Ancient tribes or clans made up stories to pass on knowledge and understanding meant to govern how mankind was to live. Those are now Bible stories, better known as myths. Myths are not falsehoods, as fundamentalists "think"; they are traditional stories serving to explain some phenomenon, custom or understanding of reality. God loves myths.
Adam and Eve losing Eden was an ancient story about mankind's evolution from tree-dwelling primate (in Eden) to a civilized being (out of Eden). It was not about original sin, falling from grace, losing paradise or defying God. It was about evolution of mankind, just as God intended. (But that's a story for a future article)
Ancient Hebrews roamed the Mideast desert smiting anyone they came across. They gave rise to the "promised land" myth that labeled them God's "chosen people," It is important to remember them as "chosen people" and not to think they were God's "favored people." For an understanding of this story see:
The allegory of Noah and the worldwide flood is a perfect example of missing the message in a story that has been destroyed with religion by men who haven't the faintest ideas of what biblical stories are all about. For an understanding of that story see:
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Newsweek magazine reported in a recent poll that, "78% of Americans believe Jesus rose from the dead; 75% say that he was sent to earth to absolve mankind of its sins. 81% say they are Christians which is now the world's largest faith ~ with 2 billion believers or roughly 33% of the earth's population." But what have those 2 billion learned about Jesus's life and death?
"Jesus died for our sins" appears to be a nonsensical statement as applied by modern religious leaders because those preachers never tell us what the statement means. They just repeat it over and over like Polly Parrot requesting a cracker. But it does mean something.
Throughout early human existence primitive minds had conjured up visions of invisible beings floating about in the air or residing on clouds or mountain tops and who control all that occurs on earth. The primitive minds that created these beings they called gods also thought the gods inflicted punishment in the form of disasters on mankind for misbehaving and displeasing the imaginary gods, or sinning. They conjured up the idea that these gods needed sacrifices ~ often of virgins or children who represented purity ~ in order to be appeased and to stop the disasters. Today, most of us know the disasters as natural occurrences and not God's punishment for some imagined sin. Many perfectly fine virgins were destroyed by these primitive minds in pursuit of their sacrifice fallacy.
Religion tells us that God was testing Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his son Isaac, but changed his mind when Abraham was going through with God's requirement, thereby demonstrating his obedience to God. On the other hand, religion says that God doesn't test anyone; doesn't have to, he knows the past, the future; he knows everything about a person, what he or she thinks, how he will react to any situation, what she likes or dislikes. In a true analysis of this story, the god who ordered Isaac sacrificed represents the god of primitive minds that must be appeased by human sacrifice of others, while the god who stopped Abraham represents the god of civilized minds that abhors human sacrifice. This story is an allegory demonstrating the transformation from old brutal practices to a more-humane religious belief system. Isaac is a symbol of innocence, and Abraham is a metaphor for humankind, not a man, which is why his grave has never been found and never will be.
The story of Abraham being stopped by God from sacrificing an innocent Isaac was an attempt to tell humans that God ~ imaginary or otherwise ~ wanted this practice of sacrificing others stopped. It didn't. So we have the story of Jesus ~ who also represents purity by being sinless ~ suffering sacrifice as a substitute for the many children and virgins who went before him with as much brutality and stupidity inflicted on him as inflicted on them. The story of his crucifixion was intended to tell us that his death was to be the last human sacrifice, and he died for "our sins" so children and virgins didn't have to. And Mary, as a virgin, delivered the sacrificial "lamb" rather than being the sacrifice herself.
False prophets in religion's pulpits have always missed the point of the statement and haven't got a clue what "Christ died for our sins" means.
Jesus Christ is considered by some Christians to be the archangel Michael, while others claim he is God. Those are meaningless thoughts because, if either, he just returned to his immortal spiritual existence, making both his death and his resurrection nonevents. What's important is everyone's resurrection. That's what the story is telling us.
If God incarnate or an archangel in human form cannot escape death, there's no chance we mortal humans will avoid it either, regardless of what the "Left Behind" crowd thinks.
The Rapture is a fraud. It is so false it can't rise to the level of myth. It is a hoax serving to soothe the fears of primitive minds
Jerry Falwell on the Rapture: "You'll be riding along in an automobile. You'll be the driver perhaps. You're a Christian. There'll be several people in the automobile with you, maybe someone who is not a Christian. When the trumpet sounds you and the other born-again believers in that automobile will be instantly caught away -- you will disappear, leaving behind only your clothes and physical things that cannot inherit eternal life. That unsaved person or persons in the automobile will suddenly be startled to find the car suddenly somewhere crashes. ... Other cars on the highway driven by believers will suddenly be out of control and stark pandemonium will occur on ... every highway in the world where Christians are caught away from the drivers wheel."
Falwell lived as an ignorant buffoon and died as an ignorant buffoon.
The Rapture crowd draws its nonsense from a letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians in which he opined:
"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
"For the corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality,
"So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.
" 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory'?"
Paul wasn't describing a mysterious event in which the righteous would disappear into thin air leaving behind those Falwell and others considered undeserving. Paul was describing dying.
Ancient Jews ~ and Paul was one ~ believed that at death the deceased was buried with no afterlife until the Messiah came to prepare a paradise. The time between death and resurrection ~ a year, ten years, thousands of years ~ was termed "sleeping in death." Paul said there would be no sleeping because the resurrection into a spiritual existence was instantaneous. He believed this because he thought Jesus was the Messiah and had already created that heavenly paradise. If that is true, no one will know it until his or her own "resurrection."
What Paul was describing could be likened to what is called "near-death experience" today, in which a severely injured person suddenly is outside his or her body and floating in air. If there is a real experience such as that, it should be termed a "temporary death experience."
The question no "Christian" ever wants to ask is why does God hate our red states? He sends hurricanes to devastate Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and other Southern locales on the Atlantic Ocean. He sends tornados to level mobile-home parks and churches throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and eastern Colorado. Yet, with this history, right-wing religious ranters claim that God hates the leftists in our blue states. Perhaps a hurricane is just a hurricane and a tornado is just a tornado.
These same "Christians" will always argue that blue-state progressive of a secular nature can't possibly have any moral code without an unquestioning belief in God. They lie. Buddhists of Tibet have long been among the most-moral and peaceful people on earth. Their religion has no god that directs human existence, no god that laid down must-obey laws, no god that must be prayed to in order to receive divine gifts or blessings. no god that must be worshipped and praised.
Present-day primitive minds have mangled the meanings of these ancient stories and washed away the wisdom but kept the supernatural and the fiction in which the lessons were encased in order to control other primitive minds who rely on paranormal to make sense of human existence. They are like the child who puts aside and ignores an expensive Christmas gift in order to play in the cardboard box the gift came in; they are playing in the box.
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