Megalomaniac, Liar or Other?
The Australian Atheist picked up this comment in a post (from Australia, unsurprisingly) about Jesus:
There is no room in this story for regarding this Jesus as merely a good spiritual teacher. He was either a dangerous megalomaniac, a liar or what he said he was.
And on the basis that Jesus probably/certainly (who knows, it was a long time ago) believed that the end of the world was nigh, concludes that the most likely answer is either dangerous megalomaniac, or a liar.
I don’t dispute that of the three, those are the two more likely statements. The chances of anyone being resurrected within a few years of their death and returning on “clouds of glory” is, let’s just say remote, to be polite.
As you may know, these choices were famously posed by C.S.Lewis in Mere Christianity
I read Mere Christianity a few months ago, on the recommendation of some friends (one atheist, one Christian) and strongly disagreed with lots (but not all) of the book. And this question was one of the things that I disagreed with. There are, after all, plenty of other choices. My favourite is that Jesus was just wrong.
Yes, he thought the world was going to come to an end and that God would come to rule, but plenty of people genuinely think that all the time without suffering from uncontrollable mental illness. And there are certifiably competent people who go round thinking much weirder things, like the world is ruled by an elite cabal of lizards posing as humans.
Me, I think Jesus was an ordinary dude living in interesting times who had some good ideas, got carried away, and ended up being executed. And living on in the collective memories of his friends, and their minions. And now he’s really famous. But still dead.
Image of the Sea of Galilee by ChrisYunkerÂ
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welcome to plonkee money readers, and a little meme
If you’ve come over from my other blog, plonkee money, welcome to the religious atheist. Some of the most recent posts are shown in the sidebar so take a little read, and if you like what you see, consider subscribing to my feed, and maybe adding some of your own comments.
Changing the subject somewhat, I’ve been tagged by the chaplain at An Apostate’s Chapel for a blogroll meme. The rules are to select three members of my blogroll that I think constitute a unique combination that may not be found elsewhere and say something nice about them, and then to tag some more people.
My (hopefully) unique combinations is:
- Folded Space - this is J.D.’s personal blog, in which he discusses Dance Dance Revolution, and sometimes muses on life. J.D. has a gazillion other web projects including the fitness blog get fit slowly, and the personal finance blog get rich slowly
- Evanescent - a blog on reason, science, religion, etc, etc. A new found fan of Ayn Rand and objectivism, now we all need to read John Galt, apparently.
- Reason and Capitalism - not another atheist, but a follower of reason nonetheless, Shaun has kind of different politics to me, as well as different religious views, but no one said we all had to agree
I’m going to tag Feeding the Fish, Life before Death, and Reignite.
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A Little Light Reading: Atheist Blogroll Edition
Check out the atheist blogroll in my sidebar - cool isn’t it. If you’re looking for more to read that’s written from an atheist, agnostic, or skeptical point of view then check it out.
Speaking of things to read, these have caught my eye:
- Should skeptics trust science? @ Skeptic’s Play - my take is that when there is scientific consensus in an area that’s not your speciality, you should trust it because the scientific process is good. But always keep an open mind
- The Default @ Daylight Atheist - is *personal experience* a good reason to believe in God? From a rational point of view, I’d say not - even if it’s your own experience. But then I would, I’m a skeptic, a big claim should take a lot more evidence than just a feeling.
- Rise and Fall of Delusion by Ridi0t (YouTube video) - I think it’s the music that makes this slideshow especially poignant. Moving from committed belief to any form of unbelief seems to cause much sadness, but instead of focussing on the past, take steps into a bright, shiny, rational and inspired future.
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