ASTRO-THEOLOGY
& Sidereal Mythology
APPENDIX THREE
Forgery in Christianity (Cont'd)
And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven - (Deuteronomy 4:19, KJV)
Gospel of Philip on Ignorance
Spiritual ignorance is the mother of all evil. Ignorance will eventuate in death, because those who come from ignorance neither were, nor are, nor shall be
Book of Enoch on Ignorance
Sin has not been sent upon the Earth, but man of himself has created it
Book of Mark on Ignorance
It is from within, out of the mind of man that all evil emerges - (Mark 7:21-23)
Schopenhauer on Ignorance
They (men) would sooner die than think. It is very curious that the universality of an opinion should have so much weight with people, as their own experience might tell them that its acceptance is an entirely thoughtless and merely imitative process. But it tells them nothing of the kind, because they possess no self-knowledge whatever - (How to Argue Logically)
Rev. Robert Taylor on Ignorance
There were no books, save painfully written and very costly manuscript, worth the ransom of princes, and utterly unattainable except by the very wealthy and by the church. Not ‘till about 1450 was the first book known in Europe – (The Devil’s Pulpit)
Henry L. Mencken on Christianity
The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not only opposed to the scientific spirit, it is also opposed to all attempts at rational thinking.
Northrop Frye on the Bible
It is futile also to try to distinguish what is "original" in the Bible, the authentic voices of its great prophetic and poetic geniuses, from the later accretions and corruptions sometimes alleged to surround them. The editors are too much for us: they have pulverized the Bible until almost all sense of individuality has been stamped out of it – (The Great Code)
Thomas Paine on Christianity
Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid, or produces only atheists and fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purposes of despotism; and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests; but so far as respects the good of man in general, it leads to nothing here or hereafter.
…when the New Testament was written, I might say invented, the art of printing was not known...the book was in the hands of very few persons, and these chiefly of the Church...This gave an opportunity to the writers of the New Testament to make quotations from the Old Testament as they pleased, and called them prophecies, with very little danger of being detected. Besides which, the terrors and inquisitorial fury of the Church...stood sentry over the New Testament; and time, which brings everything else to light, has served to thicken the darkness that guards it from detection - (The Age of Reason, Part III, Examination of the Prophecies)
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.
I would not dare to so dishonor my Creator God by attaching His name to that book (the Bible).
Among the most detestable villains in history, you could not find one worse than Moses. Here is an order, attributed to 'God' to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers and to debauch and rape the daughters. I would not dare so dishonor my Creator's name by (attaching) it to this filthy book (the Bible).
It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible.
Accustom a people to believe that priests and clergy can forgive sins...and you will have sins in abundance.
The Christian church has set up a religion of pomp and revenue in pretended imitation of a person (Jesus) who lived a life of poverty.
President Thomas Jefferson
The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter - (Letter to J. Adams April 11, 1823)
I have examined all the known superstitions of the word, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth.
The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving the world and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves…these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.
President John Madison
What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy.
President John Adams
The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.
Sigmund Freud on Religion
In my Future of an Illusion…I was concerned much less with the deepest sources of the religious feeling than with what the common man understands by his religion - with the system of doctrines and promises which on the one hand explains to him the riddles of this world with enviable completeness, and, on the other, assures him that a careful Providence will watch over his life and will compensate him in a future existence for any frustrations he suffers here. The common man cannot imagine this Providence otherwise than in the figure of an enormously exalted father. Only such a being can understand the needs of the children of men and be softened by their prayers and placated by the signs of their remorse. The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life. It is still more humiliating to discover how large a number of people living today, who cannot but see that this religion is not tenable, nevertheless try to defend it piece by piece in a series of pitiful rearguard actions.
