And for something different

Australian Priest Claims Jesus Was Not God

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Jesus Christ was not God, and Mary was not a virgin, according to a controversial new book written by an Australian Catholic priest.

“This whole matter regarding Jesus being God … not only does violence to my own intelligence, but must be a sticking point,” Father Peter Dresser writes in his new book, “God Is Big. Real Big.”

“For millions of people trying to make some kind of sense of the Christian religion … No human being can ever be God, and Jesus was a human being. It is as simple as that.”

Dresser claims Joseph was Jesus’s father, Mary was not a virgin – and actually had six children – and that the story of the resurrection should not be taken literally.

Dresser’s book has angered conservative Catholics across Australia.

“The Council of Nicaea settled the question that Christ was God in 325, so he is 1700 years out of date,” Sydney priest Anthony Robbie said. “The rest is a regurgitation of every discredited 19th-century liberal Protestant German cliche in the book.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,444715,00.html

I happen to agree with this priest but then I’m not a member of the Catholic Church and especially not one ordained.  Methinks he is in a wee bit of trouble with his bosses. 

Theology and thoughts (you are warned)

I read an interesting piece of fiction this weekend – Footprints of God by Greg Ilers.  It was my kind of a book these days, a mix of action and theology.  And after reading this book, I got my first real dose of the simplest form of quantum physics. 

But it was the kind of book that preyed on my mind when I wasn’t reading it.  And I realized that once again I had tapped into an explanation of God that works within my raw developing view of a higher power. 

More than anything, I can’t believe in the God of the Bible.  The God of the Old Testament is a venegeful God, who punishes quickly for non-believing.  The God of the New Testament is an evolution of the earlier God but still one that puts demands on the love He will disburse.  In the OT, He favors one group of people (amazingly the ones who are putting the stories in writing) and punished them all when as a group they fall away from His commands.  Believers are told to believe this is a God who is like a parent, who punishes out of love and to teach the children to be better.  Now in the NT, believers are told to love each other and how to treat each other but ultimately it comes down to believe in God or face everlasting Hell.  Either way, this smacks of an entity who shows very human like emotions and even pyschosis of egotism and actually self-esteem issues.  I know it is excused by saying that we are supposedly made in His image but truthfully I expect a Higher Power like God to be above that.  I found more comfort in the idea of a God who loves unconditionally and puts no demands for love in return.  As a parent, I love my kids without them loving me back.  I want what is best for them, even if that is not always in line with what might make me happy in the short term.  If I can do that with all of my human flaws, is it too much to believe a Higher Power who is perfect can do even better?

A different look at my religious beliefs

I have been listening to The Jesus Dynasty on CD.  It is a bit dry listening so honestly I will have to listen to it a few different times.  But what I liked is the author looked at the Jesus story in a historical perspective and talked about the politics and agenda of each of the Gospel writers.  It is very interesting to listen to and seems as plausible as anything else I have heard in a long time. 

It amazes me how as much as I thought I knew about the history of Christianity, only in the last few days have I really heard (in this book and another I was cruising) about how Paul and Peter (you know, the guys who are the foundation of the Catholic Church) shut down the ministry of James, the brother of Jesus.  I am not saying they did it with  evil intents or anything, but yet they managed to just about silence a man who had grown up with Jesus, who was with him and who Jesus gave the reins of the ministry to. 

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Christianity.  The basis of it is very similar to my own beliefs, that we have an obligation to work together, help one another, etc.  But I believe over the centuries, it was warped and distorted many times over, often by people with agendas that Jesus would be appalled by.  And sometimes the message gets over taken by the messenger, which I believe might have been how Christianity took off. 

Back to the book, it was a good blend of history, archaeology evidence and common sense.  I really liked how he looked at the story of Jesus in light of the times and culture, as he also did with the Gospels and the books of the Bible.  At no time is the author trying to say Christianity is a bogus religion, he is just attempting to show the realities of its origins, instead of having in a mystical aura around it. 

I grew up in a Southern Baptist environment and at one time planned on going into the ministry.  Always I have loved archaeology and even did my Junior year research paper on the Dead Sea Scrolls.  But over time, the hypocrisy of many Christians turned me away from the organized Church.  And as I learned more about the early years of the Church, I realized that few people really know the history of the Church.  For example, the number of Popes who knew almost nothing about theology and ruled the early Catholic Church with politics and power in mind instead of betterment of the followers.

