Believers think this is a bad thing because they are afraid of all the thing religion says that increasingly divorces itself from science. What's left of religion is mainly the control... of other humans. Always remember that knowledge is power. But knowledge doesn't have to be truthful to be powerful. You only need the perception of truth to have power over those who perceive it to be true. That's why Trump is so powerful. Not only does he lie but he benefits from other people lying on his behalf. And because of their beliefs they're willing to throw things like climate science and medical science out the window. It's incredibly frustrating to me because I see humanity choosing a path of ignorance because they think they will find bliss.
We personify imaginary gods and put our own emotional and psychological issues on them, all of which develop under certain conditions and if you change those conditions there's no reason why a god would behave as humans do. But we're supposed to believe God gets jealous and angry and all these other things that we WANT him to feel because we want his love. And instead of getting different things from different gods that all wanted offerings, people found it better and more efficient to have one God who played all roles and who, because of that, because of that consolidation of power, could be thought to be more powerful and more able to protect.
But was Israel protected? No. So the reality is that when a few farmers traded stories their lifestyles were very different from the cities. But when they grew in number they began having all the same problems. They thought those problems could be blamed on people having false gods but the problems have nothing to do with gods and everything to do with the system of ownership we have created, allowed, and supported. We created the system that oppresses us. Ironically, we always have been responsible, just not in a superstitious way. So when people traded these stories the result were many things that were true and many things that were fiction and many things that were exaggerated.
The more you learn history and the intersection of different peoples and cultures the more you see the truth; that God is what we make him. But, God, as the bible says, "is a spirit". The bible also says "let this mind be in you that was in Yeshua". The NT is not religious like the OT. The NT is spiritual and it's all about God being inside you. And if you follow in righteousness then that spirit will be in you. It is the seed that is planted. Why do I use the bible? Because anyone who has experience can have wisdom. And the older I get the more I can appreciate that. Just because someone is wise doesn't mean you can believe everything they say. The serpent in the garden was wise too. But Yeshua was a reformer. I truly believe he was trying to undo the damage of religion upon the mind and soul.
Damage. Because people didn't love each other. The religious thought they were doing the right thing and they excluded and pushed aside anyone who they could say was guilty of some sin. But they, as the bible says, had a larger obstacle to their own vision. And Yeshua choose to hang out with the sinners, not because they were is worse condition because it was the religious hypocrites that were really in the worse condition; thinking that they knew everything because they were religious scholars. But anytime they wanted they manipulated the scriptures and found justification for their characters.
They were not good people. They just pretended to be; just as priests pretended to eat the food sacrificed to idols to make it look like the idol had eaten the food. The ones that really know? They know it's a lie. But they use the lie for different reasons. Perhaps some use lies for good. After all, priests often get to advise kings.
And kings, often claimed God (or the gods) was with him. Some even lied and said they were the children of the gods. This story isn't new. It's simply misunderstood in the case of Yeshua. I believe that Yeshua had superstitious believers who wanted him to be supernatural and therefore that's why he has the reputation of a miracle worker for those humans who need miracles. For others he was a political chess piece to save them from Rome. And so, to them, he was the Messiah. King of Yisrael. For others he was a spiritual son, to show them what God the Father was like because they had the same spirit. There were at least 7 different views of Yeshua and his divinity and different groups based on these beliefs. The Trinity won out only because of the Council of Nicaea.
But the truth is this. He was, in people's minds and hearts, what they needed him to be. God or man. And the truth is that Haile Selassie is the same. But since we created God to represent us and project ourselves upon God, it is accurate to say that H.I.M had the spirit of God and that is why he too had many followers who worship him and his memory. Haile Selassie represents what many desire to be. His words. His deeds. They are considered divine and heroic. So whether or not he said he was God... doesn't matter because Yeshua said no such thing of himself either. But anyone who has the spirit God can live up to, not only their own potential, but the true potential (probability of spiritual evolution) of humanity.
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