I don’t know if any of you have seen the video The God Who Wasn’t There. It makes a pretty good case against the foundations of Christianity. You can find select clips of the video on YouTube. I don’t think I would be legally allowed to share the video here, since they want you to buy their DVD for $25. But you can probably “get” it elsewhere for “cheaper.” (You didn’t hear that from me.)
Basically, they say that the story of Jesus is nothing more than a myth, not unlike the stories of such other characters as Hercules, Osiris, Dionysus, or Mithra. In fact, Jesus’ storyline pretty much matches the classic outline of a mythical hero. The way the video presented this segment was actually quite entertaining and convincing.
This Jesus- and Christianity-bashing seems to be the trend these days. Very hip, very revolutionary. These “renaissance” people, if you will, have their noses up against Christian extremists, who defend their faith religiously, believing that Jesus is their M/messiah, their S/savior, and that H/he will come again sometime in their lifetimes. So you’ve got these two teams on two sides of the dodgeball field, duking it out.
But what if it doesn’t actually matter whether or not the portrayed Jesus ever existed?
All religions are essentially based on cultivation. Generally speaking, this means that by following religions, people mold themselves to become, usually, “better” people. (How you define “better” would be a good topic for a philosophical debate, since it’s all perspectively relative - but I’m not going to discuss that here, since I’d never get to my point.)
A central idea in Daoism is 「借假修真」 - “using the fake to cultivate the real.” This means that, as cultivators, we use our “fake,” ephemeral, transient, physical bodies to cultivate our inner essence, the force, the Dao, that drives us from within. In simpler terms, we use our physical bodies as mere tools to becoming more harmonious, more “one” with our surroundings, the universe.
The intrinsic idea behind all religions is no different. What we do in life ultimately doesn’t matter. It’s how we do what we do that counts. Whatever you’re doing - are you doing it with love or hate? With intent to harm or help? For yourself or for others? What we do is transient and ultimately inconsequential. It is a short-lived manifestation of our inner core. The core is the how. The core, the essence, is what stays to drive eternally. It is what matters, it is what changes, what becomes full and whole, with cultivation.
So if you believe in Jesus, you might kneel next to your bed and pray to him. If you believe in the Guan Yin buddha, you might visit her in a temple and offer incense. If you are a fan of Allah, you might prefer to practice salah. This is what you do. It ultimately doesn’t matter. What matters is the benefit you receive in your inner core when you do whatever do. That’s what counts, and that’s why your choice of religion really doesn’t matter - they’re all fundamentally the same. That’s why “religion vs. reality” is really moot. Religions are nothing more than tools to help us cultivate. Whether or not they are based on actual historical events is completely trivial.
When you need to use a hammer, you probably don’t care very much if it’s made out of steel, iron, aluminum, or plastic - as long as it does the job. Some hammers are better at some jobs than others. If you’re going to hammer a piece of plastic, for example, you’d better not use a steel hammer, or you’d probably shatter that piece of plastic. You’re better off using a plastic hammer. Different religions have different strengths and weaknesses in aiding cultivation. Pick your religion based on what works for you, but realize that they’re only tools. Or be like me, and don’t pick one at all!
Whether or not Jesus was a real person is not the issue. It’s the idea of him that exists today that counts. This goes for any other deity of any other religion. It’s also not who you pray to or worship that counts, it’s the act of praying or worshiping itself that is important. These are the practices that allow us to cultivate, among many other things, sincere respect in the core. It couldn’t matter less if you choose to worship your kitchen sink or a tree in your backyard. Or if you choose to pray to your bathroom toilet. If you have that heart of sincerity, that’s all that counts.
I think your comments would have real power if christians actually agreed with you, which most of the ones I’ve met don’t. I’ve asked christians how they would react to worshipping zeus, thor, the tooth fairy, etc. and they respond “well that’s just silly, they don’t exist.” It seems that the underlying faith only matters to them because they believe it has real power (in other words, yes, they are concerned with reality). If jesus is a lie, why pray to him? Believing in his principles is one thing; heck, I can appreciate that. Compassion? Love for all? Sure. But as a discerning individual, I have never observed miracles, so I don’t count on it (but a significant percentage of practicing doctors and current presidents do).
Hahaha - you’re playing right into my hands. One of my upcoming posts is on miracles. Probably the next.
I don’t think it’s just with Christians. Christianity was put on the spotlight here because it happened to be the topic of the video I watched. It’s really with any religion. I mean there’s way too much needless, stupid religious conflict these days. It’s just like a debate over what kind of hammer people should use for their nails. Does it matter?
Check out this huge list of religions I pulled off of Duke ACES:
More like what kind of invisible hammer to use before swinging their actually empty hands into an undriven nail.
Why?
I don’t know where to tell you this besides facebook, but since I’m here anyways.. take a look at this.
http://zeitgeistmovie.com/main.htm
I personally watched it, but I read some links from the wikipedia site about it, and it was interesting.. like 9/11 theories and such. Meh, if you get a chance.. review over it, I think you’d find it interesting.
I was actually just talking with another Dan about that last night. I downloaded it months ago, but haven’t had the chance to watch it yet. I will one of these days.
Are we really going to talk about 9/11 conspiracies on this website? I hate Bush and the US agenda too, but I still believe the “official story” because I think it happens to be the right one.
This is an article by a satirist about 9/11. Please read it, b/c the points that he makes a lot of arguments very problematic.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=911_morons
Aside from the faulty theoretical basis of 9/11 theories that he points out, the facts don’t stack up. Check the links he has on the bottom of his page.
http://wtc.nist.gov/pubs/factsheets/faqs_8_2006.htm
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html
http://www.loosechangeguide.com/LooseChangeGuide.html
I too thought that the 9/11 conspiracies seemed interesting, but then I actually did some research of my own and found it was VERY unlikely. I think you will find this as well (if you actually read all of this; there’s a LOT of bull to debunk in those links).
Well, I still don’t know what to think about 9/11 at this point. Haven’t looked into it enough. Thanks for the links, I’ll check them out when I get a chance. Might be a nice contrast to the zeitgeist video.
But yeah, this is kind of unrelated to this post. Probably should have gone to the forums, where there’s a broader spectrum covered.
Sorry, but forums are dead. Do you get an e-mail for every forum message? Meh, your right.. should’ve just facebooked it. Gomen.