Is Christianity True and Good?
Christianity has become more influential in recent years with the rise of the religious right in America. The influence is felt in government restrictions on family planning, abortion, stem cell and cloning research, gay marriage, vouchers for religious schools, government money for religious charities, a foreign policy based on good and evil, the war against Islamic extremists and imbalance support for Israel. Now with Mel Gibson’s Passion, we are influenced to move back to a medieval view of Christianity where suffering is considered good. In the past this view has lead to a fixation on suffering and a setback for human progress from medicine and social science.
Since these views affect us all, it is fair to question if this ancient religion is true and good. The problem is the average person has never been informed of recent advances in knowledge that cast doubt on the truth of Christianity from historical analysis of scripture, scientific scrutiny of man’s origins, or from a test of usefulness for mankind. Most people would be shocked at this statement since they have been taught all their lives that Christ and Christianity are the best things in the world. The American press avoids reporting anything that might offend religious people. Consequently Americans are poorly informed and very religious compared to people of other developed nations.
Here is a brief review of the new thinking:
1-The historical evidence for the Jesus of the gospels is questionable. A large number of recently published books that reexamine the evidence for the existence of Jesus conclude that he did not exist. These include: “ The Christ Conspiracy, The Jesus Puzzle, The Jesus Mysteries, The Great Deception, Deconstructing Jesus, Did Jesus Exist? ” and others. Reviews can be seen in Amazon. The basic arguments are that the Gospels are not eyewitness accounts, were written many years after the purported events by unknown authors and derive much of their teachings from earlier similar religions.
The recently discovered tomb of Jesus and family does indicate that a Jesus did exist who fits the family relation ships described in the gospels. So, Jesus may have been an influential leader who was put to death, but the details of the gospels were later embellished with miraculous stories including the resurrection. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, the Jews were dispersed and there was no checking on later reported stories. The Jews closest to the events described in the gospels didn't believe Jesus resurrected, only those later and further from the scene. The story of Jesus fit into the previous myths of crucified saviors.
The recently discovered Gnostic gospels support the view that when Christianity started, many believed that Jesus existed as a spirit, never in the flesh. They were known as Gnostics and lost out when Christian dogma was defined hundreds of years later by Constantine. He made Christianity the law of the land and brutally suppressed dissenters as heretics. The combination of Church and State continued through the dark ages maintaining orthodox belief through the terror of the Inquisition. The belief that suffering is good helped to promote brutality.
2-There is no evidence for the need for salvation. Christian redemption is based on the account in Genesis of the sin of Adam and the need for a savior. Scientific evidence shows that man evolved from earlier hominids. There is no evidence for Adam and Eve or the fall of man. A savior is not needed. The concept that God must suffer and die to make up for some ill-defined crime is strange by today’s standards.
3-Christianity has not been useful for mankind. When it took over as the dominant view, ancient wisdom was suppressed and humanity was plunged into 1500 dark years of ignorance and suffering. Christianity did not promote values we take for granted today. Rather, the virtues we value today ( human progress, capitalism, freedom, democracy, science, education, and women’s rights) were hard won during the Enlightenment by modern non religious thinkers. Since the Enlightenment taught us to remove the influences of the Church in our government and our thoughts, it is clear that we attained our modern, enlightened world despite Christianity, not because of it.
Maybe the worst influence of Christianity has been the acceptance of war. A good book on this subject is "Disciples of Destruction. The Religious Origins of War and Terrorism." Today, we inherit a world saturated with weapons and war. Humanity is in danger and still far behind where it should be relative to our numbers. We may may become extinct as a result. Even influential thinkers are coming to this view. An interesting book by Martin Rees is "Our Final Hour". Maybe in the Cosmic scheme, only those worlds that can outgrow religion will survive. Certainly ours will not if we don't.
