I just don't get it. Why would anyone choose to worship snooty, snobby, scroogie, stuffed-shirt, sexually-uptight, violent, war-ridden, me-first bully-boy boors with two left feet like Jehovah, Yahweh, Allah, Vishnu and others, when they could have an egalitarian, democratic, non-violent, peaceful, smart, sensual, creative, freedom-loving, gorgeous, generous Great Mother Goddess who loves them ecstatically?
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thnx to big_foam_amazing for the foto
You've got me there. I find turkey vultures more worthy of my prayers that mean man war gods.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering...Jesus isn't necessarily a war god, and his teachings aren't very war-god like, at least not on their own. Is it possible that the whole Jesus thing was just distorted, taken out of context, and abused by the Yahwist/Jehovist culture?
ReplyDeleteabove comment from Andy.
ReplyDeleteAnne, As well you should! As you well know, vultures are one of the most important creatures on the planet -- in charge of cleaning and converting old end-of-its-time stuff into new, hot-off-the-shelf produce! What would we do without them?!?
ReplyDeleteAndy, I like Jesus's fierce love for people.
ReplyDeleteBut he's god #2 in the Bible, after the *War*-god Jehovah, who the famous scientist Richard Dawkins rightly calls "a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malveolent bully" (The God Delusion p. 31).
The trick with the Bible is, people have a choice: they can follow Jesus, or the psychotic Jehovah. Unfortunately, in bad times they have always followed Jehovah, treating others just the way he treats them.
We need to rid the planet of this primitive desert god and others like him.
As to your question was Jesus "distorted, taken out of context, and abused by the Yahwist/Jehovist culture," I'd say yes.
I think Jesus' ideas of equality and love for all people make much more sense if you consider that Jesus was born and raised by Mary, whom I consider to be an embodiment of the Great Mother. In this context, Jesus is the Son of the Goddess, who preaches love to all people. But hey, this is just my opinion.
ReplyDelete--Andy
Andy, What you say makes sense. I can somewhat see Jesus as the son of the Great Mother Goddess. Of course in the Bible Mary is a dead stick figure -- does nothing, feels nothing, is nothing. And I think the Great Mother Goddess had a daughter and a son. Where's Jesus' sister, the sister who would become the Great Mother as She grew older?
ReplyDeleteAlso, Jesus is great re: love and equality, but he's very, very weak on so much that is part of The Great Mother: creativity, sensuality, playfulness, color, fun, games, riches! There's nothing wrong with being rich -- The Goddess wants us to be rich -- but all of us, not just a few.
Athana,
ReplyDeletePerhaps the other Mary would be the sister/daughter, Magdalen. That would make sense wouldn't it?
Jesus had numerous wonderful elements to his teaching. I lot of it was love and peace oriented; do unto others as you would have done unto you kind of stuff. However; we must remember. The life of Jesus as we have it now was written by a radical group known as Christians, 60-120 years after his death. That is the sum of generations post-christ who are relating stories that were passed down from their fathers and grandfathers. That was not unusual for the time but I think it is important to look at the historical context before saying this man was all about love and peace.
ReplyDeleteWould it not be good public relations for a group which was essentially bringing about the fall of Rome to identify themselves with a self sacrificing son of god? Also remember, the story of Christ is not all love and peace.
The story is told of a time he went mad in the temple and drove the tax collectors and money changers out. Someone with that capacity is certainly not all about love and peace. Finally, his claim to god. He was not an ignoramus. He knew the consequences and effect this would have on the Jewish culture.
His final act was one of genius which would ensure a revolution. As we all know, revolutions by definition require blood. A far cry from love and peace.
Seein' as how John the Baptist told soldiers and tax collectors to keep working...Christ himself told people to pay taxes (if I correctly understand "render unto Caesar")...and Paul (possibly others I am forgetting) taught a lot about obedience to authority and government,
ReplyDeleteI don't know why you think they were seeking to bring about the fall of Rome. There were certainly some Jewish rebels who thought Jesus was gonna help them, but they were wrong. The NT really doesn't sound like it was written by political revolutionists.
Anti-thesis, I think you're on to something here. Mary Magdalene orginally would have been the daughter of the Great Mother, and Christ would have been the Great Mother's son. That'd be why it was only Mary Magdalene and her women who were allowed to go to the tomb where the god Jesus (her brother) arose. Nice job.
ReplyDelete"I don't know why you think they were seeking to bring about the fall of Rome..." (Paxton)
ReplyDeletePaxton, it was because Rome was pagan. If you read the Bible, you see that Jehovah is a "jealous" god, wanting no other gods before him. People who worship other gods are to be converted or slaughtered. Your religion is a bloody, bloody, barbaric desert religion that's here now only because it's barbarically killed all the sane people on the earth.
Have you read Woman With an Alabaster Jar?
ReplyDeleteAt least I think that is the title.
@Paxton - The bit about rendering unto Caesar was a response to a group of Pharisees who were trying to see that Christ get killed because of his claims to be the son of god. The question of taxation was an important one as most Jews were fine living under another's rule as long as it was limited to taxation; however it was certainly the topic of much discussion. Therefore it was easy to bring up but would have dire consequences for Jesus if he would suggest anything remotely indicating that the people not obey the law of Rome. He cleverly gave the politically correct answer and dodged the sword for another day.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, if Jesus was the Messiah the Jews were looking for his return would indicate the rebirth of Israel. A political overthrow of the current government. Later Gentiles grasped onto the concept of Christ and a kingdom of God with a law that was above man's law. All of this would bring much headache and trouble to Rome (not to mention all the other blood that society was based upon)and rather quickly the christian movement would become a world phenomenon with which even today directly affects most of the world events at some level.
Paul is hardly the source of obedience. He spent most of his life imprisoned. The book of Romans which christians take as his writing is wrought full of challenging ideas in regards to living the faith, judaism, government and so forth. Much of this book is what inspired the founding fathers of the United States to take arms against their country.
There is a lot of power in monotheistic societies as seen today. The question becomes at what cost. Whomever the god diety(ies) may be, the one thing I do know is it would never agree with the slaughter of its own handiwork. There is a serious logic gap when a group of people slaughter in the name of their god who is supposed to be the creator of humanity. As we have evolved from hunter-gather to modern day humanity we have discovered the power of a unified front. Thus the danger of organized religion and monotheistic religions, they have an incredible unifying effect and are organized strictly for the purpose of advancement of the group.
I agree with athana - a loss of sanity for the sake of power.
peace,
louis
anti-thesis, no I haven't. Would you recommend it? Is it well-written (and therefore fun to read) as well as full of good, solid, carefully-researched info?
ReplyDeleteanti-thesis, no I haven't. Would you recommend it? Is it well-written (and therefore fun to read) as well as full of good, solid, carefully-researched info?
ReplyDeleteI believe the woman that wrote it was a catholic nun. She had heard this business
ReplyDeleteabout Jesus being married and such and she decided to investigate in order to dispell the myth. Through her journey she seemed to discover the myth may not have been a myth at all.
Very interesting read I highly recommend it.