RSS feedApril, 2009
The Origins of Christianity
By Vega
Was Jesus a man, myth or God?
The answers may surprise you.
Introduction
Around the world over the centuries, much has been written about religion, its meaning, its relevance and contribution to humanity. In the West particularly, sizable tomes have been composed speculating upon the nature and historical background of the main character of Western religions, Jesus Christ. Many have tried to dig into the precious few clues as to Jesus’s identity and come up with a biographical sketch that either bolsters faith or reveals a more human side of this godman to which we can all relate. Obviously, considering the time and energy spent on them, the subjects of Christianity and its legendary founder are very important to the Western mind and culture.
All History Ignores Him
By Vega
by Kersey Graves (1875)
 |
| Kersey Graves (1813-1883) |
The fact that no history, sacred or profane,—that not one of the three hundred histories of that age,—makes the slightest allusion to Christ, or any of the miraculous incidents ingrafted into his life, certainly proves, with a cogency that no logic can overthrow, no sophistry can contradict, and no honest skepticism can resist, that there never was such a miraculously endowed being as his many orthodox disciples claim him to have been. The fact that Christ finds no place in the history of the era in which he lived,—that not one event of his life is recorded by anybody but his own interested and prejudiced biographers,—settles the conclusion, beyond cavil or criticism, that the godlike achievements ascribed to him are naught but fable or fiction. It not only proves he was not miraculously endowed, but proves he was not even naturally endowed to such an extraordinary degree as to make him an object of general attention. It would be a historical anomaly without a precedent, that Christ should have performed any of the extraordinary acts attributed to him in the Gospels, and no Roman or Grecian historian, and neither Philo nor Josephus, both writing in that age, and both living almost on the spot where they are said to have been witnessed, and both recording minutely all the religious events of that age and country, make the slightest mention of one of them, nor their reputed authors. Such a historical fact banishes the last shadow of faith in their reality.
The Improbability of God
By Vega
by Richard Dawkins
The following article is from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 18, Number 3.
Much of what people do is done in the name of God. Irishmen blow each other up in his name. Arabs blow themselves up in his name. Imams and ayatollahs oppress women in his name. Celibate popes and priests mess up people’s sex lives in his name. Jewish shohets cut live animals’ throats in his name. The achievements of religion in past history – bloody crusades, torturing inquisitions, mass-murdering conquistadors, culture-destroying missionaries, legally enforced resistance to each new piece of scientific truth until the last possible moment – are even more impressive. And what has it all been in aid of? I believe it is becoming increasingly clear that the answer is absolutely nothing at all. There is no reason for believing that any sort of gods exist and quite good reason for believing that they do not exist and never have. It has all been a gigantic waste of time and a waste of life. It would be a joke of cosmic proportions if it weren’t so tragic.
GEORGE CARLIN ON THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
By Vega
from “Complaints and Grievances” (HBO special)
Full Transcript
Here is my problem with the ten commandments- why exactly are there 10?
You simply do not need ten. The list of ten commandments was artificially and deliberately inflated to get it up to ten. Here’s what happened:
Origin of the new testament
By Vega
The Nicene Creed was quite literally the creation of the Bible and New Testament as we know it.
Appropriately, Constantine murdered his wife and elder son before making the journey in 325 AD
to his palace at Nicaea (now Iznik in Turkey) to decide what Christians to this day must believe.
He wanted to end the conflict between the Paulines and the Arians and install a single Christian
creed. He called 318 bishops together at Nicaea to tell them what their creed was going to be. Bitter
arguments erupted between the factions on the burning issue for the future of the world: Was Jesus
part of a trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost? Holy shit.
RSS