Accountability and Culpability - Theirs and Ours

Benjamin Franklin once said:

``The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.''

Christianity teaches us that we must not regard our reason, that we must ``have faith'', as it were, no matter the circumstances, as if God had given us reason as a plaything, or a rattle, for the sole purpose of making fun of us.

Here's an eye-opening article that I found on ``Bible Prophecy'', I offer it to you in hopes that it will help to open your eye of reason:

Accountability and Culpability - Theirs and Ours

by Pauline Rocco

How many times have you heard variations of the theme: "Repent! The End is Near" thumped out by the bible cranks? Many times I'd guess, because bible prognosticators have been at it "forever and ever" (well, for almost two thousand years, but who's counting?) The Rapture!, Armageddon!, the Antichrist!, Gog and Magog (who? what?) 666!, the 2nd Coming!, the Tribulation!, and other glad tidings of great joy!

The Christian seers reliability quotient has been on par with Enron's CEO and accounting department, but at least the Justice Department is investigating Enron. We can't say the same about any major Christian leader or organization. They are never held accountable for their misinformation, their disinformation, their blatant lies.

Once upon a time we may have believed we could dismiss this end of the world blather as laughable nonsense. I assure you this is no laughing matter. An outbreak of war in the Middle East will affect all of us.

Recently French Ambassador Daniel Bernard asked a rather succinct question at a dinner party in London. He described Israel as, "that shitty little country," and asked, "Why should we all be in danger of World War Three because of these people?"

Why, indeed! Could it be because we have allowed Christians to wield their illegitimate power over our foreign policy? When was the last time you heard the United States' unqualified support of Israel questioned in the context of separation of church and state? How many politicians manipulate their power and authority in support of Israel based on their belief that it's the least we can do for God's "chosen people?" America is filled with people living in fear of the bible's threat of woe to those who aren't nice to the Jews. Isn't it time WE said, "Whoa" to the sheep gleefully hoping to bring on Armageddon so Jesus will come back and move into the White House? Can't you just imagine that while listening to George Bush bray about 'rooting out the evil ones', Ariel Sharon must be thinking,

"I, like Samson, am having great success using the jawbone of an ass!!"

Really! Aren't you getting fed up with Christian interlopers laying claim to our heritage and our destiny?

Our kindred spirits of the Enlightenment expect more from us! The Founding Fathers risked everything they had and more to give us what we take for granted: The freedom to govern our country based on the use of reason. They gave us freedom from the tyranny of the church that had used (and still uses) its power to enslave people with guilt and fear. Be inspired by Thomas Jefferson's words,

"There is not a truth existing which I fear, or which I would not want known to the whole world."

One truth we should help make known to the whole world is Jefferson's description of the bible's Book of Revelation as...

"...the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams."

But don't just sit there thinking about all this... DO something about it! Be encouraged by Johann Goethe's words,

"What ever you do, or dream you can do, begin it! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."

Xian mysteries

Here's some facts well known to most biblical scholars, but of which Xians are completely ignorant:

1. The phrase ``Jesus of Nazareth'' is a mistranslation. The original Greek text actually says ``Jesus the Nazarene''. The Nazarenes were one of the three major religious sects in Jesus' time, the other two being the Pharisees and the Sadducees. You can find a Greek-English interlinear text in any Bible shop, and probably in many public libraries. Read Mark 14:67, John 19:19, and Acts 2:22 in the interlinear to see what it really says.
2. Acts 24:5 confirms that Nazarenes were actually a sect, not people from "Nazareth" a town which didn't exist until some 400 years after the alleged crucifiction. In Acts 24:5 "Saul of Tarsus" (known to Xians as Paul, and whom is the actual founder of Christianity,) is accused of being a member of that sect, but he himself claims to be a member of the Pharisee sect (Acts 23:6) and a Roman citizen (Acts 22:27).
3. `Jesus' is a poor translation of `Yeshua' from the New Testament that went from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English. In the Old Testament `Yeshua' was translated directly into English as `Joshua'. Thus Yeshua, Joshua, and Jesus are the same name, and a very common name at that. Joshua, or Jesus, means ``Jehovah is Salvation''.
4. The Jesus story has elements of several different ideas combined into one myth. It is my belief that there probably was an actual man named Jesus, but quite unlike what Christianity describes.
5. First of all, he was a Nazarene - (not from Nazareth, since he was born in Bethlehem.) As a Nazarene he followed the Torah, and neither was he ever a `Christian, nor a God-incarnate, nor did he found a new religion.
6. The `Nazarene' of the New Testament are also the same as the `Nazirite' of the Old Testament, A Nazarene being a member of the sect, and a Nazirite being a Nazarene under an obligation of a holy oath. (Read Numbers 6:1-21) It's similar to the O.T.'s `Philistines' who today are called Palestinians; and are actually the same people. Samson was declared a Nazirite from birth. (Read Judges 13:2-7) Thus, the Nazarenes are the oldest of the 3 major sects that existed in Jesus' time.
7. The word Nazarene, as best I can determine, came from an Aramaic phrase that means ``Keepers of the Covenant''.
8. The `Ministry' story of Jesus was taken from Solar worship and astrology and applied to the Jesus myth. (Read, no, study http://members.cox.net/deleyd/religion/index.htm)
9. The wisdom sayings came from another source, refered to by biblical scholars as ``The Book of Q'' The `Q' comes from the German word `Quella', which means `source'. No evidence exists that a man named Jesus actually said those words of wisdom that are attributed to him in the Bible.
   
