In the gospel of John, Jesus miraculously helps his disciples land a large catch of fish. (John 21:11) This supernatural feat was also performed by Pythagoras in a legend recorded by Porphyry. Pythagorus miraculously predicted the exact number of fish that would be caught, but the story does not record what this number was. In the gospel account, Jesus makes no such prediction, but we are told that the catch numbers exactly 153 fish. What is the signifigance of this?
It is likely that the number of fish that Pythagorus predicted would be caught was precisely 153. The Pythagoreans were well renowned for their knowledge of mathematics and regarded 153 as a sacred number. It is used in a mathematical ratio that Archimedes called "the measure of fish" to produce the mystical number of the vesica piscis or "sign of the fish"--the intersection of two circles which yields a fish-like shape. This was an ancient Pythagorean symbol that was used by early christians to represent their faith. The fact that this mystical fish symbol can be produced from the number of fish that were caught in the account of Jesus' miracle strongly suggests it has been adapted from the original miracle of Pythagorus and that this miracle story encoded a sacred geometrical formula.
You can find this symbol on the back of a christian's car. I wonder if they realize that they are promoting paganism???
Monday, June 14, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
The Origin of Baptism
When you think about getting baptized, do you automatically think it refers to christianity? More than likely, since christianity has been the dominant religion for the last 2000 years. The first time I had ever heard of baptism by water was when John the Baptizer was dunking people, and ended up being the one that baptized Jesus. But if you read my last blog about how the stories in the bible were based on myths and legends, it shouldn't come as a suprise to you that baptism has ties to paganism.
Joseph Campbell writes the following, "The rite of ancient baptism was an ancient rite coming down from the old Sumerian temple city Eridu, of the water god EA, "God of the house of water". In the Hellenistic period, Ea was called Oannes, which is in Greek Ioannes, Latin Johannes, Hebrew Yohanan, English John."
Several scholars have suggested that there was never either John or Jesus, but only a water-god and a sun-god.
There is a lot more to this subject, but the point being made is that this is just another thing that christianity borrowed from paganism, and put their own spin on it.
Joseph Campbell writes the following, "The rite of ancient baptism was an ancient rite coming down from the old Sumerian temple city Eridu, of the water god EA, "God of the house of water". In the Hellenistic period, Ea was called Oannes, which is in Greek Ioannes, Latin Johannes, Hebrew Yohanan, English John."
Several scholars have suggested that there was never either John or Jesus, but only a water-god and a sun-god.
There is a lot more to this subject, but the point being made is that this is just another thing that christianity borrowed from paganism, and put their own spin on it.
Monday, June 7, 2010
The Bible
We have all read the stories. We have learned about them. Some of us have even lived our lives by them. But just how realistic is the bible stories? Well let's consider the stories written in Genesis.
Adam and Eve are created without any knowledge of what is good or bad. And then they are told not to eat from a tree of knowledge, or else something bad will happen to them. Well, how are they supposed to comprehend this? Now along comes a talking snake. This snake tells them that if they eat from this tree, something good will happen to them. Besides the fact that snakes can't talk, how can someone without the capability to understand what good and bad is possibly grasp the concept of these given instructions?
How about the creation account? The sun, moon, and stars were created on the fourth day. Call me crazy, but how could this be possible since you need the sun to even have a day? And plantlife was created before the sun. If a day to God is 1000 years to a human, that would mean that plants would have had to survive for 1000 years without any heat.
And then there is the flood. This worldwide deluge supposedly wiped out all civilization on the planet besides Noah and his family. Yet there were those living in Egypt, China, and India at the time the flood was said to have happened. They have no record of a flood. Noah was supposed to have loaded the animals into the ark in 1 day. That would have meant that he could get 480 species per second inside the Ark. Impossible! Each person would have had to feed, water, and remove the excrement of about 5 million animals a piece. Um, no chance! One more thing to consider is that there would be no fresh water lakes. There also would have been many fish species that would have died.
The fact that there are many similar stories from other nations that existed long before Genesis was even written should be enough to make a person wonder about the validity of these stories. These stories are considered myths and legends in other lands.
And how about Jesus? Well, other lands had their own version of Jesus. In Egypt, he was Osiris, in Greece-Dionysis, Asia Minor-Attis, Syria-Adonis, Italy-Bacchus, and in Persia-Mithras. There was even a guy named Apollonius around the first century that was performing the exact same feats that Jesus was listed as doing. Were all of these other guys fakes? Not according to the citizens of those other lands.
We live in an age where people can investigate these things more in depth. In the past, religion has used fear tactics to scare people into a belief of God. But those days are over. All one needs to do is examine the bible for what it really is. A collection of stories, myths and legends.
Adam and Eve are created without any knowledge of what is good or bad. And then they are told not to eat from a tree of knowledge, or else something bad will happen to them. Well, how are they supposed to comprehend this? Now along comes a talking snake. This snake tells them that if they eat from this tree, something good will happen to them. Besides the fact that snakes can't talk, how can someone without the capability to understand what good and bad is possibly grasp the concept of these given instructions?
How about the creation account? The sun, moon, and stars were created on the fourth day. Call me crazy, but how could this be possible since you need the sun to even have a day? And plantlife was created before the sun. If a day to God is 1000 years to a human, that would mean that plants would have had to survive for 1000 years without any heat.
And then there is the flood. This worldwide deluge supposedly wiped out all civilization on the planet besides Noah and his family. Yet there were those living in Egypt, China, and India at the time the flood was said to have happened. They have no record of a flood. Noah was supposed to have loaded the animals into the ark in 1 day. That would have meant that he could get 480 species per second inside the Ark. Impossible! Each person would have had to feed, water, and remove the excrement of about 5 million animals a piece. Um, no chance! One more thing to consider is that there would be no fresh water lakes. There also would have been many fish species that would have died.
The fact that there are many similar stories from other nations that existed long before Genesis was even written should be enough to make a person wonder about the validity of these stories. These stories are considered myths and legends in other lands.
And how about Jesus? Well, other lands had their own version of Jesus. In Egypt, he was Osiris, in Greece-Dionysis, Asia Minor-Attis, Syria-Adonis, Italy-Bacchus, and in Persia-Mithras. There was even a guy named Apollonius around the first century that was performing the exact same feats that Jesus was listed as doing. Were all of these other guys fakes? Not according to the citizens of those other lands.
We live in an age where people can investigate these things more in depth. In the past, religion has used fear tactics to scare people into a belief of God. But those days are over. All one needs to do is examine the bible for what it really is. A collection of stories, myths and legends.
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