Many scholars, and even many clergy would agree with these objections, but elect to go along and keep quiet. Some are locked-in to what they learned as a child and can’t do anything else, others think that since man does not understand life’s riddles, why rock the boat. Christianity is comforting and gives many people a feeling that life is worthwhile and helps them cope. They don’t care if it is true or not. They feel that today, Christianity is basically good and useful. I don’t agree. I feel that mankind’s greatest moral imperative is to keep the Earth and human race surviving. Christianity does not value this goal and instead pursues an afterlife that may not exist. My hope is that mankind survives to learn the truths of the universe.
Why SETI?
SETI. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is probably the most important enterprise ever in human history because it may save us from extinction. It comes at a time when our race is rapidly expanding in knowledge, technology and population; but, we are still mired in ancient thinking and don’t really know what we are doing or why. How would SETI help? Our problem is that we are stuck in a backwater of the galaxy with no other world to relate to. We desperately need to find another. Even if the other were just as nutty as we, it would help just to know there were others. It would help us to form realistic goals for humanity.
It seems all existence requires a relation to something else. In the natural world there are packs, herds, schools, flocks etc. In humanity, man, wife, child, tribe, country, faiths etc. All join to create the existence we all enjoy. Even one concept of God posits that his existence requires a relationship within a trinity.
The problem with humanity is that we have no real peer group to relate to. To fill the void, we have fabricated many views both religious and secular. Most world religions have us related to a god who will fulfill our needs and promise us meaning. Followers make up relationship to the God, be it Jesus, Allah, Buda ..
It would be ok, but these relationships form religions which influence governments which influence our world’s agenda, mostly toward a spiritual world that doesn’t add to our survival on Earth.
Secular views, mainly Communism and Fascism have tried to replace religion and fabricate human goals of a Utopian society. The results have been disastrous due to disregard for human nature. The American ideal of freedom and democracy has been a good compromise, but falls short of a long term goal since it is vulnerable to growth of powerful factions.
How would SETI help? If we discovered another civilization, it would be the most important event in human history. Our entire view of ourselves would be altered forever. We would learn much and we would give much.
Christianity has become more influential in recent years with the rise of the religious right in America. The influence is felt in government restrictions on family planning, abortion, stem cell and cloning research, gay marriage, vouchers for religious schools, government money for religious charities, a foreign policy based on good and evil, the war against Islamic extremists and imbalance support for Israel. Now with Mel Gibson’s Passion, we are influenced to move back to a medieval view of Christianity where suffering is considered good. In the past this view has lead to a fixation on suffering and a setback for human progress from medicine and social science.
Since these views affect us all, it is fair to question if this ancient religion is true and good. The problem is the average person has never been informed of recent advances in knowledge that cast doubt on the truth of Christianity from historical analysis of scripture, scientific scrutiny of man’s origins, or from a test of usefulness for mankind. Most people would be shocked at this statement since they have been taught all their lives that Christ and Christianity are the best things in the world. The American press avoids reporting anything that might offend religious people. Consequently Americans are poorly informed and very religious compared to people of other developed nations.
Here is a brief review of the new thinking:
1-The historical evidence for the Jesus of the gospels is questionable. A large number of recently published books that reexamine the evidence for the existence of Jesus conclude that he did not exist. These include: “ The Christ Conspiracy, The Jesus Puzzle, The Jesus Mysteries, The Great Deception, Deconstructing Jesus, Did Jesus Exist? ” and others. Reviews can be seen in Amazon. The basic arguments are that the Gospels are not eyewitness accounts, were written many years after the purported events by unknown authors and derive much of their teachings from earlier similar religions.
The recently discovered tomb of Jesus and family does indicate that a Jesus did exist who fits the family relation ships described in the gospels. So, Jesus may have been an influential leader who was put to death, but the details of the gospels were later embellished with miraculous stories including the resurrection. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, the Jews were dispersed and there was no checking on later reported stories. The Jews closest to the events described in the gospels didn't believe Jesus resurrected, only those later and further from the scene. The story of Jesus fit into the previous myths of crucified saviors.