Biblical Gibberish
Saint John states nonsensically:
There are also many other things which Jesus did the which, of they could be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
As the Bible story progresses, we are led to believe that the great royal house of David and Solomon gained its office because a shepherd-boy slew a giant with a stone. We are told absolutely nothing about its sovereign descent from the mighty dynasties of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and yet this is the book upon which oaths are sworn to tell ‘the truth, and nothing but the truth’ in courts of law - Laurence Gardner (Genesis of the Grail Kings)
Bible on Slavery
As for your male and female slaves whom you may have; you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons and after you, to inherit as a possession forever; you may make slaves of them, but over your brethren the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over the other, with harshness - (Leviticus 25:44-46)
Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those whose are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God…But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God - (Peter 2:18-21)
Martin Luther on Slavery and Government
Nothing is more poisonous, harmful or devilish than a man in rebellion
...even if those in authority are evil or without faith, nevertheless the authority and its power is good and from God...therefore wherever there is power and where it flourishes, there it is and there it remains because God has ordained it - (Vorlesung uber den Romerbrief)
God would prefer to suffer the government to exist no matter how evil, rather than to allow the rabble to riot, no matter how justified they are in doing so...A prince should remain a prince no matter how tyrannical he may be. He beheads necessarily only a few since he must have subjects in order to be a ruler - (Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants)
Destructiveness of Jehovah
The creative spirit is inseparably paired with a motif of destruction and war. The spirit of God creates armies: "By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, by the breath of his mouth, all their armies" (Ps 33:6). The myth-creating cluster of the motifs of God's spirit and destruction is commonplace in biblical stories (e.g., Jgs 14-16) viewing the spirit of God as dangerous. Job offers an argument to affirm this in presenting Yahweh's spirit in the metaphor of the roaring lion's breath: "By the breath of God they die; by the wind of his rage they are consumed" (Job 4:9). Isaiah too speaks of the creative spirit's destructive power, evoking the story of the destruction of Sodom: "The spirit of Yahweh is a stream of brimstone. It sifts the nations with the sieve of destruction" (Is 30:28, 33) - Professor Thomas L. Thompson (The Messiah Myth)
Existence of Jesus
It was not until the eighteenth century that the idea that possibly Jesus never existed at all made a timid appearance with "some disciples of Bolingbroke (1678 – 1751)"…who, according to Voltaire…held that the obscurities and contradictions in the Gospel tradition gave them the right to deny the existence of Jesus. 1 These ideas, which the disciples of Bolingbroke did not venture to express in writing, were made public at the close of the eighteenth century by Volney (1757 – 1820) and Dupuis (1742 – 1809). 2 For these writers Jesus was neither a man nor a god; they claimed that he really represented a solar deity like the divinities which men have worshipped down the ages....The first author of the nineteenth century to pronounce definitely against the actual existence of Jesus was Bruno Bauer (1809 – 1882) - Maurice Goguel (The Life of Jesus)
St. Paul
The man who invented it would be greater and more astonishing than its hero – J. J. Rousseau (on Paul)
One man has done more to damage the cause and obscure the origins of religion than any other. He is Paul. Paul of Tarsus (some say Tax Collector for the Romans and others a tentmaker); the infamous St. Paul, the originator of Pauline Christianity. He pirated the aspects he built into Judean Christianity and ‘created’ (for want of more damning adjectives) what can only be considered in the light of today‘s knowledge and understanding, a fairy tale. He deliberately ignored and discredited the truth about the cornerstone of Christianity, the militant Jesus who was an adherent of the Enochian Way, an Essene, a Son of Light, and created in its stead a mild mannered, meek man who performed a plethora of improbable ‘miracles’. All of which are based upon the distortion of mundane everyday events. Having done all this, he mixed in a goodly proportion of the existing Roman Mithraic mystical belief system, and then proceeded to sell his construct to the Roman world. The Romans would never have tolerated Christianity had Jesus been portrayed as the militant he was, working against the oppressive Roman yoke before his supposed death - Peter Smith (Religion As Myth)
Had Paul and his cohorts, together with the church leaders who followed in their footsteps, destroyed all earlier reference material, they might have succeeded in their attempt to prove that their version of the ‘truth’ was the only extant version- Peter Smith (Religion As Myth)
The religious teaching presented in Paul’s Epistles is fundamentally different from what research has recognized as being authentic sayings of Jesus…What we know as Christianity today is not the teaching contained in these authentic sayings; it is the theology disseminated by Paul and the doctorers of his Epistles -Elmer H Gruber (The Original Jesus)
Either this man (Paul) was never a Rabbinic Jew at all, or he has quite forgotten what Rabbinic Judaism was and is - Thomas Whittaker (The Origins of Christianity with an Outline of Van Manen's Analysis of the Pauline Literature)
The only hypothesis that satisfactorily explains the peculiar agreement in the style of the whole collection, and at the same time the differences not merely between one Epistle and another, but between different parts of the same Epistle, is that which has been set forth…namely, that none were written by the Apostle Paul, but that all proceeded from one circle or "school” - Thomas Whittaker (The Origins of Christianity with An Outline of Van Manen's Analysis of the Pauline Literature)
Paul the Imposter
