Origin of Title: Does anyone really know how or why Christianity was created? Is there even any solid or some what plausible evidence that a man named Jesus who people believe was the son of God walked on this earth? I will attempt to explore Christianity and why it became popular with many cultures around the world in this series of 4 blogs...
Part 3
Everyone has heard the tale of the tortoise and the hare. Why has this story been pasted down through the generations? How did it survive over hundreds of years mostly unchanged? It has survived because it teaches a moral and more importantly conveys these morals to others in an interesting way. It has been pasted on to millions of people in an effort to impose these morals on others…but the genius of the story is that it imposes these morals without the receipted realizing it. A form of propaganda if you will. You may think I am crazy to suggest this innocent story is a form of propaganda, probably because this term has been widely used in a negative sense. In truth, the definition of propaganda is;
1. information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. Source
So as you can see the story of the tortoise and the hare is a form of propaganda. It is “ideas” deliberately spread widely to help a movement. The movement being the moral it was created to convey. So…why am I discussing this old fable in the first place? Simple…because the Bible was created in the same way and for the same reasons as this innocent story.
As you already know from my previous parts of this blog series, people were suspicious about this man named Jesus. What better way to change peoples mind about things and spread the word than through propaganda. Why not? Hitler did it to convert millions of people into Nazis. The United States did it to convince the American people that we were winning the Vietnam War. The bible was written to convey messages of morals. The small group of low class citizens that believed that Jesus was in fact the son of God wanted other to believe this also. They wanted followers and the way they acquired them was by writing and distributing what is now know as the Bible which is also, in a broad sense, a form of propaganda. Some of you are probably thinking I am crazy by now…the truth is, I just want the facts. Did a man named Jesus walk on this earth spreading a new class of morals that people believed in? Probably. Was he the son of God? Probably not.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Questions of Creation (part 2)
Origin of Title: Does anyone really know how or why Christianity was created? Is there even any solid or some what plausible evidence that a man named Jesus who people believe was the son of God walked on this earth? I will attempt to explore Christianity and why it became popular with many cultures around the world in this series of 4 blogs...
Part 2
"Christianity originated with Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish prophet and teacher who probably came to believe he was the Son of God and certainly was regarded as such by his disciples. Jesus preached in Israel during the time of Augustus, urging a purification of the Jewish religion that would free Israel and establish the kingdom of God on earth. He urged a moral code based on love, charity, and humility, and he asked the faithful to follow his lessons, abandoning worldly concern. Many disciples believed that a Final Judgment day was near at hand, on which God would reward the righteous with immortality and condemn sinners to everlasting hell. Jesus won many followers among the poor. He also roused suspicion among the upper classes and the leaders of the Jewish religion." Source
The above statement is a general idea of how Jesus came about. As you can see, Jesus had many people that were "suspicious [that he was the son of God]". This suspicion came from mainly the upper class people of the Roman world. Why do you think that is? My answer is that is was because the lower class people were yearning for a more complete and organized following. This make sense, still today around the world we find that the lower classes of people tend to have strong senses of faith (its not always true but there has been some research that has concluded this).
"With its particularly great appeal to some of the poor, Christianity was well positioned to reflect social grievances in an empire increasingly marked by inequality. Slaves, dispossessed farmers and impoverished city dwellers found hope in a religion that promised rewards after death. Christianity also answered cultural and spiritual needs - especially but not exclusively among the poor - left untended by mainstream Roman religion and culture. Roman values had stressed political goals and ethics suitable for life in this world. They did not join peoples of the empire in more spiritual loyalties, and they did not offer many emotionally satisfying rituals." Source
Christianity spread throughout the world for the reasons listed in the above source. People believed in Jesus because they wanted to believe. They wanted to believe there was something more to their mundane lives. They also wanted a set of strong moral beliefs to fill in the gaps that the laws left (or when there were no laws at all). The bible was written as a way to pass their moral beliefs through out generations and cultures, as a way to immortalize the Christian belief. Then, you may ask, why make up such an elaborate set of stores just to share impose your morals on others? Well, I don’t think the bible started out as that. The bible started just like any other tale of morals or purpose.
Part 2
"Christianity originated with Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish prophet and teacher who probably came to believe he was the Son of God and certainly was regarded as such by his disciples. Jesus preached in Israel during the time of Augustus, urging a purification of the Jewish religion that would free Israel and establish the kingdom of God on earth. He urged a moral code based on love, charity, and humility, and he asked the faithful to follow his lessons, abandoning worldly concern. Many disciples believed that a Final Judgment day was near at hand, on which God would reward the righteous with immortality and condemn sinners to everlasting hell. Jesus won many followers among the poor. He also roused suspicion among the upper classes and the leaders of the Jewish religion." Source
The above statement is a general idea of how Jesus came about. As you can see, Jesus had many people that were "suspicious [that he was the son of God]". This suspicion came from mainly the upper class people of the Roman world. Why do you think that is? My answer is that is was because the lower class people were yearning for a more complete and organized following. This make sense, still today around the world we find that the lower classes of people tend to have strong senses of faith (its not always true but there has been some research that has concluded this).
