Comments on: Godless elites?

By: Luis

Luis — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:45:15 +0000

And stop referring to Jesus as if he actually existed.
He may have existed actually, even if the accounts are largely exaggerated. The most simple and reasonable explanation is that the guy actually was there, even if what we read of him now is mostly mythology. Actually I think Herakles also existed probably, even if only a little bit of his mythology is remotely close to reality and all the rest is just decoration, imports from other myths, popular superstitions and general Disney-ization of the real thing.
Personally I think Jesus was probably a zealot “terrorist” and that the transformation of the real man into the ideal god is very well metaphorized in the choice of Jesus Barrabas (son of the father, literally) and Jesus the Christ (both the same person: one the real thing and the other the edulcorated myth).
If media recording doesn’t prevent it, they may one day do the same with Osama.

By: WhatJesus?

WhatJesus? — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:10:30 +0000

And stop referring to Jesus as if he actually existed. Read up on your solar deities and stop perpetuating the lies.

By: Caledonian

Caledonian — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:04:05 +0000

The US is a low-education country, Luis, and it’s becoming more underdeveloped with every moment. Why should biblical literalism surprise you here?

By: Luis

Luis — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:40:48 +0000

I think Christianity, as all or most organized religions, is basically political: organization for power (not of the masses, of course). This has been so since the beginning (probably Jesus himself was heavily involved in Jewish politics) and if you dig in the Christian Coup in the Roman Empire (and religious persecution after it) it’s very evident. So I’m not the least surprised that business and government (and also media, “the fourth power”) score high in religious types.
Still I will never stop getting negatively surprised by the high rate of biblical literalism among USAmericans. This kind of fundamentalist belief is more proper of underdeveloped low education countries, really.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:36:15 +0000

The steady swap between “literal” and “inspired” as education progresses is interesting, but you have to wonder about the mental acrobatics which go on here.
At some point these swappers have to set up mental filters to sift out which parts of the Bible they’re willing to swallow whole and which they’re not.
I think a more interesting survey would be one which digs into the “rationale” they use in determining what they’re willing to take literally and how literal they’ll take it.