HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALL YOU GUYS

So Jesus was born today (according to Robert, the Catholic Church and a whole lot of Christians out there).

In reality of course the prophet, scholar and teacher Jesus of Nazareth was born around the time stated, give or take a few years, but it's unlikely the date was December 25th. It's more likely he was born in the Spring as there were many mentions of shepherds tending to new born lambs and other springtime activities.

Jesus Christ being born on December 25th doesn’t appear in any historical record until the 4th century. The previous Christian, Roman, Gospellers and other writers made no mention of this. 

Late December is the time of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and was a time of pagan  celebrations. The Emperor Constantine, in the 4th century declared that Jesus was born on December 25th along with a lot of other nonsense about Christianity (done for political reasons of the day). He supported Christianity in the Edict of Milan and the first Council of Nicaea to placate the growing Christian faction in Rome. Selecting December 25th was no shot in the dark as this date was already the birthdate of the Romans adopted Syrian god Sol Invictus (done in in 274 A.D).  Lining up Jesus's birthday on 25 December with previous gods birthdays was a calculated, political decision.

Long before Yahweh and Jesus Christ, many religions had gods who were born in strange, miraculous ways, at times to virgins, who came to earth at Winter Solstice, performed miracles, taught about judgement and the afterlife, were killed, reborn, and ascended into heaven.

 December 25 was an important birthday for many human gods.

The following gods or demigods were born on December 25: 

Yahweh, Horus, Osiris, Attis, Krishna, Mithra, Zoroaster, Prometheus, Heracles, Dionysus, Tammuz, Adonis, Hermes and others. Some of these were also born to virgins.

An in depth look at this can be found here: OTHER GODS BORN TO VIRGINS ON DECEMBER 25TH

HELL BENT

HELL the concept or, more accurately the construct has featured quite a bit in Robert's recent posts and the lively banter in comments between him and Richard.

Most of his posts have been deleted but here's an excerpt from his latest (soon to be deleted post).

"Hell is one of those things you either love or hate.

Some think you should not mention it to children.
I think we underestimate the fortitude and intelligence of children.
Of course there will always be self opiniated  (sic) old fools.
Forget and ignore them.
Childhood is tough. It's often cruel. But lessons learned are important.
Hell is real."

 - ROBERT 2 December 2020

As usual there's a lot to decipher in this, or, to try and make sense of.

"Hell is one of those things you either love or hate."

Straight off I find this hard to understand. If such a thing as Hell existed who in their right mind would love it? Satan? Devil worshippers? Masochists? I think that Robert veered a bit off course here which is not surprising as it's a slippery slope to try and justify silly Christian - in particular Catholic - teachings and beliefs.

The middle bit of his proposal relates to the argument that he was having with Richard about the right or wrong of terrorising children with threats of their going to Hell if they don't pray to God and support the Catholic Church. I'll leave that to them to sort out.

Robert finishes, as is usual for him with another silly and unsubstantiated, typically Catholic statement - "Hell is real."

Let's explore that. "Hell is real." 

OK, if it is real then it can be investigated, analysed, visited, checked, verified and otherwise proven.

I really would like to know what Robert thinks Hell is.

Is it, in his mind, the early Hebrew place where the souls of all the dead were held  outside of the presence of God.? 

Or does he believe in a form of Hades which the ancient Greeks developed where all the dead lingered in the underground ruled by a god of the dead and which had a lower level for the bad people who were imprisoned?

Maybe he prefers the Medieval take that Hell is a place of eternal torment, burning in neverending fires and being prodded up the bum with pitchforks wielded by demons?

Or, is he one of the more 'enlightened' Christians who see Hell as being  God's absence and the chief pain of hell is eternal separation from God?

This idea of Hell being separation from God is about as nebulous as it gets and is an obvious cop out

 by the Church realising how stupid any other attempts at defining the place, concept or construct is.

