Whomever wrote the book of Genesis in the Bible decided he was going to commit the story to paper. Who can tell at this late date what was the purpose of that particular writer when he committed that story to writing. Was he consolidating many stories into one? Was he writing down a particular story someone had told him? Was he writing down a story different from the one his father had told him? Was he being satirical? Did he do it because he had a free day and thought he'd try his pen at something? Did he take, as some have said, several stories and try to make one out of them?
Some historians say that there were many writers who contributed to those first five books of Moses. It is immaterial to this work whether there were one or many. The result was the same. The story of the creation was the first bit of "proof" that there was only one god. And that story set the world on a giant sidetrack with eyes on the mystical instead of on the human race. Even up to the present time millions believe that fictional tale to be an account of what actually happened.
In the early days, before the writing of scripture, societies had been ruled by matriarchs, the giver of food, the sustainer of life. Man resented his dependence on women. His ego told him she was his inferior but she provided food when hunting was poor. She made clothes to keep him warm in the cold. She made moccasins that protected his feet during the hunt. If she refused him sex he would fight her for it. She knew who got things done. She could survive without man but man couldn't survive without her. He resented his dependence on her. He was jealous that she could give birth and he couldn't. To control her he belittled her and all her sex. For generations the main god was female.
It is entirely probable that the story of Adam and Eve was written to put woman in her place. In the first story in Genesis God made Adam and Eve at the same time out of the dust. But in the second version God made everything, the plants, the beasts of the fields the skunks and the cactus, before he decided that Adam should have some one to "help" him. He took a rib out of Adam's side from which he made Eve. He called her woman, because she came out of man. Now, after this scripture was given to man by the undebatable God, man could say to woman, "You belong to me because I gave birth to you. So there!" It is significant that Adam didn't give birth a second time.
The God of the early Bible was not a likeable chap. He was cruel, vindictive, giving orders to generals to kill everyone in certain cities and punishing the general if he failed to kill every last one. That God ordered human sacrifices until Abraham rebelled against it. When Moses wrote his own version of the moral code of Hammurabi, he made the first and greatest commandment, "To Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart might and strength." By that unfortunate statement he set the Jewish people off in a disastrous direction. He turned their eyes away from mankind and toward mysticism by commandment, set such fear in them of God's anger and retribution that few people got around to considering the next commandment which was to love your neighbor as yourself.
That first commandment made it a sin to doubt the existence of the mystical force that made the world, has control over it and everything that exists in it. It made doubt a sin. It made curiosity a sin. The binding of the intellect was the original sin, not sex. When Eve wanted to eat of the tree of knowledge God cursed her for it.
God didn't understand women because men didn't understand women. Dumas said, "The Bible says that woman was the last thing that God made. Evidently he made her on a Saturday night because she reveals his fatigue."
To me this misunderstanding of women is one of the most important pieces of evidence that man wrote the scriptures. Man couldn't understand women so he ignored them and/or maligned them, subjected them to his will without their consent
As we travel through those biblical times we find accounts of prophets speaking with God. All we have as proof that those messages from God were valid is the say-so of the so-called prophet. When Moses saw God in the burning bush there was no other witness. God never revealed himself to more than one person at a time. In reality the only "evidence" we have of the existence of such an important being is hearsay and you know how much validity hearsay carries in a court of law. If a man sees what no other person sees, and if he hears what no other person hears, then we must speak of a derangement of the senses.
It is impossible to pin down two people who agree on what God is (was) because too many people spoke with God and did so out of their own imaginations. Voltaire said, "If there was no God man would have created him." Of course you have to realize that if people in Voltaire's day said blank out that there is no God he was in danger of being invited to a necktie party, or worse, to a roasting and he was the roast. Voltaire wrote with humor and satire. I suspect when he made that statement he was doing so with tongue in cheek. I will paraphrase Voltaire and say, "All gods are man made and that's why the workmanship is so shoddy that it can't stand investigation."
It took many years of investigation, the hashing and rehashing of yeahs and nays before I ever reached that conclusion.
By the time Christ came along the Jewish religion was steeped in ritualism and petit laws. Theologians say Christ brought love into the world. Love was in existence long before he ever showed up and if this world is ever to be saved from total destruction love of our neighbor will have to be more than a pretty phrase.
