Daily Archive for February 16th, 2007

Christianity’s Evolution

Published
by
Ken
on February 16, 2007
in christianity, evolution, god and jesus
. 5 Comments

I think Christianity must evolve into something new. As I said in Beliefs that Work, religion has got to “work” and I think it’s pretty obvious that the “Old Time Religion” is not working for more and more people. And the timing is nigh perfect: 4000 years for the Old Testament and 2000 years for the New Testament means it’s time to start anew. Plus there’s a certain mathematical multiplicity to it.

I don’t have all the details worked out but extrapolating on the trend from OT to NT I think the next step will be that we are God and just don’t know it yet. Here’s my train of thought:

Old Testament New Testament New New Testament
Israel was God’s “chosen people” Christian’s were the “children of God” and Jesus was the “son of God” Since a “son” is the same as a “child” then we are the same as Jesus and, hence, we are God
God was “out there” and “up there” and very distinct from his people God was “in the hearts” of the Christians God is us
People had to go through the priests to have contact with God People could have direct contact with God People are God

The only problem with this new religion is that Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and the homeless guy on the corner are all God … just like me.

Thinking outside the box

Published
by
Ken
on February 16, 2007
in c.s. Lewis, carl jung, christianity, huston smith, j.r.r. tolkien, myth and religion
. 0 Comments

There is an alternative to the “Christianity is right” versus “Christianity is wrong” scuffle. The virgin birth, the resurrection, the Holy Spirit, etc. can be other than literal realities or literal horse pucky. The alternative is that they are myth. Now, I’m not being pejorative with my use of the word “myth” which is greatly under-rated and almost entirely misunderstood in today’s world of science.

I found what C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien said about myth here:

Myths, Lewis told Tolkien, were “lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver.”

“No,” Tolkien replied. “They are not lies.” Far from being lies they were the best way — sometimes the only way — of conveying truths that would otherwise remain inexpressible. We have come from God, Tolkien argued, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily toward the true harbor, whereas materialistic “progress” leads only to the abyss and the power of evil.

In his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, C.G. Jung said:

For it is not that “God” is a myth, but that myth is the revelation of a divine life in man.

And in Why Religion Matters, Huston Smith said:

Science provides a useful analogy here. The entire scientific worldview has been spun from a relatively few crucial experiments, which can be likened to the numbered dots in children’s puzzles that (when they are connected by a line that is drawn through them sequentially) produces the outline of a giraffe or whatever. Myths are like the lines traditional peoples collectively and largely unconsciously draw to connect the “dots” of the direct disclosers that their visionaries report.

If number is the language of science, myth is the language of religion. It does not map literally onto the commonsense world — biblical literalists’ mistake is to think that is does …