In the exhaustive reading quick squiz at the internet I've done it seems that the Old Testament Hebrew view of Hell is quite different from that of Greek mythology and rabid Catholicism. The early Hebrew idea is more akin to the more recent and,'enlightened' Christian and even Catholic view where Hell is the separation from God. The Greeks and certainly the Medieval Christians had a fondness for  horrendous visions of a hell that burns, consumes, tortures and destroys the bodies of sinners, This stuff is scary and, here's the rub, it was designed to scare the bejesus out of people (including 6 year old children).

Why?

To continue to exert control and to keep the masses afraid and subservient. A nice Church wasn't going to bring in much in the way of tithes and be able to sustain its hunger for wealth and power. It needed cowed citizenry and  blindly obedient 'believers' to be in a position to take in all of the silly bullshit that was taught to them. All this to consolidate and expand political, financial, geographic and social control. 

So, I'd like to know from Robert, what he thinks Hell is seeing that he categorically believes that it exists.

ASK THE ANGELS

 

ASK THE ANGELS - PATTI SMITH

Move! Ask the angels who they're calling,

Go ask the angels if they're calling to thee

Ask the angels while they're falling

Who that person could possibly be

I inserted the Patti Smith song link because Richard of Richard's Bass Bag likes it when The Curmudgeons Incⓒ use music video links. It helps in his music appreciation and learning.

Anyway, by now you may be wondering what this Post is about. Yes, it does have a religious theme - angels - but is also political and what's the biggest political situation today? The US elections.

Have a look at this nonsense:

ANGELS HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED

Evangelical Christian Pastor George Pearsons claimed that people in heaven—as well as ballots—are "crying out" about alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election, saying that "angels have been dispatched."

"So not only are the voters crying out, not only are we raising our voices over this corruption and this fraud, but the ballots are doing the same thing," the pastor said.
"All the way down the line, even to people who have died and gone to Heaven. ... Especially if those people were born again, they're in Heaven right now and they're crying out," Pearsons told the congregation.

"They're crying out against the injustice of this. You cannot come against the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord of angel armies. Angels have been dispatched; they are out there. That is why that voice is crying out. It is not just the people. It is the ballot itself," the pastor said.

Fuck! What the hell is going on in that country and how stupid are the people that this sort of shit gets airplay?

Maybe Robert can enlighten me.

SAME OLD

 

"OK Papa, I'll only do it on Sundays"

POPE JOHN PAUL II KNEW

Pope John Paul II knew former Newark archbishop was a pedophile before promoting him to cardinal in WASHINGTON DC.

A Vatican investigation into ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has found that a series of bishops, cardinals and popes downplayed or dismissed reports that he slept with seminarians, and determined that Pope Francis merely continued his predecessors’ naive handling of the predator until a former altar boy alleged abuse.

When does this shit end?

THANKS ROBERT

Robert the apathetic sinner has uncovered (stumbled upon in a Google search) the possible fact that Jesus, his hero and the guy that he eats every Sunday, was likely created by an affair between his mother Mary and a Roman soldier.

Poor Robert. He must be conflicted given his love of Christian lore and the 'truths' in the bible that are at odds with his love of the more salacious aspects of tabloid journalism and reality  'Kardashian-type' television shows. This latest is worthy of the features in  the women's magazines. he hides under his mattress.

See what Robert wrote in his latest post: HERE

HE DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH.

I had a quick search on Google and found this report: HERE which is more interesting reading than the bit that Robert found.

Here's a paraphrase of the article:

Tiberius Julius  Abdes Pantera c. 22 BC – AD 40) was a Roman soldier whose tombstone was found in Bingerbrück, Germany, in 1859. A historical connection from this soldier to Jesus has long been hypothesized by numerous scholars, based on the claim of the ancient Greek philosopher Celsus, was the author of a work entitled 'The True Word',

Celsus' work was lost, but in Origen's account of it Jesus was depicted as the result of an affair between his mother Mary and a Roman soldier. He said she was "convicted of adultery and had a child by a certain soldier named Pantera". Tiberius Pantera could have been serving in the region at the time of Jesus's conception. Both the ancient Talmud and medieval Jewish writings and sayings reinforced this notion, referring "Yeshu ben Pantera", which translates to "Jesus, son of Pantera". 

