The Resurrection
One good thing about writing on religion is that so many events connected with it are one-off events about which the writer does not have to be specific.
For example, when the resurrection is mentioned, nobody is tempted to ask “Whose resurrection are you talking about?”
If I were ever asked “When was the last time you heard about somebody being raised from the dead, I would reply, “Well I never actually have, apart from some ancient and mythical gods and Lazarus and my reason dictates that I should place Jesus in that same category.”
The Resurrection of Jesus, the ultimate nail in the Christian coffin, no pun intended, defies belief.
Without the Resurrection the entire fabric of Christianity would be as false as the much-vaunted Shroud of Turin. In Corinthians I, Chapter 15, verses 13-14 Paul writes: “If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.”
The whole fiction of Adam, Eve and the talking snake with its implied original sin, all the way to the prophecies of Bronze Age sheep-herders 600 or more years before Jesus’ alleged resurrection (I use the word alleged because credible eye-witnesses are sadly lacking) would be meaningless.
It occurs to me that the OT is partly a historical account of internecine feuds and the incestuous couplings of Bronze Age families and partly the work, at a much later date, of a few very determined early Christians to promote their new-found religion by manufacturing prophets and prophecies from the past.
The End Times
When I lived in Alberta after my retirement in 1994 I had a bumper sticker on my little red convertible which read: ”It’s been almost 2,000 years – and he’s not coming back. For Christ’s sake get over it.”
I think I may have ruffled a few Christian feathers, because my little red Chevrolet Sprint suffered quite a few indignities during the time that I had that bumper sticker.
I would have been well-advised to keep it under wraps until I moved to Nakusp 13 years ago but I had no idea that Nakusp was home to so many free-thinkers.
The End Times is one of the most risible features of Christianity. It seems to be all tied in with The Rapture and The Second Coming, but there appear to be so many variations of each of these three events in the Christian calendar that it would take more time than I have to sort it all out. I am inclined to wait for events to develop by themselves, but I promise not to hold my breath.
Scientism is a relatively new word ending in “ism” in the lexicon of quasi-philosophy.
It was invented or adapted by an unknown religious person, who presumably intended it to signify that science, in spite of its Latin origin, scientia (pronounced skeeyentiya), meaning knowledge, is not the sum total of man’s knowledge. It is inferred from the various contexts in which it has been used that some knowledge must originate from religion.
There are many things for which religion is well-known; hope, wishful thinking and delusion are some of them, but empirical knowledge is not one of them.