There is a famous conversation between Socrates and a fellow philosopher (i forget who) about whether "man is the measure of all things." When Socrates is asked this question, he replies, "if man is the measure of all things, why are those people over there listening to what Pythagoras has to say, and paying good money for the experience?"
The point Socrates was trying to make was that, if man is the measure of all things, then why do people seek to understand things or even life itself by listening to other men? If human beings are the measure of everything, in other words, shouldn't all human beings therefore just seek the meaning of everything for themselves?
Theologians seized upon this idea to argue that human curiosity indicates that man is not, in fact, the measure of all things, but that God is. The miracle of this reasoning, however, is that the God the Christian theologian relies on is one that became man, and not a baboon or even a bacteria.
And the fact that "God made man in his own image" further only serves to suggest that man is, as it turns out, the measure of all things. Only the "man" being used to measure all "men" is a "man-God" as St. Catherine Emmerich called Jesus, who is not only the most perfect example of "man" ever, but is so on an infinite scale. Hence, religion makes man the measure of all things, by arguing that God is the "super"-man among men, who is the ultimate and infinite yardstick agaisnt which all "men" are measured.... by a God.. who became a man.
Every evil human beings have done to each other in pursuit of this spiritual fascism is, of course, entirely forgivable, since we are only the flawed sinners God intended that we should all be. But the more bloodshed we spill in the quest to be like God, and indeed to force all others to be like God as well (at least as far as WE think God is), the more God can take comfort in how earnest our desire is to honor, serve, and obey him, by being just as much of a genocidal, serial killing psychopathic Nazi as He has ever been.
And in the unflinching name of morality and salvation, we bath the world in the blood of Jesus by believing that the mere "belief" in Jesus empowers us to act like the infallible Torquemada our God has always hoped we would become. And all so we can force other "men" to be like the 'man-God' named Jesus.
Oh the irony.
The point Socrates was trying to make was that, if man is the measure of all things, then why do people seek to understand things or even life itself by listening to other men? If human beings are the measure of everything, in other words, shouldn't all human beings therefore just seek the meaning of everything for themselves?
Theologians seized upon this idea to argue that human curiosity indicates that man is not, in fact, the measure of all things, but that God is. The miracle of this reasoning, however, is that the God the Christian theologian relies on is one that became man, and not a baboon or even a bacteria.
And the fact that "God made man in his own image" further only serves to suggest that man is, as it turns out, the measure of all things. Only the "man" being used to measure all "men" is a "man-God" as St. Catherine Emmerich called Jesus, who is not only the most perfect example of "man" ever, but is so on an infinite scale. Hence, religion makes man the measure of all things, by arguing that God is the "super"-man among men, who is the ultimate and infinite yardstick agaisnt which all "men" are measured.... by a God.. who became a man.
Every evil human beings have done to each other in pursuit of this spiritual fascism is, of course, entirely forgivable, since we are only the flawed sinners God intended that we should all be. But the more bloodshed we spill in the quest to be like God, and indeed to force all others to be like God as well (at least as far as WE think God is), the more God can take comfort in how earnest our desire is to honor, serve, and obey him, by being just as much of a genocidal, serial killing psychopathic Nazi as He has ever been.
And in the unflinching name of morality and salvation, we bath the world in the blood of Jesus by believing that the mere "belief" in Jesus empowers us to act like the infallible Torquemada our God has always hoped we would become. And all so we can force other "men" to be like the 'man-God' named Jesus.
Oh the irony.
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