Someone recently pointed out to me a historian by the name of Flavius Josephus.  He wrote various books on the wars around the time of Jesus of Nazarene, and some of  the books he wrote had stories with coinciding data from some of the books in The Bible.

Here’s the thing.  Two books telling similar stories by long-dead authors is hardly proof that the stories are true.  By that logic, that would mean aliens exist.  Whole scores of people write coinciding stories about them, so they’ve gotta be real, right? Who cares that most of us have never seen one? There are books about them, so they’re real.

Some historians theorize that parts of the Bible weren’t written by witnesses, but by people who heard the stories from people who heard the stories, ad nauseum.  Unfortunately for us, we’ve yet to perfect the science of raising the dead (and especially ones whose remains we can’t find even a trace of), so we can’t ask any of the authors how they came about their knowledge.

Which brings me to another point of contention: In the Christian faith (excluding, of course, Papal infallibility) only the Christian god is infallible.  Humans, by their very nature, make mistakes.  Otherwise, we wouldn’t have sin, and Heaven would be overcrowded.

Aside from that, by the time Christ was born, we had been granted free will by God himself.  Which means that God couldn’t go against his word and tell the “prophets” they could only write what he wanted them to write without proving that he is, in fact, fallible.

Quite the conundrum, huh?

Humans, throughout history, have proven, time and again, that they cannot be trusted to follow God’s will.  So why do people believe, without a doubt, that what they wrote down is the Gospel? And what the churches eventually decided to put in The Bible, to boot.

You don’t honestly think they put everything ever written about God and Jesus in The Bible, do you? The church admits to leaving out books that didn’t fit their image of Christianity.  And that’s allowable by God, for Jesus said, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Matthew 16:19

I can quote The Bible, too.

Someone suggested that the mere fact that “B.C.” stands for “Before Christ” and “A.D.” stands for “Anno Domini” (The Year of Our Lord) proves that Jesus of Nazarene absolutely existed.  But that isn’t entirely true.  We can only guess at the day and year Jesus was born and died.  Different versions of the story say different things.

The Gregorian Calender (which is what put the terms B.C. and A.D. into place) was put into place by the Pope and many Catholics by the year 1582, but it wasn’t accepted as a standard by any specific countries until the year 1700, well after anyone alive knew anyone who had lived during Christ’s life.

All we have to go on, really, is old word-of-mouth tales, a book put together by the church and some speculation about whether or not Jesus of Nazarene lived and died, and if he really was who The Bible says he was.

Someone offered up (what some believe to be) the physical proof that Moses lived and parted the Red Sea, and that Sodom and Gomorrah did fall.   But I never said The Bible is complete fiction.  I remember widespread news stories, during my childhood and teenage years, about physical evidence suggesting that a number of the stories (Moses’s and Sodom and Gomorrah, being the two I remember clearest) have some truth to them.

My thing is a lot of books (movies, plays, etc.) have some truth in them.  Tons of stories, both written and word-of-mouth, have some historical value to them.

For example, there is a science-fiction series that is completely based on world history, but plays out on a “counter Earth”, and rather than our attempt at an equal society, women are subservient to men, and sometimes enslaved.  Are fanatics suggesting that because there is some truth to the story, I should believe there is an alien planet following Earth’s orbit and stealing women from Earth on a regular basis to make them sex slaves?

I hope they’re right.  I hope there is a beautiful place called “Heaven” with tons of chorus-singing angels where people feel no pain.  That would be so awesome!

Unfortunately, I’m pretty convinced you make your own “Heaven” and the best time you’ll have is here on Earth.

Sucks, doesn’t it?

I guess, at this point, I’m kind of disgusted with all the misunderstandings, propaganda and out right lies that have been flying around since 9/11.  Something else I try to avoid discussing these days.  I’m pretty much convinced, at this point, that if our government didn’t have a hand in it, they, at the very least, had the intelligence to stop it and didn’t.

So what has me so disgusted that I feel compelled to write about it?

Well, a while back someone suggested I check out Topix for my news cause you can get news about the whole world from all angles.  That way, you’re reading everyone’s opinion, not just one, and can decide for yourself what to believe.  And at first, I absolutely adored Topix.  Then I made the mistake of delving into Schenectady’s forum and found out just how ignorant the people here are.  And I started wondering if this is an example of most Americans.

That thought kind of scares me.

I mean, it’s no secret that many Americans don’t know the first thing about their religion, be it Christianity, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or whatever.  And we definitely don’t take the time to learn about someone else’s religion unless it somehow benefits us.  Most of us just blindly follow in our parents’ footsteps and never research what we’re banking our eternity on.

And that goes for all religions.  Many Muslims follow Islam because they were raised with it.  Many Jewish people are Jewish because their parents are.  The main exceptions to this rule seem to be Paganism and Atheism.  Generally speaking (meaning this is not always the case), many Pagans and Atheists, I’ve found, were raised by Christians.  I was.

Which, I mean, whatever.  If that’s what you think is best for you and yours, by all means, go with it. 

But honestly? We’re talking about your forever, here, not just the 60-100 odd years you’re going to spend on this rock.  Why on Earth would you not want to be absolutely convinced of your convictions, based on your own research and knowledge, and not just what your parents – who were probably taught by their parents, who were taught by their parents, ad nauseum – told you is true? Especially once you’re old enough and intelligent enough to know that your parents are human, not infallible.

There’s a thread on Topix about Islam.  It’s basically an Islam bashfest, and it’s obvious that the vast majority of the people posting there are Christian and really don’t know all that much about the history of their own religion, let alone the realities of Islamic beliefs.  I mean, their main argument is that the people of Islam are killing for their god.  That the Koran tells them to kill anyone who doesn’t believe in Allah.

But what about all the Christians over the years who killed for their god? What about the passages in the Old Testament that talk about slaughtering entire cities simply because they wouldn’t bow to an invisible man in the sky who didn’t speak to them the way he did the people he was sending to kill them? Did we forget about that? Or do Christians excuse that away because the vocal majority in our country says the Christian god is real, so it must be the “right thing”?

I know quite a few Muslim people.  Hell, the pizza place down the road is owned and run by a Muslim family.  And can I just say, the Muslims I know are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met? I mean, sure they can get a little uppity about their beliefs.  But everyone in the world gets uppity about their beliefs from time to time.  That’s not specific to any race, religion or creed.  It’s part of being human.  “You have to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.”

It is absolutely impossible to know an entire group of people based on a small percentage of them.  And the Muslim terrorists? They’re the minority.  Terrorists exist in all religions and races.  That’s proven fact.

My fellow Americans, I’m calling on you, now.  Stop blindly following the herd.

I’m not asking you to turn on your religion.  I’m asking you to stop believing everything you read in the news.  I’m asking you to stop listening to a government that has done nothing but lie to us since day one.  I’m asking you to question authority.  I’m asking you to research your beliefs.  I’m asking you to form your own opinions.  I’m asking you to think for yourself.

Please, for the love of your children, your family, your friends and all that inhabit our planet, think for yourself.