My problems are with my family here online,
and with my family in my face-to-face world,
and with the world in general.
My problems fall into these categories, at least, and maybe more, that I can’t think of right now:
1. Religion
2. Politics
3. The coming collapse of our horn-of-plenty-at-the-grocery-store society
In each of these,
I have some useful, (in my opinion) ideas,
but how do I explain to others,
in such a way that even a few of them say,
“Eureka! I think you’ve got something there!” ?????
How????
Most folks,
just about everyone,
gives me a blank look.
(Yes, I think I can read a blank look from my readers here.)
About religion:
My family is very conservative Christians.
I mean, young Earth, literal creationist Christians.
I am an atheist, because I have some common sense.
But not only my family,
but here at Daily Kos,
there are, not just a few Christians,
but actual pastors of churches blogging here.
Pastors.
A basic understanding,
that, since matter cannot be created from nothing,
a basic understanding that the universe has always been here,
just changing in every way,
a dense lump explodes, and we call it the big bang,
same matter, billions of years later,
collapses into another dense lump,
we call it a massive black hole,
that basic understanding,
with a clear understanding that we humans are just another product of that bang,
an evolutionary phase that brought about complicated lumps of matter (humans) with language and complex thinking,
understanding all that should be the most basic common ground,
for any group of adult humans to interact with each other.
Again,
understanding all that,
should be the most basic common ground,
for any group of adult humans to interact with each other.
And, atheists actually do dominate, here at Daily Kos.
kos himself is an atheist.
But, since some of my favorite fellow Daily Kos bloggers are pastors,
I do not feel free to push hard on this topic too much.
The rant in this diary is about as far as I feel I can go.
And with my face-to-face family,
I must truly bite my tongue,
and keep my ideas to myself.
They know I’m an atheist,
but they feel free to dominate the Bible study discussions,
with long rants stating conservative Christian dogma,
while I must lay low, and state philosophical points,
points that can apply to atheists and Christians alike.
Good thing they love me,
and I’m clever with my words,
and the Bible gives me lots of room to philosophize.
But, studying the Gospel of John in the last few weeks,
for the first time as an atheist,
I am now suspecting that the “miracles” of Jesus were magic tricks.
He may have put wine concentrate into those jars,
either a powder or a syrup,
at the wedding at Cana,
when no one was looking,
so that when the water was poured in,
it made a nice tasting wine.
When he fed a big crowd,
twice,
he passed out baskets to all the folks sitting there,
and they could take what they needed,
or put in some for others, if they had extra.
Nearly all of them brought extra, but it was hidden in their aprons,
aprons that were full of loaves and fishes,
and tied up towards their necks,
so nobody could see what they had,
until they pulled out some extra,
and put it in the baskets.
Bosom:
The front of the upper part of the body, the breast. The orientals generally wore long wide, and loose garments; and when about to carry any thing away that their hands would not contain, they used for the purpose a fold in the bosom of their robe above the girdle.
There is no way to make any wine or bread appear from nothing.
So, either the stories are just made up fables,
or,
since careful study gives me a “feel” of a true story,
then Jesus was a magician.
And those who saw his tricks,
failed to see they were standard magician tricks.
The miracle cures and raising the dead,
those tricks are more complex,
and require secret helpers, shills.
For example,
if Lazarus agreed to play dead, with the help of one other accomplice,
who wrapped him in the customary burial wrappings,
then, to anyone not in on the trick,
it would look like Jesus raised him from the dead.
“Lazarus, come forth!”
Very dramatic.
By the way,
there are no prophecies from the Old Testament,
that said the coming messiah would do any miracles.
He did the miracles to get attention,
then rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey,
to “fulfill prophecy.”
And, concerning the way he died,
I have become disgusted and nauseated at what Jesus did.
He announced, over and over, that he was going to kill himself,
by the method we now call, suicide by cop.
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
19 There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. 20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him? 21 Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
Notice, his talk of his suicide made some folks say, he is crazy, why should anyone pay attention to him?
Then others said,
if he’s so crazy,
how did he make the blind man see?
It was a magic trick,
performed with the help of a shill.
But he used their awe at his tricks to get some folks to accept everything he said.
And he set it up so that Judas would feel devastated and guilty about his role,
as if he, Judas, killed Jesus.
So depressed, that he killed himself.
Not the story of a sensible man.
Very perverse and sadistic.
This whole Bible Study is putting a disturbing twist into my feeling about all Christians.
Because none of them, apparently,
can see the disturbing reality of:
1. Magic tricks, to get folks to follow him and accept him as the messiah
2. Suicide by cop, with a sadistic twist of making Judas feel responsible,
when Jesus was responsible for his own suicide,
by his own words.
Now, you may think,
I can contact my fellow atheists online,
such as the Progressive Atheists group,
here at Daily Kos.
And, yes, this diary is published at that group, as well as this WYFP? group.
But in many discussions with atheists through Facebook,
and one atheist I know face-to-face,
I get the following message:
Jesus never even lived at all.
The gospel story is just another fairy tale.
Complete fantasy, not a true story.
And, these same atheists say,
there is no benefit to be gained,
nothing to learn,
from reading the Bible.
What I wrote above,
about Jesus and his magic tricks,
and his suicide,
and his putting so much guilt on Judas that Judas killed himself,
I got all that from Bible study.
You would think that atheists would be eager for such Bible study,
so they can give arguments like I just gave,
arguments for turning away from the Christian religion.
But most of them are happy with actually throwing Bibles in the trash.
So, I cannot truly feel intellectually at home, discussing religion, with Christians.
Such as my family, who loves me, and we live in the same house, and study the Bible together.
And, I cannot truly feel intellectually at home, discussing the disturbing points from the gospels,
discussing these things with atheists,
when those atheists want to tell me the gospel story is all a fairy tale,
Jesus never even lived,
and the Bible is not a source of useful information,
not even information useful for arguing against Christianity.
Alright,
maybe I should save the other two topics,
politics,
and the end of commercial food production,
maybe I should save those topics for other WYFP? diaries.
Thanks for reading.
Tell us your problems in the comments,
if you wish to get them off your chest.
May we find peace and healing here.