Jesus Christ Man!

I've been thinking about religion... and what it is that I am... again.
But mostly, I've been thinking about Jesus. (Because it's the Christmas season?) I don't care too much about historical accuracy and all that. Stories are stories and there are a lot of them. Mostly I was thinking, a lot of people focus on praying to Jesus because he died for our sins... on the cross.

Ahh, I know why I was thinking about that. There was this thing on 60 minutes last night about executions and the death penalty... and of course all this terrorism. Let's pause for a minute and think about how the Romans (who we worship in their law and their architecture and stories) would probably have made ISIS look like pussy cats when it came to executions, and would probably have made the Taliban look like feminist activists when it came to how women were treated. Am I exaggerating? Perhaps.. but I think you get the point.

So okay Romans kill Jesus in a tortuous and slow way (or fail to do so depending on the story) and it's for us... even though we weren't born yet. And some anti- Semitic stories focus on the fact that he was sold out by his own people. But even if you were to focus on that point, you should really look at his people as just people in general. A lot of leaders are sold out by their own across the world.


Here's the thing I don't hear a lot. Jesus signed up for that. I'm not saying I would want to die on a cross. But a lot of Saints after him did, and died more horribly, and according to texts, seem to have rather enjoyed it. If Jesus was just a man, he could have gotten out of that. I mean he knew that starting parades in Jerusalem (an extremely Roman city) was going to get him in trouble, and he knew that the price was Crucifixion. That was the thing back then. It wasn't like "you're going to what?" It was like, do some political thing near Roman authority bam, crucifixion. People passing by probably didn't even notice him. He could have killed himself in prison or had someone else do it. He could have just hung out in the desert and the woods. He chose to do that. So I why should I as a Christian feel bad about it or rejoice or whatever.


If he was a God, (yeah I know the whole mystery thing I'll get into that later. But let's just talk like normal non Abrahamic people who aren't tied down  by, "Thou shalt not draw pictures or make statues of anything.") If he was superhuman, he signed up for this too. Either that or he didn't want to do this whole Earth thing and his Dad signed him up because he thought it would be a good character builder.

"Cruxifixion?" says Daddy God, "Man when I was your age....."

Okay Mystery. Priests ponder feverishly about how the father and the son can be separate and yet the same person... it's only a mystery because these guys didn't have kids, or if they did, left the child rearing to the women. I look at Jonah. He's me but he isn't. Mystery solved.


One God mystery.


Ever hear the song "Rock-a-my soul in the bosom of Abraham?" If Abraham is just a dude that died and went to Sheol (they didn't have heaven back then. I suspect it is a Greco-Roman concept) then why is he rocking souls in his bosom. Why, when someone dies are they "with God now." Maybe, even in the Canonized you have to believe only one way system there is still  the flavor of Monism. I.e. Abraham is part of God, just like everyone that's died, maybe everyone alive, maybe it's all just God or God is a Spirit, an imagined persona of the Universe of everything. It's all One. But when we talk to it we seem separate from it, but that's an illusion or at least just one of many perceptions. I.e. we're all like Jesus.

I was watching Geronimo and before this one guy gets hung for treason his says n Lakota "I'm not afraid of their priest, the One God will welcome me." I had forgotten about that Great Spirit concept. Now I'm sure if I actually studied the Plains Indians belief system I would run into trouble too. But I like the fact that first of, it is an American Religion, and a lot of it has already blended with Christianity, and it fits the 99 gwai 1 idea that Hing Yee was trying to tell me about. 99 tries to become One. People often say, "Oh you just have a superficial understanding" of whatever. Like it's a bad thing. But I've found that a lot of religions, on the surface, are great, but when analyzing them, you get into all this trouble. I say analyzing and studying is for science.

Religion and beliefs is for fun and festivities. So I do the Catholic Thing, well the baptism thing anyway, but really I'm leaning toward the Great Spirit 99 gwai 1 thing. With some meditation and Buddhist trappings, and the fun festivities of Christmas and pagan stories while maintaining atheistic and scientific skepticism. And I see no contradictions. But I do have a problem with focusing on Jesus's death though. People today are dying because of our collective sins and that is the truth even if you are an Atheist. We should talk about it and try to do something.... but it's still not going to be my focus.