Almost every year at this time I give a talk about the birth of Jesus and some information about the Star of Bethlehem. A monk, Dionysius. under the direction of Pope John I calculated the year Jesus was most likely born. He reworked the calendar and came up with the concept of BC and AD. He didn’t use 0 because that number didn’t appear in math until about the 12th Century. Dionysius determined that Jesus was born in the 23rd year of the reign of Augustus Caesar which would be in about 6BC. Herod lived 2 years after the birth of Jesus and Herod died in 4 BC, so this also puts Jesus birth in 6 BC. Jesus was born about 2 years after the tax decree of Augustus Caesar that was in 8 BC. All this would have placed his birth in 6 BC, He was most likely born in the spring because the Shepard’s were in their field at night with the sheep at that time of year. Almost certainly Jesus was not born on December 25 in 1BC or 0.

As far as December 25th is concerned, this is a man made holiday celebrating the birth of Christ. The first record of a celebration was in 336. Emperor Constantine had the festival of the nativity moved to December to rival a Pagan festival which honored the return of the Sun as the days began to get a little longer as the Sun moved north in the celestial sphere after the winter solstice. Finally, Bishop Liberius ordered the celebration to be on December 25th starting in 354.

So Jesus was probably born in the Spring of 6BC around March 16th and we started celebrating Christmas on the Dec. 25th 354 by order of the Church. Of course not everyone buys this story, but they are the facts as I have determined them. I have another good theory about the Star of Bethlehem regarding a celestial event in March 6BC.

Atheists don’t believe any of this. Those folks are very uncomfortable this time of year and at Easter. Many of them are well versed in the Bible because they are all groping for an answer to life and why we are here. They can’t accept the idea of Faith. It’s hard for me to understand why they are such zealots in trying to convert everyone else to their belief in nothing. They don’t want any of us to feel comfortable in our beliefs or to display it in any way because it is offensive to them. They are on a sinking ship and want everyone else on board so they will have company as they go down. Misery loves company.

I know a lot of folks who like to fish and just get a lot of joy out of putting a hook in the water whether they catch anything or not. Some fishermen may even throw the fish back. I am not going to try and persuade these folks to give up fishing because it’s the thing they love. Why can’t the atheist just leave the believers alone rather than trying to outlaw fishing and close all the ponds.

Porch sitting is my thing. I guess if somebody determines that this gives me great joy and satisfaction they will try and outlaw porches. Porches may be offensive to some because they know it gives peace to others. Maybe that’s the reason we rarely see porches on houses anymore. Someone like the atheist have found out that they give joy to a persons life.