A Fork In the Road

     My religious upbringing was based on the one and only, Christian Bible. My Southern Baptist, and later my Methodist experiences, were similar by the use of the same Bible as the basic handbook and curriculum guide. As my community exposure and horizons expanded, I was to learn that many of the Faiths around me also used the same book, but with differing results. Thus began the origin of my quest.

     Eventually, questions regarding conflicting information and supernatural events contained in the Bible, moved me to my own study of who, how and when these stories were written, collected and compiled to produce a book the entire Christian world is based upon.

     During the period of history when the Bible was supposed to have been written, most of the population in the world was illiterate. Many of Jesus’ Apostles and Disciples probably could not read or write well enough to record information and stories attributed to them. Scribes were an honorable and a much needed profession in performing tasks of reading and writing for 95 percent of the population in all of the cultures living around the Mediterranean, and beyond.

     Old Testament stories existed in an oral tradition for hundreds of years before they were ever recorded by people who were literate enough to do so.  Most of the Old Testament, the Torah, as we know it today, was not written by Moses, but by Jewish Captives after the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonian invasion.

     The New Testament books and stories were not written until 50 to 100 years after Jesus died, and, for the most part, not written by the people whose names were used as their titles.  Almost all of these stories were written by unknown persons who were not first-hand witnesses to events recorded. Paul, one of the most prolific writers of New Testament literature, did not witness any of Jesus’ life.  Luke collected all of his material for the two books credited to his authorship, through the oral tradition. He too, was not a witness to the Life and times of Jesus. This alone should raise enough questions
concerning the traditional orthodoxy and practice of placing all of your religious eggs in one basket.

     The second condition that existed which raises questions concerning the legitimacy of information contained in the Single Christian Handbook, is the method and when it was compiled.

     The United States Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Constitution (1787) upon which this country was founded were written before we became a new country. Since then we have expanded from a young country located along the Atlantic seaboard with a population of approximately 2.3 million, to a current population of 319 million which has spread across the continent.

     At the time of Jesus’ death, there were very few devoted followers or disciples forming what has been described as “churches” (a secular Greek term Paul used to describe groups of Christ Followers).  Before this period in history there were no religious “churches,” there were only grand edifices with towering granite pillars, Monoliths, Temples, Tabernacles, etc., erected to a myriad of Gods.  Three hundred years later, a longer period than the United States has even existed, there were numerous underground groups of Christ Followers gathering in homes, stables, caves, throughout the Roman Empire.  Each group possessed their own oral stories and scraps of letters and documents from questionable sources, which contained information that was presumed to be about the legendary Jesus.

     Not all of these “churches” were religious, many were groups of zealots believing that Jesus had been encouraging a secret revolutionary movement that was always seething just beneath the social surface, a reincarnated King David to overthrow the occupying Roman Empire to restore Israel to its former glory.  Many of the people who lined roadside when Jesus road into Jerusalem on a donkey were zealots hoping for a sign that would lead them in the overthrow of the Roman occupation of Israel. Consequently, there was a great deal of friction and quarreling between these many groups, not only over the intentions of the man Jesus, but over the authenticity of the letters and documents each group possessed.  Paul, in his numerous letters to the gentile groups he had establish, continually warned of interfering and meddling “groups” Jews and other sects who would attempt to change the instructions and practices he had taught them.

     Many of the Christ-Follower groups were involved in physical confrontations not only with each other, but with the occupying Roman Legions, which made the reigning emperor nervous that these conflicts could easily get out of hand and result in another uprising.  All other religious or secular groups tolerated by the Roman Empire were controlled by central governing bodies, (i.e., for the Jews there was the Sanhedrin) who was held responsible for keeping the peace among its members or culture. These trouble making and bourgeoning Christian sects had no controlling hierarchy which was answerable to the Empire for taking responsibility for the friction breaking out between the growing number of “churches.”

     During most of this 300-year period, Christians had been on the “okay-to-persecute-list” by the Roman Empire which kept most of the Christ Followers activities underground, except for occasions when physical conflicts erupted.  Constantine made an attempt to bring peace to the scene by co-enacting the Edict of Toleration in 311CE, in the hope that this would reduce the friction between the religious and zealot groups of Christians and bring them out into the open. Obviously, this did not have the effect he had hoped for.

