Tales untold
This is a depiction of the ancient pre-Christian goddess Eostré. Not believed to be real, she simply symbolizes nature's rebirth at the Spring Equinox ( Northern Hemisphere) Her annual festivals, practiced by most Europeans, Scandinavian and Britons, for thousands of years, was converted to Easter by the Romans (Catholic Church) in the 3rd century. The traditional colors of the festival are green, yellow and purple. The symbols used are hares and eggs, representing fertility, reproduction and the regeneration of nature through seasonal cycles.
We have lost touch with our ancestry, our legacy and our sensitivity to mother nature since we no longer respect our dependence on the harvest cycle.
Most Europeans are of Germanic and British bloodlines. We are not Israelite's or Semitic people. Why do we still follow their outdated and irrelevant myths? After all YAHWEH, (Jehovah) was a god exclusively for the Israelites, as Deut 32:8 explains:
When the Most High (El - Chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon) gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. Because the portion of JEHOVAH is his people and Israel is the lot of his inheritance. - Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Since the Church-State patriarchal society began losing its grip on Western democracy after the Second World War, Westerner have the freedom to explore their roots and authentic cultures. Some resonate strongly when they reconnect with the lore and culture of their pre-Christian ancestors.
Tall tales
The second story is all too familiar.
God creates man in his image, but imperfect, then regrets it and tries to destroy all humans. Comes to earth in human form to be sacrificed by his own imperfect creation. Is reborn after just 3 days. Is apparently still around, but not verifiably accessible.
Now, the Old Testament is mostly plagiarized from stories the Israelite-Canaanites gathered during their captivity in Babylon and Egypt.
The Creation story
Adam and Eve
Noah and Enoch
Moses and Joseph
The Lord's Prayer
and several others are legends, adapted from older Babylonian, Assyrian, Canaanite, Egyptian and Persian mythologies, hundreds if not thousands of years older, like the Emuna Elish, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Zoroastrianism and the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Eventually penned from age old oral tradition around 500 B.C.E, these tales myths and legends are relatively recent considering that the Sumerian culture was at its peak 5500 years ago and Egypt, 4000 yrs ago.
Human sacrifice ( as in the Jesus legend) is a barbaric concept and should not be celebrated in any form by those claiming to value a civilized world view. The dying and rising savior god is not even original to Christianity.( see - Ishtar, Balder, Bacchus, Dionysus, Osiris, Krishna and Mithra )
Vicarious redemption is not a moral or ethical proposition. That is to say, having someone else take responsibility and punishment for my crimes/ sins is not moral.
Being absolved as if I never committed that murder or rape, is even less moral.
Wearing or venerating a symbol of crucifixion and torture is not virtuous.
Do we really think that Jesus would ever want to see a cross again?
Lets think about this.
All religion represents our first attempt at answering the great mysteries of life. The bad news is, we were terrible wrong. The good news is, we've come a long way in solving the mysteries and there is less and less room for "God of the gaps" theories.
First of all, life after death is highly unlikely, since death is the absence of life.
Being dead will be much like before you were conceived, - a blank. Once the brain dies, there is no evidence of transcendence, of a soul or spirit or any essence of life, except for the physical body breaking down.
Faith is, according to Hebrews 11:1-3 Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Keeping in mind that we would not apply this theory to any other methodology in life especially life threatening situations.
THINGS HOPED FOR - REALLY?
This is not rational.
Scapegoating
This ancient Jewish tradition takes “Azazel” as the name of a rocky headland off which one goat, having the sins of the community symbolically placed upon it, would be tossed. The other goat, the one for the Lord, would be slaughtered as part of the general Yom Kippur rituals. This slaughter was believed to bring atonement to the community. But did killing two animals really absolve the tribes sin. Of course not.
The crucifixion is a human/ demigod extension of scapegoating. A human sacrifice to end all animal sacrifice. For what? Hopes of things impossible.
Our ancestors had a perfectly crafted mythology which venerated natures cycles and the sacredness of reproduction, yet we celebrate an equally fantastical blood ritual about guilt, sacrifice and suffering, which if anything, is not even a historic fact. Furthermore, believing in fantasy afterlives, robs us of the essence of the sacred preciousness of this one life we do have.
Let those who have eyes see.
Check out my series Religion to Reason https://andrewhuisamen.wixsite.com/website/religion-to-reason-series
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