Your comment about the Bible being written by ordinary men reminds me of my theory about the story of Jesus Christ.
Two guys are walking down the street. One is named Jesus. The other guy, let's call him George Walker, bumps into Jesus not unintentionally because it's a bad day for him (George).
"Watch where you're goin', hippie!" says George, rudely.
It creates a scene because Jesus falls down and scrapes his knee. Uncool. Jesus stands and sizes George up real quick. George, looking for a fight, says, "Yeah, maybe it wasn't an accident. Maybe you got what was coming to you, huh pal?"
And he beats his chest and throws up his dukes. Jesus, calmly, asks George what's wrong? Is his harvest bad? Does his goat not give milk? Is his wife seeing the stable-keeper on the side? What gives?
George bursts into tears. "Aw, man, it's all those things!" And he throws his arms around Jesus in apology and consolation. Jesus, who happens to be George's neighbor, overhears the scandal of the Walker household frequently but he says nothing more to George about it. Instead he says, "It's alright, friend."
The passersby erupt into applause and everyone is happy. Jesus, while he has everyone's attention, reminds his audience that it's good to be nice to people, even mean people. Especially mean people.
The story of Jesus and George spreads across the city, then neighboring cities and then neighboring nations. Each time the story is passed, maybe some details get forgotten or a more interesting detail gets added. Maybe Jesus didn't just give George a hug; he made his wheat grow and sent a wave of locusts onto the house of the stable-keeper. Maybe George becomes three different guys, each named Judas, Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate. A century passes and four guys in remote locations all decide, "Man the stuff that Jesus did ought to be written down."
Six centuries later, you have the proto-orthodox church.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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4 comments:
I think you are completely undermining the Bible and what it stands for by creating this metaphorical scenario. Without anything to back up your idea, it just seems like more Atheist hot air. I mean, all you are doing is sharing an idea, but you are putting into a place in which many people will come across, and not many people will view the fact that you have no evidence for your idea; they will simply erupt in anger or agree with you completely. Perhaps they will not respond like either of my examples or respond somewhere in between.
You can say whatever you want to about anything, and I will support your freedom of speech, but if you are going to dive into issues like that and try to refute something that has been around for centuries with a half-assed explanation as to why things are the way they are today, I think that is stretching it a bit far. At least give yourself some academic dignity and prove it with evidence.
Then again, this is just a blog. I am conflicted as to how I feel about your post. Hmm... I will give it some thought.
I'm being silly, Mohmaar.
but i think omar is getting at something there. the reason that your scenario is ineffective is because there are probably at least 100 people like that in every city in the world, and yet very fewof them reach legendary status (moses, jesus, mohamed, ghandi, perhaps someday MLK and BO). and really, lets be honest. all of these people were waaaay cooler than the jesus in your story.
Yeah. MLK freed the slaves, and Ghandi raised an X-wing from the Dagobah swamp using the force.
LEGENDS!
I am being silly, of course.
By the way, how can I tell if you were being silly in this post? There is no indication in there. For all I know, you could actually believe. It's a good thing that I know you, though.
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