Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day... A day to celebrate love, as well as sell a metric ton of greeting cards, chocolates, flowers, and fine dinners. But despite what many people think, Valentine's Day was not created by Hallmark as a way to sell more greeting cards. Sure, they do sell plenty of cards. But they

didn't create the holiday.

So who do we have to thank for the holiday then? Just as with many things, it looks like it started with the Romans. Except they celebrated much differently... Back in those days, they took part in the feast of Lupercalia from February 13th to 15th. The men would sacrifice animals (usually goats), and they (hopefully playfully) whip women with the goat hides amidst their nude drunken merriment. After that, lots were taken and the names of the men and women that were coupled together would spend the festival together exactly how you would expect them to given the drunken party atmosphere.

As time went on the Catholic Church absorbed Lupercalia, Galatin's Day (Galatin = lover of women) and named it St. Valentine's Day after a couple blokes named Valentine who were executed (or martyred in the churches perspective) on February 14th in the 3rd century.

As with all the holidays that Christianity sucks up, the parts they liked were kept, and it evolved from there into the consumer giant it is today. It's a far cry from making Christmas money, but it sure is the florist's version of a Christmas payday.

Today Valentine's Day is a symbolic of love, togetherness, and showing that special someone just how special they are. And I can only hope that my wonderful wife sees just how much I love her on this day, as well as throughout the year. I truly love her and wish us never to part.

They're cute... But please tell me that I'm not the only person
that finds these revolting and blurring the line of what's edible.

Contrast that with the Christian deity... It's often stated that God is love, so will you be his valentine? He supposedly loves all and wants you to be with him in Heaven. Should be easy right? Oh, but to be with him you must accept a brutal, barbaric, and totally unnecessary human sacrifice... Sorry, but if hottest girl in school asked me to take her to the Valentine's dance but said I had to kill her cat first I'd have to pass on that offer as well.

Okay, so I have no date to the dance/Heaven... No big deal, right? Wrong! Well, very very wrong on one account. Not being someone's valentine means an outcome of exactly... well, I'm just not their valentine. No real penalty to be had. Oh, but turn down God's date request and the reaction is one that even the biggest diva in the world would think is extreme. Yup, good old 'loving' God presents you with eternity in a torture chamber. That doesn't sound very loving to me.

So while I love my wife and wish us never to part, God would claim to love me and sentence he and I to forever be apart. Yet if my wife ever stopped loving me, I wouldn't become some monster in reply and see tying her up in a basement and torturing her as a viable or remotely moral option. If you love someone, no matter how they feel about you, you still don't want to hurt them. At the end of the day, you still hold affections for them and want the best for them.

Given how unloving the god of the Bible is, it should be no surprise that the Bible itself contradicts the notion that God is love. 1 John 4:8 says that God is love. Deuteronomy 6:15 says that the lord thy God is a jealous god. And 1 Corinthians 13:4 say that love is not jealous. So it logically follows that
if God is jealous, and that love is not jealous, ergo God can not be love. Suddenly the fact that he seems like such an evil villain in the Bible makes much more sense...

Now that we have all that covered, I hope that everyone out there that has a special someone has a great Valentine's Day. And to the single people out there, keep your heads up. Before I met my wife, I didn't think I'd find that person for me. But I'm really glad I did. Happy Valentine's Day to the love of my life. The woman that makes every day a little brighter, better and can always make me smile. I hope you know at least half of how special and amazing you are to me. I love you hun!


-Brain Hulk

Please share, subscribe, comment and follow us on your favorite social networking sites!
facebook | google+ | twitter