People see the Bible as being the basis for religion, especially the "big three:" Judaism, Christianity, & Islam.
I, however, see the Bible as being nothing but a sustained polemic agaisnt religion.
From the idea that the "apple" that the Serpent gave Adam & Eve to eat, which the serpent promised them would make them "like God knowing right from wrong," was religion itself, to the idea that the story of Christ on the cross is simply an adaptation of the story of the "serpent in the tree of knowledge," religion has been sold by soothsayers as the "truth that will set us free," even though it is simply a "belief" that is used to keep people in bondage.
Aside from the fact that a "belief" is often the very opposite of "truth," organized religions are simply man made institutions, like a labor union, a corporation, or a government, which ALL claim to be working to improve the lives of its members, and the world overall. The priest and the politician, for example, both sell their constituents "hope," the former of a better world through stricter moral adherence and salvation as a reward for sticking to it, and the latter a better country and economy and security from all our enemies.
This is the nature of slavery, of course, that we accept out bondage under the ruse that those who seek to enslave us are really only trying to save us, from one threat or another. And there is no better more effective way of convincing people of this than getting them to subscribe to a religion.
Charles Colcock Jones's book, How To Make A Negro Christian, described how converting African slaves to Christianity would make them more submissive to authority. It would also lead them to be more accepting of their slavery, and the countless miseries that go along with it, by getting them to defer their desires for "freedom" until the next life, where their willingness to submit to their master's will in this one would be eternally rewarded by God.
And in the same way St. Augustine explained that those who converted to Christianity under torture were always the most ardent defenders of the very faith that had committed the torture, so the abuse visited upon the African slaves has produced a zeal for Christianity in the African American community today.
This effect, however, could be seen in the Hebrews as well. In the same way the Hebrews had been tortured and brutalized into accepting the will of the Pharaohs only to later re-enslave themselves to the Pharisees through their religion (which at that point operated in similar fashion to the religion of the Egyptians during the days of their enslavement), so Christians today recreated the very ark of that enslavement in the form of Christianity.
And in the same way Moses had gone to free his people and David slew Goliath with a stone, so Christ was like both Moses who had come to lead ALL PEOPLE from the bondage of "religious beliefs", and the stone hurled at the Goliath of organized religion. The idea of his resurrection was probably not a literal one, but a recognition that no matter how many people the Catholic Church kills to protects its power and its authority, much like the Sanhedrin had done to Christ, so there will always be others who will rise up to question the lies that organized religions use to bilk their gullible "believers."
I, however, see the Bible as being nothing but a sustained polemic agaisnt religion.
From the idea that the "apple" that the Serpent gave Adam & Eve to eat, which the serpent promised them would make them "like God knowing right from wrong," was religion itself, to the idea that the story of Christ on the cross is simply an adaptation of the story of the "serpent in the tree of knowledge," religion has been sold by soothsayers as the "truth that will set us free," even though it is simply a "belief" that is used to keep people in bondage.
Aside from the fact that a "belief" is often the very opposite of "truth," organized religions are simply man made institutions, like a labor union, a corporation, or a government, which ALL claim to be working to improve the lives of its members, and the world overall. The priest and the politician, for example, both sell their constituents "hope," the former of a better world through stricter moral adherence and salvation as a reward for sticking to it, and the latter a better country and economy and security from all our enemies.
This is the nature of slavery, of course, that we accept out bondage under the ruse that those who seek to enslave us are really only trying to save us, from one threat or another. And there is no better more effective way of convincing people of this than getting them to subscribe to a religion.
Charles Colcock Jones's book, How To Make A Negro Christian, described how converting African slaves to Christianity would make them more submissive to authority. It would also lead them to be more accepting of their slavery, and the countless miseries that go along with it, by getting them to defer their desires for "freedom" until the next life, where their willingness to submit to their master's will in this one would be eternally rewarded by God.
And in the same way St. Augustine explained that those who converted to Christianity under torture were always the most ardent defenders of the very faith that had committed the torture, so the abuse visited upon the African slaves has produced a zeal for Christianity in the African American community today.
This effect, however, could be seen in the Hebrews as well. In the same way the Hebrews had been tortured and brutalized into accepting the will of the Pharaohs only to later re-enslave themselves to the Pharisees through their religion (which at that point operated in similar fashion to the religion of the Egyptians during the days of their enslavement), so Christians today recreated the very ark of that enslavement in the form of Christianity.
And in the same way Moses had gone to free his people and David slew Goliath with a stone, so Christ was like both Moses who had come to lead ALL PEOPLE from the bondage of "religious beliefs", and the stone hurled at the Goliath of organized religion. The idea of his resurrection was probably not a literal one, but a recognition that no matter how many people the Catholic Church kills to protects its power and its authority, much like the Sanhedrin had done to Christ, so there will always be others who will rise up to question the lies that organized religions use to bilk their gullible "believers."
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