The Jesus Mythos

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 Topic: Christian Propaganda and the Jesus Mythos

As always, there is no idea that is above rational dissection, and the Jesus character in the New Testament of the King James version of the bible is today’s topic. I am talking about the mythology surrounding the character as presented, not whatever historical figure that the myth itself is based on. (There are those, particularly Gnostic Christians, who have other ideas about who Jesus really was that may be more realistic.) We are also going to discuss the stated reason for the character’s eventual assassination and martyrdom.

Most mainstream Christians believe that the Jesus character never actually wrote anything down. There are no writings attributed to him in either of the bibles I own. While I am sure there are people who claim otherwise, what disturbs me is that Christians will accept gospels written decades after the death of Jesus, by men who had a political axe to grind but never actually met the man they were writing about. The differences between the works that did make it into the bible -which, remember, was voted upon more than three hundred years after the stated demise of the Jesus character- are enough to give me the idea that there were several itenerant preachers wandering around the Middle East and Africa that were all preaching more or less the same message. Maybe they were all missionaries acting in concert, either working for some unseen prophet or independently. But I do not believe the character called Jesus in those four books is the same person.

As far as all those attributed “miracles,” starting with the virgin birth and ending with the resurrection, I believe those were tacked on later by Christians who wanted the Jesus character to be more god than man. Making Mary a virgin and depicting Jesus as celibate was also a backhanded way to demonize sex, as it was ritually practiced by pagans at the time and they wanted an excuse to equate sex with impurity. The water-into-wine, loaves and fishes, and walking on water nonsense is nothing more than a way to justify demanding that you worship Jesus because he is obviously divine in nature. They are party tricks invented to persuade the gullible. He obviously never brought somebody back from the dead, either; that is another story that seems designed to impress the easily impressed. As far as the resurrection, it sounds like wishful thinking from the poor women who could not let Jesus go. All of the miracles surrounding the Jesus mythos have a ring of propaganda to them, and it seems to be working, since so many people buy into it. We have been taught to equate belief in Jesus with morality and character, even though we have seen time and again that those who seem to sincerely believe the mythos can turn out to be the most awful hypocrites. (Think Larry Craig or televangelists who secretly troll for underage prostitutes online.) You can say you believe in Jesus and be a horrible person, and you can be an atheist and also a good person.

The worst thing about the Jesus mythos is that Christains insist the reason god knocked up Mary, watched his kid grow up into a guy who, by all accounts, was a pretty awesome dude, then had him brutally, publicly murdered is because he loves them. This is the behavior of a victim of abuse, rationalizing the abuse by pretending it is done out of love. “I love you so much I killed my kid for you,” is not the statement of a rational mind. Who needs to watch somebody get crucified before they can learn to forgive mankind, as long as they kiss his ass, otherwise he will still send them to a Hell he himself created? And since you still have to believe in him to get into heaven, what was the point of the whole crucifixion? Nothing changed, except you were supposed to worship the Jesus character as much as the god character.( Honestly, all it did was make more gods, and Christians still call their religion monotheistic.) Also, according to the myth, Jesus didn’t really die anyway, so what kind of sacrifice is that? I mean, he did watch his kid die, but since it was god’s idea in the first place, it is hard to feel sorry for him. What was the point?

Basically, if somebody insists that they are doing and demanding the most twisted, messed-up things because they love you, it is a toxic relationship, whether it is your spouse or your god. You deserve better.

 

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