The History of Religion

So, the other day, I had a discussion with a neighbor of mine here in Italy who is Romanian. He showed me a documentary that he had found called Zeitgeist, which I had never heard of, but some of the people I was with apparently had. Now, the term Zeitgeist to me, as a historian, is in reference to the "spirit of the times" in late 19th century Europe. However, this documentary was a three part movie covering first the plagarism of religion, the second about the conspiracy of 9/11, and finally the underhandedness of central banks. Now, first I have to say, I have no idea how all three of these issues were weaved together, I was only shown the first part about religion, which is the focus of this article.

The documentary was a shameless attack on Christianity, while the documentary makers tried to pass off originally that this was a dismissal of religion in general, it was very clear what they were attacking. The premise of their argument was that Christianity not only borrowed from earlier religions, specifically the Egyptian ones, but that it was an astrologically based religion being masked as something else. The narrator first broke down the comparison between Christ and many other deities throughout the ancient world. The biggest comparison they made was between Horus and Christ, as well as gods such as Mithra and some of the Eastern Gods.

This is where I want to start, the comparisons that these filmmakers connect are flimsy at best. They claim Horus, and ancient Egyptian god of the sun, was crucified, which sparked the first bells in my head. Crucifixion was a tool of execution by the Romans, not the Egyptians, and there is little to no evidence that it was practiced by anyone but the Romans. It was a tool that has its roots in the Ancient Persian Empire, as well as Babylon and Assyria. Christ, if we look at him in a historical perspective, quite possibly was seen as a subversive dissident to Roman order in the Jewish lands, and as such, would have been punished in the manner ascribed by Rome, i.e. crucifixion.

Another issue that sprung up was the date of Jesus' birth in relation to other Gods, and many including Horus, Dionysis, and Mithra, are all claimed to be born on December 25th. Now they give a perfectly good explanation for this, in a wholly astrological sense. From December 22nd to the 24th, the sun sits at its lowest point in our sky, but on the 25th it raises one degree, signaling hope and the return of warmer temperatures. I contend though, that Jesus was not born on the 25th, but rather it is the day in which we celebrate his birth. Before 330 CE Christians would celebrate Jesus' birth on January 6th or 7th, but was brought in line with more Roman style dates and festivals to appeal to converted Romans. Indeed, descriptions of the Nativity, in specific the actions of the Shepards, indicate that his birth was held in the spring or summer. Nowhere in the nativity accounts in the Gospels does it say that Jesus was born on a specific day. I don't intend to attack Christmas wholesale, but rather want to prevent ignorance of what we are celebrating on Christmas. Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus, not the day that it happened, which I think gets lost along the way.

Another contention of the documentary was a comparison of Resurrection, as well as other miracles, to other ancient deities including those of the Eastern religions. The comparison to Eastern religions like Hinduism is laughable in the extent that the producers are hard bent on passing this off as a credible link. Resurrection is an important cornerstone of Eastern religion, and therefore links between the two religions should be disregarded because of the fact that it is so prevalent in the East. A more credible link, that would need to be played up if they want to succeed, is comparisons of Resurrection to Western religions.

The filmmakers make other links to ancient deities through the miracles that they perform, which I find to be another major flaw. As modern people, living in a modern society, we look skeptically at miracles, we pass them off as tricks and elaborate sleights of hand. But if you were Jesus, and you wanted to establish your credibility as the Son of God, then you would perform miracles of the kind that people would call "miracles." People of the ancient world would be inundated with stories of deities performing miracles on a daily basis, and to prove yourself among those deities, you would have to show a similarity with them. And that similarity would be performing miracles.

The important thing to remember about religion, is that along the way ambitious individuals will hijack it for personal gain. Christianity is no exception, the Emperor Constantine used it as a unifying force for a quickly disintegrating Roman Empire. While this does not directly discount the faith of the people behind the use of religion for power, it is important to remember the history of the faith you practice. Thomas Aquinas, the great Theological philosopher, claimed that "faith transcends reason, but reason enlightens faith." I think a lot of people will jump whole-heartedly into the first part, while casually disregarding the second part. I do not know what religion I technically belong to, but I believe in something more, I have faith you can say, but I refuse to take it on just blind instinct. While some would say that blind instinct is what faith is made up of, I refuse, because just believing leaves no mystery for our world, something I think God would not wish upon us. We have a mind of our own, it would be a great disservice to not use it, especially on the larger questions of our existence. Life is too short not to question everything, it is our inquisitive nature that makes life all the more worth living.

Update

I apologise for the infrequency of the updates on my blog, the internet situation has been incredibly frustrating, to say the least. I have been gathering some new knowledge and ideas for Mr. P. and the World. Traveling to other parts of the world gives you a perspective on events that you would not be able to gather within the United States.

I have been witnessing the start of yet another Italian government, after the last one fell over the garbage situation in Napoli. Its interesting to hear how pessimistic the Italians feel about their country, they are not happy about Berlusconi but see very few other options for government. In the same vein, the Italian youth are very pessimistic about their future, many in the universities see their careers continuing after college. One of my professors related a story of how one architecture student could not get a job for lack of opportunity and luckily got an opportunity to obtain a green card to the United States where she now works.

It puts the situation in the United States in perspective, as bad as our economic crisis is, in many parts of the world economic pessimism has become a way of life. Hope is something that is in short supply in some areas of the world, and it appears like it is beginning to creep into our own country. It makes one think about the importance of remaining positive and not letting the world get you down. As much as the world may seem a dark and scary place, we cannot let ourselves give up. Many countries continue on as they always have, but as Americans, especially those that grew up in the 90s, we expect as certain amount of success. Everything is cyclical, even the Great Depression, that most horrible of economic and social crises, came to an end.

Keep all this in mind, the world has a way of coming back into balance.

Update

I am currently spending some time in Italy on a study abroad program and have currently been without internet until now. I hope to gather knowledge and opinions about the United States while I am abroad and will be writing those up and sharing them with you all. Keep yourselves posted.