Reese 2007-02-26

From Summa Bergania

from michael reese

to David Bergan

date Feb 26, 2007 8:27 AM

subject RE: Seek and ye shall find

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Dear David,

I hope you do not have much of a headache dealing with the aftermath of the fender-bender. That is always a pain in the ass. Living in the land of perpetual sun has its trade-offs. More people moved to Texas last year than live in the entire state of SD. There are lots of crazies down here. Further, I do miss the seasons! And, as an added benefit, the great white north seasonally freezes out the vast majority of its vagrant population. The other social ramification I miss the most is the imposition of finality to the cost of procrastination. Too many people down here never patch their roof, fix the car up on blocks in their front yard, or insulate their attic. That’s not possible in the motherland!

The Jewish historian, Josephus (circa 37-100 CE), maintained that the Romans crucified thousands of Jews in occupied Judea/Galilee, and I find this reasonable to believe. If and how (and why, in my opinion), the Jesus of history was crucified should be pretty obvious because the event fits a pattern of conduct on behalf of the occupying Roman forces. [It escapes our 21st century United Statesian worldview what was so painfully obvious to the men and woman living in the time and place of the Jesus of history: men and women who dared organize or inspire their fellow countrymen to hope for something better were publicly (one of the purposes of crucifixion was to terrorize the subjugated) and systematically executed. This circumstance was a truism to the people of that time and place that escapes us today.] It was what happened AFTER the execution that was so remarkable. I do not find it unusual that so little is written about the birth and death of the Jesus of history. All men are born and die. Very few (some say one or none) continue to live on after they are pushing up daisies.

Upon further reflection, the biggest reason I do not want the literal resurrection to be true is that it would seem to prove that God is a patricidal (or homicidal, or suicidal) maniac that demands human sacrifice in order to bestow forgiveness. This worldview, that God is vengeful and megalomaniacal maniac that demands blood for forgiveness and redemption. This worldview dates back to the ninth century BCE nomadic tribes of Mesopotamia who sacrificed humans on altars to appease God. This evolved over time to the view that animals were sufficient (the true meaning of the story of Abraham and Isaac: God telling God’s faithful “enough already with the human sacrifice”). The role of Christ as the Pascal lamb was paramount to the first century Jewish mind. Yet another reason the gospel accounts make no sense outside of a first century Jewish worldview. There is no virtue ascribed to freezing any other aspect of human understanding in the first century worldview. Better ideas and understandings come along and we embrace the ones that are either provable or make our lives better in some way (in the event that the notion is not provable). Goodbye alchemy, hello chemistry; goodbye demonic possession, hello epilepsy; goodbye plague of death visited upon us by a vengeful and wrathful God and hello germs and antibiotics… etc, etc, etc. I would not limit my understanding of politics, history, love, relationships, astronomy, science, or anything else to the worldview of a tribe of 9th century BCE hunter/gatherers from Mesopotamia. I certainly am not going to handicap my beliefs in God to fit their time and place.

I fear that we are in danger of losing faith altogether, or equally fear that faith will be relegated to the crystal-sniffing crazies if something doesn’t give. I encourage you to pick up Sam Harris’ End of Faith at the library, or at least read his abstract (don’t read an abstract written by one of his detractors, either). I fear that if we do not allow our beliefs in God to catch up to the 21st century, Harris is right and faith has no place in our lives and should be snuffed out.

mpr