Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Religious beliefs are rooted in mythology

I don't know what is going on in this world. Maybe it's just me, but I find that the validity that is given to religious beliefs are in my view insanely ridiculous. When it comes to Judaism, Christianity, and the Bible I find it disturbing that people are willing to go to great lengths to understand what is blatantly obvious given the origins of these belief systems. The fact that they are all a particular society's cultural beliefs and are not historical but rather entirely rooted in myths.

In my case it only took a straightforward and literal reading of the bible to see that it was all nothing more than myth making. I did not have to go to college to learn Aramaic, Hebrew, or Greek to see what was obvious to the discerning reader: that no matter what language you read the bible in it's still nothing more than ancient mythology. Because of the fact that these myths are intermingled with history to a certain degree, it makes historians want to give these tales some sort of validity or benefit of the doubt.

The myths that were formerly believed and observed before monotheism were all polytheistic in nature, and took a lot of effort to appease the innumerable deities that they believed to have existed. There were deities for pretty much every aspect of nature, there were local and provincial deities, etc. Think of the Catholic church and their various saints in order to see this in a much clearer light. The Catholics have an intercessory saint for pretty much every imaginable misfortune or ailment you might encounter, and so depending upon your need you may call upon one of those saints to intercede before God in your favor.

It stands to reason that in the case of Judaism someone finally got tired of praying to every imaginable deity under the sun. As a result of this monotheism was born, instead of praying to many gods why not just name a supreme God and pray to him instead? I don't know about you but this type of reasoning seems to make a lot of sense to me.

I am convinced that because of the connection with religion and politics throughout ancient history we can get some clues as to what was going on around the times these tales were made up. Otherwise, the validity of religion as a field of study is nothing more than a waste of time and effort. If you are studying for the benefit of familiarizing with what people once believed as we do today when we study Roman and Greek mythology or the religious beliefs of the Maya, Incas, etc. Then it's fine as long as you are aware that what you are studying is not factual.

That is not the case with religious studies today as it pertains to the Bible or the Koran. Because both books mix some historical facts with myths historians and religious scholars can't seem to separate the one from the other unless you are a skeptic and non-believer. One thing is certain about myths and that is that they tend to grow as a result of building off of one another. When a society is exposed to a different culture and their religion, you can later see some borrowing that has transferred into their myths and religious beliefs as a result of their exposure to a new culture.

The Hebrews wanted their own identity and so it is not so far fetched to believe that as part of this new identity they also wanted to have their own deity and religion. Something that separated them from the rest of the crowd. But even in this attempt they could not help but borrow elements from other preexisting myths from the Babylonians, Egyptians, Canaanites, and others. The Epic of Gilgamesh is but one of many examples.

In conclusion as I stated in the title all religious beliefs are rooted in mythology. That being said there should be no reason why one myth in this case Christianity or even Judaism should be held more valid than another. A myth is a myth and if we are at the point where we are going to accept myths as reality then we should not stop with the traditional beliefs why don't we resurrect some of the more ancient Greek myths? It would be quite fun to believe in unicorns and a pantheon of gods forever at war with one another. These beliefs were stupid then and they are even more sillier now in an age of learning and scientific progression.


21 comments:

  1. If you earnestly seek the truth, you will find it. An the truth is in Jesus Christ. I have just one question, who do you say that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was?

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  2. If you accept fable at face, avoid investigation and questioning, you reject truth. Worse, you don't want to know the truth.

    I strongly recommend "The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity", by Hyam MacCoby, a biblical scholar. A most revealing and compelling assessment of how Paul turned a devout Jewish Messiah figure (of which there were many) who sought to reestablish the Jewish kingship line and expel Roman occupiers, into a man-god and a religion said Jesus would have found blasphemous.

    Practitioners of christianity aren't following jesus, they are Paulists- worshiping the imaginative invention of the world's greatest religious charlatan, liar, and PR man.