Very interesting piece I stumbled on today

Here I was researching to find a way to redo my “new” china hutch to look more like my great-grandmother’s and I found this article.  Some things were meant for me to stumble across them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06stone.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=28e25c3c87821bc2&ex=1215489600

There will be a lot of debate about this piece, especially since some of the writings are faded but it raises once again the question about if a living Jesus ever existed or if a mythology emerged about one.

And in other news

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,360121,00.html

So now the latest theory is that Stonehenge was a burial site.  Ok, I can see the stones as large gravemarkers and especially when you go through the whole thing of how they line up with the stars, sun, etc. 

What I love when I read these stories are the attempts to understand a people we have no real records of.  One of the greatest things I ever read was written many years ago and it was a supposedly archeaological study conducted a few thousand years from now of a culture who uncovered a bathroom of our times.  I can’t remember all of the items and how they were represented but it went along the lines that the throne (toliet) seat was a sign of power and the container on the back of the throne was a place for tributes to be placed.  I can’t remember the religous significance of the bathtub but I remember the bath stopper on a chain was seen as an amulet.  Oh and the plunger was a scepter.  You can let your imagination go wild from here.  But it goes to show the possibilities of how a future culture could totally misunderstand what we use today and what it is for.  So when I read these studies by archaeologists, I love them because they could be right or they could be so far from the truth.  And the great thing is that we won’t know.

 

Who am I religiously?

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html

Your Results:

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.

Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.

1.	Neo-Pagan (100%)
2.	Unitarian Universalism (99%)
3.	Liberal Quakers (94%)
4.	New Age (89%)
5.	Reform Judaism (89%)
6.	Bahá’í Faith (82%)
7.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (77%)
8.	Mahayana Buddhism (76%)
9.	Sikhism (75%)
10.	Secular Humanism (70%)
11.	Theravada Buddhism (65%)
12.	Jainism (64%)
13.	New Thought (63%)
14.	Scientology (62%)
15.	Orthodox Judaism (58%)
16.	Taoism (56%)
17.	Hinduism (52%)
18.	Islam (51%)
19.	Nontheist (46%)
20.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (43%)
21.	Orthodox Quaker (40%)
22.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (28%)
23.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (26%)
24.	Eastern Orthodox (24%)
25.	Roman Catholic (24%)
26.	Seventh Day Adventist (15%)
27.	Jehovah’s Witness (5%)

It would appear I’m not as close to Catholic as a few friends tried to convince me I am.  However I am surprised to see anything about being a Quaker high on my list.

Vatican – The extraterrestrial is my brother

Great news to my Catholic friends, the Vatican doesn’t have a problem with people believing in aliens.  I know this comes as a huge relief.  I, for one, have been holding my breathe.

VATICAN CITY  —  The Vatican’s chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Funes says that such a notion “doesn’t contradict our faith” because aliens would still be God’s creatures.

The interview was headlined “The extraterrestrial is my brother.”

Funes said that ruling out the existence of aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom.

The Lost Ark

It is once again time for someone to declare they have found the lost ark of the covenant. 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355264,00.html

I don’t know why they keep searching.  I keep telling them it is hidden in my closet.  Sportzmom and Hip Shaker keep certain men locked away in their closets, I hide great pieces of archeology treasure in mine, waiting for Indiana Jones to come find it.  Unfortunately with the way he has aged, I think I need to give him a bigger clue.  So here I am, on the internet, telling him where to come look.

Any other archaeologists interested in the treasures I have hidden will need to email me a current picture of themselves.

 

Religion by Einstein

I found these quotes in a CNN article today and just loved how they tickled me deep down inside.

Born to a Jewish family in Germany in 1879, Einstein said he went through a devout phase as a child before beginning to question conventional religion at the age of 12.

In later life, he expressed a sense of wonder at the universe and its mysteries — what he called a “cosmic religious feeling” — and famously said: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

But, he also said: “I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws.”

I so agree!!  There are laws of decency, of nature and of science.  These laws change over time as we develop a greater conscience or a better understanding of the world around us.  But because these basic principals are in existance and do so define the universe, I do believe we are not just random cells that luck put together. 

I can’t wait to read this

No, not on Prince Charles’ backyard.  Oh please, like I would want to know (but I will look since I will have this issue in hand).  I know, what a nerd.  Yes this is exactly the sort of thing I obsess over reading.  I love articles like this.  Now this is going to be interesting, because it is NG’s recanting an article published in their magazine 2 years ago and how new interpretations cast doubts on the original findings.  Hmmm, interesting stuff.