Been thinking a lot about the Christian religion lately. The history of it, what exactly it means, how it has changed through the ages, all the different sects, rites, dogmas and beliefs that go along with it. All the many little branches and sprouts that have come from it. It is a fascinating subject and has many facets to it.
I don't pretend to be a scholar, not even a really deep thinker, but I do have a few thoughts and muses about this subject since lately it seems to have come to the forefront of my mind I thought I would share them.
First, I decided to look up a few key words in Webster's New World Dictionary just to clarify the meanings to myself. I'll share them with you:
Religion: 'reverence for the gods, holiness in a system of religious belief. Belief in divine or superhuman powers or power to be obeyed and worshiped as creators and rulers of the universe.'
Christian: 'a person professing belief in Jesus as the Christ, or in the religion based on the teachings of Jesus. Having the qualities demonstrated and taught by Jesus Christ, as love, kindness, humility, etc.'
Seems to me that the Christian religion sprang up as an off shoot of the Jewish religion. The Christians took the man, Jesua bin Joseph and renamed him Jesus the Christ. Why? Because somebody said that he performed miracles. Of course, that 'somebody' didn't actually know Jesus and, in fact lived over 100 years after the death of Jesus. Right there ought to tell even the superficial thinker that something is wrong.
If I, for instance, wanted to pick out a person that lived 100 years prior to me and make them into something amazing, I don't think it would be too difficult, especially if I played on deep seeded human emotional fears. Many people have done it since, that is how the Mormons came about, the Church of Religions Science, the Baptist, just to name a few and this doesn't even go into all the many 'cults' that have come and gone along the ages taking with them hundreds of thousand of people. Jim Jones comes to mind. And then there are the Pat Robertsons, who are obviously delusional and psychologically a mess that charge even earth events into some kind of punishment from God.
Then, we have the bible or should I say bibles, for there are many of them. Many translations, many editions, written and rewritten until the original meanings are long lost. Of course, we wouldn't even have the texts of any kind if it weren't for the Essenes. None the less, the original meanings are completely gone having been misconstrued several times over. The Catholic Church, for instance, revised it and took a lot of the original chapters out of it, and changed many of the words. That part they took out is touted to be the Gnostic Gospels.
The whole belief structure of religion, the bases of which it is founded, the many people who profess they were told by God, or Jesus or angels or whoever have had their impact on human kind. It seems to me that they all, bar none, have had this power over people because they play on common deep seeded human fears. They play into the weakness of people and people give them their personal power because people don't trust themselves.
It is a mass manipulation of sorts, for control and for power. It also plays into the psychology that if I can make you dumber than me, then that will make me smarter. That in itself is a fairly stupid thing to think, but none the less it is a mind set of many.
It is that whole 'master' syndrome. The truth is, the real master, doesn't know he/she is a master and doesn't care. The real teacher doesn't know or consider him/herself to be a teacher and doesn't care. The real master is too busy learning and participating in his/her life. The real teacher is too busy and compassionate about the students learning and learning from the students to even consider that he/she has all the answers.
It is so ironic. Who said, 'beware of false images?' Who said, 'know thy self?'
There are certain things in human nature that just have to be accepted as part of what is. One of those things is that no one knows more about you than you. Now, if you chose not to get to know yourself, not to search yourself and not to respect who you are, and allow someone else to judge, jury and promote you as they see fit, then that is your right. But to go out and try to convince other's that they, too, are 'sinners' and bad people and need to do what you say and do is something quite different.
All through the ages, people, fellow human beings have been tortured, and killed in the most horrific ways because of their inner beliefs. These wonderful Christians have judged people and burned them alive, been so brutal that I can barely even think about it.
And they are still at it today. In different ways, but they still hold high that banner that says, 'I know the way and if you don't do it my way, I will harm you. I will make laws against your ways, I will make laws to hold up my end of the argument and force you to bend to the things I think are correct.' They are doing that with the abortion laws, with the gay rights, and with the health care laws. They are doing it with Planned Parenthood not wanting contraceptives taught and given out, they are doing it with the origin of the universe, science, etc. Believe me, it may be more subtle these days, but it is still brutal. And this is all coming from those wonderful 'Christians'. They are acting the opposite to what the definition of their religions say they should act.
What is it that we give our power away so easily? Why is it that we think someone else knows better than us about ourselves? Why don't we bother to find out what our inner being truly thinks and feels? Why don't we trust who we are, and allow ourselves to learn from ourselves and trust ourselves for the correct answers for us? If we got to know ourselves in the most honest way that we could, it seems to me we would stop judging others, we would respect others more and we wouldn't be so quick to jump on the condemnation boat.
Like I said earlier, I don't consider myself any more knowledgeable than anyone else and less knowledgeable than some, but what I do know is that what I learn from myself, what I muse upon, what I contemplate is much more valuable to me, my life and the way I treat others than anything any religion can convince me of. I struggle with the questions within myself like everyone else. But I'll be damned if I'm going to allow anyone to convince me that I need to follow their way. That, to my mind will only lead down their road, and I've my very own road which suits me better than anyone else's possibly ever could.