In October 1859, during the construction of a railroad in Bingerbrück in Germany, tombstones for nine Roman soldiers were accidentally discovered. One of the tombstones was that of Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera and is presently kept in the Römerhalle museum in Bad Kreuznach, Germany.

In the 2nd century,  Celsus wrote that Jesus's father was a Roman soldier named Panthera. The views of Celsus drew responses from Origen who considered it a fabricated story. Celsus' claim is only known from Origen's reply. Origen writes:

"Let us return, however, to the words put into the mouth of the Jew, where "the mother of Jesus" is described as having been "turned out by the carpenter who was betrothed to her, as she had been convicted of adultery and had a child by a certain soldier named Panthera".

The story that Jesus was the son of a man named Pantera is referred to in the Talmud, in which Jesus is widely understood to be the figure referred to as "Ben Stada":

It is taught that Rabbi Eliezer said to the Wise, "Did not Ben Stada bring spells from Egypt in a cut in his flesh?" They said to him, "He was a fool, and they do not bring evidence from a fool." Ben Stada is Ben Pantera. Rabbi Hisda said, "The husband was Stada, the lover was Pantera." The husband was "actually" Pappos ben Judah, the mother was Stada. The mother was Miriam "Mary" the dresser of women's hair. As we say in Pumbeditha, "She has been false to "satath da" her husband." (b. Shabbat 104b)

Peter Schäfer explains this passage as a commentary designed to clarify the multiple names used to refer to Jesus, concluding with the explanation that he was the son of his mother's lover "Pantera", but was known as "son of Stada", because this name was given to his mother, being "an epithet which derives from the Hebrew/Aramaic root sat.ah/sete' ('to deviate from the right path, to go astray, to be unfaithful'). In other words, his mother Miriam was also called 'Stada' because she was a sotah, a woman suspected, or rather convicted, of adultery." A few of the references explicitly name Jesus ("Yeshu") as the "son of Pandera": these explicit connections are found in the Tosefta, the Qohelet Rabbah, and the Jerusalem Talmud, but not in the Babylonian Talmud.

The book Toledot Yeshu, which dates to the Middle Ages and appeared in Aramaic as well as Hebrew as an anti-Christian satirical chronicle of Jesus, also refers to the name Pantera, or Pandera. The book accuses Jesus of illegitimate birth as the son of Pandera, and of heretical and at times violent activities along with his followers during his ministry.

A soldier by the name of Pantos/Pantera also appears twice in Ethiopian church documents. In the First Book of Ethiopian Maccabees he is listed as one of three brothers who resists the Seleucid invasion of Judea. Within the text itself he is cited as receiving his name from the act of strangling panthers with his bare hands. This name and personage also appears in the text of the Ethiopian Synaxarion (Tahisas 25), where he is remembered along with his brothers in the canon of Ethiopian saints. Neither text makes any clear identification of this figure with the legendary accounts of the paternal ancestry of Christ.

HYPOTHESIS CONCERNING A CONNECTION TO JESUS

A connection between the two Panteras has been hypothesized by James Tabor. Tabor's theory hinges on the assumption that Celsus' information about Jesus' paternity was correct, and a soldier with this name, living at the right period, might have been Jesus' father. Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera's career would place him in Judea as a young man around the time of Jesus' conception.

Well that's good enough for me and it makes for a much more interesting and contemporary story than all of the maudlin muck that the Church puts out. I think that a NETFLIX mini-series is in order. 

THE BEAUTIFUL SCAM

 I'm not religious but was brought up and educated as a Catholic.

As a Primary school student I enjoyed the pageantry of the church services we went to which, in the early days were conducted in Latin. I was an Altar Boy which meant that I officiated at Mass, Benediction and the odd (and I mean odd) other services.

It was all a bit of fun and a mystery - particularly the arcane practices and teachings from The Catechism which included fairy-tale nonsense like:

•  Transubstantiation (turning a dry wafer and some cheap sweet red wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ).
• The Resurrection (Jesus Christ raising himself from the dead).
• The Ascension (Jesus Christ taking off up into Heaven).
• The assumption (Jesus Christ somehow raising up Mary, his mother, into Heaven).

