ramblings on christ

Disclaimer: This is not a scholarly writing, it’s merely me voicing an opinion. So don’t come back complaining that I’m not citing correctly or providing sufficient evidence for things. If i wanted to do that i'd have written a book :p

Since everyone is suffering from da vinci code-fever, generally manifesting itself also in a strong conspiracy theory obsession, figured I might as well jump on the wagon on this one and have my say. I’m gonna avoid the conspiracy theory stories cuz that would go on forever (although I think its worth mentioning that someone told me once that the guards at the Muslim Ka'aba in Mecca have all-seeing eye of Horus, an Illuminati/Freemason symbol, on their arms. Interesting huh? The Ka'aba itself incidentally is said to have been a sacred site dedicated in pre-Islamic times to a triple goddess cult)

after finally catching the movie I had a conversation with a friend who said that she finds it hard to believe or accept the concept of Jesus having a wife and children and there being an entire bloodline linked back to him. my response was that while the story as written in the novel was a conclusion by Dan brown (and as he clearly states is a work of fiction based on his research), the status of Mary Magdalena is a controversial one, and the one upheld in conventional Christianity (ie as a prostitute) believed by many scholars to be a concept propagated by the church in support of a particular point of view of the status of women in society and the divinity of Christ as a fundamental cornerstone of the religion. In fact, the matter of "Who is Christ" was only finally debated and affirmed as doctrine by the Council of Nicaea. Now, one contention I do have with the da vinci code was that it implied that up till the point everyone believed Jesus to be a mortal prophet, which isn’t true, they did not invent the concept, they just affirmed and made doctrine a notion that was a matter of conflict for different parts of the religion. The point is that the concept strongly held by million today was VOTED on and decided by a group of humans. As we all know, humans are far from infallible and are generally prone to promote points of view that support their own ideologies or motives

In fact it’s interesting to note that there was a strong theological divide between three groups of people about the nature of the divinity. The followers of St Alexander of Alexandria believed that the Son was of the "same substance" as the Father, while the Arian (followers of Arius) held that the Son was different and as a consequence was only a creation (albeit probably the most perfect of creations). The homoiousians took the middle ground that the Son was of "similar" substance as the father. Now, while this may sound like silly wordplay, it has significant consequences: If the Son was just a creation (and therefore, "lesser" than the Father), this destroys the unity of the holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

But of course again that’s another long story. My focus here is on who was Jesus? Someone asked me once, "Do you believe in Jesus"? I took the question to be more of "do I believe that Jesus existed"? My stand is that yes, I think that yes, there was a man by the name of Jesus of Nazareth (historical evidence supports his existence), a Jew and Israelite (and therefore probably did NOT look like your conventional white-man Jesus), and that this man was a great and charismatic leader, and though a message of peace and brotherhood that became the foundation of belief of millions. However in my opinion, he was just that, a man, a leader, who positioned himself as carrying a divine message of a one true God. I also think that as a very smart man, he realized that his greatest gift to humanity would be as the ultimate martyr, that his prosecution and death (which he probably realized was inevitable) could be used to bring hope to mankind, hope of divine forgiveness, hope that we will all be alrite in the end. Smart fellow. It worked didn’t it?

As far as stories and miracles, we all know what happens to stories propagated by word of mouth. It’s like that game where you tell one person something, who tells someone else and so on until it comes back to you but it’s a totally different of exaggerated story. Imagine what happens when a story is told over 2000 years by people who hold dear the concept of his divine power. For all we know he's just a very comforting man who makes you feel good, next thing you know he heals lepers.

To me, I respect the guy, he was a great man, he had a good message, unfortunately as typical of humanity we've used to fight amongst ourselves, prosecute, torture and kill millions who disagree with us, and manipulate and coerce millions to our will and motives. That alone convinces me that while his message was good, it was far from divine. A true divine message would not have loopholes, inconsistencies and differing interpretations that would lead to such manipulation. And we have seen this happen to all religion, believes, doctrine and ideologies.

And as a man, it’s entirely possible for him to have had partners or wives or whatever. The fact is that we don’t really know for sure what happened in the first 30 years of his life before he rose to be a leader of faith. Most Gospels that tell that part of the story are lost or denied and destroyed by the church (along with many other Gospels written by others that did not support the particular point of view held by the church, including the controversial Gospel of Judas and even a possible Gospel of Mary, who some scholars believe was not just a "prostitute" but also a close friend of Jesus and even possibly another Apostle). John Adams joked that “The Trinity was carried in a general council by one vote against a quaternity; the Virgin Mary lost an equality with the Father, Son, and Spirit only by a single suffrage.”(reference to the votes at the Council of Nicea)

Of course, this is a notion that will be debated till the end of time. Personally I think we’d all be better off if we accept Jesus as a man with a good message. After all, isn’t it the message of a better humanity that is key, not how many times you’re supposed to go to Church? Or if it should be “same”, “similar” or “different”? Why do we need a divine authority to tell us to be good to each other?