XPost: alt.religion.wicca, alt.arts.poetry.comments, alt.writing   
   XPost: alt.magick   
   From: shez@oldcity.f2s.com   
      
   In article <4f4d215gsnnji7riqhifg3ddfnip82i4cg@4ax.com>, Josh Hill   
    writes   
   >On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 21:29:39 -0600, Dale Houstman    
   >wrote:   
   >   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>joerevskelton@bellsouth.net wrote:   
   >>> "Dale Houstman"  wrote in message   
   >>> news:422633E5.8060109@skypoint.com...   
   >>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>>Karla wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>>>>P   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>I agree that Jesus, using the Word, heals(ed) bodies, souls and minds,   
   >>>>   
   >>> gave,   
   >>>   
   >>>>>and still gives purpose to lives, and stands ready to do the same today.   
   >>>>>Several witnesses wrote down accountings of these magic moments.  The   
   >>>>>accountings have been reprinted for hundreds of years.   
   >>>>   
   >>>>Actually, quite untrue. There are NO written accounts by any witness to   
   >>>>these supposed miracles,   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>> Three of the four gospels are attributed to witnesses.   
   >>   
   >>True, but - as I said - the accounts come long after thesupposed   
   >>incidents. Even in modern times, we have the phenomenon of a supposed   
   >>eye-witness giving what turns out to be false - or inflated - testimony.   
   >>This occurs most frequently when a "cult of personality" has grown about   
   >>the subject at hand. In that case, the witness him/herself can either be   
   >>self-deluded (liquid memories informed by mythology) or - due to certain   
   >>advantages of "professed closeness" to the subject will simply lie to   
   >>bolster their own importance. The fact remains that there are NO   
   >>accounts - independent of certain supposed friends of Jesus - of this   
   >>alleged celebrity; a man who was supposed to be shaking the foundations   
   >>of the Roman world. It is beyond strange.   
   >>   
   >>The first non-personally connected story of Jesus occured long after his   
   >>supposed life and death, and its very isolated nature suggests that -   
   >>once again - the writer was using a powerful myth to bolster his own   
   >>profile.   
   >   
   >Of course, Jesus could just have been a very minor figure, an   
   >itinerant miracle worker/cult leader of the sort common in the region   
   >at the time who happened to have an unusual gift for metaphor and   
   >great personal magnetism, as cult leaders frequently do. And then   
   >something happened -- his disciples, afraid they'd lose their   
   >business, continued the tradition of shamanistic trickery and "raised   
   >him from the dead" by having someone who didn't look like him take his   
   >part three days after he was crucified. The tale of sacrifice and   
   >salvation and paradise they developed touched something in people, and   
   >the religion became much more than its founders could have imagined .   
   >. .   
   >   
      
   No need to have someone pretend to be raised from the dead the story is   
   as old as man... Mithras was raised from the dead... and his supposed   
   story which includes birth in a cave or stable, virgin mother, became   
   great teacher and miracle worker, died to save his people and was   
   reborn.. Is part of the Christian mythology..   
   The sacrifice and rebirth myth is part of many, many pagan religions and   
   mythology's. The whole thing is just a retelling of an even older myth.   
      
   --   
   Shez                         shez@oldcity.f2s.com   
   Shez's Garden at http://www.oldcity.f2s.com/shez/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)