The Earth is Not Flat.
Fundamentalists of any religion, hold that their scripture is revealed, that is,
direct from the 'lips' of God and indisputable. This ignores the centuries of
sloppy translation that these documents have undergone,
and the different awareness of our world that we now have from when they were
written. It also often ignores the the "oral tradition" of the Bible,
which is fractal and nearly infinite in its depth, and is usually ignored by
Christians. Islam, in the Hadith (Islamic equivalent of the Jewish "midrash"
- both words for "oral tradition"), does incorporate some of of the
Jewish stories. "God" did NOT write the Bible, men did. Men also translated
and edited it. The faithful claim that their God guided the pens of all these
writers, and that every word is the pure voice of Deity. This is wishful thinking
at its worst, or mystical piety at its best. The only 'proof' of such a claim
is the word of the very writers themselves, hardly a valid credential. The fish
that got away was always the biggest; who is there to say otherwise? Of course,
if meditiating on an impossibly big fish gives your life meaning, go for it!
Seriously!
(Note about Islam: Like any religion, Islam is defiled when it descends into mindless, destructive fundamentalism. The cultural contributions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are immeasurable - but these beliefs invalidate themselves when they start throwing bombs, or oppressing minorities. Any belief system that dehumanizes outsiders loses its credibility in the eyes of the world. Again- the issue here is not the particular belief, the issue is destructive, elitist, fundamentalism. It is also interesting to note the the predominant persecutors of the Jews have been Christians and Muslims - the "descendants" of Judaism; the Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs don't seem to have a problem with them.)
In 1575, Jerome Wolf wrote to Tycho Brahe (an early astronomer after whom a crater on the moon was named): 'No attack on Christianity is more dangerous than the infinite size and depth of the universe.' The Papal ban on Galileo's Dialogue, which declared that we inhabit a sphere floating in space, was not lifted until 1822, fully 300 years after Magellan's ships had successfully sailed around the world. It was not until 1993 that the church formally admitted it's error.
The Church has always held that whenever observed experience conflicted with scripture, observation had to yield.
Fundamentalism is reading the references to potentialities within the
human spirit as historical events. It is reducing a beautiful
metaphor to a newspaper article. It is a way
for the
church to control people's spiritual yearnings, to say only they
have the answer.
Elitist-fundamentalism allows its followers to de-humanize those not part of the 'in group'. This begets 'ethnic cleansing', and aggressive, repressive movements like the Christian Coalition and Colorado for Family Values. It is a weed that can spring up in any garden, and must be rooted out and thrown into the fire.
Joeseph Campbell said:'The Virgin Birth has nothing to do with biology, and heaven has nothing to do with real estate.' Spirit crucified on the cross of matter, resurrection and transformation, are themes that transcend 'Churchianity'. These are deeper concepts that the church has co-opted to 'corner the market' on spirituality. They have produced synthetic religion. (In fact, Ralph Reed, when he was the leader of the Christian Coalition, actually said that his group was "The McDonald's of religion". The fact that he thinks that is a good thing shows how far gone he is.)
The Founding Fathers Were NOT Christians.
"The proof that God exists is, that He wrote the Bible." This is a typical fundamentalist argument. It is so patently ridiculous and illogical that it confounds sarcasm. First of all, it is a matter of record that the Bible is a collection of manuscripts originating from all different times in history, and written by a huge variety of different people. To assume that every single letter, jot and tittle was in exact agreement with the will of Deity is to place entirely too much faith in fallible humans, i.e. 'prophets', scribes, translators, and Roman Catholic editors.
Second, this notion that God is a 'He' is so oafishly paternalistic that it makes one wonder that they're not embarrassed to be heard saying such things. One doesn't have to be a feminist to see that Spirit transcends gender.
The biggest mitigating factor is this: Jesus was probably what could be called an avatar - an enlightened being - and he was crucified. The utter, soul wrenching horror of such a barbarous act has engendered a paroxysm of pain, sadness, and guilt that tortures human consciousness to this day, 80 generations later. No wonder Christianity is so wierd, trying to make sense out of such a thing.
The Bible is a virtual library of history, tradition, Spiritual experience and law, kept between two covers as befits the nomadic people that created it. It is not the only spiritual text the world has known. A little exploration will turn up a number of other approaches to Spirit that are much more direct and certainly less bloody than Christianity.
Saul of Tarsus, Cults of Mithras, and Christ's Blood
Borgia Popes/ Vatican Orgies/ The Black Plague
Another example of a hotly disputed text is the Chief Seattle Speech.
Lifetide - the origin of life on Earth
The Founding Fathers Were NOT Christians
The Big Sensation of July, 1925 - The "Scopes Monkey Trial" -
Fumbling Fundamentalism
What's up with this symbol, anyway?