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  3. here's the amazon link. http://www.amazon.com/The-Mythmaker-Paul-Invention-Christianity/dp/0760707871

    Question, challenge, examine, investigate, learn.

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  4. but who do you say that Jesus was!

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  5. @Anonymous, Jesus almost certainly did not exist. If he did he was just one of many so called self proclaimed messiahs and prophets of his time. He did not go around raising people from the dead, healing the sick, casting out supposed devils,etc. If he existed he was just a man who was later deified by his followers. Here is even more devastating news; he never rose from the dead!! Get your head out of your bible and read a book before you comment on my blog. I don't need to be preached to, I'm pretty sure I could give you and your pastor a couple of bible lessons.

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  6. The ot is actually about multiple gods. As you know the ot is a mixture of writings which if more obvious in hebrew, but the two creation stories is a good example. The first god of the hebrews was elohim, but they eventually settled for the war-like god yahweh when they were in captivity. It is an interesting study.

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  7. One of the best literary works on religion was written by John Jackson Man God and Civilization which reveals the god myth

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  8. ex-minister1, I agree with you it is an interesting subject from an academic standpoint. As you probably know the Pentateuch is believed to have been written by several authors and not by Moses. Throughout the O.T. There are many instances as you pointed out where a story is narrated more than once and quite differently from one another. You have named two of the four believed traditional sources E for Elohim,J for Yawhist, P for priestly, and the Deuteronomist source. Of course it's an hypothesis but judging by the material in the Pentateuch these sources seem rational and according to their writings they stand out.

    @Anonymous, the God myth extends beyond the bible into such ancient traditions as the Chinese, the Egyptians, etc. When it some to the Jesus myth I like to refer people to the best case for this myth by Earl Doherty entitled 'Jesus, Neither God nor Man' this is an expanded addition to his previous book 'The Jesus Puzzle' you can visit his website as well at http://www.jesuspuzzle.humanists.net/ this is a link to both his sites.

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  9. It is impossible that Jesus was just a man, because He said that He was the Son of God, and when he said this, there were only two options, that He was telling the truth and or that He was lying, if He was telling the truth then He was the Son of God, if He was lying then He was a bad man, either morally or mentally, and there is no proof that he was either crazy of evil.

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  10. Sorry, crazy or evil.

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  11. Anonymous, that post about Jesus being the son of God and the options that followed from it make no god damn sense at all. Tell me oh wise one, how do you know that he was not lying or deluded? Did you interview him by any chance, and determine since you apparently must have a degree in psychiatry or psychology that he was sane?

    Just because he allegedly said he was the son of God doesn't make it so. I can make the same statement, would you believe me? If not then why not? what you are presenting here is what is known as a circular argument.

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  12. If you said you were the son of god, then i would say you are a hardened heart atheist trying to disprove the Divine nature of Jesus.

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  13. Very funny, you have once again proven my point! Why does Jesus get a pass and I don't? Is it because he said it first? If this were true then you would have to disregard Jesus claim since there were many others making the same claim even before he came on the scene. Your idea of reason is unreasonable and your use of "logic" is illogical lol.

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  14. are you at all open minded to what I am saying! I will pray for you brother, for it is easy lose your faith but hard to keep it. and by the way, you swore by the name of God, because His name has power, "it make no god damn sense at all."

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  15. I swore by the name of God to show that I have no respect for mythological beings that don't exist.

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  16. By the way, your gods name has as much power as the whooshing noise my toilet makes when I flush it.

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  17. Obviously you didn't think that when you said it.

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  18. And by the way, I will pray for you. I hope you find true happiness and truth in your life. Amen.

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  19. @Anonymous, I am pretty sure there is a pill for whatever mental ailment you may be suffering. You should see a psychiatrist before it gets worst. I wish you luck and a speedy recovery.

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  20. Thanks for the book suggestion, Chatpilot!
    I just ordered the Earl Doherty books and look forward to their arrival.

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  21. @Anonymous, don't mention it. I am sure that you will enjoy those books they are top notch and come highly recommended.

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