Quick! Follow That Star!
A Christmas Season Tract

Christmas, the silliest season of the ecclesiastical year, when preachers begin to teach the miraculous man-god birth tales in the New testament (NT) books of Matthew and Luke.

It is interesting that Mark another unknown author and the oldest book in the NT, writes nothing of virgin birth of a baby-god. It was only later, after the fish story had grown with the retelling, that Matthew and Luke were written, with their contradictory versions of the genealogy and the birth of Jesus.

Matthew, chapter 1 starts with an imaginary genealogy ― totally at odds with the one in the third chapter of Luke. Matthew concocts 3 groups of 14 "generations" (total of 42) covering the time between Abraham and Jesus (god incarnate ― the Invisible Man in the Sky. Unfortunately, the unknown author of Matthew doesn't count very well, since he only lists 41 generations and there is no way to make 41 = 42! We then read the myth of the virgin birth and are told that a supposedly unfulfilled prophecy ― that a virgin shall conceive and have a son name Emmanuel ― is actually fulfilled with Jesus, a guy who never was called Emmanuel! Matthew then takes the reader on a magic carpet ride with a tale of the three "wise men" (some say Magi) who come from the East seeking the "King of the Jews." Matthew 2:9 reads:

"The star which they [Manny, Moe & Jack] had seen at its rising went ahead of them

until it stopped above the place where the child lay."

This following-the-star story is sheer idiocy. How does one follow a star, anyway? If you start to follow a star, such as described here, shortly after its rising you will begin to head east (after all, it is said to have risen in the east). Thus, the "wise?-men" would have begun to head back home to Iran or thereabout. By midnight, however, the star would have been south of our wise guys would have been heading toward Saudi Arabia. As the night wore on toward morning, they would head westward toward the Mediterranean Sea. With the beginning of a new night of travel, this loony behavior would replay again, the path of our unwise men ― Manny, Moe and Jack ― would mark a series of curlicues on the earth's surface. Depending on how fast they walked, how regular their rate, the absolute sizes of these curlicues would differ greatly, and the final destinations would be incredibly different.

Even allowing for the miraculous stopping of the star over the nativity scene ― an impossibility of literally astronomical dimensions ― how would the wise men know which house was under it? Every time they came to a house apparently under the star, if they just walked around to the other side of the house, they would find the star apparently had moved to be over the next house, and so on! If there are any true believers reading this message, I have a challenge. Tonight go out and try to follow a star ― any star except the North Star. See where it gets you!

On second thought, don't exclude the North Star. Go for it! When you get to Santa Claus' house, give my regards to the  elves.

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