In my last post, I noted that we had a heavy snow in Salt Lake City. It was about 2 feet deep.
Well, that deep deep snow melted in these last two days.
This morning, nature presented the garden with a beautiful yellow crocus.
The crocus, a member of the Iris family, is an interesting plant because it appears to be all flower with few visible leaves.
The crocus, of course, has a deep bulb. So it is able to produce flowers in the early Spring.
Sadly, I suspect that this poor flower will be eaten by the hungry herd of deer that roam the neighborhood; So, being an early riser is not always wise.
Today, April 8, 2023, just happens to be Easter Sunday; So, I thought I should write an Easter post.
The Easter Post
A few years back I encountered a debate about a troubling topic. The archaeological record does not fully support the story of Jesus found in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.
There is a possibility that Jesus did not actually exist.
The claim, of course, is based on the observation that most of the evidence of the life of Jesus was preserved by people who believed in the Christian faith. It is possible that it was manipulated.
Some believers find this possibility deeply troubling. The anti-religious crowd (and there is a huge anti-religious crowd in Utah) use the possibility that Christ did exist as another avenue for ridiculing the western religious tradition.
Anyway, I contemplated this possibility and read the Bible with the idea that it was made up by scholars who were trying to make sense of the world in which we live.
I came upon a realization.
It is easier to understand the Bible when one reads it as a work of fiction.
This observation isn't really new or earth shattering. Writers the world round have found through the years that it is easier to discuss ideas with fiction than it is with truth.
The core idea behind Christianity is that God, the creator of the universe, somehow took human form as Jesus. This Jesus character was born, traveled the world for few decades. Jesus was falsely accused.
During the trial, the court pressed Jesus on whether or not he was the "Son of Man."
Jesus responded "yes."
The charge was interesting. If Jesus was just a person; then claiming to the "Son of Man" would be blasphemy. The laws of the day prescribed execution for blasphemy.
The Christian tradition holds that Jesus truly was the long awaited Messiah.
The crucifixion of Christ was the fulfillment of prophecies in the Old Testament.
It also happens to be the resolution of logical puzzle that one could call the blasphemy paradox.
The Ten Commandment opens with the line: "I am the Lord your God. Do not use my name in vain."
The worst sin the Judaeo/Christian tradition is misuse of God's name. As this is the worst sin, it demands the most severe punishment.
Imagine two people arguing about interpretations of the Word of God. The first says this. The second says that.
The first accuses the second of blasphemy and has his opponent executed in the Name of God!
The blasphemy paradox says that if the first person was wrong, then this person is guilty of an even worse blasphemy than the first.
It is common in history for leaders to execute their opponents for charges of blasphemy and impiety.
Unfortunately, when looking at real events, it becomes difficult to tell which party is at fault during these endless disputes.
Examining the Human Body of Christ
The Christian tradition holds that God took the form of a man in the body of Jesus Christ.
When one reads the Bible with the human body in mind, it is more difficult to fully the ideas behind Christ.
For that matter, the New Testament notes that many of the people who were closest to Jesus as a person were the least likely to accept Jesus as a divine entity than the people who encountered Christ as Messiah.
The Miracle of the Resurrection
I will probably make some people extremely mad with this next observation.
The story of Easter is that Christ was crucified on Good Friday. Christ rose from the dead, three days later, on Easter Sunday.
Man is mortal by nature.
When one views Jesus as human first, then the resurrection is some sort of really bizarre miracle in which a man overcame the inherent fate of man.
God is immortal by nature.
If one views Jesus as God taking on the form of man. The the resurrection is the revelation of Jesus showing his true form as God.
It is easier to understand this idea if one approaches the story as a speculative argument of what would happen if God took human form.
The truly complex idea of the Christian tradition is that a monotheistic God was able to take on different personages. The Trinity doctrine presents three forms of a single Monotheistic God called "The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost."
The Trinity is an interesting take on an important philosophic concept called multiplicity.
We live in a universe that appears to have many different things. The many different things seem to part of the whole thing.
Multiplicity is a question of the nature of the relation of the one and the whole.
Philosophers have wondered, since antiquity, how the many came from the one.
Conclusion
The fact that the archeological record does not fully support the story of Jesus should not be taken as an attack on faith.
Examining the possibility that the New Testament was simply an allegory can help people understand the ideas behind Christianity. Examining the work as speculation and allegory encourages readers to engage in the ideas behind the Bible.
The New Testament pivots around the trial and execution of Jesus.
All trials involve looking at issues from multiple perspectives in the search for truth. I believe that the purpose of the Bible isn't to present truth but to help people in the search for truth.
The Trial of Christ is the archetypal trial.
The Bible holds that the trial of Jesus was not simply a run of the mill trial. It was an event in which man took on the task of judging God.
As such the trial and crucifixion examined the relation of man with the divine at its deepest level in way that invoked the deepest philosophical ideas of the ages.
I think that it is critical that anyone wanting to understand Western History should understand the core ideas behind the trial.
That said, I wish the world a Happy Easter and that we all seek understanding before passing judgments.
I published on WeAreAlive.social and ProofOfBrain as Easter is a celebration of life. The best way to celebrate life is to use one's brain.
Happy Easter
