Lying For Jesus

      Since, apparently the dawn of Christianity, and the Rise in power of Eusebius of Cesarea, there has been a tradition of lying in order to bring people to believe in Jesus. Now this is the same type of tactics seen in politics, and used car salesmanship. Now, one might say that it is isolated to Catholicism, as the church, at the time, was... well Catholic-ish. But even Martin Luther was a big fat liar, in fact he stated "What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church ... a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them." Interestingly enough, I believe most of the spawns of Luther's would disagree with that statement... in public at least.

     Interestingly enough, there are several instances of lying for Jesus, like ministers claiming to have been satanists during the big satanic scare of the 80s and 90s, but whose testimonies were contradicted by the actual events in their lives, interestingly enough, people have taken to claiming to have done terrible things, only to be redeemed by their faith (which they saw as a cash cow). This does bring up an interesting question, how willing are people to believe the an underdog story? My guess is extremely willing, so long as it confirms our biases.

     Another point being told, and sold, is the story of the Columbine girl, Cassie Bernall, who was allegedly shot because of her belief in God. What the authors of the book (still sold as non fiction, by the way) didn't mention, was that there were plenty of others who voiced their beliefs in God, both before and after her untimely death, and survived the horrible event. The shameless promotion of this narrative was, doubtlessly backed by good intentions, but also, by human greed. The success of the book "She Said Yes" is still successful among Christians looking for an insight of martyrdom.

     Lastly, we see some regular, run of the mill dishonesty from evangelical right wingers in the country regarding the gun violence in America. Do not get me wrong, I still stand by the rights of individuals to have guns, but there needs to be some regulations put in place. I mean seriously, we are the only nation in the developed world which has rampant gun violence, mass shootings, etc... Hell, the NRA lobbied to allow people on the terrorist watch list to buy guns, and won! Those groups are heavily supported by Christian Groups, as well as the Tea Party. We blame these mass shootings on violent video games, when every other developed nation have access to them, the difference is in the regulation on the sales of firearms, including a psychological examination for stability, criminal background check, and to make sure you aren't in the god damned terrorist watch list!!! But those against gun regulation will cite everything else for the violence, except for the only difference with other nations...

     In conclusion, liars gonna lie, douchebags gonna douche, and religious leaders gonna be hypocrites, what else is new?

The failures of Christianity

     This post is mainly a summary of some of the failures of Christianity in the face of Science and of morality in general, as well as upon itself.  Let's get right to it. First of all, according to the Christian doctrine, humans need redemption because of the story of the Fall of Man. The entire redemptive value offered by Jesus in his supposed sacrifice is meant to wash away our sins inherited from the first man and woman who allegedly walked this planet. The fact of evolution demonstrates that there is no signs of this "Fall" therefore making original sin an imaginary disease, commonly referred to as created to sell an imaginary cure (salvation). This is the primary reason why Creationists not only accept the literal interpretation of the Genesis account (though are fuzzy about the rest of their Holy Book for some reason) but also reject the scientific evidence for an evolutionary track which led to modern humans, even going so far as to doubt proven dating methods.

     While I find this disturbing, it is nothing compared to the historical facts of the story of the crucifixion. In the Roman law of the time depicted in the Gospels, this particularly harsh punishment was only given for revolutionaries and dissenters of the Roman Empire, not for Jewish criminals, or people found guilty under Jewish law, but only for people encouraging a revolt against the Roman Empire. This story leaves the whole narrative given by the gospels of Jesus being sold by the Sanhedrin rather impotent as the punishment would not match the crime (and as we all know, Romans were particularly famous for following the rule of Law).

     Furthermore, I would like to point out that Christianity fails to meet its own promises as Jesus stated that he would return and that the end of days would happen before the death of the disciples present before his demise... Last I checked they were all dead. Paul reiterates this promise and again fails to be met by the all knowing God of Creation. We can take a few things away from this example of blatant ignorance: 1) Jesus lied and therefore is not perfect and has sinned and is not God, 2) Jesus thought he would come back when his disciples were still alive and was wrong, and therefore was not an all knowing God, 3) The Bible is not so perfect after all, and is not the perfect word of a perfect Creator. We can also add that most of the doctrines of modern day Christianity come from the writings of Paul, who according to several scholars was considered a heretic by early Christians. Let us remember that Paul was a man who never met Jesus, yet told people that he had an encounter and was told by Jesus to reform the Law of the Old Testament. His letters were written long before the gospels which were supposed to be the basis of Christianity.

