Tuesday, June 30, 2009

In the Begining - Origins of Christian Beliefs

Fellow blogger Bob Felton at Civil Commotion likes to look at the intersection of religious and public policies/laws. Bob is a libertarian and possibly an atheist - whereas I am more a Jeffersonian deist - and he often does an amazing job at exposing the malignancy and growing influence of religious fundamentalism on American public life. He also likes to poke holes in the fragile belief of system of Christian fundamentalists who fearfully hang on to superstition and throw common sense and any ability to grasp reality to the wind- particularly when they claim the Bible is the inerrant word of God. The reality is that certain "myths" seem to go through religious revivals over the centuries and thus question the originality of what the Christian fundamentalist profess to believe. Here are highlights fro one of Bob's recent posts:
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In the beginning, says a Mesopotamian tale that pre-dates Genesis by almost 1200-years, there were two ranks of gods. There were old important gods who made all the decisions, and lesser gods who did all the work. In time, as happens still amongst we humans, the worker gods decided the system was rigged against them and went out on strike.
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Every single one of us gods declared war! We have put a stop to the digging. The load is excessive, it is killing us!Our work is too hard, the trouble too much! A compromise was reached. The worker gods would be permitted to have helpers: Men.
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Then one god should be slaughtered. And the gods can be purified by immersion. Nintu shall mix clay. With his flesh and his blood. Then a god and a man Will be mixed together in clay.Let us hear the drumbeat forever after, Let a ghost come into existence from the god’s flesh. Let her proclaim it as his living sign,And let the ghost exist so as not to forget the slain god. Later, the gods grew tired of mens’ noise and attitude, and drowned them all in a great flood, excepting the man
Atrahasis and his family. The likeness to Genesis cannot be denied or overlooked.
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Is the Book of Genesis merely a rewrite of the far older Mesopotamian beliefs with Jewish outspreads for added good measure? We may never know, but it is an interesting question worth pursuing. Should it prove true, then the fragile Christian fundamentalist construct falls apart.

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