I would in this post like to put into perspective what I deem some of the most insane ideas of Christianity. Let's start with the alleged death of Jesus the Christ (whose existence is dubious at best), Christians believe that he is the son of God, and at the same time God himself, in this case incarnate in the person of Christ. He supposedly had a ministry on Earth that was about three years in length and was convicted of heresy and blasphemy. As a result of this conviction he was then sent to be crucified under Roman law for his crimes. After having hung on the cross a few hours he dies and is put into a tomb. Three days later he is found to be no longer in the tomb and it is believed that he has risen from the dead.
The first problem is that Christians believe today that he was buried on a Friday and rose on Sunday. By my count that does not count as three days since the last time I checked three days was equal to 72 hours. Next, several insane things happened immediately after he allegedly died. Others that were known to have been dead rose and were seen walking the streets of Jerusalem by many. Matthew 27:52,53 (NJB). For some reason according to this telling of the tale seeing a bunch of dead people strolling through town in their burial garments did not seem to startle anyone. And you never hear what happened to these people afterwards. Did they go back to their tombs and go back to their eternal sleep, or did they have another chance at living?
According to the scriptures Jesus was seen after his death as resurrected aside from his followers by over five hundred people according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8 (NJB). Lucky break for him that they were all conveniently illiterate or else we would have had much more evidence of his existence outside of the scriptures themselves thus negating faith. After having died and resurrected he then promises that he will come back during that age at some undetermined time and warns his followers to be watchful.
The gospel according to Matthew 24:3,14,29,30,34,and 36 if you have the time read this chapter and the verses I have noted. These are all signs of the end times and there is one verse in particular that I think reeks of superstition and is revealing as to how ignorant these people were of astronomy. Verse 29 states that "the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. The verse that follows states that then we will all see him (Jesus) coming on a cloud with great power and glory (somehow we survive all this). These are supposedly the words of Jesus to his disciples in a private little chit chat they had on the Mount of Olives.
Here is the problem: apparently, Jesus had no idea how the sun emitted light, nor that the moon never had any light since its light is just a reflection of the suns light off of the lunar surface, nor that stars themselves were actually suns since they all begin to fall. Even if we were to grant that it meant that there would be solar eclipse where the moon would block out the rays of the sun, it still cannot explain how the stars would begin falling from the sky.
As you can see in order to be a Christian you have to go against established scientific facts about the universe and the world we live in to accept its doctrines as truth. In a normal context anyone who believed in these or similar ideas would be considered insane and delusional. I am interested in seeing what the theistic response to some of the points I have outlined in this post would be.
To be a Christian is to be intellectually dishonest with oneself and at the same time in my opinion to completely abandon your faculties of reason. Faith is the ultimate equalizer in that based on faith nothing has to make any sense at all to be true nor require any evidence to sustain it.
David - Another great installment sir! You raise the issue of how sane (insane?) are the Xtians that believe the impossibly ridiculous stories in the bible. If you have ever watched any of these videos from the "Heaven's Gate" wacko's you know how self evident it is that they are completely nuts....:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqSZhwu1Rwo
...and yet, the same degree of batshit craziness is given a free pass under the guise of mainstream Xtianity.
FUCKING INSANE!
...
Billy, I completely concur with your assessments of the Christian faith. When you are not bound by superstitions it becomes easier to see more clearly. Christianity is just another of a long line of myths perpetuated by man and believed and accepted by the populace. I love to quote Hitler regarding propaganda and using it in the same context of religious beliefs.
ReplyDeleteMake the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.
Adolf Hitler
That quote is the origin of all religious beliefs in my opinion.
The points of light above where never ending candles put there by god to keep us worthless sinners amazed by his ability to constantly keep them lit all through the night and Jesus' power and his glory could be seen in the clouds by everyone living because the earth was known by the bible writers at that time as being flat, that's why the candles (stars) could fall and not completely destroy the earth, and candles flicker and so do the stars thats the reason there's secret hidden powers in seven candle sticks and seven trumpets, the power of seven, and angels, prayer, dreams, visions, blessings, etc. if we had never heard of such things, we would have never gave them a passing thought.
ReplyDeleteTo a Christian, faith out trumps reason, common sense and science, faith prevails above all things known to be true, having faith is knowing that god is above all things even though our view of reality may not be the same view of reality of that of god, so a belief in god means to skip over the things we know as true and to have faith and believe in what god of the bible thinks is true. By having faith, you can claim to be illiterate and still come out a winner above all others without faith in ridiculous things in the end.
David - I "believe" that every word you publish adds to the growing weight of rational thought that will eventually tip the scales towards the acceptance of atheism. We have the evidence. We have the science. And, someday, we will have the political persuasion.
ReplyDeleteWhat seemed socially and politically impossible a few short decades ago is now on the verge of becoming a reality. Thanks to millions of people like YOU!
David, you nailed it!!
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