Very little is known of the historical Jesus but the one fact comes loud and clear. He was a rebel. He rebelled against the rigid rules of his culture and he rebelled against the rule of Rome. The Romans executed him for his rebellion. It was Paul, who had never even met Christ, who made him into what he wasn't. He took philosophy from early Athens, the virgin birth, the perfection of man, the existence of the soul, the life beyond death and wove them into the life of Christ. Paul was suspected by the remaining apostles of Jesus but as the centuries rolled along new interpretation was piled upon new interpretation. The New Testament of the Bible is a thinly disguised exegesis by writers writing many years after the events were supposed to have happened attempting to prove the divine origin of Christ from what had previously been written in the Old Testament.
The idea of a sacrificial being was an idea accepted by the Sumerians and Babylonians who believed that man was created by the sacrifice of a god or gods who were killed that man might live. Lamba-gods (carpenter gods) were killed so that man might be given life with their blood. Over the eons of time scriptures change by creative writers taking old legends and putting them in up-to-date clothes.
The collectors who finally put together the New Testament chose only those writers who said what the collectors wanted them to say. Those books were written when people began to ask "Just who was this Jesus you talk about?" Two, three, four hundred years after the events were supposed to have happened. It wasn't one person's deliberate attempt to falsify things but one small lie (an unverified statement) embellished by the next person, added to by the third person, added to or subtracted from by the fourth person. The same process Darwin had watched in the changing of the species by the survival of the fittest. Men loving the power they had over the minds and bodies of other men, embellishing that power, expanding its scope. Until the Christian church had grown large, rich and powerful. That is the picture which comes through from honest, extensive investigation.
Then came the big sell-out.
The Catholic Church had grown powerful in the cities, especially in Rome. Charlemagne was the Emperor of central Europe. But the rural areas were filled with Barbarians, the Goths the Visigoths who warred among themselves, resisted both the church and the state, terrorized everyone with their raids into the cities. Charlemagne and Pope Leo III collaborated, agreed to join forces. On Christmas day in 800 A D Charlemagne accepted the crown of Emporer from Pope Leo III thus forming the formidable Holy Roman Empire. Between the two of them they brought the pagans under control. What few personal freedoms the citizens had were no more. By the time the two forces became one force the little man, the peasant, the ones who did the plowing, harvested the grain, made the bread, was in bondage.
Everything was given and taken in the name of God. God blessed whom the church blessed. God cursed whom the church cursed. The Pope blessed the wars of the Emperor. Armies marched to protect the Pope. The costs of feeding, and arming the armies was on the necks of the peasants. The costs of building the enormous cathedrals, filling them with works of art was on the necks of the peasants. Man was forbidden to read the Bible by which his life was governed. Priests of the church were forbidden on penalty of death to teach the peasants to read. The dark ages descended on Europe. God held total control over the lives of men.
The only changes that were made for the benefit of man came from the few in the lower echelons of the church who went against the rules. Those who taught people to read in spite of the rules, who opened hospitals in spite of the rules, who resisted the collecting of fortunes by the clergy in spite of the rules.
Some historians say that there were many writers who contributed to those first five books of Moses. It is immaterial to this work whether there were one or many. The result was the same. The story of the creation was the first bit of "proof" that there was only one god. And that story set the world on a giant sidetrack with eyes on the mystical instead of on the human race. Even up to the present time millions believe that fictional tale to be an account of what actually happened.
In the early days, before the writing of scripture, societies had been ruled by matriarchs, the giver of food, the sustainer of life. Man resented his dependence on women. His ego told him she was his inferior but she provided food when hunting was poor. She made clothes to keep him warm in the cold. She made moccasins that protected his feet during the hunt. If she refused him sex he would fight her for it. She knew who got things done. She could survive without man but man couldn't survive without her. He resented his dependence on her. He was jealous that she could give birth and he couldn't. To control her he belittled her and all her sex. For generations the main god was female.
It is entirely probable that the story of Adam and Eve was written to put woman in her place. In the first story in Genesis God made Adam and Eve at the same time out of the dust. But in the second version God made everything, the plants, the beasts of the fields the skunks and the cactus, before he decided that Adam should have some one to "help" him. He took a rib out of Adam's side from which he made Eve. He called her woman, because she came out of man. Now, after this scripture was given to man by the undebatable God, man could say to woman, "You belong to me because I gave birth to you. So there!" It is significant that Adam didn't give birth a second time.
That first commandment made it a sin to doubt the existence of the mystical force that made the world, has control over it and everything that exists in it. It made doubt a sin. It made curiosity a sin. The binding of the intellect was the original sin, not sex. When Eve wanted to eat of the tree of knowledge God cursed her for it.
God didn't understand women because men didn't understand women. Dumas said, "The Bible says that woman was the last thing that God made. Evidently he made her on a Saturday night because she reveals his fatigue."
