5 April 1985
Deification by design
The primitive’s deification of whatever he/she does not understand – principally, large-scale natural phenomena – is translated into the theistic person’s deification of whatever is morally beyond belief, and hence beyond understanding; the character of a “prophet,” for instance, is beyond the common person’s understanding – hence, for example, the deification of Jesus. The primitive worships that which arouses powerful feelings in him/her, and yet seems utterly superior to the primitive’s own level of existence. The Christian worships Jesus, because Jesus’ message has a powerful emotional impact, yet the Christian does not really want to be like Jesus; the Christian, therefore, has to believe that Jesus is utterly superior to his own level of existence. The Christian indeed fears Jesus, in the same way that the primitive fears Thunder. Jesus threatens to destroy the Christian’s real ideas about the right way to live and to be. The Christian is as far from understanding Jesus, as the primitive is from understanding thunder.
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17 comments:
hi there. i am a philosophy student at boston university and i came across your blog by chance. it's really interesting.
Real Nice Blog, I love it, You have my appreciation for doing such a nice job.
Interesting ideas. I never would have equated primitive fear of the elements to a similar sense of fear directed towards a supposedly superior messiah figure. Nice work.
Fascinating stuff. Thanks so much for sharing.
This is good, and I believe you are right on target. I wish I was at the level you were back in 1985.
I disagree. Every hero down history has had in him/her qualities that people aspired to emulate. Deification occurs because we as humans recognise points of reference in the character of the hero. Not because we are terrified as the early man was by the thunderclap.
Interesting write up!
I just stumbled across your site by way of Regenerated Imagination. Fantastic concepts. A good read.
We must became "arrians" since a bishop, cardinal "or more" are too much "transcendent" for believers.
Not indulgences for above "people"
Thank you for your work.
Splendid blog.
Christians want to be like Jesus; they're just to self-centered to deny themselves so they can be. So I guess we just don't want to be like Jesus ENOUGH to do it.
The Title of the post has some truth to it,in the sense that it is by Gods design and not mans. but the content of the post has more of the truth of donna,s statement.Consider this: in reference to the use of the term "primitive man", as if this earlier person or persons were too ignorant to decifer truth, yet had the intelligence to perceive the unseen and unselfishly trust in it without the ,so typical, society of today,s ignorant mockery. Take for instants the fact that one mans trust in the unseen,Abraham and the fact that he has generations in todays world and it came from a promise from a being that is not easily sense perceptible, or at least to us higher developed non-primitive men. what you think?
Crop circles are Stephen Neal's way of telling the world that sometimes corn needs to lie down.
Jesus taught one simple thing: don't treat each other like shit. Be good to one another. I don't see how that's so intimidating that people can't imagine themselves following in His footsteps.
The problem isn't that Jesus would be hard to emulate. The problem is the Christian Church's version of Jesus would be IMPOSSIBLE to emulate. "How DARE you even imply that you could ever be as good as Jesus???!!!"
It's called marketing, people. The Christian Church has whored Jesus Christ out for 2000 years. The last thing they want you to figure out is that YOU could be exactly like Christ. They don't want you to figure that out because the minute you realize this - they lose the market on redemption, God, heaven and all that other bullshit they've been selling you.
It's easy to be like Jesus. Don't treat people like shit, care about yourself and don't let things like money rape your soul.
It's got nothing to do with fear. Not real fear at least. It's just 2000 years of brainwashing.
Easily fixed.
The first known theological arguments of Christianity that we have (Paul's letters in the NT) do not actually deify Jesus. Never is he said to be equal to God. He is said to be a means of GETTING the righteous benefits of God (dikaiosune, justification/vindication) (See Romans 3:22, with the footnote at the bottom; it's probably translated wrong). Basically, Paul argued that Jesus replaces the Torah--he serves the exact same function, but, unlike the Torah, he works. The reason the Torah doesn't work is because we are "slaves to sin;" but when we are Baptized we go through the same process that Jesus went through when he died (see Romans 6 or 7, I believe).
Anyways, the point is that, in the beginning of Christianity, Jesus was not, in fact, deified.
good post, William, an I think that you're absolutely right. I think it's pretty safe to say that today that isn't always the case; Jesus has, to some extent, been deified over the years. In many circles he no longer is a MEANS to get to God, but pretty much viewed as being God himself.
Though I am a Christian myself, Mr. Eslami your comparison between Jesus and Thunder is intriguing. Great blog!
You have some really interesting Ideas. Actually I've thought about this myself, not being as articulate as you are I dindn't make an essay about it haha but I totally agree with you.
Regards from Argentina
Great topic... However, it has come to light that the idea of "Jesus" wasn't new to the time of his supposed existence. You have to remember that there were other Messiah's with the same way of doing miracles, the same death, the same resurrection.
In other words, this story has been told over the years and people have indeed been brainwashed.
If you have time check out this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8838833808590080431
It will shed light on this subject.
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