Thursday, March 08, 2007
Jesus' Cargo Cult
(5)
Well folks, I finally got around to watching The Lost Tomb. It took me at least three sessions to get through it but I finally got the job done. I found it fairly interesting as well as fairly informative. I didn't know, for example, that the type of 'ossuary' presumed to contain Jesus' remains was in use only from about 30 BC to about 70 AD.
This guy was unimpressed with the two hour piece, but I am convinced, pending a competent rebuttal. This Newsweek piece is the best summary I have read so far.
There were apparently no bones, only 'residue' on the floors on the ossuaries. Enough DNA was extracted to show that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were not brother and sister. The map on the Discovery Channel web site shows four skulls, but the site was hopelessly incompetent. What happened to Jesus' bones? 'Dust onto dust?' Or were they 'assumed into Heaven?' Then what about the other bones? Did they get sucked up too? One wonders.
I mention this because I am not at all curious about Jesus' remains. I am not a 'believer.' I see the entire Jewish Myth as incoherent, beginning in the Garden of Eden. Jesus may have been an actual historical figure - may not - but the religion he spawned is as bogus as an Indonesian Cargo Cult. Jesus stood on the quicksand of Judaism... and sank.
But I wonder: is every 'religion' necessarily a Cargo Cult? Is it possible to have a 'religion' which is without 'cargo?' A cargo-less religion? And if so, what might that attribute of cargo-lessness imply? What is a Cargo Cult anyway?
Well folks, I finally got around to watching The Lost Tomb. It took me at least three sessions to get through it but I finally got the job done. I found it fairly interesting as well as fairly informative. I didn't know, for example, that the type of 'ossuary' presumed to contain Jesus' remains was in use only from about 30 BC to about 70 AD.
This guy was unimpressed with the two hour piece, but I am convinced, pending a competent rebuttal. This Newsweek piece is the best summary I have read so far.
There were apparently no bones, only 'residue' on the floors on the ossuaries. Enough DNA was extracted to show that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were not brother and sister. The map on the Discovery Channel web site shows four skulls, but the site was hopelessly incompetent. What happened to Jesus' bones? 'Dust onto dust?' Or were they 'assumed into Heaven?' Then what about the other bones? Did they get sucked up too? One wonders.
I mention this because I am not at all curious about Jesus' remains. I am not a 'believer.' I see the entire Jewish Myth as incoherent, beginning in the Garden of Eden. Jesus may have been an actual historical figure - may not - but the religion he spawned is as bogus as an Indonesian Cargo Cult. Jesus stood on the quicksand of Judaism... and sank.
But I wonder: is every 'religion' necessarily a Cargo Cult? Is it possible to have a 'religion' which is without 'cargo?' A cargo-less religion? And if so, what might that attribute of cargo-lessness imply? What is a Cargo Cult anyway?
