Nearly everyone I know believes and cherishes Jesus Christ's story. He was born, he built stuff out of wood, broke some bread, and was later betrayed by one of his followers which landed him the starring role in Mel Gibson's feature film "The Passion of the Christ" - or something like that. The story of Jesus Christ is poorly documented despite thousands of words by "eye witness accounts" being written about him and according to some theories it is possible he may not have even existed at the time he is said to have been alive. I would like to discuss why Jesus of Nazareth likely didn't ever exist, but also why holding his teachings as a guide for your morality is absurd, specifically when referring to his 'sacrifice' for humanity. The latter first, the former second. Here we go!
Believing that someone would die for another person or group of people out of love is not an unthinkable idea, it certainly has been done many times before. Plenty of stories of heroism, men jumping onto grenades to save those around them for example is of course selfless behaviour. We would instantly be thankful of our lives being saved in such a close call. So when told of how Jesus died for our sins we are obligated to feel grateful or indebted. As if everything is made better as long as us lost souls in need of salvation accept this "eternal dictatorship". Well, therein lies the problem, doesn't it? Is it a moral action to take someone's responsibilities off of them? Maybe. Is it a moral action to serve a sentence for someone? Not really, but it has been done. Is it a moral action to shirk blame, consequence and culpability off of yourself and push it onto someone else? I say absolutely not. This is an abysmal display of what it means to be human. If you want to teach your children that they can escape consequence of their actions, no matter how despicable, then you go right a head - but keep it out of the schools, government, and certainly out of any form of media. Also you should not expect to escape the paying of taxes, or to inherit subsidized help from the government, as is the case in our society currently. Telling children, or anyone for that matter, that they can commit any crime and then escape consequence by accepting an eternally binding contract with a man known as their 'saviour' is very close to, if not meeting the requirements for child abuse. We have never needed salvation to be morally right. My personal proof is that I've never experienced this 'salvation' offered by following the absurd 10 commandments and accepted the cuffs and chains of Christianity's teachings - yet I've acted in a morally decent way my entire life. Thousands of us do everyday without the need for this childish story and we do it just fine. This idiocy should not be taught to children, ever.
To start, Jesus was apparently born of a woman who had never had sex with a man. Not only is this preposterous scientifically but it appears even the Gospels were unsure of the truth behind the story, because only Matthew (1:18) and Luke (1:26-35) even mention the virgin birth. Two out of four, kind of seems like an important issue to leave out 50% of the time when describing one of the most spectacular things ever to be recorded in human history.
Next, Jesus' story is very choppy at best. He appears to literally have dropped out of written history from the age of twelve to reappearing at the age of 30 - there is not one single reference to him for those 18 years of his life. I am left to assume that he was a socially awkward teenager with a massive Jew-fro. Or, maybe as most historians would agree, the Jesus Christ that actually existed in real life was much different than the one Christians praise in the Bible. These are the two main views; the one held by Christians that is certainly, logically not true, and the one that can actually be held to some accountable evidence.
The Christian version is that he was born of a virgin, became the founder of the Church, and performed miracles which included (but certainly was not limited to) creating food for hundreds of people from a small portion of bread and fish, defying the laws of physics and gravity to walk across water (which incidentally would have made him great at Water Polo), the curing of ailments and diseases, the performing of exorcisms, the resurrection of the dead on three separate occasions (Mark 5:21-43, Luke 7:11-17, John 11: 1-44) plus a fourth where he brought himself back to life, and my personal favourite; finding a coin in a fish's mouth (Matthew 17:24-27) which may or may not just have been a cheap trick to impress Mary Magdalene.
The realistic version is that the man referred to as Jesus was most likely a Galilean Jewish Rabbi. Slightly different take on the guy you're used to hearing about. He was quite an eccentric Rabbi at that. Even C.S. Lewis has (rather honestly) said that if this man existed he 'was either a liar, a nut, or believed quite firmly the end of the world was soon to come'. It's quite obvious that his core teaching of "leave no thought for the 'morrow" is nothing short of unpractical and completely insane. This tells us not to invest, not to care for family, not to build, not to protect, just to simply follow. Sounds as if he either has no idea how a functioning society works, or he believed with utmost certainty that the world was indeed soon to end. It appears that if the latter is true he was very, very wrong.
