# National Day of Pointing Out Biblical Contradictions **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 3, 2001, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-day-of-pointing-out-biblical-contradictions/64232 "2001-05-03T16:52:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Falcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@Falcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falcon)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-day-of-pointing-out-biblical-contradictions/64232/141 "2001-05-20T15:24:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Der Kommissar \* > \*\*So you agree that this: > > Can you cite anything at all from the Constitution which indicates that the authors of that document were trying to found a Christian nation? One word even? > > is a red herring? > “These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.” > > Holy Trinity Church v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 > \*\* Well, considering that I just looked up that Supreme Court case in the archives ( [http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html](http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html) ) and 143 US 457 is CHICAGO & G. T. R. CO. v. WELLMAN… DK, care to find the REAL cite for this case? Because I suspect this quote is from a dissenting opinion. [Edited by Czarcasm on 05-20-2001 at 10:40 AM] ---
**Author:** ![Falcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@Falcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falcon)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-day-of-pointing-out-biblical-contradictions/64232/142 "2001-05-20T15:27:00Z")
Never mind. I just did a search on ANY Supreme Court case since 1893 with one of the parties being “Holy Trinity Church,” and no cases found. How many lies does this make for DK now? ---
**Author:** ![schief2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@schief2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schief2)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-day-of-pointing-out-biblical-contradictions/64232/143 "2001-05-20T17:06:30Z")
Not that I’m exactly rooting for **DK** , but the case he’s citing does exist…it’s just from 1892, so it slipped past the Findlaw search. The full cite, which I pulled off a [fundie page](http://members.aol.com/TestOath/HolyTrinity.htm), is > [@](#): > > THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES > HOLY TRINITY CHURCH v. U.S. > 143 U.S. 457, 12 S.Ct. 511, 36 L.Ed. 226 > February 29, 1892 Check out this [excerpt](http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/bill_schultz/Holy_Trinity.html) from the Supreme Court Reporter with regard to it. IANAL, but the whole decision sure as hell reads to me like the Court was merely overturning a statute that accidentally infringed on a church’s ability to hire a foreign minister to perform services. There’s a long-winded discourse on how the U.S. is a Christian nation (from which the original quote was taken), but not **one single sentence** declaring that it should be governed as such. But then, I’m sure **Kommie** ’s never even begun to read the actual decision for himself. Considering his previous debacle trying to cite John Quincy Adams in support of his cause, I’d be willing to bet cash money that he’s just mindlessly spouting a quote he read in some fundie newsletter without even knowing if it’s relevant, or accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-day-of-pointing-out-biblical-contradictions/64232/144 "2001-05-20T17:10:05Z")
Redboss I looked for a reply to your statement about the three days and three nights not matching the Easter story and I did not see one. If I missed it while scrolling, my apologies to anyone who did reply. You are correct in saying that the times do not match up. The reason for this is that Easter is not and never has been an observance of Christian origin. It was adapted by the the Catholic church from pagan traditions of the resurrection of their sun god. Before anyone gets too uptight, this is easily confirmed by looking into an ecyclopedia or simply by asking your priest. They didn’t even bother to change the name of the festival–Eostre (Astarte, Ishtar) was the goddess also associated with this pagan day. For the most part, only the name of Jesus was inserted in order to “Christianize” the observance. And if anyone out there is wondering: Yes, I am a Christian. No, I do not observe Easter. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-day-of-pointing-out-biblical-contradictions/64232/145 "2001-05-20T18:52:32Z")
**Mayflower** , there are numerous on-line dictionaries to cite. I could not find your particular version of the origin of Easter in any of them. Care to provide a supporting reference? (And I am not, in any way, suggesting that early Christianity did not borrow heavily from the pagan cultures from which it recruited its members; I simply challenge the statement > [@](#): > > Easter is not and never has been an observance of Christian origin with its attendant claim that Easter was “borrowed directly”.) (For one thing, the word Easter is of Northern/Central European origin and the celebration of the Resurrection was being discussed–using a totally different set of words–throughout the Mediterranean basin for years before Christianity made it into the region from which it could borrow the _word_ Easter.) ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-day-of-pointing-out-biblical-contradictions/64232/146 "2001-05-20T19:30:08Z")
I think that, whatever pagan trappings it may have acquired (especially in its popular, secularized celebrations–nobody’s pretending egg-laying bunny rabbits are to be found in any of the Gospels) Easter clearly is derived from (or transformed from) the Jewish Passover. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-day-of-pointing-out-biblical-contradictions/64232/147 "2001-05-20T21:49:36Z")
Anyway, it’s not like any prayers you make during Easter are getting rerouted to Astarte’s In-Box. Everyone says Easter is a Christian tradition, they’ve been saying it for centuries. Any fluffy bunnies aside, that means it **is** a Christian tradition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-day-of-pointing-out-biblical-contradictions/64232.md?page=7)