The Marcionists (a Christian sect) assumed that the evangelists were filled with falsities. The Manicheans, who formed a very numerous sect at the commencement of Christianity, rejected as false all the New Testament, and showed other writings quite different that they gave for authentic. The Cerinthians, like the Marcionists, admitted not the Acts of the Apostles. The Encratites, and the Sévénians, adopted neither the Acts nor the Epistles of Paul. Chrysostom, in a homily which he made upon the Acts of the Apostles, says that in his time, about the year 400, many people knew nothing either of the author or of the book. St. Irene, who lived before that time, reports that the Valentinians, like several other sects of Christians, accused the Scriptures of being filled with imperfections, errors and contradictions. The Ebionites, or Nazarines, who were the first Christians, rejected all the Epistles of Paul and regarded him as an impostor. They report, among other things, that he was originally a pagan, that he came to Jerusalem, where he lived some time – Boulanger (Life of Paul)
The "Christian" Catacombs
It is now generally accepted that no Christian catacomb painting can be dated earlier than 200 CE. The artistic style of the catacomb paintings, it is agreed, is not a novel Christian creation, but represents a continuation of styles found somewhat earlier in late Roman catacomb art. Early Christian catacomb art is thus an extension or continuation of Roman art, albeit under Christian patronage, and not a radical, new departure - Harold W. Attridge and Gohei Hata (Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism)
Religion of Early Man
Primitive people, ancient or modern, make no distinction between the natural and the supernatural, between nature and man, human experience and cosmic events. They have no knowledge of natural laws or natural causation. Speculation among the ancients could not take an intellectual or rational form; it had to be poetic or imaginative. Theirs was a world of myth, magic, and miracle - Fred Gladstone Bratton (Myths and Legends of the Ancient Near East)
Astrology
Mankind has always scrutinized the heavens, looking for guidance, omens, meanings...The study of the Sun, the Moon, stars, eclipses, day and night, began well before recorded history – Joanna Marine Woolfolk (The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need)
City Construction and Astrology
Most of these cities were built under the inspection and under the protection of a celestial sign. Their horoscope was drawn; hence the impression of the images of the constellations on their medals - Dupuis (The Origin of all Religious Worship)
Solar Worship
Although this god was everywhere and was all...yet did man prefer to look for him in those elevated regions, where that mighty and radiant luminary seems to travel through space...It would seem as if the Almighty had established his throne above that splendid azure vault, sown with brilliant lights, that from the summit of the heavens he held the reins of the World, that he directed the movements of its vast body, and contemplated himself in forms as varied as they are admirable, wherein he modifies himself incessantly - Dupuis (The Origin of all Religious Worship)
So far as I can see, the Chaldean deities were primarily the powers of nature,—the earth, the sun, or the sky. These developed into distinct personalities, and the numerous epithets which were applied to them originated a vast mythology and an endless array of divinities, each epithet becoming a separate personality. As in the case of other nations, the Sun had been the chief object of worship, and the larger portion of the mythology accordingly grouped itself about the Sun-god and the numberless forms which he had assumed. The more I examine the Akkadian mythology, the more solar does its character appear - Rev. A. H. Sayce (The Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians)
The early Israelites were mostly sun worshipers. And even in later times, the sun god, Baal. divided with Jehovah the worship of the Jews. Saul, Jonathan, and David named their children in honor of this god - John E. Remsberg
Sun-worship was by no means unknown to the Israelites....The myths that were circulated among these people show that they were zealous worshipers of the sun. These myths are still preserved, but, as in all other cases, they are so much altered as to be hardly recognizable. The writer who has preserved them for us lived at a time when the worship of the sun had long ago died out. He transforms the sun god into an Israelite hero (Samson) - Dr. H. Oort (The Old Testament for Learners)
Charles Francois Dupuis, in his Origin of Worship, one of the most elaborate and remarkable works on mythology ever penned, shows that nearly all the religions of the world, including Christianity, were derived largely from solar worship. All the solar deities, he says, have a common history. This history, summarized, is substantially as follows: "The god is born about December 25th, without sexual intercourse, for the sun, entering the winter solstice, emerges in the sign of Virgo, the heavenly Virgin. His mother remains ever-virgin, since the rays of the sun, passing through the zodiacal sign, leave it intact. His infancy is begirt with dangers, because the new-born Sun is feeble in the midst of the winter's fogs and mists, which threaten to devour him; his life is one of toil and peril, culminating at the spring equinox in a final struggle with the powers of darkness. At that period the day and night are equal, and both fight for the mastery. Though the night veil the urn and he seems dead; though he has descended out of sight, below the earth, yet he rises again triumphant, and he rises in the sign of the Lamb, and is thus the Lamb of God, carrying away the darkness and death of the winter months. Henceforth he triumphs, growing ever stronger and more brilliant. He ascends into the zenith, and there he glows, on the right hand of God, himself God, the very substance of the Father, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, upholding all things by his life-giving power" - John E. Remsberg
In their aspirations for communion with the higher powers, the yearning of the ancient Chaldeans turned upwards to the planets and the stars. The horizon of the Babylonian plain was uniform and boundless. It was the heaven above rather than the earth beneath, which exhibited variety and life. The Zodiac was ever new with its brilliant evolutions. Through the clear atmosphere the tracks of the shining orbs could be traced in every phase and transposition. With each dawn of morning light, with each recurrence of the evening twilight, a new panorama spread before the reverent imagination of the dreamer, and he saw in the moving spheres not only the abode but the manifested glory of his gods - John C. Ridpath (History of the World, Vol. 1)
Mithras
He was the “divine son”…As companion in creation and “protector” of this world he kept the universe standing in its struggle against its enemies. At the head of the heavenly host he fought for God, and with his sword of flame he drove the Demons of Darkness in terror back into the shadows...descend upon the earth and in a last fierce struggle overwhelm Ahriman and his hosts, and cast them down into the Nether World. He would then raise the dead in bodily shape, and after a General Judgment of the whole world, in which the wicked should be condemned to the punishments of hell and the good raised to heavenly glory, establish the “millennial Kingdom of Peace" - Arthur Dewes (The Christ Myth)
