The Antichristian Phenomenon

Just a quick article from me today. Swedish newspaper Metro had a small article in the Gothenburg version this morning about how the Swedish organization JO (Justitieombudsmannen), which is a political organ supposed to function as a report system for citizens, has now postulated that it was wrong to take down pictures of Satan pooping on a cruxified Jesus at a punk rock festival in the town of Linköping.

It can also be noted that the Autotune version of Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking has now gained such popularity that it was mentioned on Nanok!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc

Embedding fails.

Picture was taken from a Christian tourist shop in Toledo. I saw it and the title immediately came to my mind. You can’t get more emo than that.

UPDATE: Alternatives now available

If you can think of a better caption, let me know and I’ll create it

A recent comment, got me thinking: What if the supposed Jesus had made an addition to the 10 Commandments? Could there have been one that would fix the Christian teachings and prevent the “interpetation abuse” that followed? I mean, if this son-of-god came down and he saw how the world ended even after his self/daddy gave these ten absolute guidelines, why didn’t he make an absolute statement instead of using vague parables or insane actions.

In my opinion, if he had said something helpful like “Criticise everything before you accept it, including what I say.” it would have made a world of difference.

But of course, I guess that if had said something like that, his religion would have never managed to muster the necessary memetic advantage in order to become the majority religion it is today. Either the Romans would not have embraced it (who wants the slaves to start criticizing), or the clergy would have long ago scrubbed it from their records.

Anyway, my own possible choices for it would be:

• “Thou shalt not blindly follow orders.”
• “Thou shalt not believe without evidence.”
• “Thou shalt not treat people differently regardless of their skin or gender.”
• “Thou shalt make thyself as wise about the world as possible and you shall spread knowledge to others.”

What do you think the 11th Commandment should be?

It was quite a surprise. At the moment I let the last breath pass my lips, I thought it was the end. Although it scared me that life was all over, I also cherished the moments I have had and looked back one final time and then died with a smile on my face. If I still had control over that carnal container, that smile would have disappeared quickly enough. I was confronted with the fact that I had been wrong, and now I was going to be judged by Him. “Hell” – It sounded much like those annoyed people behind counters who said “Next”. Like many souls before me, two angelic figures stepped forward to drag me away. In the execution of their razzia fiercely I protested.

They told me I could not enter heaven, because I had not accepted Jesus as my saviour. I understood, but how can I be judged for something I didn’t do? Do you put people in jail for not donating money to a good cause? Would you condemn people for not being an active member in a group that vouches for equal rights? They told me I had been warned what would happen if I didn’t do it, and that I still had made the choice not to accept The High One’s son. But how could it have been a choice? If I would have known the claims to be true, it would have been quite stupid of me to neglect it – but it would not have been a choice, but rather a necessity if I didn’t want to go to hell. Pascal’s wager is not about true conviction, but about fake faith opportunism. I had never felt inclined to show any respect for threats, especially those in the like of eternal punishment. What kind of love is that which when unaccepted will result in torture? It is not a choice I was given; it was a threat at gunpoint: Accept or feel the wrath. How can a god who on earhtly planes is praised for his benevolence resort to such dire measures? Does my contribution to humanity through my work as a medical engineer not count in this tribunal? Has my abstinence of violent behaviour not earned me any grants at all? I pretend not to be holy, but black hearted I am certainly not.

What insignificant test is life at all in the light of eternity? Do they think I can not conform to their ways, if ever it came so far that I was willing to sell my soul for entrance to heaven? And how does not being granted acces to heaven equate with torture, fire and brimstone? Have they not heard of the golden middle path? A place to dwell without having to conscript to the Heavenly Reign, and without having to feel the licking flames of the burning lake? Nay, I was quickly answered. What simple-minded dualism is this model for justice, if it can be called justice at all? And now I had a better understanding of the phrase “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”, for He does not care for all the good you have done. Judgement awaits not to review who you are, what you have done, and how you have behaved; but solely on whether you have bent to the will of that high dictator.

At my realisation of the rampant fascism of heaven’s governor, I was proud to find out that every day I had spent on earth I had unknowingly thwarted that mighty tyrant. At the edge of that cliff I had no remorse. They threw me in that fiery pit, and I smiled.

Religion: It is a vast concept, but it has had many solid forms with clearly defined boundaries. A question that arises in this observation is: How did these numerous religions come into existance and have such extroardinary properties that made them into a package of “the only truth”? To answer this question, I will reconstruct the development of the religion that this site is mainly about; Christianity.

The basis of Christianity revolves around a supreme god. This god created everything in the universe, including a planet we now call Earth and a people that we call humans. These humans, however, did not do well in the eyes of the creator god. The god thus decided to send his only son as a mortal so he take upon him all the sins of the people by dying.

So, we need a supreme god. Older civilisations usually had a lot of gods. In the light of religious superiority, newer religions claimed that there was only one god, who was as powerful as all the gods of the ancient pantheons combined. The idea of a supreme, single god was not very unique, as it dated back to the Late Bronze Age . To enhance the mysticism, we shall not give our god a name.

That takes care of the god. We now need a son, who by the way would be delivered on this plane of existence to a virgin mortal, through “Virgin Birth”. It is the concept that a person is born to a woman who is still a virgin. There are pre-christian examples of this. One of them is the birth of Zeus’ son Herculus to Alkmene. Another is the birth of Dionysus, also a son of Zeus and born to a mortal woman called Semele.

But why even bother with the invention of a new figure? We can use Dionysus as a basis and add elements of other deities so it appears that our god’s son is unique. Let’s just say we call him Jesus. So let’s just start with Dionysus and see what we can use. At Dionysus’ birth, Zeus’ wife Hera was full of jealousy and had the Titans torn Dionysus apart and eat him. His heart was the only part that survived the attack, and by it he was resurrected and ascended into heaven. Dionysus was regarded as the promotor of civilisation and as a lover of peace. He was also known as the liberator (Eleutherios) to bring salvation.

There is also Mithras, originally a persian god. Mithras is very ancient, dating 3000 BC, but was later assimilated into roman culture. He was born of a god and a virgin woman in a cave. He was often referenced as the redeemer. Mithraic festivals were held on the date of his birth, december 25th, his death and his resurrection from the tomb he was buried in.

We’ll just use these two to make up the main part of Jesus. There are other minor details, such as him being a prophet and a worker of miracles, but these are unimportant as there were a lot of people like him in his time. I think we’ve established a clear enough view of the main figure in our new religion.

Enough of this nonsense. With just a little research, you can find pagan roots for almost every aspect of christianity. May my message be clear: Christianity is in no way a unique religion, nor was it based on new ideas -the incorporation of the (Jewish) Old Testament clearly shows this. If Jesus existed, much of his story is derived from other deities and myths. Additionally, his teachings all come down to the Golden Rule that can be found in all the world’s big religions. So if you are a christian, ask yourself: Why do you value Jesus so?

One of the things that shook my faith so terribly that I never recovered was when I discovered that the historicity of [tag]Jesus[/tag] had been in question for centuries. For the never-have-been-Christians among us, if you’ve seen the vox-pops from The God Who Wasn’t There, then you’ve got a decent impression of what the average Christian knows about first century religion: nothing beyond what the Bible states (or what their pastors state the Bible states).

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