Today In History - When A Peculiar Madness Began
On August 25, 325 the Council of Nicea, which is in present day Turkey, concluded. Constantine had summoned bishops from all over his empire to convene and hammer out differences in the fledgling christian faith. Central to the divisiveness was the subject of jesus' divinity: was he a God or inferior to God? The council decided to make the persona of jesus a divine superman, and also in the process whipped up the concept of the holy trinity - father, son and holy ghost.
People are taught in school that jesus was a historical figure and that the only real controversy, between faiths, is whether he was a divine sort of guy or no. But that's not the most important question. The main controversy is whether or not a guy named jesus christ ever existed at all.
It might seem that it's a given, with people indoctrinated into that purported history in school and it being so called common knowledge in society, but just like the "Al Qaeda" hoax just because you hear something repeated a lot doesn't make it real. Jesus' very existence has been questioned right from the very start of the christian religion and most christians and pagans at the time saw his story as sublime allegory. Any serious investigation into the jesus myth won't find a shred of evidence that the guy actually existed, but will show that his legend is the same as the gods of many past civilizations, actually fashioned after those more ancient legends, with jesus now taken on faith as being the real deal while all those other godlike figures are accepted as just allegorical mythology.
But the murderous and hypocritical Constantine needed to solidify his power base so he adopted the christian faith to gain followers. If his army had been defeated at Milvian Bridge, today we'd be poking fun at priests divining the future from sheep entrails in temples devoted to traditional Roman gods. Instead his Nicean council eventually established a cartoon version of more ancient mythology as a Divine Being, and mayhem ensues. Flash forward to today and we have the nightmarish Reign of Terror and the rise of christian fascism. Thanks boys!
"Human beings are on a journey of awareness, which has been momentarily interrupted by extraneous forces."
Carlos Castaneda, Magical Passes
People are taught in school that jesus was a historical figure and that the only real controversy, between faiths, is whether he was a divine sort of guy or no. But that's not the most important question. The main controversy is whether or not a guy named jesus christ ever existed at all.
It might seem that it's a given, with people indoctrinated into that purported history in school and it being so called common knowledge in society, but just like the "Al Qaeda" hoax just because you hear something repeated a lot doesn't make it real. Jesus' very existence has been questioned right from the very start of the christian religion and most christians and pagans at the time saw his story as sublime allegory. Any serious investigation into the jesus myth won't find a shred of evidence that the guy actually existed, but will show that his legend is the same as the gods of many past civilizations, actually fashioned after those more ancient legends, with jesus now taken on faith as being the real deal while all those other godlike figures are accepted as just allegorical mythology.
But the murderous and hypocritical Constantine needed to solidify his power base so he adopted the christian faith to gain followers. If his army had been defeated at Milvian Bridge, today we'd be poking fun at priests divining the future from sheep entrails in temples devoted to traditional Roman gods. Instead his Nicean council eventually established a cartoon version of more ancient mythology as a Divine Being, and mayhem ensues. Flash forward to today and we have the nightmarish Reign of Terror and the rise of christian fascism. Thanks boys!
"Human beings are on a journey of awareness, which has been momentarily interrupted by extraneous forces."
Carlos Castaneda, Magical Passes
posted by nolocontendere at 9:42 PM
4 Comments:
Actually I have no problem with Jesus. What I have a problem with are the fundamentalists that claim to be followers of Jesus and manage to overlook all his teachings of forgiveness and love. They claim to follow him and yet ignore those in favor of the OT teachings of judgementalism and even worse - hate.
I'm with you on this, Lesley, in that people can go ahead and believe any old thing they want, contradictions and inconsistencies included, as long as their beliefs end where our lives begin. The Jeebus myth is so utterly malleable and nebulous on purpose so nefarious manipulators can adapt it to their ugly purposes. It's a 'get out of jail free' card that excuses the worst of human behavior and I think it's high time the root aspects are exposed completely to take the wind out of their sails.
The whole xtian concept was an authoritarian political ploy from the very start; to create a flying spaghetti monster religion imposed at the point of a sword; shamelessly ripping off countless older myths to make it more palatable as it was shoved down people's throats. If some ran with it as a template to discover inner truths so be it, for every one of them there's a Pat Robertson or a Ted Haggard.
I agree that what passes for christianity today is an excuse for people to exercise control over other's thoughts. But don't we see the same thing with judaism and islam?
I believe we should be free to discover the God of our own understanding, unencumbered by the whims and insanity of others.
I mean, who in their right mind supports and can't wait for the the world to be destroyed? These people are crazy!
Thanks
Bill
historicist@hotmail.com
You bet, Bill, the same manipulative and destructive forces can hide behind all faiths. We happen to be mostly confronted with christopaths in the US though.
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