Among the ideas which were borrowed by Judaism from the Persian religion belonged those connected with the mediatory “Word.” As the creative power of the Godhead upon earth, the expression “the Word” had already appeared in aphoristic literature. Under Graeco-Egyptian influence the term “wisdom” (sophia) had become a naturalized expression for it - Arthur Dewes (The Christ Myth)
Mary as Lucifer
Mary of Bethany, who did the anointing was known by the Rabbis as Mary Lucifer - Mary the “light-bringer” – Picknettt and Prince (Templar Revelation)
Sacred Prostitutes
Women had their roles in the ancient cult. There were the sacred prostitutes—an office well known in the ancient world. It is usually assumed that the woman dedicated herself to the service of the god as a sexual partner in some imitative ritual designed to stimulate the generative faculties of the fertility deity. Doubtless, in many of the cults she did perform such a function, copulating before the altar with the priests or other male worshippers at certain festivals. There are also indications that it was considered necessary to make some sort of booth or covering for the prostitute and the magic plant during the seduction – John Allegro (The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross)
Political Reasons for the Calendar
From the beginning the Roman calendar was a powerful political tool that governed religious holidays, festivals, market days and constantly changing schedules of days when it was legal to conduct judicial and official business in the courts and governments...the inaccurate calendar played havoc not only with the farmers and sailors but also with a population becoming more dependent than ever on trade, commerce, law and civil administration in a rapidly growing empire that desperately needed a standard system for measuring time - David Duncan (The Calendar)
Destruction of Judaism
Emperor Vespasian took possession of all Jewish religious artifacts that had previously been safely stored in the Temple, including the precious Torah, and stored them in the Capitoline Jove in Rome. He then proclaimed the entire Jewish territory the Roman Emperor’s persona property. And had his decision officially ratified by the Senate…Josephus recorded that Vespasian personally kept the Torah, revealing that it had at sometime been recovered from Rabbi Jesus Cunobeline and replaced in the Temple…the great Temple of Jerusalem was no longer, and the Jews had been disposed of their land, their treasure and the physical substance of their religion – Tony Bushby (The Bible Fraud)
1452
The first Vulgate or Latin version of the Bible was printed in Gutenberg.
Original Sin
Devised in the fifth century by St Augustine.
The Rapture
The Rapture was the concoction of John Nelson Darby, and Anglo-Irish Evangelist. The term is not in the Bible.
Mary and the Council of Trullo
In 692 AD, the Council of Trullo declared that Mary was the "ever-virgin." This declaration contradicts several scriptures, such as Matthew 1:25 and 12:46, Mark 3:31 and 6:3, Luke 8:19, and John 2:12.
The Four Gospels
The four Gospels were first definitely mentioned by Irenaeus, writing about 190 AD, over one hundred fifty years after the alleged crucifixion.
Resurrection and Ascension
But the most remarkable point in this connection is the absolute silence of the Gospel of Mark on the subject of the resurrection and ascension--that is, of the original Gospel, for it is now allowed on all hands that the twelve verses Mark xvi. 9 to the end, are a later insertion. Considering the nature of this event, astounding indeed, if physically true, and unique in the history of the world, it is strange that this Gospel--the earliest written of the four Gospels, and nearest in time to the actual evidence-makes no mention of it. The next Gospel in point of time--that of Matthew--mentions the matter rather briefly and timidly, and reports the story that the body had been stolen from the sepulchre. Luke enlarges considerably and gives a whole long chapter to the resurrection and ascension; while the Fourth Gospel, written fully twenty years later still--say about A. D. 120--gives two chapters and a great variety of details! – Edward Carpenter (Pagan and Christian Creeds)
Constantine
Roman Emperor Constantius married Princess Elaine of Britain. It was his son Constantine I, who was crowned Emperor of Rome in York, England. It was Constantine I who created Roman Catholicism as it is known and tried, unsuccessfully, to become the new Messiah through his assumed royal descent from the family of Jesus – Ralph Ellis (Jesus: Last of the Pharaohs)
No Public Prayer
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, that they be seen of men…But thou, when thou prayest, enter thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door pray to thy father which is in secret, and they father which is in secret shall reward thee openly…When you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think they will be heard for their much speaking. Be therefore not like them, for your father knows what things ye have need of, before ye ask him – (Matthew 6:5)
Forgery in Christianity (Cont'd)
And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven - (Deuteronomy 4:19, KJV)
Gospel of Philip on Ignorance
Spiritual ignorance is the mother of all evil. Ignorance will eventuate in death, because those who come from ignorance neither were, nor are, nor shall be
Book of Enoch on Ignorance
Sin has not been sent upon the Earth, but man of himself has created it
Book of Mark on Ignorance
It is from within, out of the mind of man that all evil emerges - (Mark 7:21-23)
Schopenhauer on Ignorance
They (men) would sooner die than think. It is very curious that the universality of an opinion should have so much weight with people, as their own experience might tell them that its acceptance is an entirely thoughtless and merely imitative process. But it tells them nothing of the kind, because they possess no self-knowledge whatever - (How to Argue Logically)
Rev. Robert Taylor on Ignorance
There were no books, save painfully written and very costly manuscript, worth the ransom of princes, and utterly unattainable except by the very wealthy and by the church. Not ‘till about 1450 was the first book known in Europe – (The Devil’s Pulpit)
Henry L. Mencken on Christianity
The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not only opposed to the scientific spirit, it is also opposed to all attempts at rational thinking.
