Friday, January 29, 2010
I Heart Matt Dillahunty
The short answer to your question is no. The long answer is that he's like millions of other christians who are completely ignorant about what their bible says, about the history of the biblical canon, about the history of their religion, about what evidence actually exists, about what historians have to say, about what sort of evidence historians consider sufficient to justify claims of existance, and about what sort of evidence one would need to have in order to rationally justifiably believe that a miracle has occurred.
The facts are these; there are no contemporary extrabiblical accounts of any events specific to the life of Jesus. that means no independant sources from any eye witnesses with regards to his birth, life, miracles, ministry, death, or proposed resurrection.
The gospels are anonymous, we have no original manuscripts, they do not agree on details, they do not agree with recorded history, and the consensus of new testament scholarship is that none of them were written by eye witnesses. The bible has stories about eye witnesses but we don't have a single comment from anyone claiming to be an eye witness.
The process of canonization included books that doctrinally agreed with those in power, and eliminated and attempted to destroy books that were considered heretical by those in power... Yet those same books were considered [divinely] inspired by other sects. Books like Revelation barely made it into the bible, as many considered them to be uninspired, books like the Shephard of Hermas and the Apocalypse of Peter which had traditionally been considered divinely inspired were excluded. Paul's epistles, some of which are of questionable authorship were the first books of the new testament to be written, and that was decades after the purported life of Jesus. The gospels were written many years later, perhaps many decades later, by unknown authors. Historians from the late first and second century do mention christians, and some refer to Jesus, but none of these were eye witnesses, and most of them couldn't even have spoken to someone who could have claimed to be an eye witness.
So, we have the bible. a collection of stories by largely unknown authors who are unlikely to be eyewitnesses and we don't have originals of their work. We have copies of copies of copies of translations of copies of copies. Anonymous books recording an oral tradition passed down decades or centuries after the purported events in a time when myths, superstitions, and god-men claims were plentiful. During a time when fact-checking and literacy were rare, and when doctrinal wars prompted forged documents (paul even mentions this in the bible,) in order to prop up competing theoligies as unorthodox or heretical.
For my money, that means none of it is believable. Contrast this, for example, with claims of alien abductions. You can, if you like, actually speak to people who claim to have been abducted by aliens. If you look around, you'll find groups of people who tell consistant stories and might even claim to have been abducted together. There are countless reports of UFO sightings, often by groups of people or in rare cases by dozens or hundreds in a particular town or area. These reports have been ongoing for decades, reported by countless new sources, in addition to specialized periodicals. Many of these people sincerely believe their story. Do you? Does your friend?
I don't, because there isn't sufficient evidence, yet the quantity and quality of evidence for these claims is vastly superior to any miracle claims reported in the bible. We have more evidence and we're not 2000 years removed from the events, and we still don't believe, and we find the most fervent believers to be a little crazy. Yet somehow, millions of largely ignorant, well meaning, nice people sincerely believe third-hand reports of miracles from thousands of years ago, and they don't just believe - they strongly believe. They consider it not only absurd for others to disbelieve, but also their sacred duty to convince others at a minimum, and legislate their beliefs on others - or worse. and yet we somehow don't consider these people to be a little crazy. Instead, we give them special treatment, and their majority status shifts the public perception about those of us who actually embrace reality, to the point where we are the ones denegrated. Your friend's probably read Josh Mcdowell and Lee Strobel, and has never actually studied what real historians, scholars, philosophers, scientists, or any other critical examiner has to say about their religion. That's... the longer answer.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Christmas, or is it Wayeb?
It's only the beginning of November, and walking through stores and malls we can already see shops getting ready for Christmas. As we get closer and closer to the date, the streets will be lined with lights, and people will be swarming said shops looking for decorations and gifts. Over the centuries, Christians have come to "own" the date. Every religion likes to believe that it's "right" about it's beliefs regarding any subject, and the Winter Solstice is no different. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, but that's really not what it's about.
In fact, there are over 30 different celebrations about to take place, all over the world. Most of them, needless to say, are no longer celebrated. They're ancient history, but the reasons for their acknowledgement are the same as those still in practice today. They all revolve around the Winter Solstice... yet only one of them involves Jesus.
Alphatbetically... Amaterasu celebration, in Japan. The Beiwe Festival, in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Brumalia, celebrated in ancient Rome. Choimus or Chaomos, in Pakistan. Deuorius Riuri, in ancient Gaul. Deygan, or Maidyarem, in ancient Persia (Zoroastrian.) The Dongzhi Festival, in East Asia (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese Buddhism.) Goru, in ancient Mali. Hogmanay, in Scotland. Inti Raymi, in the ancient Incan civilizations (Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.) Junkanoo, in the Bahamas. Karachun, in ancient western Slavic civilizations. Koleda, an ancient eastern Slavic tradition. Lanaea, in ancient Greece. Lucia, a feast in ancient Scandanavia, later appropriated by the Catholic Church and renamed to the Feast of St. Lucy (those sly dogs.) Makara Sankranti, in India and Nepal. Maruaroa o Takura, by the New Zealand Maori. Mean Geimhridh, by the ancient Celtic people. (This includes Montol, Wren day, and Alban Arthan, holidays celebrated on the same days all around what is now the UK.) Midvinterblot, a holiday belonging to an old Swedish Folk religion. Midwinter, a modern celebration for people working in Antarctica. Modranicht, and the Perchta ritual, two ancient Germanic celebrations. Rozhanitsa Feast, in Russa. Shab-e Chelleh, a four thousand year old Persian celebration. Sanghamitta Day, a Buddhist holiday. Saturnalia, in ancient Greece. Seva Zistane, a Kurdish holiday. The Sol Invictus Festival, a 3rd centuray Roman Holiday. Soyal, a holiday for the natives of North America (the Zuni and Hopi.) Wayeb, celebrated by the Mayans. We Tripantu, in southern Chile. Yule (Jul, Jol, Joul, Joulu, Joulud, Geol, Geul) Pagan celebrations. Zagmuk, an ancient Mesopotamian celebration. Ziemassvetki, an ancient Latvian celebration.
Oh, and Christmas. There were so many to make note of that I nearly forgot it. One has to consider, with so many holidays being celebrated at the exact same time, what's so special about it? Why December 22nd to the 25th? If this holiday is so widely accepted as the birth of Jesus Christ, why was it being celebrated two thousand years before he was even supposed to have been born? Does it not seem at least a little strange that a day celebrating the birth of a deity is shared by so many different holidays, several of which celebrate the births of various other deities?
If there's one thing that could be considered common knowledge about ancient cultures, it's their obsession with astrology. Many of these civilizations used the stars for everything from naming their children to navigation to predicting seasonal changes. The Winter Solstice, and all celebrations associated with it fit into the latter of those three examples. Observing the stars and where the sun would rise and set each day would allow them to predict just how far along they were into a season. The reason the Winter Solstice was cause for celebration is that it signalled the beginning of the end of winter. From that date on, the days would get longer, the nights would be shorter, and spring seemed right around the corner. These ancient peoples celebrated the time by telling stories and creating metaphorical deities, and Jesus Christ is just another one of those metaphors, another character in a four thousand year old group of fairy tales.
Rather than explain exactly what occurs in the sky during the Winter Solstice, or what took place during all of those celebrations, I'll encourage you to read up on it. Take a few minutes to look into it, and educate yourself.