Thursday, December 18, 2003

The 12 days of bullshit

SEB has some interesting commentary on the revisionist efforts of Christians trying to rewrite reality to bolster their wacko beliefs.

I'm guessing that the main intent behind engaging in this sort of deception is to make fellow believers feel better about the validity of their faith by showing, in part, how their ancestors managed to keep the faith during periods when their beliefs were being persecuted.

Aye, I also suspect that is their motive... but modern-day Christians in this country aren't being persecuted. They've basically got free reign of the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court, as well as various city councils, school boards, and advisory committees. You wouldn't know it, though, since every time they are kept from forcing their beliefs on everyone else they start yapping about how they are being oppressed.

News flash: Christianity, as practiced in the US and many other places, attracts people who feel like they are being persecuted. The whole religion is based on the 'wounded god' archetype, so it's not like this obsession with imagined persecution is something that was grafted onto the core belief system at a later date. It has ALWAYS been a religion that attracts whiners, guilt-trippers, and people who need to put a friendly face on their attempts to control others. Constantine formalized the whole thing 1700 years ago:

First, Constantine moved to eliminate the external challenges posed by paganism, destroying their temples and books. After that, he ordered that those Christian groups which had been deemed "unorthodox" also be eliminated, thus removing internal challenges. Very quickly, theological disagreements which had been a part of the Christian experience became "unchristian." For Constantine, religious differences were impediments to the power that had replaced Maxentius and Licinius. In this way, choice ("heresy") to be religiously different became defined as treason, a political crime.

Hrmmm... what's the point of this rant? I guess it is that you can take your candy canes and your falalalala and your twelve days of commercialism and stick them up your ass, if you can fit them past your head. Happy holidayssssssss toooooooooooooo yoooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.