2000 years of disbelief

I ask this question raised by Carl Jung: “Why are so many millions of people willing and eager to turn their lives over to outside authorities?” Why are so many today willing to turn their mind/brain…soul/spirit over to outside individuals, institutions and ideologies, whether it be Jewish, Muslim or Christian “authorities” of dogma? Or whatever the outside authority might be that is telling you what to think, what to believe and how to live your life.

I ask then, how do we withdraw from such a childish dependency if we want to reclaim our mind/brain and our very own life? I answered this by saying that first you must begin by taking a long, hard critical look at all so called religious authorities wanting to control your life, and be willing to accept the risk that goes with such courage and independence.

Our first six presidents had the courage to do that. American history scholars, writing for the Encyclopedia Britannica, have stated that our first six presidents were Deists and not Christian. I quote: “One of the most embarrassing problems for the nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was the fact that not one of the first six presidents of the United States was a Christian. They were Deists.” (1968, vol 2 p.420, Mortimer J. Adler, editor in chief. The Annals of America: Great issues in American Life: A Conspectus)

Thomas Jefferson used these words to express his view: “On the dogmas of religion, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.” (Jefferson to Carey in 1816, ms 1V)

One of the most valuable books in my library, and one I have reviewed many times, that will make a monumental contribution toward historical and religious literacy is 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People With The Courage to Doubt by James Haught, published by Prometheus Books. James Haught is the Executive Editor of the Charleston Gazette. He has received many honors and awards from the National Press Club, the American Bar Association, and People For The American Way. Read more

Bible centered lives

Theodore Hesburgh was one of the great Presidents of the University of Notre Dame. Upon his retirement he issued a most remarkable statement. He said, “You know there is really no such thing as Roman Catholic University.” He went on to explain that a true university represents an open-ended search for truth regardless of where it leads, combined with the best scholarship known to institutions of higher learning. Whereas the very words “Roman Catholic” represent dogma, doctrine and indoctrination, the very antithesis of an open ended search for truth.

I know what he meant. When I was teaching at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, I was often with faculty members from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. They were owned by the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran church. One of their faculty members, with tears in his eyes, said this to me one day: “You have no idea how much we envy you. You are free to teach and explore all of the latest scholarship in every area of religion. We are not free like that under Missouri Synod control. If we were to teach or expose our students to anything that would threaten Missouri Synod doctrine, we could be fired.” You see…there is no such thing as a Missouri Synod Lutheran university.

All over this country are churches and “colleges” promoting themselves as “Bible” centered and “Christ” centered. For a church, that label is valid. But there is no such thing as a “Bible and Christ” centered college. “Christ and Bible” are dogma, doctrine and indoctrination. A college is, according to my Unabridged Editorials: “An institution of higher learning, one providing a liberal arts education.” Do you think for one gullible and naive moment that anyone could expose those students, in a bible college, to any of the most distinguished scholars in the world who could demolish their narrow and restricted “bible” indoctrination?

You can rest assured that “bible” centered indoctrination does not include any contemporary scholarship, such as was revealed in the April 13, 2009, edition of the Los Angeles Times. On the front page, column one, was an exhaustive article on the fact that scholars have known for years that there was no Exodus, and that: “The biblical epic of Moses NEVER HAPPENED. Even Jewish scholars admit that it is myth.” And: “Joshua’s fabled military campaigns never occurred.” As one Rabbi put it: You can never know God by denying the truth, and the truth is Moses and the Exodus never happened. It is mythology.”

George Ernest Wright and Frank Cross were two of the most respected and distinguished biblical scholars in the world. They were the Protestant representatives on the first translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and were my professors at Chicago. They both went on to Harvard. I’ll never forget the first day of class. They held up a bible and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a bible. We are STUCK WITH IT. Now, let’s try and make the best of it.” Read more

Mythological continuity

Anthropologists and religious historians estimate that in the last 150,000 years, since Neanderthal times, there have been at least 100,000 distinctly different religious traditions. Religions do not just pop into existence. They are a spin off from preceding cultures and they borrow, steal and plagiarize from the preceding culture and reuse the material to suit their own purposes. For instance, scholars know today that the Old Testament names of the Hebrew patriarchs had been around for 1000 years prior to Hebrew Old Testament times. Scholars know today that nothing in the Gospels is historical or biographical but is legend and folklore and a perfect example of mythological diffusion or mythological continuity. None of the writers of the Gospels knew Jesus personally. No biblical scholar in any major university would deny this.

As Carl Jung writes: “the Osiris myth was clearly superseded by the Christ myth. This is one of the finest examples of mythological continuity.” The Osiris myth, in the beautiful trinity of Isis and Horus, lasted for 4500 years in Egypt. Even 500 years after the death of Jesus, Christians used to worship in Alexandria before statues of the virgin mother Isis suckling her divine child in a stable.

One good example: the genealogical table of Christ in the book of Matthew (1:1-17) consists of 3 X 14 names. The greatest festival in Egypt was the Heb-Sed celebration to reaffirm the Pharaoh as God’s son. In the processional, statues of 14 of the Pharaoh’s ancestors were carried before him. There had to be 14. Celebrated every 3 years, it had to be 3 X 14, or exactly the same mythological formula found in the book of Matthew, the genealogy of Jesus.

Of all the resurrected savior gods that were worshiped before and at the beginning of the Christian myth, none contributed so much to the Christ mythology as the Egyptian Osiris. Osiris was called: “Lord of Lords”, “King of Kings,” “the good shepherd.” He was called “the resurrection and the life,” the god who “made men and women to be born again.” He was the “god man” who suffered, died, rose again and lived eternally in heaven. Egyptian scripture reads “as truly as Osiris lives, so truly shall his followers live also.” The coming of Osiris was announced by Three Wise Men. His flesh was eaten in the form of communion cakes of wheat. Only through Osiris could one obtain eternal life, they believed. The much loved 23rd Psalm of the bible is only a modified version of an Egyptian text appealing to Osiris, “the good shepherd,” to lead the dead “to green pastures and still waters,” “to restore the soul” to the body and to give protection in “the valley of the shadow of death.”

An outstanding television series on religion for PBS and BBC some years ago documented human religious experiences. The Near East section was written by Dr. Grace Cairns who holds a doctorate in religion from the University of Chicago. She wrote: “the resurrection myth of Osiris and Isis prepared the Greco-Roman world for the resurrection myth of Jesus in early Christianity.” She goes on to write that the followers of Jesus, like the followers of Osiris, made him a part of themselves by eating him in communion cakes so as to participate in his resurrection. Gods of that period who were eaten in the form of communion cakes included Adonis and Dionysus, among others. Like Attis and Mithra, Jesus was sacrificed at the spring equinox, rose again from the dead on the third day and ascended to heaven. And like Mithra, Osiris and all the other gods he celebrated his birthday nine months later at the winter solstice.
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