Jagella wrote:
John Human wrote:By the way, implying that I am a Christian apologist would seem to be like equating Judeo-Christian culture with Christianity.
What are you then?
You ask what I am. You could call me a harbinger of the order to come here on Planet Earth, if our emerging global culture makes it through the coming cataclysm without disintegrating. I am Earth’s messenger; see
earthwarning.org
1. Beyond (and before) that, I am here to share the teaching that humans were created to participate in the ongoing act of creation of the universe. This requires a social structure that promotes habitual benevolence (the second commandment of Jesus Christ, and the cornerstone of the natural law tradition that has played such a prominent role in Judeo-Christian culture until the past two benighted centuries) as well as ongoing technological progress as a survival imperative if we don’t want an economic collapse, ultimately back to the Stone Age. (The core group of American Founders largely got this right in terms of sane and healthy social organization, although there were some obvious long-standing issues that couldn’t get worked out within their lifetimes. My academic specialty is the origin of the ideas contained in the Declaration of Independence; I have been blocked from being published in academic journals, with one small exception here:
http://startingpointsjournal.com/may-re ... ependence/) I currently work as a produce delivery truck driver, as did my grandfather. Paul was a tent-maker.
2. Once again, humans were created to participate in the ongoing act of creating the universe. This reaches beyond Earth (which was mentioned in Genesis 1:28) and extends out into the Solar System and ultimately beyond. In the long run, social organization that promotes the necessary scientific discovery and technological progress (for the human race to expand beyond Planet Earth) isn’t possible without the strong presence in society of piety, or some close facsimile of respect for the first commandment of Jesus Christ (which, by the way, is inconsistent with masturbation and fornication – sexual self-mastery, as part of fulfilling Jesus’s first commandment, is an important prerequisite for habitual benevolence, Jesus’s second commandment). Our current outpouring of advances in artificial intelligence, nano-technology, bio-engineering, etc. is simply leading us to disaster unless scientific discovery is guided by a sense of overarching moral order and collective purpose beyond corporate profits. (Think, for example, of Monsanto’s innovations in genetic modification leading to widespread monoculture which will inevitably produce pestilence and famine.)
3. A religious impulse is a fundamental part of human nature, and appears in all cultures. The core purpose of religion is to facilitate the individual’s moral development, leading to a state of habitually virtuous behavior (formerly known as “perfection� in the Ciceronian/Judeo-Christian natural law tradition that informed the Founding of the United States of America) as divine love shines through the mature individual and into the surrounding community and beyond – the fulfillment of the two basic commandments of Jesus Christ.
4. Of course religion has other purposes, including providing cultural cohesion and providing an explanation of what happens after death. Certain followers of Jesus Christ (led by Paul) created a new religion, separating from the belief system of the original followers of Jesus Christ (whose views can be seen in their Dead Sea Scrolls). This new religion included the following trinity of interlocking beliefs:
(1) Because of our participation in “original sin,� we are condemned to eternal damnation.
(2) Through the miracle of the Virgin Birth, God became Man in the person of Jesus Christ.
(3) The sacrifice on the cross of God/man Jesus Christ served to atone for our sins, offering the possibility of a believing individual’s escape from eternal damnation.
--Jesus never said any of these things; this elevation of Jesus to “God-savior� status was necessary for Christianity to compete and eventually dominate in the Greco-Roman world.
5. This innovation in religion, which crystallized in the Catholic Church (and also in the various Orthodox churches) was necessary, and it was arguably inspired by God, as a way of creating protective “packaging� to ensure the preservation of the two basic commandments at the heart of the message of Jesus Christ. However, this protective packaging (with its variant Catholic/Orthodox/Protestant/Evangelical religious doctrine) has served its purpose and is essentially worn out, with the basic message of Jesus Christ no longer coming close to the corridors of power and influence in our society. Christianity came into being at the dawn of the Age of Pisces. We are now on the cusp of a new age (Aquarius), and a new dispensation is sorely needed and will be provided.
6. A cultural preoccupation in Greco-Roman society at the time of Jesus Christ was the need for “salvation� from the endless wheel of reincarnation, as set out allegorically in the story of the Golden Ass. Christianity came along and provided a message of salvation (see paragraph 4 above), but got rid of common awareness of reincarnation in the process. This must be re-balanced. One avenue of re-balancing will be the growing awareness of “evolutionary astrology�: see
schoolofevolutionaryastrology.com
For whatever it's worth, I was named for John the Baptist, whose Catholic "birthday" is on the summer solstice (June 24), opposite that of Jesus Christ. I was born on the feast day of the Annunciation, exactly nine months before the "birthday" of Jesus. [By the way, for others who may get confused, the Annunciation (the conception of Jesus) was not the "immaculate conception," which refers to the conception of Mary.]
My initials (I got my mother's maiden name as my middle name) are
J.S.S.
