Recently, I was accused of being "anti-Christ." Too funny. Sometimes I wonder how much thought religious folks actually put into understanding the history of their chosen religion, and how many dots they have taken the time to connect. Just as humanity exists as evolution's most recent child, so too does Christianity represent the Western theological flavor of the era. Do Christians realize that their lore is based on pagan ritual? Do they understand that they are worshiping constellations through mythology? Yes, I've been on about this far too much even for my own tastes, so this will be it for a good while. Please, if you consider yourself a religious person, take the time to watch these videos excerpted from the film Zeitgeist.
If you watched these videos, you are ready to contemplate the theory that perhaps Jesus Christ is the ultimate metaphor, and was never a living being. Although it has been implied by others, my interest in sharing such thoughts is neither emotional or negative. This is simply about seeking the truth; one of the driving forces behind this blog. Could I be wrong about this? Certainly.
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Zeitgeist
12 comments:
Thank you for this post.
I have wrestled with a belief in Christianity for quite some time. I've just always had questions and I've actually had them answered with "Oh, the devil wants you to question your faith! Don't be tempted!" But...that's not an answer. Isn't it easier not to be tempted when you have knowledge to combat it with?
The last video especially struck a chord with me, where it was said that religion allows people to detach from the natural world and from each other. That it reduces human responsibility in that God controls everything. I think, especially for me, this is what has caused me to detach from the evangelical church. I think the mistake is made in thinking that simply preaching a gospel of love and social responsibility (and Jesus is Lord) will actually infuse social responsibility into the members of these churches. It doesn't. They are being told to go out and love the world, to treat other people like Jesus teaches them to in the Bible, to have faith and pray that God will bring restoration to the Earth. Well, the roughly 2.1 billion Christians are being asked to do these things, to pray for our leaders, our world and the babies dying of AIDS in Africa among other things yet the social climate in the world continues to decline. See, of these 2.1 billion, how many actually DO something besides...pray? Besides talk? See my point? I may be wrong, and Christians may be right. Maybe I left the church out of bitterness but I appreciate the fact that I can find a different point of view which, let me tell you, not a lot of people in my conservative CRC area have!
Anyway, I digress. I'll wrap it up by just saying, again, thanks for the post.
I may have mentioned this before but I took a class under Bart Ehrman, who is one of the foremost theologians in the country. All throughout the course, he showed us how the Christian Sciptures (aka the New Testament) were similar to other writings of other "holy" people of the hundreds of years before Christ. Some accounts of Jesus were verbatim copies of other writings.
Ehrman refused to give us his personal views until the end of the semester. It was then that he told us that he had been a devout Christian and on the verge of fanatical for many years. But now he concluded that there is enough historical evidence to believe that a man named Jesus actually existed, but that he was not the Son of God.
As to if Jesus existed, is just a metaphor, or a man made into a metaphor I can't opine as I do not know. I know for certain in my heart he was not the son of an entity named God.
I'm not an atheist. I am agnostic, and don't presume to know whether there is something more than us at work. I just find the tales about what that something might be to be fairly ridiculous.
Allie,
You're very welcome! I spent many years struggling with some of the very same thoughts you've experienced. My final decision was based in a personal conviction that if there be a God, and that God allows this level of rotten atrocity to exist on Earth due to some elaborate system of "testing ones faith/worthiness," this was not a God I would ever want to align myself with, associate with, or spend an eternity with.
You bring up a good point. 2+ billion Christians praying and yet nothing changes, conditions worsen. Of what theoretical value then is prayer? If the entire world's population all prayed the same prayer, all at once, THEN would the all mighty deem to hear it, and end hunger, poverty, sickness and war?
Best of luck in your explorations, and I hope that your spiritual journey leads you to the answers you seek.
Cooper,
That's one of the reasons I like you so much. You always take the high (neutral?) road. Agnostic is definitely the wiser approach. Dragons, unicorns, God. Yeah I hear ya.
Nelson,
Nice. I've been teetering back and forth on that. The question I have then, is if Christ the man existed, as a regular mortal everyman, how did he gain notoriety of such mythical proportions by simply accumulating conventional religious tradition empirically?
Whether he existed as a man, or just a fictional character, I have great respect for the teachings he represents. Anything that furthers humanities interest in moral/ethical behavior I consider to be good on one level or another. My interest in pointing out that he may not have been a man, is only to illustrate that religion is metaphor. A notion that seems to be lost on hardcore believers when I additionally point out that some of the metaphors are illogical and self-negating.
In psychological terms, there is a condition referred to as "the self-fulfilling prophecy." And in my mind, there is a very real and present danger that if we do not wake people up to the fact that the bible is not to be interpreted literally, there are some extremely overzealous religious types out there who will labor to bring about the end of days Revelations style, in order to fulfill the will and word of God. It's already happening.
Nowhere does it state that anonymous comments are not accepted, or that they will be deleted on this blog. Perhaps you should make your comment policy more clearly visible, so that others who choose to post anonymously will not have their comments so rudely deleted.
Who the fuck cares who I am? Does it really matter? I'm assuming that something that anonymous said struck a nerve, because if it had been in praise of your work, I'm willing to bet you would have not deleted it.
Still anonymous,
No, actually there was nothing offensive about it. Didn't strike any nerves either. Although you are free to imagine there was of course. If that was you, and you were trying to "strike a nerve," well, I don't know what to tell you other than come on back and repost it with an email link.
Actually I started this blog as a means of speaking my mind in a public way. I was tired of posting anonymously at message boards and forums under screen names. My thinking at the time was that there was just way too much anonymity online, with too many people willing to say what they feel, but not actually own up to it through a real name, face, email, anything.
You can insult me, or my ideas all you want so long as you leave a name or a link, or anything that allows others to see a point of reference associated with your existence, something other than anonymous. When a person posts anonymously, it is little more than spam imo.
Who cares who you are? I do. I care that you have enough self respect to own your words. My deletion of anonymous comments should not be interpreted as a bad thing, rather, it is a gift to encourage anonymous folks to step out from behind their walls and be free.
I'll go ahead and leave this comment despite it being anonymous since you would probably draw even stranger conclusions were I to delete it.
Here, I'll even repost them for you, how's that?
Anonymous Comment (1):
Would someday here please define what is meant by "son of God"?
Aren't we all children of our creator?
Anonymous Comment (2):
Sunrises, sunsets, God. Yeah I hear ya.
As you can see, far from controversial or insulting. :)
If in the future you would like to c