Christianity

1. Introduction

Millions believe that the Bible is the word of God. That fact alone makes it an important book. But as the Bible is still read, studied and sold in vast quantities, and is still being used to justify the oppression of women and homosexuals, we must not ignore it, nor should we forget the history of the struggle against it.

The vast majority of people are bible illiterates. They only hear the palatable verses from the pulpit and blindly accept that the bible emanates goodness and is the word of God.

Any honest, thinking person reading through the bible cannot ignore the blatant misogyny and barbarity towards women. The eminent ‘men of God" who wrote the bible were the product of patriarchal, tribal, violent, intolerant, monotheistic society. They reflect the ignorance and brutality of that society and at the dawn of a new millennium, fundamentalists insist that we should all abide by biblical law.

The Catholic Inquisition was set up by the 4th Lateran Council in 1215 A.D. by Pope Gregory 9th to institutionalise what had been going on for years. It was handed over in 1232 to the Dominicans (Domini canes "the hounds of the Lord"), the Papal secret police. The Inquisition was dissolved in 1870 (only in 1982 did the Church admit the inquisition was a "mistake" (note not immoral or wrong).

In early March 1991 a major church college invited the President to address a large class of students in the 12-16 age group on the above subject. The time allotted was a mere 20 minutes of which half was given to questions and answers. This was hardly sufficient to present an alternate viewpoint and redress a lifetime of indoctrination but one can only try. The following is an expanded version of the material placed before the students.

Some think that all the Bible says about circumcision is to order it to be done. Not so! The Bible makes it clear that circumcision only applied to Jews, to their slaves and to converts to Judaism (Gen. 17:10-14, Exod. 12:48). All other peoples were described as uncircumcised, even those who practised circumcision (Jer. 9:25-26).

Question: What did Judas betray?
Answer: Why do you ask? Don't you know? Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver.

Christianity is based entirely on the Bible and the Bible is predominantly mythical and imaginary. The fourth word in the Bible is ‘God' with an upper case ‘G' and nowhere is there any substantive argument for his existence. Until factual proof for the existence of God/s or anything supernatural is established, such a proposition must be regarded as mythical. The only people who had gods were the Norse and we use four of their names in our week days. The word ‘god' is only acceptable as a generic term.

My approach will be first to question the historical accuracy of the gospels. Second, take a look at the alleged supernatural happenings surrounding Jesus and thirdly, highlight some of the emotions displayed by Jesus to show that he was just a man.

THE TRUE STORY OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

AS TOLD IN THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

Despite the reservations expressed by some critics, there can be little doubt that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is a cinematic masterpiece. While stylized, even theatrical, in character, the acting is impressive, the cinematography breathtaking, the musical score powerful and haunting. Even the film's message is skillfully conveyed, if not always with subtlety. And to have all the actors deliver their lines convincingly in two dead languages (Aramaic and Latin) is something of a tour-de-force.