Fundamentalist atheists hold the Holy Bible to be based on nothing more than a collection of myths. In particular, they hold that the story about Jesus — including the new star in the East that heralded his birth, his delivery in a stable, the hay-filled manger in which as a new-born infant he was laid, his ministry in the company of twelve disciples, his death, his resurrection and his ascent unto Heaven — is taken virtually in its entirety from accounts of the lives of earlier religious figures including the Egyptian gods, Osiris and Horus, the Zoroastrian divinity, Mithras, and the Hindu deity, Krishna. In addition, they point to the inconsistencies in the gospel accounts of Jesus's life and teachings. On such grounds they reject Christianity as a false religion.
But if Christian fundamentalists are mistaken in taking the Bible to represent the literal truth, there is something at least as foolish about those who reject Christianity because the Bible account of the life of Jesus is not the literal truth.
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Richard Dawkins on Christians: "Mock them. Ridicule them."
Or how to spread atheism the PC way: with hatred and derision.
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If the story about Jesus is understood as a narrative to live by, it makes perfect sense. That God, in the image of a man, dwelt among us, to tell us of his love for us and for all his creation, provides a powerful antidote to the fear and confusion that besets every soul on its earthly journey to the grave.
That God came among us under the humblest circumstances, a mewling babe born in a stable and laid in a manger, confirms the worth of every human, however low born, and it refutes for all time the arrogance of wealth and power.
That God set foot on earth to teach men how to treat one another, and how to pray to God for help and guidance, means that every person is free to address their creator, thereby finding comfort, forgiveness of sins, and guidance, both moral and practical.
That God, in the form of a man, suffered humiliation and death for the benefit of humanity provides the ultimate example of morality, the sacrifice of self for the good of others.
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Aangirfan/Aanirfan: Mad Christians
Was Jesus really an historical figure?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=3053
Dunno. But it hardly seems to matter since we have no historical knowledge of who he was, what he did or what he said. All we know of him is based on what was written about him by the Gospel writers, people whose identities are unknown and who wrote about Jesus on the basis of, at best, hearsay, many hears after the death of Jesus.
DeleteThe story about Jesus is inspirational. You can take from it what you want and reject what you find improbably or obviously false.
Concern with the literal truth of the Christian story undermines the function of the religion, which is to establish a system of ethics accepted by all, such that we can all work together, friends, relatives, neighbors and total strangers, because we all share the same code of proper conduct.
Sure acceptance of the literal truth of the New Testament enforces the code because it instills the belief that those who do what the code demands will enjoy eternal bliss, while those who reject the code will go to Hell.
But humans (psychopaths excepted) have an innate propensity to consider rules of conduct important, and readiness to accept and enforce a universal code.
That is why multiculturalism is a civilizational suicide pill. It disrupts society by causing people living side by side to follow different rules of conduct.
The promotion of both mass immigration and multiculturalism are thus the true marks of the Treason Party for Global Empire, which requires the destruction of the coherent, sovereign, democratic nation state.