[ExI] BICEP2 and the Fermi paradox

[BillK]

On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 9:07 PM, Tomasz Rola wrote:
> The problem I can see with religions is they have to explain something
> very complicated to the very popular minds. And this is hard to do if
> guy trying to explain happens to be a simpleton, too. Thus the whole
> talk we can have about religion (in this case, as given by the Bible)
> is on the level of "why Jews on the desert weren't given some
> vitamins, only manna and manna".
>
> Another problem I can see, from the almost very beginning religions
> were used to keep the mob in line (and running one mob against
> another). This probably started in times of city building, but maybe
> some time before. So while talking about religion, we also talk about
> politics, just refusing to aknowledge this. It may be cool to study
> where such refusal comes from.
>
>


The New Testament was written by Greeks generations after the supposed
time of the Jewish Messiah. Long after the Jewish temple and the
original Jewish Jesus sect had been destroyed. The synoptic gospels
were written because the early Greco-Roman Christians realised that
they needed some documentation about the origins of their cult. All
they had was a collection of 'wise sayings' and the Jewish Old
Testament. So they wrote stories which made these elements fit
together. There were many gospels written. Practically every local
church had their own stories. That's why Jesus appears as a Jewish
rabbi talking Greek mythology and dying and being reborn just like a
Greek god. The Greek mythic religions were wildly popular and the new
Christians fitted in well.

After the bit about obeying the Romans was inserted, that got the
Roman emperor to back them as the best mass religion to keep the
populace quiet. It was the Roman emperor that founded Roman
Catholicism and gave it political authority.

There is no 'Hell' in the earlier, more primitive Old Testament
theology. The concept was developed later, as Christian theology
became more complex.

BillK