The recently discovered Gnostic gospels support the view that when Christianity started, many believed that Jesus existed as a spirit, never in the flesh. They were known as Gnostics and lost out when Christian dogma was defined hundreds of years later by Constantine. He made Christianity the law of the land and brutally suppressed dissenters as heretics. The combination of Church and State continued through the dark ages maintaining orthodox belief through the terror of the Inquisition. The belief that suffering is good helped to promote brutality.
2-There is no evidence for the need for salvation. Christian redemption is based on the account in Genesis of the sin of Adam and the need for a savior. Scientific evidence shows that man evolved from earlier hominids. There is no evidence for Adam and Eve or the fall of man. A savior is not needed. The concept that God must suffer and die to make up for some ill-defined crime is strange by today’s standards.
3-Christianity has not been useful for mankind. When it took over as the dominant view, ancient wisdom was suppressed and humanity was plunged into 1500 dark years of ignorance and suffering. Christianity did not promote values we take for granted today. Rather, the virtues we value today ( human progress, capitalism, freedom, democracy, science, education, and women’s rights) were hard won during the Enlightenment by modern non religious thinkers. Since the Enlightenment taught us to remove the influences of the Church in our government and our thoughts, it is clear that we attained our modern, enlightened world despite Christianity, not because of it.
Maybe the worst influence of Christianity has been the acceptance of war. A good book on this subject is "Disciples of Destruction. The Religious Origins of War and Terrorism." Today, we inherit a world saturated with weapons and war. Humanity is in danger and still far behind where it should be relative to our numbers. We may may become extinct as a result. Even influential thinkers are coming to this view. An interesting book by Martin Rees is "Our Final Hour". Maybe in the Cosmic scheme, only those worlds that can outgrow religion will survive. Certainly ours will not if we don't.
Many scholars, and even many clergy would agree with these objections, but elect to go along and keep quiet. Some are locked-in to what they learned as a child and can’t do anything else, others think that since man does not understand life’s riddles, why rock the boat. Christianity is comforting and gives many people a feeling that life is worthwhile and helps them cope. They don’t care if it is true or not. They feel that today, Christianity is basically good and useful. I don’t agree. I feel that mankind’s greatest moral imperative is to keep the Earth and human race surviving. Christianity does not value this goal and instead pursues an afterlife that may not exist. My hope is that mankind survives to learn the truths of the universe.
Why SETI?
SETI. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is probably the most important enterprise ever in human history because it may save us from extinction. It comes at a time when our race is rapidly expanding in knowledge, technology and population; but, we are still mired in ancient thinking and don’t really know what we are doing or why. How would SETI help? Our problem is that we are stuck in a backwater of the galaxy with no other world to relate to. We desperately need to find another. Even if the other were just as nutty as we, it would help just to know there were others. It would help us to form realistic goals for humanity.
It seems all existence requires a relation to something else. In the natural world there are packs, herds, schools, flocks etc. In humanity, man, wife, child, tribe, country, faiths etc. All join to create the existence we all enjoy. Even one concept of God posits that his existence requires a relationship within a trinity.
The problem with humanity is that we have no real peer group to relate to. To fill the void, we have fabricated many views both religious and secular. Most world religions have us related to a god who will fulfill our needs and promise us meaning. Followers make up relationship to the God, be it Jesus, Allah, Buda ..
It would be ok, but these relationships form religions which influence governments which influence our world’s agenda, mostly toward a spiritual world that doesn’t add to our survival on Earth.
Secular views, mainly Communism and Fascism have tried to replace religion and fabricate human goals of a Utopian society. The results have been disastrous due to disregard for human nature. The American ideal of freedom and democracy has been a good compromise, but falls short of a long term goal since it is vulnerable to growth of powerful factions.
How would SETI help? If we discovered another civilization, it would be the most important event in human history. Our entire view of ourselves would be altered forever. We would learn much and we would give much.
posted by PCD at 12:03 PM
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