There was a war going on in Jerusalem between the Jewish priests who wanted Rome to be the head, the Jews who wanted to be independent of Rome and a small sect that wanted to be free of both Rome and the Jews. Rome had crucified a thousand of the small sect. Someone from this small sect created the story of a “Jesus” to rally the troops around. The story is today named the book of Mark. The story included bringing forward the old tradition of a future king to be their savior from the Jewish priests oppression.
The writer created a super being who could cast out devils, cure the sick. Someone who had died courageously and conquered death. Someone who poked his thumb at the Jewish priests (the Pharisees), someone who could give them life after death! He needed his companions to be ruthless in battle and not worry about dying! This was a wartime epic, written to build up the sect. And so Christians were created.
Paganism was a problem for the early church, so two other books were written two generations later, taking Mark and embellishing on it, these books are now called Matthew and Luke. They helped reel in the Pagans. They made up the birth story! Then two generations later still, John was written.
The church had so much trouble trying to get converts to give them their money that they co-opted the pagan rituals to smooth over the transition. These were both Jews who had been dropped, and Gentiles who had been involved in the pagan rituals. Both were grabbed by the “life after death” hook. A fable had started a practice that has ensnared billions.
That is how the Christian religion got started. The Christmas tree was a practice of the pagans to bring luck into the house. Every other part of Christmas was brought forward from thousands of years past. Nothing new.
The Catholics did not “bring paganism” into religion any more than Protestants brought the Christmas tree in. They were already there in the beginning! Catholics just have not cast off as much as some others.
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