6/12/16 - The belief in major Christian religions that the crucifixion of their deity is a symbol of salvation, that it represents the means by which they are saved from eternal damnation, doesn't make any sense to me. Whether the Gospels in the New Testament of the Bible are accurate seems questionable to me, but I believe that the Jesus figure existed, as I think it is plausible that such a person should exist to represent a Creator of reality. It doesn't make sense to me that the Creator would have no involvement in His creation. That said, I'll assume that what is written in the Gospels is essentially accurate. Jesus told His people over and over to believe in Him to be saved. But, when he stood in front of Pontius Pilot at the trial before His crucifixion, He announced that He was indeed God, and all of the human beings involved denied Him and sentenced Him to death. This does not represent the salvation of human beings, from my perspective. Those who did not believe in God's Son and tortured Him to death should be damned, not saved. And then we find that even His most loyal followers denied Him, as He predicts. It's understandable that they don't want to be tortured with Him, but I think it illustrates that all human beings failed God, and incurred their own damnation. People in modern Christian religions like Catholicism use the crucifix in worship - I think they are worshipping something horrifying, and that they are oblivious to what it actually represents. Seems to me that if you deny God, He should deny you. If Jesus had not been denied, He would have lived a full life and grown in knowledge and power, having a much more profound positive effect upon the world, and creating belief in Him in the success of His existence, but that didn't happen. The theory goes that we should believe in Him despite the fact that He was crucified - that may be good thinking, but we shouldn't look on the crucifixion as a success. No one should be celebrating a tragedy, and to say that they are celebrating His life denies the fact that He didn't have a good one. I do not believe in sacrifice. I do not believe a benevolent God, as Christianity describes, would demand such a sacrifice for any reason. So, to simply say that the way things went was Good and intended, denies the responsibility of human beings for the fact that, in reality, something completely horrifying happened. There are many philosophers in these religions which I think would see this point, but their patrons would rather hear that they are saved from their sins, and can live as happily as they wish while God suffers the consequences of their actions. Don't believe that God is a chump. Or, don't believe in God! Believe that you can eat up His life to the fullest extent, and then reap the eternal reward that He, Himself, promised you. Never think, thinking (or knowledge) is the Devil, many ardent followers of Christ have said. Instead you should have faith in God! But what they don't realize is that they are having faith in their own concept of God, and they would have only ever realized this in thinking. Thinking, on the contrary, I believe, is the key to salvation after the horror of human failure. |