To me this misunderstanding of women is one of the most important pieces of evidence that man wrote the scriptures. Man couldn't understand women so he ignored them and/or maligned them, subjected them to his will without their consent
As we travel through those biblical times we find accounts of prophets speaking with God. All we have as proof that those messages from God were valid is the say-so of the so-called prophet. When Moses saw God in the burning bush there was no other witness. God never revealed himself to more than one person at a time. In reality the only "evidence" we have of the existence of such an important being is hearsay and you know how much validity hearsay carries in a court of law. If a man sees what no other person sees, and if he hears what no other person hears, then we must speak of a derangement of the senses.
It is impossible to pin down two people who agree on what God is (was) because too many people spoke with God and did so out of their own imaginations. Voltaire said, "If there was no God man would have created him." Of course you have to realize that if people in Voltaire's day said blank out that there is no God he was in danger of being invited to a necktie party, or worse, to a roasting and he was the roast. Voltaire wrote with humor and satire. I suspect when he made that statement he was doing so with tongue in cheek. I will paraphrase Voltaire and say, "All gods are man made and that's why the workmanship is so shoddy that it can't stand investigation."
It took many years of investigation, the hashing and rehashing of yeahs and nays before I ever reached that conclusion.
By the time Christ came along the Jewish religion was steeped in ritualism and petit laws. Theologians say Christ brought love into the world. Love was in existence long before he ever showed up and if this world is ever to be saved from total destruction love of our neighbor will have to be more than a pretty phrase.
Very little is known of the historical Jesus but the one fact comes loud and clear. He was a rebel. He rebelled against the rigid rules of his culture and he rebelled against the rule of Rome. The Romans executed him for his rebellion. It was Paul, who had never even met Christ, who made him into what he wasn't. He took philosophy from early Athens, the virgin birth, the perfection of man, the existence of the soul, the life beyond death and wove them into the life of Christ. Paul was suspected by the remaining apostles of Jesus but as the centuries rolled along new interpretation was piled upon new interpretation. The New Testament of the Bible is a thinly disguised exegesis by writers writing many years after the events were supposed to have happened attempting to prove the divine origin of Christ from what had previously been written in the Old Testament.
The idea of a sacrificial being was an idea accepted by the Sumerians and Babylonians who believed that man was created by the sacrifice of a god or gods who were killed that man might live. Lamba-gods (carpenter gods) were killed so that man might be given life with their blood. Over the eons of time scriptures change by creative writers taking old legends and putting them in up-to-date clothes.
The collectors who finally put together the New Testament chose only those writers who said what the collectors wanted them to say. Those books were written when people began to ask "Just who was this Jesus you talk about?" Two, three, four hundred years after the events were supposed to have happened. It wasn't one person's deliberate attempt to falsify things but one small lie (an unverified statement) embellished by the next person, added to by the third person, added to or subtracted from by the fourth person. The same process Darwin had watched in the changing of the species by the survival of the fittest. Men loving the power they had over the minds and bodies of other men, embellishing that power, expanding its scope. Until the Christian church had grown large, rich and powerful. That is the picture which comes through from honest, extensive investigation.
Then came the big sell-out.
The Catholic Church had grown powerful in the cities, especially in Rome. Charlemagne was the Emperor of central Europe. But the rural areas were filled with Barbarians, the Goths the Visigoths who warred among themselves, resisted both the church and the state, terrorized everyone with their raids into the cities. Charlemagne and Pope Leo III collaborated, agreed to join forces. On Christmas day in 800 A D Charlemagne accepted the crown of Emporer from Pope Leo III thus forming the formidable Holy Roman Empire. Between the two of them they brought the pagans under control. What few personal freedoms the citizens had were no more. By the time the two forces became one force the little man, the peasant, the ones who did the plowing, harvested the grain, made the bread, was in bondage.
Everything was given and taken in the name of God. God blessed whom the church blessed. God cursed whom the church cursed. The Pope blessed the wars of the Emperor. Armies marched to protect the Pope. The costs of feeding, and arming the armies was on the necks of the peasants. The costs of building the enormous cathedrals, filling them with works of art was on the necks of the peasants. Man was forbidden to read the Bible by which his life was governed. Priests of the church were forbidden on penalty of death to teach the peasants to read. The dark ages descended on Europe. God held total control over the lives of men.
The only changes that were made for the benefit of man came from the few in the lower echelons of the church who went against the rules. Those who taught people to read in spite of the rules, who opened hospitals in spite of the rules, who resisted the collecting of fortunes by the clergy in spite of the rules.
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