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Not sure what he looked like, but it doesn't matter to me. I see him as a philosopher before the Gutenberg press that was not associated with the Pharisees (est
by moneytide1 8y ago
Not sure what he looked like, but it doesn't matter to me. I see him as a philosopher before the Gutenberg press that was not associated with the Pharisees (established philosophical order). There have been many Jesus personalities throughout history, every religion has one as a voice to convey useful advice.
He gave such good advice about how to navigate hardships without the pressure of tithing that he has since been revered as supernatural.
--5,000 fed with 5 loaves and 2 fish:
I used to think everyone was fed "magically" with whole portions. Now I realize it was a communal exercise, and the lesson learned was how to share and make sure everyone gets an equal piece (even though everyone just got a small crumb).
--Water to wine
Once again, as a child I thought he violated laws of physics. Alcohol is a depressant and excessive use can hinder productivity of the citizenry. Under the advisement of Jesus, the man without ties to the Church, word spread to replace wine with water. Water to wine; pez to Xanex.
--The poor woman and the blind man
I recall one story where there was a poor woman without food, and Jesus was able to scrounge up enough flour from her own storage containers to produce a meal. Once again, thought it was magic. But he came into her home and helped her assess her resources.
Mud on the blind mans eyes? Impossible to cure blindness like that - but he wasn't literally blind. Unfortunate circumstances likely provoked a depression that pushed him into pretending to be blind and beg - free money. Not the way an able bodied citizen should behave. The revered Jesus came to him and performed a ceremony with the audience consisting of locals that had walked by the blind beggar every day. Now he is "cured" in front of all and he can end the act safely using Jesus' supernatural status as a catalyst. Probably got a job the same day - no more begging. Productivity of the village slightly improved.
Lazarus "raised from dead" is another example of this - a depressed guy shutting out the world could be considered dead. Jesus brings him back to the tribe. Another able-bodied person returning to the economy.
If we assume religion is an early form of software engineering used to instill practical economic ideals and morals into society through simple parables and metaphors: Jesus was the software update everyone was ready for, but had to be killed off because embezzlement-prone-tithing-proceeds were probably being threatened. This kind of sacrifice effectively locked in his doctrines.
- perfmode 8y agoIt’s interesting that you think of Jesus in economic terms. In a way, economics is its own spirituality.
- moneytide1 8y agoIt's the lens through which I see religion in general. I used to reject it when I was younger in the authority-challenging phase, but now I realize that every religion is correct in the context of the society from which it was birthed: Shiva is the Hindu deity and has several pairs of arms, therefore Indian culture values multitasking or a citizen having many skills using the hands. Thor was a god of the Vikings and wielded the large hammer - therefore weapon and armor-smithing were highly valued skills that drove economic resilience (in a time when a considerable part of the economy was moving pillaged goods). Hammer could mean building things in general. Christians have streets of gold when they get to heaven - therefore Roman society valued infrastructure. Every god is a metaphor for a hive-mind of people.
- unmole 8y agoI'm sorry but your examples are little more than fanciful projections. Also, the fact that your refer to Shiva as the Hindu deity with multiple pairs of arms makes me think you are woefully uninformed about the religions and cultures you're projecting onto.
- moneytide1 8y agoNo need to apologize - your input is valuable here. And you are correct - I should not have said "the" when referring to one of the Hindu dieties.
- OldFatCactus 8y agoyou read those passages and reimagined their intent and delivery? I don't think any christian I've ever met has come to such conclusions. I think generally they see the miracles as proof of his divinity
- moneytide1 8y agoThe intent and delivery of my interpretation is to take a familiar person that is particularly sought out this time of year and bring up issues I've been noticing in the region I am currently exploring.
- licebmi__at__ 8y agoThis kind of exercise might be entertaining and maybe even useful for you as an individual, but I find it harmful for society as a whole. There are plenty of arguments against creating ad hoc rationalization for this kind of stuff, but I truly hate that religion is treated like some academic or philosophical exercise where you could say "no, people didn't believed that Jesus performed miracles, it was just some kind of metaphor to teach [insert idea palatable to modern audiences]" ignoring the fact that even in this day, where we tried to have some basic universal education, there's still people who believe evolution is a sham, people who commit suicide based on some religious explanation or who believe in all kinds of ridiculous things that go against what we do know about the world. Why should we assume that religion is an early form of "software engineering" to instill morals on society since we have evidence of a lot of developments, even in these earlier societies, in the area of ethics and philosophy outside religion?
- djur 8y agoThis kind of retrospective rationalization of mythology is typically referred to as euhemerism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euhemerism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euhemerism