Jesus is not just a myth, it's worse than that ... (religiorant)

yes, Jesus is a myth, son of god; performed miracles; water to wine; raising the dead; curing the lepers; died on the cross; came back three days later; ascended to heaven ... blah blah blah!!

yep, that's a tall story all right, the stuff of legends, the makings of myth...

did you know that the letter "J" wasn't even used until 1500 years after JC had died? so this notion that there was someone literally called "J"esus 2000yrs ago is indeed, very, very much a myth.

but that's not the only reason why Jesus is a myth, Jesus is a myth because the majority of christians don't even follow his teachings, not strictly, in fact it would be fair to say that no "christian" actually follows Jesus' teachings properly and to the letter, except for a very small minority, and ironically, many of those people are probably Buddhists or Hindus who just happen to subscribe to the same philosophy as Christ.

So the reality is that the majority of christians are probably worshiping a Jesus that they have made up, and what is a myth, but something that we've made up?

JESUS AND THE FLAT EARTH MYTH

Jesus and the flat earth myth, sounds like a bad covers bad, but it shouldn't be a particular concern to non-believers that Jesus is factually a myth.

It's worse than being a mere factual myth.

For instance, I'm not overly inclined to tell people that Jesus probably was a complete fabrication, just like telling (apparently) good kids that Santa is not real, what's the point other than to be cruel? On the other hand, with a spoilt little brat who demanded that Santa bring him some particular present, I'd be more than inclined to destroy that little Santa fantasy.

Hey, Luke! Santa's not real!

So in the spirit of how to treat a spoilt little brat, feel free to tell religionuts who've got their religion wrong, ie. practically all of them, that Jesus is a myth, because not only do they worship a myth, but it's a fair bet they've got that myth wrong. To be honest, I actually expect that christians getting their religion right, would actually be relieved to see someone pointing out to the masses who do indeed have their religion wrong that they are a bunch of cock suckers for getting it so massively wrong.

The myth of Jesus is like the flat earth myth, because the flat earth myth, is a myth itself. LOL! Bad analogy, I know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth

Not since before the times of the Ancient Greeks, *at*least*, was it commonly accepted that the earth was flat, a lot of people just think that people *used* to think that the earth was flat. That myth started up about a hundred years ago.

So regardless of whether there really was a Jesus, it doesn't matter, because most people have the mythical Jesus from the bible wrong anyway because they are believing in myths about the myth. It's myth to be squared! it's a bird, it's a plane! no! it's super-myth!

BLOODY ROMANS! ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

Jesus' highest law was to *love* - at all costs - that's what the bible says in Matthew 16, and that's the example he set by dying on the cross, with that example being, that in spite of the extreme punishment and torture he was put through, he stood there and took it all, he did not defend his life, he *gave* it, because in order to save his life, he would have had to have sinned.

JC would have had to have become violent in order to resist the bloody Romans from trying to put him up on the cross, well, he could have cheated and made them all fall asleep or something, but JC didn't work like that, apparently. mysterious ways and such, i would imagine.

From what I understand of Jesus' teachings, if someone was beating up your grandmother, unless you can stop that from happening *peacefully*, ie. without violence, then you are sinner. and of course if you take revenge on the person who administered the beating, then you are sinning as well, Jesus didn't teach "eye for an eye" - love was the highest commandment.

This is what Jesus was teaching in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 16, with the most relevant bit being...

Matthew (16:24) Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (25) "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (26) "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

See that?

"let him deny himself" means that you deny your life in this world

"take up his cross" is a metaphor saying that you bear your burden as far as it will go, even if it means you give your life doing it

"whoever desires to save his life will lose it" means even if you try to preserve your life in this world via violence, you will lose your eternal life.

"whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" - more metaphors - no wonder people don't "get" this stuff - but this is saying that if you lose your life in this world for the sake of upholding Jesus' commandment of love, you will have eternal life.

