Christian Mythology

You know how the ancient Greeks believed in the pantheon of gods? Zeus, Hera. Apollo. Athena. et al. For thousands of years, people built temples and worshipped at the altar of polytheism. And not just the Greeks. The Romans. The Vikings. Many other civilizations, too. Nowadays we look at that on their beliefs s quaint "mythology". We read their stories as children. And some of them are great. Not just because they are great literature, but because they impart certain values and reflect upon human behavior. But make no mistake, this is just mythology.

I believe that the same will be said of these generations of monotheists. Christianity is just mythology writ large and in your face. The greatest story ever told? Maybe. But just a story. That's it. It's becoming problem at the moment because the people who believe that that New Testament is not just a story, but rather the unaltered word of god are emboldened by the current political climate. It's becoming a problem because these people are trying to take this mythology and force their mores on the rest of this country and the world. It's not just Christianity, by the way. Militant Islam is doing the exact same thing, just using different methodology.

What makes the story of Jesus so insidious is that he was actually alive. He is an historical figure. Of that I have there can be no doubt. He was a rabbi, a carpenter. He preached in Jerusalem. You can go to Israel. You can visit his birthplace. You see where he lived. You can see, roughly, where he was crucified. I did. I cycled around the Sea of Galilee. I visited Capernaum where he lived. I stopped at the Church of the Beatitudes where he supposedly gave the sermon on the mount. I explored the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. I saw the faithful carrying crosses up the Via Dolorosa. It's all amazing. There's no doubt about it.

However, and this is a big however, I believe that the man in reality bears little resemblance to the man in the gospels. I don't know whether the teachings of Jesus actually happened. I do believe that they are generally good things. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Do under others... And if most people followed even those two basic tenets of the Jesus' philosophy, the world would be a far better place, but they can't even manage that.

I believe that the apostles, in their zealous drive to legitimize Christianity developed stories about Jesus, such as the resurrection, so recently celebrated, and the walking on water business, and the loaves and the fishes, amongst others so that potential converts would be drawn to the new religion by the apparent divinity. It was a far easier sell and they were great salesmen. Maybe the best ever.

Their message might not have been received right away, but it's being heard loud and clear right now. I'd love to see what their reaction would be to all they wrought. I doubt in their wildest imaginations could they have believed the extent to which the word of Jesus which they largely fabricated has spread. I think Samoa would knock them for a loop let alone South America, the Philippines or most of the rest of the world. Anyway, I digress, but I think you see the point I'm driving at.

America is going through a dark age at the moment where reason is losing ground to religion. As someone who is sitting on the sidelines, I can only hope that what I see going on is only a short term trend and that the backlash that whips us back to the sanity of reason will be sharp and harsh.