Of course, as a 7 year old this stuff while not making sense was accepted just as much as the fact that turning a light switch on created light and dad turning on the ignition switch in the car made it go. There wasn't any need to understand the workings behind these 'miracles'.

In Intermediate school, the same nonsense was taught but this time by Marist Brothers instead of Sisters of Mercy Nuns and to me at the ages of 10 through 13. I could see through it then.

By the time I got to Secondary school and was taught by Marist Priests there was no way that they could hoodwink me over The Catechism and Christian Doctrine stuff. It turned out to be my worst school subject as it was impossible to get good marks from such arrant nonsense. In hindsight I should have just winged it and regurgitate all the shit that they wanted to hear.

"Psst! You want to hear a story?"

After school and university I made a career in marketing. This was pretty good and I enjoyed doing it, particularly as the product I marketed for over 40 years was interesting (alcohol). The beers, wines and spirits all had their own back stories and interesting places of origin.

Marketing wasn't quite as formalised then as it is now so, like the TV series Mad Men we could pretty much wing it when it came to label creation, advertising and promotion. Later, with more sophisticated supply chain mechanisms, legislature changes and creation of international standards, did the whole thing become onerous and boring. There were so many new regulations that stymied creativity. I'm retired now and glad of it. I'd hate to be 'marketing' beers or wines to supermarkets where their only interest is in how much they can screw down the supplier on price and how much bribe money (disguised as cooperative advertising) they can solicit for prime shelf placement.

I thought I was a pretty good marketer and am proud of many great initiatives in brand creation, advertising and brand building but in truth, my efforts and the efforts of just about everyone around the world in marketing and promotion pales to insignificance when compared to the way that religion is fostered.

I hadn't given religion much thought for many years until I started blogging with friends Richard and Robert.

Richard, like me underwent Catholic education from Nuns, Brothers and Priests and similarly rejected it all as stuff and nonsense.

Robert, Richard's younger brother by two years also was educated by Nuns, Brothers and Priests at the same Wellington schools but - and here's the rub - he still embraces the stuff and nonsense. Somewhere along the line someone really did a good job on him. At 65 years of age he still goes to Mass on the weekend, sits and listens to bible readings and some Catholic propaganda from the pulpit and takes it away with him. It would be OK if he kept it to himself but no, he manages to thread it through his social and political beliefs (Trumpian) and expounds it via his blog.

Religion, particularly Christianity and especially Catholicism has managed to scam people magnificently - even royally for eons.

THE ROYAL SCAM - STEELY DAN

(inserted mainly because I like it)

How brand owners and marketers would love to be able to get away with what these scamsters get away with. Lies, exaggerations, puffery, misrepresentation, violence instigation, money soliciting, failure of delivery and broken promises are all part and parcel of the 'business' but they don't seem to lack customers. even when previous captives (like Richard and me) leave there are plenty of other dupes to baptise and intimidate and then fleece.

Imagine this scenario of a brand owner advertising their product:

Quick, buy this now or you will live for eternity in suffering and anguish.

We can't really explain how it works as it has never been proven but, if you have faith it will go.

There's no hurry in this. Don't worry if it doesn't work straight away.

It will work, if you believe, after you are dead and gone.

Believe us.

All that at premium prices. with no need to discount or have special offers (apart from the selling of indulgences to get out of Purgatory and Limbo). And, of course, no regularity authorities to vett the advertising and prosecute any fraud and misleading statements.

It's a BEAUTIFUL SCAM  alright.

 

HOW DARE YOU!

 Get a load of this crap:

This rubbish was in my mailbox when I got home today.

"OK" I hear you say "what's the problem? You get a lot of unsolicited mail."

Well, smartarses, I object to this because of its semi-personalised nature and the fact that this bible-bashing organisation has recruited naive and probably young people to churn out theese letters in a low-key production line, It stinks!