And there is the CRUX (pun intended) of the problem with christians and their christianity, they can't do that. they *wont* do that!!

christians don't willingly give away their lives because they do NOT actually have that much faith in Jesus Christ to go and do that, or does faith come in degrees? different sizes perhaps? is faith just a convenience, that you have when you want it? whip it out of your wallet like it's a gold AMEX card, or maybe even a get out of jail free card you stole from a monopoly game and somehow you think that it's valid in real life? can you get a side dish of faith with your bullshit stories of two thousand year old magic?

customer: I'll just have the supersized bullshit stories from thousands of years ago, thanks
employee: do you want faith with that?
customer: I *said* "I'll **just** have the supersized bullshit stories" thank you
employee: it'll only cost you 50 cents?
customer: okay, but I bet I'll just leave it on the bench and it gets all mouldy

Shit, they wont even give away all their stuff like they're supposed to if you want to follow Jesus..

Luk 18:22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

but back back to Matthew 16, here's what some old dude called Matthew Henry thinks about Matthew 16:25, he says it much better than I.

Whosoever will save his life in this world, if it be by sin, he shall lose it in another; he that forsakes Christ, to preserve a temporal life and avoid a temporal death, will certainly come short of eternal life, and will be hurt of the second death, and eternally held by it. There cannot be a fairer pretence for apostasy and iniquity than saving the life by it, so cogent is the law of self-preservation; and yet even that is folly, for it will prove in the end self-destruction; the life saved is but for a moment, the death shunned is but as a sleep; but the life lost is everlasting, and the death run upon is the depth and complement of all misery, and an endless separation from all good. Now, let any rational man consider of it, take advice and speak his mind, whether there is any thing got, at long run, by apostasy, though a man save his estate, preferment, or life, by it.

Matthew Henry commentary on The Book of Matthew Chapter 16

** apostasy, is not following the teachings of Jesus

"THE THINGS OF MEN" V "THE THINGS OF GOD"

If you read the full text of Matthew 16 below at the end of this blog, Peter said to Jesus that surely Christ should not lay down his life in such a selfless manner (Mat 16:21-23), so Jesus told Peter off, "Get behind Me, Satan!" - a famous quote - but the *very* important context of that quote is that, if you don't lay down and give your life for Jesus, ie for *love*, then you are akin to an emissary of Satan himself.

This is why I find the notion of christians fighting wars particularly strange, because technically speaking, if Jesus was their highest lord and saviour master messiah dude, as some so OFTEN claim, then they should be surrendering to the enemy, and all the atheists should be doing the actual fighting .. Imagine reports from the battlefields

Atheist-Soldier: General!!! General!! Come in!!! All ten thousand of our christians soldiers have surrendered to the enemy!!!
Atheist-General: What?!?! Again!?!?! We *just* secured their release!!! Well, you have to press on any way! complete the mission soldier!!
Atheist-Soldier: But there's just *me* left sir!!!
Atheist-General: Don't worry son! The enemy have their hands full with all the complaining from the christians claiming to be persecuted, that's why the enemy sent them back last time!

and Jesus also (not so clearly) indicates that if you don't lay down your life for the sake of Jesus' teachings of love ie. "the things of god", and you instead save your own life, ie. "the things of men", then you are committing idolatry.

Saving your own life is putting the "things of men" before the "things of god" - that's what the first commandment was about, I do believe, as putting manly things before godly things is the very definition of idolatry.

because self preservation is a thing of humans, is it not? we got that from evolution, all those years being chased by sabre tooth tigers taught us to not wander into dark caves and wander off alone at night and to not stand there and be eaten to death when you can do something about it, etc...

YOU KEEP MOVING THE GOAL POSTS!

