Friday, July 28, 2006
AGE OF AQUARIUS
Just received the latest copy of Elegy from France, one of my favourite newsstand magazines, a delightful mixture of dark music, art and fashion - certainly nothing to compare to in the UK. Anyway, as I was flicking through the pages of photography of sexy fetish goth girls, Trevor Brown-style artists and various reviews, stumbled across an interview with that loveable old rogue Tibet who inexorably brings the subject round to the imminent apocalypse, the second coming of JC, added to some remarks about AIDS being a message from God - and in the process managing to outdo some of the more extreme US Christian fundamentalists. In this case earnestness somehow belies ignorance. David, if you're reading this, I adore you to bits and we want to give you a final chance to see the light: like Noddy, like Minski, your Bible is just mythical literature, there was no historical Jesus Christ; like Krishna, like Mithras, he symbolises the sun, so just go out and relax and have some fun.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
7 comments:
hey mr. bennett, while i agree with you most of the time, i think that Jesus was a historical figure, but what he did, said, and thought is open to speculation. I think he's a real person only because the Christian cult started in the 50's and sixties and i find it hard to believe that folks would be worshipping and entirely made up figure. anyway, take care Jim from Georgia
Hi Jim, thanks for your comment, that's what I used to think until I started scratching the surface - because when you take away what he did, said, and thought, what's left? Isn't it because we're brought up in a society where there is no room to question this stuff? In fact historically, there's nothing unusual at all in people worshipping made-up and later historicised or evemerised figures. Because by the same reasoning, we also have to believe in the historicity of Apollo, Dionysus, Osiris, Buddha and countless other mythical godmen who people at one time or another worshipped at their geographical 'birthplaces' and claimed ownership of various 'artifacts' etc. Christianity is nothing if not repackaged paganism. In the early centuries CE, there were indeed a great many (including many early Christians themselves, especially the gnostics, and not least Paul himself!) who were aware, or otherwise sceptical, of the non-historic personage of Jesus. All best, WB.
Well, the origins of Christianity has always been of interest to me as I was raised Catholic and, for many years, went to church every sunday, finally stopping once I got to college. I don't consider myself religious anymore, but all that programming has been very difficult to shake off! I'm not sure what made me start to question it... Most likely it was in high school when I looked back at all the gods that were said to have existed before the Christian "God" and wondered to myself, "Hey, what happened to all those gods anyway? Why does no one talk about them anymore, even though they were once worshipped as supreme beings? And if those old gods can fall out of favor, could not the same thing happen to the Christian faith?"
There's this book by David Icke I read once (hardly the most credible source, I know)that talked quite a bit about how the Christian faith originated from the pagan sun gods. Sure enough, the church I went to for years is built to face the rising sun!
Yes, there are quite a few, Gary - Freke and Gandy's well-written The Jesus Mysteries is probably the easiest place to start, or alternatively Earl Doherty's very thorough book The Jesus Puzzle, additionally there are some other titles listed at www.susanlawly.com under 'recommended reading'.
You'd think after all that Crowley, he might have gotten the message.
Oh Dear.
Post a Comment