Comment by: Eddie Lee

2007-11-21T23:16:15Z

The Book of Genesis begins like a fairy tale. And that’s what it really is — except that the tale gets uglier and uglier, until we start visualising God as an ogre rather than a father-figure. But let’s be blunt here — the Garden of Eden never happened ! And yes, Eden has been documented in the Bible, which millions of naive people accept as the ultimate truth. But anybody with an iota of common sense will agree that Eden was never there to start with. It is simply a fabrication by a very active human imagination — and just the type of fabrication we would laugh at in any other religion outside Christianity, Judaism and Islam. What I am trying to say is that the Old Testament is not the ultimate truth. This fact can be verified by the massive miscalculation made in terms of the age of the world. Biblical scholars, counting from the first day in Eden, will have us believe that the world is just a bit over six thousand years years old — a piece of arithmetic that has time and again been ridiculed by scientists who have discovered fossils and such-like that date back a couple of million years. Religious bigots, each with his own agenda, tell us that we must have “faith”. Of course, they know that without this all-embracing word “faith” the churches and organisations, inclusive of the human parasites that live off them, will go out of business. The fact that they have such a wide following all over the world testifies to man’s innate fear of the unknown — after death, what ? From out of this fear was born religion and so-called spiritual leaders who quickly began exploiting mankind’s need for some sort of assurance that death was not a finality. I don’t know why they needed to cook up such incredulous stories that now comprise much of the Old Testament. But then, methinks the stories were already there — parts of Jewish mythology — just waiting to be picked up by charlatans posing as the messengers of God. And so, about Original Sin — you guessed it, it never happened.

But let me mention here that my opinion about parts of the Old Testament does not in any way interfere with my avid interest in the four gospels of the New Testament — and in the fact that I am a follower of Jesus Christ. And this brings me to point out the Jesus never mentioned “Original Sin” which, I am sure, would have found a place in His teachings if it was true — and if it was as potent as the churches would have us believe. The New Testament tells us that no man is perfect — we are all with sin. But not “original sin”. And here I need to point out that Jesus told his followers: “Be perfect, as my Father is perfect”. Would He have said that had He known that all men carried the stigma of “original sin” and thus could not be perfect ? Actually, “original sin” is a lie cooked up by St. Augustine. It is still being used in an effort to coerce parents into baptising their babies as Christians (Catholics, really) before they reach the age of reason and start figuring things out for themselves.

Comment by: Jonathan Blake

2007-11-30T08:59:01Z

I find your conscious separation between the Old and New Testaments interesting. You sound something like a Red Letter Christian.

I have a couple problems with the idea that Jesus is a friendly face when compared to Jehovah of the Old Testament. 1) No one mentions Hell in the Hebrew Bible. Christians first introduced the idea of eternal punishment for finite sin. Jewish tradition doesn’t hold that the unrepentant sinner is held forever apart from God. 2) Jesus introduced the idea of thought crime. He was the first totalitarian. Jesus could have been the leader of Eastasia.

For me, Jesus symbolizes two widely disparate ideas: profound, selfless love and soul-crushing shame and fear.

Comment by: Green Oasis » Lithium for Jesus

2007-11-30T13:43:39Z

[...] [This post was inspired by Eddie Lee’s recent comment.] [...]

Comments on: Original Sin

Comment by: Eddie Lee

Comment by: Jonathan Blake

Comment by: Green Oasis » Lithium for Jesus