Every time I read the bible, I have to move the goalposts even further away as to just how *wrong* christians have their religion. It's like I knew they had it wrong, but I didn't realise they had it so wrong that you could read the font from orbit.

it's like I'm the starter of a race where all the participants are bickering about where the finish line should be, 1.2 metres, 2.1 metres, 10.9 metres, a 100 metres, one guy says that just showing up means he's won the race and he won't fucking leave until you give him the god damn fucking gold medal for fucking showing up, blah lbah blah

but then every time I (stupidly) go and check the race rule book, it turns out that they're all wrong, and then I have to move the finishing line, a thousand kilometres away, and it's only a thousand kilometres away because at the time the rule book was written, there wasn't much need for numbers *that* big ("oh we'll never need a number that has more than three digits! who has that many goats any way?") and probably also because finishing the race wasn't the point of the "race" in the *first* place.

the point of the race was to let the other guy beat you, to *death* if need be, you'd think "The Passion" would have made that sink in, but alas, maybe it was too complicated to have to actually fucking read the subtitles of the Aramaic dialect? or maybe I underestimate how compelling watching blood and gore is amongst those who think they have a free pass to heaven?? We're a brutal society, most of us just tell ourselves that we are not...

"oh Jesus died on the fucking cross for me, so *I* don't fucking need to god damn fucking DO ANY FUCKING THING!"

sorry to generalise, but if the majority can not be bothered to do anything about their extremist minority, ("OH! they're not *REAL* christians!") then that majority can also not be bothered to complain when somebody points out the stray sheep in their flock, or indeed, that the whole flock is grazing in the wrong field, and are chewing on grass that has lots of fats and sugars with little to no nutritional value...

so "FUCKING YES!! Jesus is a myth", because the vast majority of christians are not even worshipping the Jesus from the bible, they're worshipping some version of him that's been made up along the way, because what christian would actually lay down their life to avoid sinning when they or their family or friends are attacked, let alone be prepared to lay down their life when some complete *stranger* was being attacked?

If you won't lay down your life for a stranger and you worship Jesus, then the Jesus from the bible is not the one you're worshipping, and when you worship a Jesus that's not from the bible, you are worshipping a FALSE Jesus, and when you worship a false Jesus, you are committing idolatry, and when you commit idolatry, you are breaking the first commandment and you are going to hell and all those nasty things ... idolatry is also an unforgivable sin, if I remember correctly.

just because you think you've got the right religion, it doesn't mean that you've got your religion right.

christians laying down their lives to save others, how often do you see stories like that? stories like that, are few and far between, and they are the stuff that legends are born from, and a myth is usually just a legend that's been told so often that the original facts have been completely lost.

If a truly christian nation were to "invade" another, then they would walk into the country unarmed, handing out food, medicines and other supplies, to win the hearts of the nation they were "invading", and anybody who was killed in the process, would be on an express ride to meet and greet with Jesus in the afterlife...

is that the mythical dude called Jesus that you are worshipping, or are you worshipping a myth based on the Jesus myth, that just happens to be called Jesus as well?

MATTHEW CHAPTER 16

the rest of the blog, is that bible story chapter Matthew Chapter 16, in full... it's interesting to read it all in context.... if you're as bored as I was to write this....

(note: "Leaven" is the yeast, or the *ingredients* of the bread, it's what it's made up of, and in terms of faith, it's a metaphor for the teachings of that doctrine, it's the *ingredients* of the faith)

The Pharisees and Sadducees Seek a Sign

Mat 16:1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.
Mat 16:2 He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red';
Mat 16:3 "and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.
Mat 16:4 "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed.

The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees

Mat 16:5 Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
Mat 16:6 Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."
Mat 16:7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread."
Mat 16:8 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?
Mat 16:9 "Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?
Mat 16:10 "Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?
Mat 16:11 "How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? — but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
Mat 16:12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ

Mat 16:13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"
Mat 16:14 So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
Mat 16:15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Mat 16:16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Mat 16:17 Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Mat 16:18 "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Mat 16:19 "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Mat 16:20 Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection

Mat 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
Mat 16:22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!"
Mat 16:23 But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."

Take Up the Cross and Follow Him

Mat 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
Mat 16:25 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Mat 16:26 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mat 16:27 "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.

Jesus Transfigured on the Mount

Mat 16:28 "Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."


http://www.blueletterbible.org/tools/printerFriendly.cfm?b=Mat&c=16&t=nkjvp