Robert, in some of his posts on his blog -  'Robert the inconsiderate sinner' mentions similar calls to action that come from the pulpit of his local church. The priests get their dupes to undertake little missions to further the dominion of the Catholic Church.

Going by the spelling in this letter Robert could have actually written it ..... but, I digress.

The more observant of you will have noticed the web address jw.org and correctly ascertained that this nonsense came from the Jehovah's Witnesses. I guess that they are tired of having doors slammed in their faces and have learned that printed fliers never get read before they are binned so are taking this personal approach. Well, it doesn't wash with me you JWs.

Coincidentally, when looking at the local Neighbourly site there is a big discussion on the invasive practices of real estate people using drones to hover over, and record, peoples' houses.. To me, this JW letter is just as sneaky and invasive.

I looked on the internet to see if others have had 'personalised JW letters and discovered this beautifully crafted and apt letter. I've copied and pasted the letter below to save you going to the link but if you want, the link is here:

"TO THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS.....

To The Jehovah’s Witness Who Mailed Me a Handwritten Letter Last Week

Dear Gertrude,

I received your letter a few days ago, and have spent the ensuing period formulating a response in my mind. That response is ready now.
How dare you?
I can confirm, without the faintest glimmer of a shadow of a phantom of a doubt, that you would not, in fact, “love to see [me] there.” I can assure you that I would not, in fact, be “warmly welcomed.” I can also assure you, with indignation thrumming through my core, that if you were as “interested in [your] neighbors” as you claim to be, you would never have sent this letter to us, nor would you be sending similar letters to anyone else.

I know what happens at Kingdom Hall.

I need you to understand that I do not come to this certainty naively. I was raised Catholic. There is a silver coin commemorating my First Communion in a lockbox in my bedroom closet. I attended Sunday school for years, in two languages, in multiple US states. My parents adorn their walls with Christian iconography, from playful paintings of Noah’s Ark to effusive statues of Jesus on the cross to Bible quotes on plaques. I attended Mormon church functions with my high-school girlfriend and listened to classmates and colleagues invoke God’s providence to guide their decisions and buoy their hopes. I have survived dozens upon dozens of holiday dinners prefaced with de facto sermons and with thanks to God for the family’s health, prosperity, and peace. I have watched my parents in mourning over and over, consoling themselves with the thought that my grandfather and great uncles and grandmother were now, after long illnesses, in a better place. There is a shrine in my parents’ bank devoted to La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, one of the patron saints of my people. I am intimately, personally acquainted with several varieties of Christianity, and they defined not just my own youth, but my spiraling path through the Christian-dominated societies that have surrounded me ever since.

Those religions abused me. Christianity, in its infinite grace and wisdom, declared my desire for truth and logic a sinful vice. Christianity declared that I was a failure of a child, in need of divine forgiveness, for any moment of defiance or even hesitation between me and my parents. Christianity declared my parents righteous for using a belt, however sparingly, in their quest for my compliance. Christianity told my parents that God smiled on their authoritarian, narcissistic patterns and would reward them for maintaining them. Christianity told my parents that transgender people are fake, broken, tragic, and Satanic and that it is horrible and sad to be associated with them. Christianity told my parents that gay people are not “real” members of their gender and their relationships deserve no acknowledgement or approval. Christianity told my natal country that what other people want for a uterus counts more than  what its owner wants. Christianity told my country that anything joyful that isn’t itself Christian is a sinful distraction and aimed us all at endless toil and adulation of the wealthy in the process. Christianity told my country that people who want to make sure their children grow up distrustful, angry, and ignorant of basic science should be respected for their “faith” instead of opposed for their child abuse. Christianity told my country that people who sequester their children in basements, collect them as harem-wives for sect patriarchs, and automatically mistrust anyone who would want to date them, are living out Christ’s (actually Paul’s) vision of Godly order, or maybe trying a little too hard, rather than being obviously, unforgivably wrong. Christianity told my natal country that trans people are worth murdering in enormous numbers and gay people should be denied the right to be at their loved ones’ bedsides as they lay dying.