Northrop Frye on the Bible
It is futile also to try to distinguish what is "original" in the Bible, the authentic voices of its great prophetic and poetic geniuses, from the later accretions and corruptions sometimes alleged to surround them. The editors are too much for us: they have pulverized the Bible until almost all sense of individuality has been stamped out of it – (The Great Code)
Thomas Paine on Christianity
Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid, or produces only atheists and fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purposes of despotism; and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests; but so far as respects the good of man in general, it leads to nothing here or hereafter.
…when the New Testament was written, I might say invented, the art of printing was not known...the book was in the hands of very few persons, and these chiefly of the Church...This gave an opportunity to the writers of the New Testament to make quotations from the Old Testament as they pleased, and called them prophecies, with very little danger of being detected. Besides which, the terrors and inquisitorial fury of the Church...stood sentry over the New Testament; and time, which brings everything else to light, has served to thicken the darkness that guards it from detection - (The Age of Reason, Part III, Examination of the Prophecies)
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.
I would not dare to so dishonor my Creator God by attaching His name to that book (the Bible).
Among the most detestable villains in history, you could not find one worse than Moses. Here is an order, attributed to 'God' to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers and to debauch and rape the daughters. I would not dare so dishonor my Creator's name by (attaching) it to this filthy book (the Bible).
It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible.
Accustom a people to believe that priests and clergy can forgive sins...and you will have sins in abundance.
The Christian church has set up a religion of pomp and revenue in pretended imitation of a person (Jesus) who lived a life of poverty.
President Thomas Jefferson
The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter - (Letter to J. Adams April 11, 1823)
I have examined all the known superstitions of the word, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth.
The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving the world and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves…these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.
President John Madison
What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy.
President John Adams
The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.
Sigmund Freud on Religion
In my Future of an Illusion…I was concerned much less with the deepest sources of the religious feeling than with what the common man understands by his religion - with the system of doctrines and promises which on the one hand explains to him the riddles of this world with enviable completeness, and, on the other, assures him that a careful Providence will watch over his life and will compensate him in a future existence for any frustrations he suffers here. The common man cannot imagine this Providence otherwise than in the figure of an enormously exalted father. Only such a being can understand the needs of the children of men and be softened by their prayers and placated by the signs of their remorse. The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life. It is still more humiliating to discover how large a number of people living today, who cannot but see that this religion is not tenable, nevertheless try to defend it piece by piece in a series of pitiful rearguard actions.
