christianity by folks unsupportive of Christianity. Most of the laity do not connect it to chi/Greek and in fact most don't even know what the Greek for Christ begins with the Greek letter CHI or that it might in any way be connected with Xianity.4. I've said the above to say this: Since most Christian laity in the churches don't relate the X to the Greek, but a means of Xing out or diminishing/demeaning, neither would the Buddists, Islamists, et al. They, also, would connote it as Xing out, diminishing/demeaning in nature if the X were substituted in the name of what they consider to be their holy religion. If it were used in referral to them they also would not connect it to the Greek CHI. Rather they would regard it as an English X from the English alphabet if they were in an English speaking culture. I stated this question poorly in the OP in that some Christians here are the most vehement ideological adversaries of the Bible, nearly always debating negatively against it's credibility and those who preach the Biblical fundamentals of Christianity. Since the fundamentals of Christianity come from the Bible, why should they be offended? The question should be about what the active weekly church going devout Christians of society think about these terms.QUESTION: If a high government official wrote a document or important statement printed in the national news substituting Xianity for Christianity so as to receive high readership or if your local newspaper headlined a statement pertaining to evangelist Billy Graham, referring to him as an Xian substituting Xianity for Christianity, would there be a neutral, positive or negative reaction by the Christian community by and large?This message has been edited by buzsaw, 12-10-2005 05:47 PMThis message has been edited by AdminJar, 12-10-2005 05:56 PM

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The immeasurable present is forever consuming the eternal future and extending the infinite past. buzsaw

Christians that are ignorant of the meaning of X in the Christian religion can be understood, excused and educated. The only problem is that their church has failed in the basics of teaching the history of Christianity.Christians that continue to be upset by the use of X as in Xian, or Xmas after the origin has been explained to them are being willfully ignorant.AbE:You also continue to make insulting and ignorant assertions. I'll have you know that I am an active weekly church going Christian who has helped start churches and missions, built several churches, taught both youth and adult Sunday school, and I'm offended by your continued implications that those who respond to you are not devout Christians.This message has been edited by jar, 12-10-2005 04:58 PM

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

No buz, this topic is getting "bogged down", and infact totally swamped in repetition of a fact which renders your interpretation at best erroneous and at worst wilfully ignorant. Now you declare anything refuting your misinterpretation to be off topic. Edited because half my reply has disappeared.May Xians have replied here and only one has agreed with you i.e., you're in the minority, yet you still insist you're in the majorityBuz, just because you didn't know the origin of the X doesn't mean that that origin doesn't exist. It does exist and many Christians know of it.Edited again cos I forgot a bit; You seem to think that the definition of a Christian is either "someone who agrees with buzsaw, no matter how ludicrous his position" or "someone who can get offended by the X in Xmas". OK, back it all up - quote me chapter and verse from the Bible where it says that these conditions have to be fulfilled to be a Christian. Suddenly an awful lot of Christians are no longer "proper" Christians, according to the word of buzsaw. Can you please stop intentionally insulting Christians who just so happen to know a wee bit about the history of their own religion and so can't agree with your totally uninformed position.This message has been edited by Trixie, 12-10-2005 06:01 PMThis message has been edited by Trixie, 12-10-2005 06:08 PM

Hi Asgara. Actually I posted my last message before reading yours. In it I addressed this problem with that question directed to those on this board. I bit off more than I can chew here in that I'm only about to begin on page three in my policy of consecutive responses. At this rate it's going to be a spell before responding to a lot of stuff needing responses. Thus the post to hone in on specifics. It appears that AdminNWR was right in that I needed to simplify my OP.

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The immeasurable present is forever consuming the eternal future and extending the infinite past. buzsaw