Christianity sailed across the Atlantic and shattered my people so thoroughly that our old language is lost forever, even to historians, and it has been our trial to grow, rebuild, and remake ever since.

I fled all of that, thousands of kilometers, a lifetime away. I got out, because I knew what my choices were: my life, honest and analytic and scientific and transgender and lesbian, surrounded by people who know and love me and not the Christian lie my parents wanted me to pretend to be, in a place where I have rights and options…or a one-line obituary under a name that isn’t mine.

You say your Kingdom Hall would “love to see [me] there.”

Where I am, that is not a welcome. That is a threat.

You are not the first Jehovah’s Witness to visit yourself upon me. I have encountered your ilk lurking near drug treatment clinics and bus stations, trying to ensnare the desperate and hopeless. I have seen, closely, how your cult pretends at love and acceptance to drag people inside and then tells them to put all trust, every trust, in Jehovah, accepting every bit of abuse the cult can inflict and encourage as something else to escape through faith alone. I have seen your cult demand that children subjected to neglect and violence accept their lot as a trial from God and refuse to cooperate with police to bring their abusive parents and cult-mates to justice. I have seen your cult hide child molestation rather than admit that your God is either totally inadequate or irredeemably evil, to permit such a thing to happen at all. I have seen your cult demand that people devote so much time to evangelism that their careers and family lives disintegrate. I have seen your cult encourage people to sever ties with anyone outside it, until the Kingdom Hall is all they have left, because then you have them forever. I have seen what your cult has to say about gay and transgender people, and it is everything I fled my old home to escape.

Do you still imagine that your Kingdom Hall would welcome me, Gertrude, now that you see who you invited inside? Would you still “love to see” me there as an out, proud, atheist, antitheist, transgender lesbian with an encyclopedic recall of your cult’s crimes against humanity and nothing but rage for how emotional and physical abuse is the only way that it knows how to operate? Do you?

You likely think I hate you, Gertrude. You’ve almost certainly already defaulted to that idea, that what I offer in this letter is merely the persecution your cult leader lovingly promised you to prevent you from seeing the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ detractors for what they are. I don’t hate you, Gertrude.

I pity you.

And I hope you see the den of monsters that has ensnared you for what it is, and make your own escape. I hope you find a supportive, compassionate, understanding place to land when you do make that escape. I hope, in your “genuine interest” in your neighbors, you’ll show some curiosity into our experiences, and come to understand how toxic to us so many of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ precepts really are. I hope you’ll find yourself saddened by your former involvement with these people, and gratified by being in a position to now, newly informed, do some real good in this world.

That’s what I’ve been trying to do, in my small way: some real good, for real people. Helping friends navigate their way out of their own abusive situations. Passing what little money I can to friends who need it more than I do. Writing for others’ benefit, to share my knowledge and insight with the world. Investigating deep and hard problems with tools unavailable to others, because I can, and because the world benefits when I do. Sharing my experiences with those about to embark on similar journeys, to help them skip my missteps. Making sure the advice I give people is good, useful advice that corresponds to reality, rather than a hideous error like “please attend a Jehovah’s Witness meeting.”

I will not be visiting my abusers. I will not be visiting a group even more emotionally destructive than my abusers even knew how to be. I will not once more pretend to be someone I am not for others’ benefit. I will never, ever imagine that who I am is something I should hide, suppress, or feel shame over, and I will never, ever encourage anyone else toward that sadness. I will not be shutting down the analytic faculties and hard-earned expertise that make my mind what it is in order to secure a place in a group that values conformity with rules over knowledge and exploration of this actual world.

I respect myself too much to destroy what I have spent 29 years building by chasing approval I cannot earn and, if I’m being honest, I don’t actually want.

My future is ahead of me, Gertrude, laid out in pride flags and lab coats and everything else your cult would have me abandon.

And it will not include you contacting me again. I will consider any reply to this letter from you as harassment unless it features an apology for presuming that I could find your cult anything but abhorrent and an invitation to visit it as anything but a request for me to open myself back up to what I upended my entire life to escape.

May the future be kinder to you than people like you have been to me.

Most sincerely,

Alyssa