Biblical Gibberish
Saint John states nonsensically:
There are also many other things which Jesus did the which, of they could be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
As the Bible story progresses, we are led to believe that the great royal house of David and Solomon gained its office because a shepherd-boy slew a giant with a stone. We are told absolutely nothing about its sovereign descent from the mighty dynasties of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and yet this is the book upon which oaths are sworn to tell ‘the truth, and nothing but the truth’ in courts of law - Laurence Gardner (Genesis of the Grail Kings)
Bible on Slavery
As for your male and female slaves whom you may have; you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons and after you, to inherit as a possession forever; you may make slaves of them, but over your brethren the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over the other, with harshness - (Leviticus 25:44-46)
Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those whose are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God…But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God - (Peter 2:18-21)
Martin Luther on Slavery and Government
Nothing is more poisonous, harmful or devilish than a man in rebellion
...even if those in authority are evil or without faith, nevertheless the authority and its power is good and from God...therefore wherever there is power and where it flourishes, there it is and there it remains because God has ordained it - (Vorlesung uber den Romerbrief)
God would prefer to suffer the government to exist no matter how evil, rather than to allow the rabble to riot, no matter how justified they are in doing so...A prince should remain a prince no matter how tyrannical he may be. He beheads necessarily only a few since he must have subjects in order to be a ruler - (Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants)
Destructiveness of Jehovah
The creative spirit is inseparably paired with a motif of destruction and war. The spirit of God creates armies: "By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, by the breath of his mouth, all their armies" (Ps 33:6). The myth-creating cluster of the motifs of God's spirit and destruction is commonplace in biblical stories (e.g., Jgs 14-16) viewing the spirit of God as dangerous. Job offers an argument to affirm this in presenting Yahweh's spirit in the metaphor of the roaring lion's breath: "By the breath of God they die; by the wind of his rage they are consumed" (Job 4:9). Isaiah too speaks of the creative spirit's destructive power, evoking the story of the destruction of Sodom: "The spirit of Yahweh is a stream of brimstone. It sifts the nations with the sieve of destruction" (Is 30:28, 33) - Professor Thomas L. Thompson (The Messiah Myth)
Existence of Jesus
It was not until the eighteenth century that the idea that possibly Jesus never existed at all made a timid appearance with "some disciples of Bolingbroke (1678 – 1751)"…who, according to Voltaire…held that the obscurities and contradictions in the Gospel tradition gave them the right to deny the existence of Jesus. 1 These ideas, which the disciples of Bolingbroke did not venture to express in writing, were made public at the close of the eighteenth century by Volney (1757 – 1820) and Dupuis (1742 – 1809). 2 For these writers Jesus was neither a man nor a god; they claimed that he really represented a solar deity like the divinities which men have worshipped down the ages....The first author of the nineteenth century to pronounce definitely against the actual existence of Jesus was Bruno Bauer (1809 – 1882) - Maurice Goguel (The Life of Jesus)
St. Paul
The man who invented it would be greater and more astonishing than its hero – J. J. Rousseau (on Paul)
One man has done more to damage the cause and obscure the origins of religion than any other. He is Paul. Paul of Tarsus (some say Tax Collector for the Romans and others a tentmaker); the infamous St. Paul, the originator of Pauline Christianity. He pirated the aspects he built into Judean Christianity and ‘created’ (for want of more damning adjectives) what can only be considered in the light of today‘s knowledge and understanding, a fairy tale. He deliberately ignored and discredited the truth about the cornerstone of Christianity, the militant Jesus who was an adherent of the Enochian Way, an Essene, a Son of Light, and created in its stead a mild mannered, meek man who performed a plethora of improbable ‘miracles’. All of which are based upon the distortion of mundane everyday events. Having done all this, he mixed in a goodly proportion of the existing Roman Mithraic mystical belief system, and then proceeded to sell his construct to the Roman world. The Romans would never have tolerated Christianity had Jesus been portrayed as the militant he was, working against the oppressive Roman yoke before his supposed death - Peter Smith (Religion As Myth)
Had Paul and his cohorts, together with the church leaders who followed in their footsteps, destroyed all earlier reference material, they might have succeeded in their attempt to prove that their version of the ‘truth’ was the only extant version- Peter Smith (Religion As Myth)
The religious teaching presented in Paul’s Epistles is fundamentally different from what research has recognized as being authentic sayings of Jesus…What we know as Christianity today is not the teaching contained in these authentic sayings; it is the theology disseminated by Paul and the doctorers of his Epistles -Elmer H Gruber (The Original Jesus)
Either this man (Paul) was never a Rabbinic Jew at all, or he has quite forgotten what Rabbinic Judaism was and is - Thomas Whittaker (The Origins of Christianity with an Outline of Van Manen's Analysis of the Pauline Literature)
The only hypothesis that satisfactorily explains the peculiar agreement in the style of the whole collection, and at the same time the differences not merely between one Epistle and another, but between different parts of the same Epistle, is that which has been set forth…namely, that none were written by the Apostle Paul, but that all proceeded from one circle or "school” - Thomas Whittaker (The Origins of Christianity with An Outline of Van Manen's Analysis of the Pauline Literature)
Paul the Imposter
