RE: Why Didn't Jesus Write?
December 14, 2016 at 4:08 am
(This post was last modified: December 14, 2016 at 4:21 am by Fake Messiah.)
Isn't the reason why he didn't write was because (of course if he existed) he was just a guy that was announcing the end of the world? If you read the gospels you can see that he said his vengeful second coming would occur before the death of most the people who were living at that time. It was the basis of a good deal of His "moral" teaching. Like "Take no thought for the morrow," and things of that sort, it was very largely because He thought the second coming was going to be very soon, and that all ordinary mundane affairs did not count.
So why write? Why make anything permanent when all will be destroyed anyway very soon? It's not like it was for generations after them.
But you know how it is with "end of the world stories" they became popular and started spreading and may have died down if there wasn't brutal dictator and Roman emperor Constantine, who who used Christianity for his own self-aggrandizing means.
You must understand that the ruling class saw Roman Empire in 300s as a mess: there were too many people following too many religions speaking too many languages. Culturally, politically, religiously and in every other way, hardly anything brought unity to the empire. The confusion was so intense that it was not unusual for multiple people to claim the title of emperor at the same time. Civil wars were a norm. So Constantine decided to use religion so that his citizens became loyal to him. To create myths that will give them a sense of identity with him and each other. Especially since monotheism preached the need for all to worship a single source of authority, so it would be the easiest way to ax multiculturalism in Rome.
So why write? Why make anything permanent when all will be destroyed anyway very soon? It's not like it was for generations after them.
But you know how it is with "end of the world stories" they became popular and started spreading and may have died down if there wasn't brutal dictator and Roman emperor Constantine, who who used Christianity for his own self-aggrandizing means.
You must understand that the ruling class saw Roman Empire in 300s as a mess: there were too many people following too many religions speaking too many languages. Culturally, politically, religiously and in every other way, hardly anything brought unity to the empire. The confusion was so intense that it was not unusual for multiple people to claim the title of emperor at the same time. Civil wars were a norm. So Constantine decided to use religion so that his citizens became loyal to him. To create myths that will give them a sense of identity with him and each other. Especially since monotheism preached the need for all to worship a single source of authority, so it would be the easiest way to ax multiculturalism in Rome.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
