The history of Christianity reflects a constant drift  away  from the relatively simple teachings of Jesus. Paradoxically, a constant thread in the history of all religions is the  recognition  of this drift and the desire to return to the "true" teachings. Of course, the problem is that these teachings are "spun" out of all recognition by each generation. Not surprisingly, what is left is what serves the self interests of those who interpret the message for the masses who are kept away from reading it for themselves. This drift started  before  the New Testament (NT) came together. Along with an assortment of "apocryphal" Gospels, it is the only record we have of the life and teachings of Jesus. These documents reflect a generation or more of theological reflection (mythology) surrounding His life and teachings. In retrospect, we can see that the authors of the Gospels "spun" their stories to pull the Jesus back into the world of Jewish mytholog...

Over the last few days, I've been "under the weather". As usual, I use this as an excuse to impersonate my favorite vegitable, lie on the couch and watch TV all day. My choice of material this time was a biography of  Winston Churchill  followed by   World War II In Colour . I'm particularly interested in this extremely important period of history which lead directly to my own conception -- the joyful (then) union of a Canadian soldier and a British "war bride". All this material is fairly familiar to me, even though I was not (quite) born yet. However, this time around, I was struck by something new (to me anyway). This was the haunting parallels between the mythical thinking of the protagonists. Lest you think that myth is all about "gods", I must remind you that the main theme of Biblical mythology is not so much "God" as the idea that the Israel is  special -- "God's chosen people". This particular idea (and it's o...

There is a line that runs from the ancient belief in the ancient worship of the creator God to the awe that Einstein expressed -- that the laws of the Universe is so wonderfully ordered and that laws that describe that order are somehow (dimly) comprehensible to the mind of man. The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books—-a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. Another thread weaves through the centuries from the words of the Prophet Amos, who denounced the rich for (literally) trampling the rights of the poor to the modern  Universal Declaration of Human Rights . A third strand binds th...

Is Jesus important to Christianity? This would seem to be a strange question. "Christianity" is about "Christ", which reflects the belief that Jesus was (or is) the "Christ", the saviour. So Christianity must be about Jesus and it must be about the belieft that Jesus is our saviour. Oddly, the history of Christianity reflects a constant drift away from the relatively simple teachings of Jesus. Paradoxically, a constant thread in the history of all religions is the recognition of this drift and the desire to return to the "true" teachings. Of course, the problem is that these teachings are "spun" out of all recognition by each generation. The drift started before the New Testament (NT) came together. While it is the only record we have of the life and teachings of Jesus, the NT also reflects a generation or more of theological reflection (spin) on His life and teachings. What is more, it's notoriously difficult to separate the ...

Is Jesus important to Christianity? This would seem to be a strange question. "Christianity" is about "Christ", which reflects the belief that Jesus was (or is) the "Christ", the saviour. So Christianity must be about Jesus and it must be about the belieft that Jesus is our saviour. Oddly, the history of Christianity reflects a constant drift away from the relatively simple teachings of Jesus. Paradoxically, a constant thread in the history of all religions is the recognition of this drift and the desire to return to the "true" teachings. Of course, the problem is that these teachings are "spun" out of all recognition by each generation. The drift started before the New Testament (NT) came together. While it is the only record we have of the life and teachings of Jesus, the NT also reflects a generation or more of theological reflection (spin) on His life and teachings. What is more, it's notoriously difficult to separate ...

OK. You'd think this issue has been done to death but, no. I promise you'll learn a few things here that you won't see elsewhere in spite of the vast amount of crap that's been said about this movie. First off, WATCH the damn thing! Basically, it's " Life of Brian " without the sense of humor or production values. Muslims are going around killing people over this thing but I have yet to hear of a single one who has actually watched it. This is combined with the similar phenomenon that so many Muslims haven't really read the Koran (which is not the same as memorizing it or reciting it). The is tradition of critical analysis in Islam is very weak, leaving Muslims extremely vulnerable to opinions that slightly vary from what they are told in the mosque. As one who HAS read the Koran and studied the history if Islam and seen the movie tailor (not sure if the actual movie is available), I can honestly say that there was noting all that shocking in...

OK. You'd think this issue has been done to death but, no. I promise you'll learn a few things here that you won't see elsewhere in spite of the vast amount of crap that's been said about this movie. First off, WATCH the damn thing! Basically, it's " Life of Brian " without the sense of humor or production values. Muslims are going around killing people over this thing but I have yet to hear of a single one who has actually watched it. This is combined with the similar phenomenon that so many Muslims haven't really read the Koran (which is not the same as memorizing it or reciting it). The is tradition of critical analysis in Islam is very weak, leaving Muslims extremely vulnerable to opinions that slightly vary from what they are told in the mosque. As one who HAS read the Koran and studied the history if Islam and seen the movie tailor (not sure if the actual movie is available), I can honestly say that there was noting all that shocking...

I'm a special kind of nerd. I love to translate abstract issues into visual formats. The following entry reflects this tendency. Underlying the idea is the concept that it's possible to "unpack" a world view (especially a religious world view) in ways that separate out the factors that are subject to negotiation and compromise in the real world -- politics versus mythology. If you don't understand what I'm getting at, don't worry, I'm not sure I do either. RaGBI is a way of characterizing the world view of different people, especially the religious world view, in a way that lends itself to visualization. World view is analyzed along 4 dimensions, each on a scale of 0 to 100. The scale can be translated into 0 to 255 to produce a color scale which can turn rating into a visually intuitive display. R (Red) - Tradition. The importance of tradition. G (Green) - Values. Roughly the degree to which the individual supports universally recognized standards of ...

I'm a special kind of nerd. I love to translate abstract issues into visual formats. The following entry reflects this tendency. Underlying the idea is the concept that it's possible to "unpack" a world view (especially a religious world view) in ways that separate out the factors that are subject to negotiation and compromise in the real world -- politics versus mythology. If you don't understand what I'm getting at, don't worry, I'm not sure I do either. RaGBI is a way of characterizing the world view of different people, especially the religious world view, in a way that lends itself to visualization. World view is analyzed along 4 dimensions, each on a scale of 0 to 100. The scale can be translated into 0 to 255 to produce a color scale which can turn rating into a visually intuitive display. R (Red) - Tradition. The importance of tradition. G (Green) - Values. Roughly the degree to which the individual supports universally recognized standard...