FreeThinkingAtheist.com

Found this post in an IMDB Beowulf forum. He's arguing against somebody who claimed Beowulf has "anti-Christian" themes in it, and someone posted a rather enlightening & inspiring thought on religion as a whole:  

Both Muslims and Christians have died for what they believe in - I kind of believe that's nothing but fanaticism. There is no logic in thinking that one religion should be more "believable" than another just because it has more followers. Christianity has most definitely had a rather expansive history, with colonization and crusades, while for instance Hinduism and Judaism aren't missionary religions, and therefore don't work as hard on "saving" people. (Or make them choose between the cross and the sword as the Christians did to the Muslims during the crusades).

A lot of old cultural treasures in Scandinavia were destroyed when Christianity arrived, so that it could be the ONLY religion. Of course when we later shifted to protestantism, they burned the catholic stuff. It's all p.r. If people want to believe in God, or whatever they feel like, it's fine by me, but one can't use physical evidence to prove the righteousness of faith. The point of having faith is that one should exercise it even without proof, right? I always saw that as the beauty of it. As soon as you start using history as some kind of proof, you'll end up noticing that people will behave the way they always have - selfish and greedy after power and money. God has nothing to do with it. Both Christianity and Islam are beautiful religions with a message of love though, so I hope all those believers out there starts actually READING their Bibles and Korans and starts to love each other a little more. Then maybe that particular part of history won't have to repeat itself.

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Christian theology has Jesus of Nazareth willingly go to his death to pay for the sins of all mankind. After his death, he goes to Hell for a couple of days before returning from the dead and then ascending into Heaven. What really happened? Did he die for the sins of man or was he executed as a traitor and rabble rouser? Did he really rise from the dead or was his body stolen? When one steps out of the theology and looks at the death of Jesus from another point of view, things seem clearer.

First of all, Jesus was executed by the Romans because he proclaimed himself to be the Messiah. Jewish tradition held a Messiah would come to liberate them and he would wander into Jerusalem on a donkey. Christ followed this tradition and played himself up as the Messiah. Since most Jews believed the Messiah would be a military leader, and since Jesus went Chuck Norris on the money changers in the temple, the Romans had to take note. Did they have a revolutionary in their midst? Was this the next Spartacus?

Next, Jesus' welcomed and consorted with outsiders. He was not your typical Corporate Holy Man of the 1st century. Instead, he advocated for the weak and those without hope. He tried to redeem prostitutes and those of low character. Jesus even comforted lepers. He provided a voice for those without a voice. He was a man of the people. Jesus advocated for the poor. A modern equivalent might be Martin Luther King Jr. whom advocated for garbage men on the eve of his death. Both men were a threat to order.

To the Jewish leaders, Jesus posed a threat to their power and their control over their religious doctrine. To the Romans, Jesus was cultivating the lower orders for his insurrection. Jesus of Nazareth had to go.

So, Jesus goes on trial and is convicted. Pontius Pilot orders his execution. It is unlikely Pilot pleaded with Jewish leaders for his life. This was probably thrown in the Bible by later writers to either distinguish between Jews and Christians or by someone that was anti-Semitic and wanted the Jews to look bad. Pilot was a Roman governor and would not have had any qualms about executing a potential Spartacus.

Jesus is then crucified. Crucifixion is both painful and humiliating. The victim gets to die in front of anyone that passes by. Jesus lasted three agonizing hours on the cross before expiring. In a gesture designed to keep the Jews happy during their holy time of year, Pilot allows Jesus' body to be removed. Usually, the bodies remained on the cross and withered. The bodies of the Spartacan Rebels stayed along the Via Appia for years. Christ's body was removed and buried.

Now things get interesting. According to scripture, he returns three days later. However, this is unlikely. Crucified people do not return from the dead. Most likely, the apostles removed the body from a tomb in common and placed it in a family plot. Then, they went around telling everyone that Jesus came back. Another possibility is the resurrection was a metaphor. Jesus' body died, but his spirit and message lived on through the Apostles. Jesus' teachings were resurrected by the Apostles, so Jesus himself came back from the dead.

This is not meant to denigrate Christian religion. It is meant to come from a Roman Perspective and how they would have viewed events in the first century. That being said, most Romans outside of Judea would not have known or cared about the Jesus Movement.

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    The human mind can be a strange thing sometimes. I must remind myself that we possess a strange ability to lie to ourselves until we eventually believe our own lies. We have an ability to create our own reality at times, especially in trying times or in fearful times. Unfortunately death is one of humankind's greatest fears, in my opinion, and so it seems obvious to me that humankind will naturally lie to itself until it is thoroughly convinced that death is not the end. This is evident when looking at the natural progression of religions throughout the world, where two separate and isolated cultures will most likely evolve their own religions. It’s human nature, according to psychologists.

