Bob & Trent,
As promised in my Epistle to the Innocents #5, I said the next thought topic would address how is it that dozens of Gods (which we know of) have an element of their creation myth which coincides with December 25th, have a three day death prior to their resurrection, have believers who followed a star in the East, were hung on a cross, etc., etc., etc.
Remember my objective is twofold; to persuade you Gods are Man-made, and, religion is evil. This polemic is in support of the former.
If either of you have misplaced your copy of ‘Bowditch: The American Practical Navigator’ a brief reminder of how the world goes round:
A) In the primitive times from which you choose to extrapolate your Judeo-Christian morality there was no cable TV. So after dinner, and sunset campfire tales of how our piss-ant tribe bested the neighboring piss-ant tribe, there wasn’t much to do but look at the night sky and let it feed one’s imagination.
B) Their sky then, is our sky now. And yes the 41 Gods I listed as examples in a prior ‘Letter to the Credulous’ were all conjured in the northern hemisphere.
C) Sirius is the brightest star in the sky and through the month of December it aligns with the three stars which are prominent for their proximity to one another, and are known as ‘Orion’s belt’ and “the Three Kings”. (Or in the most recent version of the story The Three Magi, a title lifted from Zoroastrianism.) The alignment is perfected on December 24th with the point of sunrise on December 25th. Ta Dah…
At dawn on the Winter solstice the sun begins its six month trip north bringing light, warmth, re-birth, etc. And, being at the extreme of the elliptic, the sun appears to have had its migration south stopped dead on the 22nd – 23rd – 24th, for three days before a birth or resurrection. Also due to the elliptic, on the day of the solstice the sun appears to have moved one full degree making for a dramatic Ta Dah… Ta Dah…
As the solar year concludes its march south the final days are perceived as being in the foreground of the southernmost constellation; ‘The Crux’ or ‘The Southern Cross’. Ta Dah… Ta Dah… Ta Dum.
So the brightest star in the sky followed by three adoring kings points to the place where a dramatic son/sun rise will herald the end of winter’s death of nature and begin summer’s bounty. All after laying low for three days in front of a cross.
Back to cases: Hundreds of Gods share a foundation myth that is nothing more or less than primitives’ personification of the night sky. An astrological allegory.
So, repeated divine intervention by a magic man in the sky, or, human imagination layering something they could relate to onto the same show they watched every night ?
Man created God not the other way around. In fact lots and lots of Gods, and because they were all made by men with a limited understanding of the physical world, and based on the same nightly observations, it should not surprise you the end products are so similar.
Or maybe God kept running the same play for 3,500 years because he couldn’t think of anything else?
-ATN
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