     Fourteen years later, in 325CE, Constantine ordered representatives of each of the Christ Followers groups to meet in an ecumenical Council in Nicaea for the purpose of organizing a common leadership and governing body, and to reconcile all of the letters and documents being used by the 300+ “churches” as their authority and literature. The result of this mandated meeting was to establish a quasi-political/religious headquarters of the Christ-Followers, not in Jerusalem or Israel, but in Rome.  That was like establishing the headquarters of an organization dedicated to the perpetual memory of Dr. Martin Luther King and locating it in Canada.  How much sense would that make?

     After spending several years filtering through and editing all of the many letters and documents used by each of the 300+ “churches” in attendance at the Council of Nicaea, they settled on 27 documents which were canonized as the authentic history for all of Christ Following groups.  All of this was constructed 300 years after the death of a legend, by people who had for the past 300 years, been arguing and conflicted about the truth of a history that existed only in fragments. There were to be several more succeeding Council get-togethers for the purpose of “fine tuning” the story of who Jesus was. Questions were discussed and decided upon subjects such as: “Was Jesus human or divine?”; “Are any of the Miracles reported over the past hundreds of years real?”; “Was Mary a Virgin after Jesus’ birth?”; “Were the brothers and sisters of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary, or were they half-siblings from Joseph’s first marriage?” “The selection of dates for celebrating events.” Etc.

After the Council of Nicaea, Constantine had a central agency responsible for the control and behavior of the Christ-followers. And, with them out in the open instead of underground, they would be easier to monitor and control.

     The United States has existed a mere 240 years and was founded on distinctive documents and letters from the very beginning. Yet, we still experience a diversity of opinion concerning the intention and translation of these documents.  The Council convened in Nicaea in 325CE by the Roman Emperor, 300 years after events that purportedly was the reason for their existence, had no first hand witnesses to testify. All they had were exaggerated oral stories and pieces of letters and documents from questionable sources, fragments from which to compile a common guiding edict, 300 years after the fact, which was then arbitrarily declared inerrant.

     Two forces have controlled mankind since we became a life form, Chiefs, and Shaman. One became a decision maker and ruler by popularity or brute force for purposes of dispute arbitration, hunting and defense.  The other became a mystic and sorcerer founded upon human ignorance and superstitions by creating stories about supernatural forces responsible for natural disasters such as volcanoes, earthquakes, destructive storms, etc.  Rules, Laws and Gods have increased in number with clan size, populations, and generations.

     Supernatural explanations of events were an easy sell thousands of years ago. With today’s expansion of our knowledge bank concerning our past, present, and future of the galaxy we share with the universe, supernatural explanations don’t carry the same weight they once did. We have come to a century when supernatural hypothesis of ancient manifestos that teach its adherents to accept them unquestionably is colliding with hard facts and reality.

     A reality that everything in the universe is interconnected having a beginning and an end, Galaxies, Solar systems, Stars, Planets, flora and fauna, Y2K, the 2012 Mayan Calendar, etc. The only things that even come close to an eternal existence are the building blocks of which we and all things are made, atoms. Atoms are born in the crucible fires of stars and composed of an eternal triad which never expires or dies.

     The clearest graphic I can imagine of a Creating Power of the Universe is the Periodic Table of Elements, natural laws that have influenced and shaped every aspect of the evolutionary course of events throughout the cosmos. Our existence is not based on a supernatural events or fairy tales, it is based on definable and measureable facts discovered as our growing knowledge bank increases.

     At this point in my life, I have transcended the orthodoxy of the biblical stories of my youth. I accept these in the same literary vein as folk tales, myths and legends as in all other cultures. I recognize the purpose and corporate promotion of today’s congregations and religions as a stabilizing traditional function of social interaction for the common good of communities in which they exist. I do not accept the concept of original sin, or a necessity for a spiritual atonement. Neither do I accept the concept of an existence beyond this life. I do recognize the extremes of human behavior to be either beneficial or destructive, supportive or dividing.

     The quest has not ended, nor will it ever. We have not solved the ultimate equation, but have begun to view propositions with clearer eyes and objective minds. The curiosity of human nature will continually propel mankind in an adventure where no one has gone before, to explore that which lies beyond our current knowledge or reach. Religion, like art, is subjective in the eye of the beholder and exempt from facts or reality. The clarity of truth is continually emerging by the enlightenment of discovery and knowledge.

     Any hope we may have for ourselves and our future is to live each day as if it will be our last, as one day, it will be. When that day arrives, the atoms of our bodies will begin a process of release whereby they become free to join other atoms in the formation of molecules for continuing biological life on this planet. This force of truth will continue forever.

o