Our philosophy of "I think, therefore I am", sends us on an ego trip that has us thinking humans are the center of the universe, and that we are actually important in this world. Well, we aren't. In the long run, mankind itself means nothing in this universe. We are just an infinitesimal speck of dirt in the eye of time, and we'll be washed away in the blink of an eye! Most people are uncomfortable with this idea, but hey, reality bites.

    I think a lot of people lie to themselves about God. They really do want to believe, but I get the feeling that most of them deep down don’t truly believe in God. Life on earth is supposed to be so much more miserable than it is in heaven for all eternity. So why in the world are people still so scared to die? It seems to me that a true Christian who believed in God would look forward to heaven, and so if somebody holds a gun to their head, they would gladly await the gunshot, that is, if they truly believed in what they say they do. To a Christian I must ask: Would you really put your trust in God and risk your life for what he promises?

I guess some people have a greater fear of the unknown, than they do of death, and therefore want to figure the unknown out. These people want to understand the truth, not just understand the truth that we make up. Those people are called “Atheists”. And I just so happen to be one of them.

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    Every religious person should study their religion’s history, not to mention the histories of others. It is not fair to themselves if they close their mind to history. The study of the history of religion has revealed that human beings are spiritual animals. Men and women started to worship gods as soon as they became recognizably human. They created religions at the same time as they created works of art. This was not simply because they wanted to propitiate powerful forces.

    These early faiths expressed the wonder and mystery that seem always to have been an essential component of the human experience of this beautiful yet terrifying world. Like art, religion has been an attempt to find meaning and value in life, despite the suffering that flesh is heir to. Like any other human activity, religion can be abused, but it seems to have been something that we have always done. It was not tacked on to a primordially secular nature by manipulative kings and priests but was natural to humanity. 

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    "Happy Holidays" is definitely more correct than saying "Merry Christmas". For one thing, not everybody celebrates Christmas. And for the ones who are celebrating Christmas for biblical reasons, well, Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible.

    Most people do not know that Christmas was stolen from an ancient Pagan holiday. This Pagan holiday was around way before Christ allegedly existed. In fact, most people who have studied the subject believe that Christ was born most likely in the Fall, most say September. A winter birth seems entirely out of the question considering it says that during Christ's birth: "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night." This is from the beginning of Luke 2 Certainly, shepherds would not be tending to their fields in the dead of winter, considering the seasons are from Spring until Fall. This raises an interesting question to me: Where do Christians get Christmas, Dec. 25th from?

    Although I have much respect for the Roman Empire, leave it to the Romans to dilute some holiday in order to ease in converting the masses. The Catholic Church in particular decided on Dec. 25th. Now why would they choose Dec. 25th?

    Well it turns out that an ancient Roman Pagan holiday took place on Dec. 25^th. That holiday is “Saturnalia”, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. The entire season celebrates the birthday of the Sun. In fact, this season was largely celebrated as the birthday of the Gods in Pagan countries throughout Europe.

Now, for the striking parts:

1) It is Rome that spawned the tradition of the Mummers: groups of singers and dancers who entertained from house to house during this Pagan season. This is where the idea of “Christmas Carols” were lifted from.

2) Mistletoe was considered to be a “sacred plant” to Pagans. And since it was considered to be a symbol of fertility, it was a custom to kiss under the mistletoe.

3) Evergreen “Christmas” trees were a symbol of life, and were highly celebrated throughout the Pagan world in the dead of winter. They were considered good luck, and symbolize the fertile seasons to come.

    All of these non-Christian qualities are highly present even today in Christmas. These traditions have been around longer than the idea of Christ. Even so, it took the Church 350 years to decide that Christ’s birth will be celebrated on Dec. 25^th. This was a rough time in Europe, as masses of Pagans were being converted into Christians, and this no doubt eased the burden on the converters. The church simply modified one of the most important existing Pagan holidays in Rome, and kept it, as opposed to taking it away for being unholy. Considering that Pagans were in the majority at the time, it could have been disastrous had they taken away their Winters Festival, discarding it and banning it for being unholy. So they converted the holiday to Christianity, and so followed the Pagans. This is really just one of many, many, many tactics the Catholic Church used to convert masses.

    But really, the joke is on Christians. Consider flying a Nazi Flag next July 4th. This should pretty much get the same effect as celebrating Christmas as a Christian. The symbols we associate with Christmas today are all Pagan symbols, not Christian. Christmas represents everything that a Christian is not, as Pagans are their biggest enemies of all time. It's funny too, because Christians gets upset that the world around them is easing towards the more political correct "Happy Holidays" as opposed to "Merry Christmas". But really, saying "Merry Christmas" is blasphemous, so they should be happy it about it, not upset. Hell, if Christians want to say "Merry Christmas", they might as wall run around screaming "Jesus Fucking Christ".

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