The Marcionists (a Christian sect) assumed that the evangelists were filled with falsities. The Manicheans, who formed a very numerous sect at the commencement of Christianity, rejected as false all the New Testament, and showed other writings quite different that they gave for authentic. The Cerinthians, like the Marcionists, admitted not the Acts of the Apostles. The Encratites, and the Sévénians, adopted neither the Acts nor the Epistles of Paul. Chrysostom, in a homily which he made upon the Acts of the Apostles, says that in his time, about the year 400, many people knew nothing either of the author or of the book. St. Irene, who lived before that time, reports that the Valentinians, like several other sects of Christians, accused the Scriptures of being filled with imperfections, errors and contradictions. The Ebionites, or Nazarines, who were the first Christians, rejected all the Epistles of Paul and regarded him as an impostor. They report, among other things, that he was originally a pagan, that he came to Jerusalem, where he lived some time – Boulanger (Life of Paul)
The "Christian" Catacombs
It is now generally accepted that no Christian catacomb painting can be dated earlier than 200 CE. The artistic style of the catacomb paintings, it is agreed, is not a novel Christian creation, but represents a continuation of styles found somewhat earlier in late Roman catacomb art. Early Christian catacomb art is thus an extension or continuation of Roman art, albeit under Christian patronage, and not a radical, new departure - Harold W. Attridge and Gohei Hata (Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism)
Religion of Early Man
Primitive people, ancient or modern, make no distinction between the natural and the supernatural, between nature and man, human experience and cosmic events. They have no knowledge of natural laws or natural causation. Speculation among the ancients could not take an intellectual or rational form; it had to be poetic or imaginative. Theirs was a world of myth, magic, and miracle - Fred Gladstone Bratton (Myths and Legends of the Ancient Near East)
Astrology
Mankind has always scrutinized the heavens, looking for guidance, omens, meanings...The study of the Sun, the Moon, stars, eclipses, day and night, began well before recorded history – Joanna Marine Woolfolk (The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need)
City Construction and Astrology
Most of these cities were built under the inspection and under the protection of a celestial sign. Their horoscope was drawn; hence the impression of the images of the constellations on their medals - Dupuis (The Origin of all Religious Worship)
Solar Worship
Although this god was everywhere and was all...yet did man prefer to look for him in those elevated regions, where that mighty and radiant luminary seems to travel through space...It would seem as if the Almighty had established his throne above that splendid azure vault, sown with brilliant lights, that from the summit of the heavens he held the reins of the World, that he directed the movements of its vast body, and contemplated himself in forms as varied as they are admirable, wherein he modifies himself incessantly - Dupuis (The Origin of all Religious Worship)
So far as I can see, the Chaldean deities were primarily the powers of nature,—the earth, the sun, or the sky. These developed into distinct personalities, and the numerous epithets which were applied to them originated a vast mythology and an endless array of divinities, each epithet becoming a separate personality. As in the case of other nations, the Sun had been the chief object of worship, and the larger portion of the mythology accordingly grouped itself about the Sun-god and the numberless forms which he had assumed. The more I examine the Akkadian mythology, the more solar does its character appear - Rev. A. H. Sayce (The Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians)
The early Israelites were mostly sun worshipers. And even in later times, the sun god, Baal. divided with Jehovah the worship of the Jews. Saul, Jonathan, and David named their children in honor of this god - John E. Remsberg
Sun-worship was by no means unknown to the Israelites....The myths that were circulated among these people show that they were zealous worshipers of the sun. These myths are still preserved, but, as in all other cases, they are so much altered as to be hardly recognizable. The writer who has preserved them for us lived at a time when the worship of the sun had long ago died out. He transforms the sun god into an Israelite hero (Samson) - Dr. H. Oort (The Old Testament for Learners)
Charles Francois Dupuis, in his Origin of Worship, one of the most elaborate and remarkable works on mythology ever penned, shows that nearly all the religions of the world, including Christianity, were derived largely from solar worship. All the solar deities, he says, have a common history. This history, summarized, is substantially as follows: "The god is born about December 25th, without sexual intercourse, for the sun, entering the winter solstice, emerges in the sign of Virgo, the heavenly Virgin. His mother remains ever-virgin, since the rays of the sun, passing through the zodiacal sign, leave it intact. His infancy is begirt with dangers, because the new-born Sun is feeble in the midst of the winter's fogs and mists, which threaten to devour him; his life is one of toil and peril, culminating at the spring equinox in a final struggle with the powers of darkness. At that period the day and night are equal, and both fight for the mastery. Though the night veil the urn and he seems dead; though he has descended out of sight, below the earth, yet he rises again triumphant, and he rises in the sign of the Lamb, and is thus the Lamb of God, carrying away the darkness and death of the winter months. Henceforth he triumphs, growing ever stronger and more brilliant. He ascends into the zenith, and there he glows, on the right hand of God, himself God, the very substance of the Father, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, upholding all things by his life-giving power" - John E. Remsberg
