Aeon of the Dying God: A Retrospective (Beginning @ the End)
Last night, I attended a screening of a 'documentary' called, The God Who Wasn't There:
It's a decent introduction to some of the more spurious aspects of contemporary xtianity, including the following points:
Here's an extensive review of the film.
If you would like a free copy of the DVD, The Rational Response Squad is giving away 1001 copies to those who are willing to complete The Blasphemy Challenge!
--
...and here are some other resources for critical & provocative perspectives about the development of xtianity:
During our discussion following the film, I was reminded of Rev. Jim Rigby's comment during The Last Sunday gathering, "I don't care if you belive in 'God' ...the word 'God' is just a symbol!"
I also recalled the recent discussion of The New Atheism... and I discovered a commentary by Ken Wilber which was inspired by the same Wired article. Wilber uses a model in which he refers to five different types of "God" (archaic, magic, mythic, mental, and integral), which I would generally refer to as expressive of different paradigms or worldviews. But if you must, I suppose you can refer to them as "God." I don't mean to quibble about semantics, I just think the word "God" is a relic of a rather patriarchal manner of speech, which just seems to lead to conflict. And in the end, I have always been inspired by finding alternate & evolving means of conflict resolution!
=)
All of this brings to mind again, one of my favorite references: "We are here to remove a primary weapon from the hands of disputant religions. That weapon -- the claim to possession of the one and only revelation." - The Sign of Profound Accord.
I was one of the Young Religious Unitarian Universalist High School Youth Group Leaders for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin (whose previous website recently went MIA). Although I haven't attended any services there in quite some time, I have a great deal of respect for the minister, Our local minister, Rev. Dr. Davidson Loehr. Here's an excerpt from his recent work: "The Fundamentalist Agenda."
Dr. Loehr is also a Fellow of The Jesus Seminar; which is a project by Biblical Scholars who use a four-tiered voting process to discuss the authenticity of the stories told through xtian scripture.
Another one of my favourite radically liberal contemporary xtians, is also a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar: The Eighth Bishop of The Episcopal Diocese of Newark (retired), John Shelby "Jack" Spong. To use Ken Wilber's terminology, I believe Bishop Spong's Call for a New Reformation is an appeal for paradigm shift by integrating mythical rituals of xtianity into a more rational worldview; and in doing so, "Jack" Spong also lives up to one of the rather more endearing strategies of his xtian heritage:
"To comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable."
As to my own personal integration of the rational & mythical ::: through projects such as The Cthulhu Devival, I have explored memes that are isomorphic to the latter function of the previously mentioned strategy ("...to afflict the comfortable.") ::: & I have always sought to question the base assumptions we have about "reality."
And as for the first part of this maxim ("To comfort the afflicted...")::: in my modus operandi, I endeavour to follow a Bodhisattva Path ::: & my devotion to Babalu Aye, through my work in healthcare, is an incarnation for one aspect of the current manifestation of this intent.
--
During a Mojo Meeting concerning "Forgiveness," among many other perspectives/ideas, we explored the parable of The King & His Debtors & its relation to Game Theory. I often tend to engage in some sort of cyber-gnosticism, which ocassionally manifests as a sgnificant UBIK/ZEBRA/VALIS aspect in my personal mythology. This sort of behaviour is quite resonant to quasi-xtian mystical memes, such as those PKD shared in his Exegesis & his conversations with James Albert Pike, The Fifth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California (abdicated/resigned/deceased).
But, the last time I engaged in any serious contemplation/exploration of specifically-xtian-related sacred texts, myself... was when the The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot was publicly revealed again, earlier this year (after 1700 years or so of mysterious absence) ::: that even affected my dreams.
--
I also feel compelled to mention this note, which I had previously referred to @ the end of my post concerning Rabelais, Fay çe que Voudras:
"In 1773, Sir Francis Dashwood and Dr. Benjamin Franklin revised the Book of Common Prayer ... Possibly the two Freemasons were trying to bring the Anglican Church in line with Masonic Deism."
(I found Dr. Franklin's preface to this 1773 work online @ books.google.com)
And, as R. F. Laird says in the webpage, Other Books that are Helpful in Understanding The Boomer Bible:
"'The Book of Harrier Brayer' is based very closely on the 1928 (Book of Common Prayer,) making the study of the differences very helpful (compare The Table of Harrier Days and Appointed Texts with the Calendar from the Book of Common Prayer). And there is no possibility of understanding The Boomer Bible without recognizing that it is not a collection or omnibus of separate pieces, but an intricately interrelated whole."
--
So, finally... I will leave you all with this enigma:
The Sun King
It's a decent introduction to some of the more spurious aspects of contemporary xtianity, including the following points:
- The Jesus of the Gospels bears a striking resemblance to other ancient heroes and the figureheads of pagan savior cults (...my perennially favorite theme: As Alan Dundes points out, Jesus scores 19 out of 22 on Lord Raglan's scale, measuring how many aspects any given hero possesses of the UR-archetype of the sacred hero-king of prehistoric religious ritual ...also q.v. The Golden Bough & The Hero with a Thousand Faces)
- "Contemporary Christians are largely ignorant of the origins of their religion" (...how many people know how the "Gospel" spread after the death of Jesus? ...much less, how many of them read Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, or Latin? ...is this the Information Age, or a new Dark Age?)