"With its particularly great appeal to some of the poor, Christianity was well positioned to reflect social grievances in an empire increasingly marked by inequality. Slaves, dispossessed farmers and impoverished city dwellers found hope in a religion that promised rewards after death. Christianity also answered cultural and spiritual needs - especially but not exclusively among the poor - left untended by mainstream Roman religion and culture. Roman values had stressed political goals and ethics suitable for life in this world. They did not join peoples of the empire in more spiritual loyalties, and they did not offer many emotionally satisfying rituals." Source
Christianity spread throughout the world for the reasons listed in the above source. People believed in Jesus because they wanted to believe. They wanted to believe there was something more to their mundane lives. They also wanted a set of strong moral beliefs to fill in the gaps that the laws left (or when there were no laws at all). The bible was written as a way to pass their moral beliefs through out generations and cultures, as a way to immortalize the Christian belief. Then, you may ask, why make up such an elaborate set of stores just to share impose your morals on others? Well, I don’t think the bible started out as that. The bible started just like any other tale of morals or purpose.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Questions of Creation (part 1)
Origin of Title: Does anyone really know how or why Christianity was created? Is there even any solid or some what plausible evidence that a man named Jesus who people believe was the son of God walked on this earth? I will attempt to explore Christianity and why it became popular with many cultures around the world in this series of 4 blogs...
Part 1
Questions
Early history of the human civilization is a bit sketchy. Most people who lived in the BC time period didn't feel the need to record every accomplishment in their lives. They didn't really have a sense for what history even was. Why then did people supposedly record the life and word of Jesus? I mean sure...some cultures did record things about their civilization, as evidenced with the Egyptians and Mayans with their hieroglyphics. But to actually record all of this in as much detail as the bible is just not something that would typically happen. Even if a human was declared the son of God, why did people believe it was true? Don't you think most of the population would be skeptical that the son of God was suddenly in human form traveling around and bringing the world of God to the world? Would you believe me if I told you I could part water? The answer to that is, no, you would not...so why did people believe what was written in the Bible? why do people still believe in the Bible today? and why was this man's words recorded as the actual voice of God?
I will explore these questions in parts 2-4
Part 1
Questions
Early history of the human civilization is a bit sketchy. Most people who lived in the BC time period didn't feel the need to record every accomplishment in their lives. They didn't really have a sense for what history even was. Why then did people supposedly record the life and word of Jesus? I mean sure...some cultures did record things about their civilization, as evidenced with the Egyptians and Mayans with their hieroglyphics. But to actually record all of this in as much detail as the bible is just not something that would typically happen. Even if a human was declared the son of God, why did people believe it was true? Don't you think most of the population would be skeptical that the son of God was suddenly in human form traveling around and bringing the world of God to the world? Would you believe me if I told you I could part water? The answer to that is, no, you would not...so why did people believe what was written in the Bible? why do people still believe in the Bible today? and why was this man's words recorded as the actual voice of God?
I will explore these questions in parts 2-4
Friday, December 25, 2009
The Start of a New Light, The End of a Belief
I think the first words I type in this blog should tell you exactly what its all about. Well its exactly about an inexact science. The science of morals, beliefs, politics, and how each of these things directly and indirectly affect each other. Maybe science isn't the right word as it suggests well tested and precisely measured facts or theories. But I am getting a little ahead of myself....
My name is Richard Chandler. I am a 23 year old white male who was born in the southern state of North Carolina and raised in the not so southern state of Florida. I have since moved to more liberal territories in California.
My name is Richard and I am a citizen of the United States of America.
As every other citizen of the USA, I am privileged to many freedoms; the freedom of speech, freedom of press, the freedom to assemble...the list goes on and on. But there are two things on this list that feel a little less like freedoms and a little more like force fed food. Politics and Religion.
I knows these are both touchy subjects and I am not going to pretend that I will or can be 100% objective nor will I walk on them as if they were thin ice. Thats the beauty of the internet I guess. This blog will be more like driving a bulldozer over that thin ice and watching it sink to the bottom of a frozen ocean.
You are going to notice a couple of things. First off...in the top right corner of my blog you will see two news feeds. One is the Political Ticker from CNN and the other a news feed from a Religious News source. If and when you come back to read my blog (and please come back!) just take a quick glance at these as they may help you understand the blog subject that day.
The other things you will notice is that every post from now on will start with...
"Origin of Title" in which I will explain the title of that post and how it relates to my topic of that day. As an example here is today's..
Origin of Title: the start of a new light, the end of a belief. I choose this title as my opening title because it says a couple of things that I think my blogs will accomplish. The start of a new life because I think that I can really open some peoples eyes to some new ideas through both opinions and facts about both current affairs and history. The end of a belief because I intend to trample on more than a few different beliefs...both political and religious.
My name is Richard Chandler. I am a 23 year old white male who was born in the southern state of North Carolina and raised in the not so southern state of Florida. I have since moved to more liberal territories in California.
My name is Richard and I am a citizen of the United States of America.
As every other citizen of the USA, I am privileged to many freedoms; the freedom of speech, freedom of press, the freedom to assemble...the list goes on and on. But there are two things on this list that feel a little less like freedoms and a little more like force fed food. Politics and Religion.
I knows these are both touchy subjects and I am not going to pretend that I will or can be 100% objective nor will I walk on them as if they were thin ice. Thats the beauty of the internet I guess. This blog will be more like driving a bulldozer over that thin ice and watching it sink to the bottom of a frozen ocean.
You are going to notice a couple of things. First off...in the top right corner of my blog you will see two news feeds. One is the Political Ticker from CNN and the other a news feed from a Religious News source. If and when you come back to read my blog (and please come back!) just take a quick glance at these as they may help you understand the blog subject that day.
The other things you will notice is that every post from now on will start with...
"Origin of Title" in which I will explain the title of that post and how it relates to my topic of that day. As an example here is today's..
Origin of Title: the start of a new light, the end of a belief. I choose this title as my opening title because it says a couple of things that I think my blogs will accomplish. The start of a new life because I think that I can really open some peoples eyes to some new ideas through both opinions and facts about both current affairs and history. The end of a belief because I intend to trample on more than a few different beliefs...both political and religious.
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