In their aspirations for communion with the higher powers, the yearning of the ancient Chaldeans turned upwards to the planets and the stars. The horizon of the Babylonian plain was uniform and boundless. It was the heaven above rather than the earth beneath, which exhibited variety and life. The Zodiac was ever new with its brilliant evolutions. Through the clear atmosphere the tracks of the shining orbs could be traced in every phase and transposition. With each dawn of morning light, with each recurrence of the evening twilight, a new panorama spread before the reverent imagination of the dreamer, and he saw in the moving spheres not only the abode but the manifested glory of his gods - John C. Ridpath (History of the World, Vol. 1)
Mithras
He was the “divine son”…As companion in creation and “protector” of this world he kept the universe standing in its struggle against its enemies. At the head of the heavenly host he fought for God, and with his sword of flame he drove the Demons of Darkness in terror back into the shadows...descend upon the earth and in a last fierce struggle overwhelm Ahriman and his hosts, and cast them down into the Nether World. He would then raise the dead in bodily shape, and after a General Judgment of the whole world, in which the wicked should be condemned to the punishments of hell and the good raised to heavenly glory, establish the “millennial Kingdom of Peace" - Arthur Dewes (The Christ Myth)
Among the ideas which were borrowed by Judaism from the Persian religion belonged those connected with the mediatory “Word.” As the creative power of the Godhead upon earth, the expression “the Word” had already appeared in aphoristic literature. Under Graeco-Egyptian influence the term “wisdom” (sophia) had become a naturalized expression for it - Arthur Dewes (The Christ Myth)
Mary as Lucifer
Mary of Bethany, who did the anointing was known by the Rabbis as Mary Lucifer - Mary the “light-bringer” – Picknettt and Prince (Templar Revelation)
Sacred Prostitutes
Women had their roles in the ancient cult. There were the sacred prostitutes—an office well known in the ancient world. It is usually assumed that the woman dedicated herself to the service of the god as a sexual partner in some imitative ritual designed to stimulate the generative faculties of the fertility deity. Doubtless, in many of the cults she did perform such a function, copulating before the altar with the priests or other male worshippers at certain festivals. There are also indications that it was considered necessary to make some sort of booth or covering for the prostitute and the magic plant during the seduction – John Allegro (The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross)
Political Reasons for the Calendar
From the beginning the Roman calendar was a powerful political tool that governed religious holidays, festivals, market days and constantly changing schedules of days when it was legal to conduct judicial and official business in the courts and governments...the inaccurate calendar played havoc not only with the farmers and sailors but also with a population becoming more dependent than ever on trade, commerce, law and civil administration in a rapidly growing empire that desperately needed a standard system for measuring time - David Duncan (The Calendar)
Destruction of Judaism
Emperor Vespasian took possession of all Jewish religious artifacts that had previously been safely stored in the Temple, including the precious Torah, and stored them in the Capitoline Jove in Rome. He then proclaimed the entire Jewish territory the Roman Emperor’s persona property. And had his decision officially ratified by the Senate…Josephus recorded that Vespasian personally kept the Torah, revealing that it had at sometime been recovered from Rabbi Jesus Cunobeline and replaced in the Temple…the great Temple of Jerusalem was no longer, and the Jews had been disposed of their land, their treasure and the physical substance of their religion – Tony Bushby (The Bible Fraud)
1452
The first Vulgate or Latin version of the Bible was printed in Gutenberg.
Original Sin
Devised in the fifth century by St Augustine.
The Rapture
The Rapture was the concoction of John Nelson Darby, and Anglo-Irish Evangelist. The term is not in the Bible.
Mary and the Council of Trullo
In 692 AD, the Council of Trullo declared that Mary was the "ever-virgin." This declaration contradicts several scriptures, such as Matthew 1:25 and 12:46, Mark 3:31 and 6:3, Luke 8:19, and John 2:12.
The Four Gospels
The four Gospels were first definitely mentioned by Irenaeus, writing about 190 AD, over one hundred fifty years after the alleged crucifixion.
Resurrection and Ascension
But the most remarkable point in this connection is the absolute silence of the Gospel of Mark on the subject of the resurrection and ascension--that is, of the original Gospel, for it is now allowed on all hands that the twelve verses Mark xvi. 9 to the end, are a later insertion. Considering the nature of this event, astounding indeed, if physically true, and unique in the history of the world, it is strange that this Gospel--the earliest written of the four Gospels, and nearest in time to the actual evidence-makes no mention of it. The next Gospel in point of time--that of Matthew--mentions the matter rather briefly and timidly, and reports the story that the body had been stolen from the sepulchre. Luke enlarges considerably and gives a whole long chapter to the resurrection and ascension; while the Fourth Gospel, written fully twenty years later still--say about A. D. 120--gives two chapters and a great variety of details! – Edward Carpenter (Pagan and Christian Creeds)
Constantine
Roman Emperor Constantius married Princess Elaine of Britain. It was his son Constantine I, who was crowned Emperor of Rome in York, England. It was Constantine I who created Roman Catholicism as it is known and tried, unsuccessfully, to become the new Messiah through his assumed royal descent from the family of Jesus – Ralph Ellis (Jesus: Last of the Pharaohs)
No Public Prayer
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, that they be seen of men…But thou, when thou prayest, enter thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door pray to thy father which is in secret, and they father which is in secret shall reward thee openly…When you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think they will be heard for their much speaking. Be therefore not like them, for your father knows what things ye have need of, before ye ask him – (Matthew 6:5)
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