October 8, 2007
Christianity 2.0
Good to see religion doesn’t necessarily mean being stuck in the dark ages. Now if someone can just update the bible, we’d be set.
Oh wait, that’s being done too…
Popularity: 96% [?]
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September 16, 2007
Did Jesus Even Exist?
Even though I was never really a Christian (although I looked into it seriously for a year or so), I had always assumed that Jesus was, most likely, a real person. There’s a common argument1 which goes something like this:
“Either Jesus was crazy, or what he said must have been true. There’s no evidence he was crazy, therefore he must be the son of God”. Sure, there are plenty of other responses to this argument, but I think the two simplest ones are:
- Jesus was misquoted, or misconstrued
- Jesus never actually existed
I still maintain that if Jesus did actually exist, he would be quite unhappy about how his teachings have been butchered and interpreted today. So in some sense, I still believe the first option is quite likely. I had not, however (until recently) actually seriously considered the possibility that Jesus didn’t actually exist.
The bible talks about people we know existed, right? Various Kings and so forth? So, it’s fair to assume that Jesus also existed? Given that Jesus is such a central part of the Christian mythology, Christianity would fall if it could be demonstrated that Jesus was simply a myth, right (please, correct me if I’m wrong)? Well, this might just be true!
I first came across these two YouTube videos2 a while back, and it made me realise that, if true, it would be an amazing coincidence if he actually existed (of course, perhaps that was God’s plan to make Jesus even more difficult to believe, thus requiring more faith). Dionysus (one of the figures discussed in the videos) was supposedly born of a virgin, fathered by the king of heaven, turned water into wine, died and resurrected. Sound familiar? There are, apparently, many other mythical figures who have extraordinarily similar stories – all of which predate Jesus.
There seem to be many others out there who claim similar things, and while there is some criticism of some of these claims, there are, undoubtedly some parts of the Jesus story which were “borrowed” from earlier myths.
I plan to investigate this further, as I don’t believe it’s quite as clear as is suggested, but I wonder – how much of Jesus’ life has to be true for Christianity to remain?
Popularity: 60% [?]
- I think it might have originally been by C. S. Lewis, although I could be wrong [↩]
- Both videos are short clips from Zeitgeist – The Movie, available in its entirety via BitTorrent (legally!), streamed via Google Video, or for order on DVD [↩]
August 20, 2007
Politics and Religion Down Under
I often feel very lucky to live in Australia. Particularly when I look at how other countries are ruled by illiterate intellectually void morons (not naming any in particular, of course). I’ve also always been happy that even though Australia is a predominantly Christian nation, religion (in my lifetime, anyway) has never played a large part in politics.
While I don’t think Australia will ever be as dominated by fundamentalist religious dogma as is the case in the USA, it’s scary to see religion and politics closely intertwined in Australia, as it’s certainly possibly that we could head down a similar path. Our two major party leaders, Kevin Rudd, and John Howard are both strong Christians (or, so they claim), as are many of the other Members of Parliament.
Democrats1 leader Lyn Allison says there are too many federal MPs with strong religious views.
Senator Allison says the separation of church and state is becoming blurred.
“The Prime Minister this morning said that there were a great number of Members of Parliament in Coalition ranks with very strong ties to the Christian church,” she said. “I know this is a Christian country but people with very strong religious views are heavily over-represented, if I can put it that way, in the Parliament,” she said.2
I’ve always been a swinging voter, and I don’t support either major Australian party – my votes in the past have gone to the Greens, the Democrats, or the odd independent (with the unfortunate necessity of nominating both of the major parties somewhere with my preferences). It worries me, however, when I can see the line between politics and religion in Australia getting blurred.
Some claim that comments like those of Lyn Allison are misguided, but I think it’s a legitimate concern. There’s certainly no problem with having a reasonable percentage of Christians represented in parliament (if 64% of the population are Christian, then their views might be well represented if we have 64% Christian MPs). My problem is that politics seems to be becoming more about religion than it should be, and who knows where that will lead? Honestly, I don’t care what religious views our leaders have, as long as they’re able to put their views aside when it counts. I worry that the efforts of our potential Prime Ministers to emphasise their Christianity will push the focus where it doesn’t belong.
(Oh, and sorry this post was late – I try to write one major post each Sunday, but I’ve had a rather busy weekend!)
Popularity: 29% [?]
- A minor party in Australia [↩]
- Donald, P., Iggulden, T. (August 2007) Howard, Rudd Woo Christians Online, ABC News [↩]
August 14, 2007
Objective Morality
I hadn’t really come across the argument from morality much before – at least not enough to seriously think about it. I’d heard people ask “if you don’t believe in God, then where do your morals come from?”, but rather than answer the question (I’d say honestly “I don’t know”), I’d retort with the observation that Christians “pick and choose” their morals from the bible, and clearly their morals come from the same place as mine – and it’s not the bible (an idea I’d always had, but one that Dawkins helped me articulate).
For those not familiar with the argument from morality, it basically goes like this1:
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If God does not exist, then there are no objective (i.e. independent of human opinion) moral values and duties.
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There are objective moral values and duties.
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Therefore God exists.
My gut instinct when I first thought about this argument is that the first point has issues. I’ve asserted before that we can have morality without religion2, and I still believe that a moral code independent of religion is superior, but as for where this morality could come from – I have no idea. I seem to remember Dawkins talking about how morality could have evolved, but that wouldn’t be objective morality, would it?
Which as got me thinking about the idea of objective morality as a whole, and I can’t help but ask – do we really have objective morality (point 2)? Zach Moore says that, at least at a debate lecture he attended, the idea the objective morality exists seems to be generally accepted, but I can’t help but feel that there’s something wrong with that, too.
What morals do we have that are objective? “Murder is bad” – Surely there’s some times it’s justified3? “Do no harm” – but what if my survival is at stake? “Do the greatest Good” – but, what IS good? Even the golden rule isn’t objective (although the rule itself seems to be the most universal law of morality) – “do unto others as you’d have them do unto you” relies on our own opinions! Perhaps I really wouldn’t care if you stole my girlfriend?4
Do we really have objective morals? If so, what?
Popularity: 31% [?]
[August 1, 2007
20 gram Links for July 31st ’07
Here are some of the sites I’ve been looking at recently, that I wanted to share:
- 7 Proofs That We Live in a Computer Simulation – or Why Proofs of Gods Existance Are Unconvicing
- Why I took so long to accept evolution – a.k.a. Why every christian should read their own bible. “part of what helped me along was actually reading the Bible in high school, being horrified by much of it”
- denialism blog : I can has souls? – There is a god, and it’s a cat.
- Religion and Sexual Ethics – A nice summary of the moral position of various religions. Interesting to compare catholicism and buddhism side by side! (I think I’m with the Buddhists, here)
- LOL cat Bible – Personally, I hate this pathetic LOLspeak crap, although this picture is funny… “In teh beginning, Invisible Man make univerz. Invisible Man say, I can has light. Gots light.”
Popularity: 47% [?]
July 25, 2007
Praise The Lord For All The Cash I’ve Got
I saw this clip on TV tonight (The Chaser, an Australian comedy show, are playing repeats at the moment), and I thought it was funny. If you haven’t heard of these guys, I suggest you check out their show (currently taking a break) – you can download it at the ABC website.
Let me hear you say “I will empty the contents of my wallet into that little collection plate when it comes around…. hallelujah!”
Oh, and if you liked that, you might also like this:
VIDEO: What Have We Learned From History?
Popularity: 29% [?]
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