Is this morally right behaviour? To scapegoat your problems so that we never have to fully deal with the consequences of our actions and to give no thought to our future? To believe we are made moral by these teachings is to label yourself an non-thinking person, and definitely to cast aside your own personal freedoms. To wish to live as just another sheep, a total slave. We do not need the absurdity of the Jesus myth any longer, we have human connection to survive, to be moral. It's all we've ever needed and the sooner we cast off the shackles of religious slavery the sooner we will prosper worldwide while oppression, slavery and poverty will finally be allowed to recede.
The core teachings of Christianity are fraudulent and have not served a beneficial function in human society for two thousand years; it's high time we step forward into the enlightenment.
Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a comment or head on over to my Twitter page right here: https://twitter.com/#!/ChrispyPaul
my favourite part of this was when i scrolled down and the ad at the bottom said "DAILY BIBLE GUIDE , inspiration from the bible right on your browser "
ReplyDeleteThe more Atheist's I come in contact with, the more I believe, as a society, we can unite, as reason and science rightfully take their position over superstition, and dogma. I first started posting on fb, a few years ago, my opposition to Christianity, and I suggested an open dialogue with the people in my local community, in which I had connections with all the way back to grade school.
ReplyDeleteMy attempts were met very harshly, and few wanted to discuss the issue, which puzzled me at first, but now I think I understand. I put the shoe on the other foot, so to say, and I began to envision a world in which my life-long worldview was being systematically dismantled. Imagine living in a world, where over time, Biblical claims were being scientifically tested, and were turning out to have a true hypothesis, time and again, What if instead of reason being played out over time, religious Dogma were being verified. Imagine hat this Biblical verification had been going on for 100 years, and testing true for just as long. Imagine if it were not the Bible advocates being proved correct, instead of science. A few specifics which may help one to get a feeling for how this would destroy one's worldview. 1, It turns out that Galileo was wrong, and that a mistake had been made, and in fact the Earth is now the center of the Universe, accepted by the mainstream Astronomers. Imagine the Shroud of Turin turned out to be authentic, Imagine Noah's ark being discovered, and evidence clearly showed an ingenious method of collecting two of every known creature, with evidence that Kangaroo's were present.
Take all this and more, and how we would attempt to come to grips with this. I for one would just up and quit. I would seriously contemplate how, I could never worship a God like this, and I would choose not to participate. I think allot of this is going on today, where good, everyday people are waking up to the reality that have been deceived their whole life. What could one do to save what little self-respect that is remaining. It would be hard to realize that all you hung your hat upon, was a lie, (a lie that is still being pushed on us by the politicians we elect, without exception, all claim to be devout believers. The forefront GOP leader a Mormon!! The others just plain old "born again Christians" with conservative values compared to Mitt Romney, the leading Mormon. I do believe there is a Muslim Congressman. But, as G.H.W.Bush stated, "Atheist's are below criminals, and in my opinion, UN-American, and could not be trusted as Protectors of our Nation, as they Hate God."
Well, Mr. President, I will support you right to express your views, you are far from the truth. First and most importantly, I can only speak for myself when I say that I do not hate God, I just do not believe he exists. Could I be wrong, sure, I am wrong on allot of things. But I am confident that I am correct in the belief that you God does not exist. Trust me if necessary, I would fight for the right to life under the Constitution of these United States. I agree with Winston Churchill's opinion of Democracies, in that, "Democracy is the worst form of Government, except, of course, for all the rest."
I think in this time where reason is being accepted over Dogma, let Christian's hold on to some of their dignity as they come to the realization they were wrong. Let's show some restraint in rubbing their noses into it, as so often has been done by some pro-religion nuts in the past, first on my list is Bill O'Reilley, who on many occasion's has used his format to twist the whole meaning of supposed civilized arguments, where he has used the most despicable means to discredit those who have the Gall to disagree and he has no other means to dispute facts. Let's have compassion, for those coming to terms, lest they be forced to dig their heels in the ground to retain some dignity