     Which leads me to my last point of the post: we have no originals from the Gospels, or any of the New Testament, and most of the Old Testament was originally given as oral tradition then written down for the literate masses. The New Testament, as we know it, was translated from documents which were copies of copies of copies of translations of copies of letters which were, you guessed it copied, most of which were contradictory and a group of men decided which parts were best representative of their faith as they say it centuries later. They are not historical facts, but mere opinions which were altered through miscommunication and an obvious personal agenda. Christianity is above all, the word of a few men interpreting the ideology they were taught by their culture at a time when only certain people were allowed to express their opinions. It is an obviously plagiarized combination of several Hellenistic myths all bundled with the ever so angry God of the Old Testament, probably in order to claim some kind of originality (even though Judaism has a lot of its myths plagiarized from older civilizations as well, see the Epic of Gilgamesh as a reference of the Flood, for example).

Fear of marriage equality

     It is with great regret that I observe people discriminating against others mainly because they are different. Those same people who claim to not tolerate injustice would deny equal rights to those who act differently than they do. I cannot stand this amount of hypocrisy and fear mongering. This, of course, is yet another post about marriage equality and LGBTQ rights. People of this community are just that, people, who are no different than you and me. They love, grieve, enjoy things, are hurt, and simply want the same rights heterosexuals enjoy in marriage. The main arguments I hear against it, aside from old reliable: "The Bible calls it an abomination!" (which can easily be refuted by stating that the very same Bible only mentions homosexuality as an abomination 4 times, whereas it mentions several times that eating shrimp is detestable to the Lord), is that the age of consent is going to be lowered to accomodate pedophiles and then bestiality will be allowed. Do keep in mind that those very same arguments were made against interracial marriages, and they still haven't happened. Those religious professional fear mongerers are simply attempting to terrorize people with their own bigotry and cannot be allowed to gain power. Those same members of the clergy who continuously push their religious views onto a SECULAR government obviously forgot that, as Thomas Jefferson put it, the First Amendment was put in place as a WALL between church and State.

     Those very same people run their religious institutions as corporations and use their money to lobby the government to favor their particular myth over another. If you want your particular delusion of a magical sky daddy to lobby the government, go on ahead, nobody is stopping you... though we will have to treat your institution as a corporation and tax the ever living shit out of it... freeing up some of the estimated $71 billions a year subsidized into religious institutions. That's right, you can't have your cake and eat it too! For crying out loud you worship a fucking hippie who provided free healthcare for those who asked and promoted socialism, while there are some religious institutions who provide services to their communities through soup kitchens and lodging, most aren't and those that are always have the idea that by doing so they have the right to preach  to those they help in order to gain more money... it is an investment, not in the so called kingdom of they favorite flavor of sky fairy, but in the very pockets of the ministers in charge. Everytime I have presented this idea, I have been called naive and unrealistic but here goes: why don't all members of the clergy do their duties for free, and try to have an actual job on the side, while the church is ran by volunteers. All income is to pay the utility bills, and the rest of the money donated to charities for helping those in need, not in house (because of possible fraudulent activities), but through those organizations that are already established? I mean it certainly has biblical precedent as I believe it was Paul who worked as a tent maker. If your god is so powerful, then he can provide you with a job, and with the strength to perform your calling along with this job! No congregation should allow for remuneration of their leadership!!!!!

    I would also like to point out that countries who have legalized same sex marriages do not suffer any of the predicted consequences cited earlier. Do you want to know why? MARRIAGE IS BETWEEN CONSENTING ADULTS! The age of consent is in place to protect those who cannot fully understand the consequences of their actions and the repercussions they may have, so children cannot make lifelong decisions (that includes baptism by the way douchebags) without being educated in all the possible repercussions which we set fot 18 as it is the time, in our society, when teenagers start to become adults and are educated enough to make their own decisions. Animals CANNOT express their consent with human beings as there is limited communication and our understanding of other animals' cognitive abilities is still rather limited, regardless, they cannot be educated in our ways so much as their behavior is being modified to fit our perception of what they should do. Sadly enough, it is exactly what churches do, and, if you allow me the analogy, If Jesus is the good shepherd and his Church is the sheep, but also his bride, then your religion, at least in its rhetoric condones bestiality when it comes to sheep - Yay Bronze Age mentality!!!!