Christianity, like most religions, is a useful fiction to have in the background if you are interested in power. Here you have a collection of arcane stories purporting to be in some ways associated with the word of God. People in power, in many places, often, refer to their own faith, as if it is a one size fits all stamp of righteous authority. That their belief in the God of the religion, shared by the dominant cohort, conveys some moral probity within their quest for power. Card carrying Christians wave their bonafides in the face of all and sundry who may question their ascendancy. The illusory nature of religion can be bent into all sorts of shapes.

The Invention Of The Christian Religion

In actual fact, religions everywhere are failing to stand up to any credible scientific scrutiny, as to their historical veracity. The list of discredited characters is getting longer than the tallest of stories. Moses, has on the evidence, been for a considerable time widely held to be a fictional character by biblical scholars. The man who communed with God and received the Ten Commandments did not exist. He joins Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joshua and more as fictitious characters in the Judeo-Christian canon. Now, St Paul is being declared as another invented element within the Bible by those studying the evidence.

Epistolary is, for those unaware of the term, a literary format of collected letters. It is an ancient format; and one well known example is by the Stoic philosopher Seneca. It is now understood that these letters are, most often, not real letters to people, but, rather, involves the use of the form for its literary sake. Paul’s letters have been, traditionally, viewed in this way. Interestingly, the novel, which was largely invented as a literary form in the early 18C, often, in its early examples contained letters between literary characters. Letters, as written missives of communication, were seen as having authenticity via their pragmatic role in the real world.

Theologians Performing Mental Gymnastics

It seems, that the creators of Christianity and Judaism were untroubled by pesky concepts like factuality when telling the stories designed to spread belief in their conceptions. Indeed, once you establish the divine nature of your religion the skies the limit. Miracles play well with audiences everywhere and thus we find these stories full of them. The ridiculousness of modern theologians studying these Bronze Age fictions is without doubt pretty silly. I have often said that the first marketing men were those selling religion. Down through the ages, these theologians have had to perform acts of flexibility more suitable to circus performers. Adapting and editing stories to appeal to new ages. Interpreting strange mish mashes of events and putting a positive spin upon them for the current era. Certain themes have remained, however, like misogyny, which has served the purposes of male dominated cultures over time. God has, in many ways, reflected the hierarchical structures of those worshipping him at the time, strange that, almost uncanny. The language within the Bible itself, although updated over the centuries, still echoes today the feudalism of its strongest era. The Lord God. A Prince in heaven.

“Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.”

– (https://www.lords-prayer-words.com/lord_traditional_king_james.html )

Kingdoms, property rights, trespass, power, and glory are all things associated with a feudal power arrangement.

Inculcating Children Into Religious Fictions

Unfortunately, what you get when human beings are brain washed into believing religious fictions are pockets of backward thinking. Believers, most often, inculcate their children into their religious beliefs. Most religions run schools so that they can perpetuate the beliefs of their faiths within the attending student body. If you take a young child and tell him or her stuff, over and over again, delivered with parental gravitas and love most kids will take it as Gospel, as the saying goes. Like everything in life there are good and bad aspects to this indoctrination. However, it does not bode well for the ability to think for yourself, as there is no tabula rasa to start with. Culturally, you, also, get this wrong headed belief for many literalist Christians that God believes in paternalistic arrangements and other feudalistic ideas about how humanity should operate. Beliefs that Judeo-Christian golden ages were imbued with these societal designs by a divine source. A failure to properly investigate the truth and scientific facts around religion promotes these wrong-headed fallacies. The upshot can be resistance to progressiveness based on attachments to idealised conceptions in the past. The truth is that there are no Gods speaking to you from the pages of holy books, only men. The illusory nature of religion, which is fundamentally cultural and not divinely revelatory, as claimed.

God Is Not Hiding At The Top

Trump Is Not Hand Picked By God

“Right wing folk in the US were too willing to believe bad things about Joe Biden’s government. The economic performance of Old Joe is beginning to look a hell of a lot better than Trump’s efforts in this first year. Uncertainty is deterring investment in the US. Americans are suckers for a story. Reality has, often, been a long way off for many in their reading of the situation at home. Trump’s OTT brash confidence has appealed to lots of people who really should know better about Trump. Biden’s age and infirmity were big vote killers. The Democratic Party should have known that. By the time Harris got the nod it was too late. Still, voting for Donald Trump was a big mistake for America. The nutjobs and extremists Trump has assembled for his cabinet will do untold damage to the US. Another national disaster or crisis will see this lot crumble and the consequences will be deadly. Nearly a million Americans died from Covid last time Trump was in office.”

• (https://wordsforweb.com.au/trumps-culture-wars/)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.

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