- "The early founders of Christianity seem wholly unaware of the idea of a human Jesus" ["If Jesus had been on earth, he would not even have been a priest." -- Hebrews 8:4 (...a smoking gun according to Earl Doherty)]
- "Fundamentalism is as strong today as it ever has been, with an alarming 44% of Americans believing Jesus will return to earth in their lifetimes" (...citation?)
- "And God simply isn't there" (a brand-new and vaguely Deist-flavoured claim, that is only perhaps slightly easier for modern xtians to swallow than the hackneyed but sturdy adage, "God is Dead!")
- Sam Harris, PEN Award-winning author of The End of Faith
- Robert M. Price, Jesus Seminar fellow and author of The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man
- Alan Dundes, Professor of Folklore at the University of California at Berkeley
- Richard Carrier, historian and author of Sense and Goodness Without God
- Barbara & David P. Mikkelson, authors of the Urban Legends Reference Pages at snopes.com
Here's an extensive review of the film.
If you would like a free copy of the DVD, The Rational Response Squad is giving away 1001 copies to those who are willing to complete The Blasphemy Challenge!
--
...and here are some other resources for critical & provocative perspectives about the development of xtianity:
During our discussion following the film, I was reminded of Rev. Jim Rigby's comment during The Last Sunday gathering, "I don't care if you belive in 'God' ...the word 'God' is just a symbol!"
I also recalled the recent discussion of The New Atheism... and I discovered a commentary by Ken Wilber which was inspired by the same Wired article. Wilber uses a model in which he refers to five different types of "God" (archaic, magic, mythic, mental, and integral), which I would generally refer to as expressive of different paradigms or worldviews. But if you must, I suppose you can refer to them as "God." I don't mean to quibble about semantics, I just think the word "God" is a relic of a rather patriarchal manner of speech, which just seems to lead to conflict. And in the end, I have always been inspired by finding alternate & evolving means of conflict resolution!
=)
All of this brings to mind again, one of my favorite references: "We are here to remove a primary weapon from the hands of disputant religions. That weapon -- the claim to possession of the one and only revelation." - The Sign of Profound Accord.
I was one of the Young Religious Unitarian Universalist High School Youth Group Leaders for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin (whose previous website recently went MIA). Although I haven't attended any services there in quite some time, I have a great deal of respect for the minister, Our local minister, Rev. Dr. Davidson Loehr. Here's an excerpt from his recent work: "The Fundamentalist Agenda."
Dr. Loehr is also a Fellow of The Jesus Seminar; which is a project by Biblical Scholars who use a four-tiered voting process to discuss the authenticity of the stories told through xtian scripture.
Another one of my favourite radically liberal contemporary xtians, is also a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar: The Eighth Bishop of The Episcopal Diocese of Newark (retired), John Shelby "Jack" Spong. To use Ken Wilber's terminology, I believe Bishop Spong's Call for a New Reformation is an appeal for paradigm shift by integrating mythical rituals of xtianity into a more rational worldview; and in doing so, "Jack" Spong also lives up to one of the rather more endearing strategies of his xtian heritage:
"To comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable."
As to my own personal integration of the rational & mythical ::: through projects such as The Cthulhu Devival, I have explored memes that are isomorphic to the latter function of the previously mentioned strategy ("...to afflict the comfortable.") ::: & I have always sought to question the base assumptions we have about "reality."
And as for the first part of this maxim ("To comfort the afflicted...")::: in my modus operandi, I endeavour to follow a Bodhisattva Path ::: & my devotion to Babalu Aye, through my work in healthcare, is an incarnation for one aspect of the current manifestation of this intent.
--
During a Mojo Meeting concerning "Forgiveness," among many other perspectives/ideas, we explored the parable of The King & His Debtors & its relation to Game Theory. I often tend to engage in some sort of cyber-gnosticism, which ocassionally manifests as a sgnificant UBIK/ZEBRA/VALIS aspect in my personal mythology. This sort of behaviour is quite resonant to quasi-xtian mystical memes, such as those PKD shared in his Exegesis & his conversations with James Albert Pike, The Fifth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California (abdicated/resigned/deceased).
But, the last time I engaged in any serious contemplation/exploration of specifically-xtian-related sacred texts, myself... was when the The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot was publicly revealed again, earlier this year (after 1700 years or so of mysterious absence) ::: that even affected my dreams.
--
I also feel compelled to mention this note, which I had previously referred to @ the end of my post concerning Rabelais, Fay çe que Voudras:
"In 1773, Sir Francis Dashwood and Dr. Benjamin Franklin revised the Book of Common Prayer ... Possibly the two Freemasons were trying to bring the Anglican Church in line with Masonic Deism."
(I found Dr. Franklin's preface to this 1773 work online @ books.google.com)
And, as R. F. Laird says in the webpage, Other Books that are Helpful in Understanding The Boomer Bible:
"'The Book of Harrier Brayer' is based very closely on the 1928 (Book of Common Prayer,) making the study of the differences very helpful (compare The Table of Harrier Days and Appointed Texts with the Calendar from the Book of Common Prayer). And there is no possibility of understanding The Boomer Bible without recognizing that it is not a collection or omnibus of separate pieces, but an intricately interrelated whole."
--
So, finally... I will leave you all with this enigma:
The Sun King