10. The so called `miracles' attributed to Jesus were embellishments that were commonly added to stories about religious leaders of that time, and have no more basis in reality than the Greek myths.
11. The Gospel stories do not date to Jesus' time, but allegedly date to the time between the two major revolts, around 66 to 74 and 132 to 155 A.D. according to most scholars. However, keep in mind that no extant copy of any Gospel predates the fourth century!
12. In 325 A.D. Constantine, the Emperor of Rome, ordered the convening of the first Council of Nicaea. At the Council the attendees voted to deify Jesus. The results were 218 for and 2 against making Jesus into god incarnate, like the Emperor. Thus, Jesus became God-incarnate by the vote of men! After the Council, the Emperor ordered that all documents mentioning Jesus were to be sought out and seized from whereever they were, taken to Rome, and sequestered from the public. Six years after the Council Constantine ordered the Gospels rewritten to include the decisions made by the Council. All the originals were then burned, which explains why no existing copies of the Gospels predate the fourth century.
13. Emperor Constantine's own `virgin birth' story was also incorporated into the Gospels at that time.
    
14. My conclusions after years of biblical study are that a man we call Jesus perhaps actually did exist, that he was a Nazarene, that he followed and taught the Torah and the other scriptures of the Old Testament, that he was anointed twice, first as the King of Judea, then a second time as King of Israel, (in imitation of King David's two annointings,) that he attempted to organize a revolt, ordering his followers to arm themselves (Luke 22:36) and they did use their weapons (John 18:10), but the revolt failed to materialize.
15. Nothing was wrote about Jesus in his lifetime - all stories being passed down by word of mouth, miracles and solar worship stories were blended into his true, albeit boring biography, spicing it up so as to make it more appealing, to make him seem more important, more successfull, and to preserve elements of solar worship by blending them into a biographic account, giving birth to the Jesus myth.

TOP TEN SIGNS YOU'RE A CHRISTIAN

This one's been floating around Deist circles on the Internet for a while, but there's still plenty of folks who haven't yet seen it---(mostly Xians, of course!)
Humorous, yet refreshingly profound!

10 You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of your god.
9 You feel insulted and ``de-humanized'' when scientists say that people evolved from lesser life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
8 You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Trinity god.
7 Your face turns purple when you hear of the ``atrocities'' attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in ``Exodus'', and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in ``Joshua'', including women, children, and trees!
6 You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed and came back to life and ascended into the sky.
5 You are willing to spend your life looking for little loop-holes in the scientifically established age of the Earth (4.55 billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by pre-historic tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that the Earth is a couple of generations old.
4 You believe that the entire population of this planet, with the exception of those who share your beliefs, even including large sects of Christians, will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet you consider your religion the most ``tolerant'' and ``loving''.
3 While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in ``tongues'' is all the evidence you need to prove Christianity.
2 You define 0.01% as a ``high success rate'' when it comes to answered prayers. And you consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God. (Which begs the question: If it's all the will of God, why the hell pray in the first place?)
And the Top Sign that you are a Christian:
1 Most Deists, Agnostics, and Atheists know a hell of a lot more about the Bible, Christianity, and church history than you do. (Which might be an indication of the very reason that you are still a Christian).

Here's an interesting quote from Thomas Jefferson

``Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than on our opinions in physics and geometry....The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.''

--Thomas Jefferson (Third president of the United States.)