A Brethren gave me a leaflet in the street two days ago. I asked him his denomination (Mormon, Jehova's Witness, are two I recall offering) and was met only with the recurrant phrase "I'm just a simple Christian". So this 'simple Christian', in his very special suit, got quite a defensive tone and refused to state his denom. Not a huge deal, and probably more to do with my reply to his opening gambit than anything else ("Do you believe in Jesus?" "What?" "Are you a Christian?" "I'm an RE teacher" "So then you believe in Jesus?" "No"). However a cunning internet search of the publishing house name on the leaflet puts him as an 'Exclusive Brethren'. From a website I have read I gather that they are possibly a cult. Their street preaching only exists to maintain their publishing operation as a registered charity, whose main aim is to sell materials to cult members in a compulsory fashion.
Anyway. I closed my dissatisfying conversation with a loud word to my wife, who was eagerly edging forward away from silly old me and my ways, to the tune of "oh well, we almost had a discussion here". The splendidly suited simple Christian offered the parting shot "make sure you believe in Jesus". I laughed at the cringeworthy comment, but the whole thing left me noticing again that religion is still quite a force in people's lives (and I have to try to notice this as I don't have any overtly religious input into my daily life). So long story short (actually you've just read the long story), I've decided that Jesus wasn't a delightful chap that happened to live in an age that couldn't appreciate him. I've decided that he was not as delightful as you in fact are, right now!
Here's a hasty list of things I've thunked.
1) Jesus had no internet
Yes, you live in a unique moment in history where human consciousness is sidelining itself in favour of the productive connectedness of the internet.
The idea of God can be seen to be an empty idea, the most abstract idea, able to ground the ideal qualities of religious moral codes, values and concepts, which we would not be able to positively embody in the practical sense in daily life. Abraham, for instance, really needed to translate his idea of a monotheistic God into a mark, such as circumcision, for God has to be forced onto a people, they have to be cruelly leashed to Him exclusively for the abstractions of religion to have physical bite.
Jesus invoked the idea of monotheism as the ground of his teachings (i.e. the highest commandments; the three temptations). Arguably, the meaning of human consciousness for Christianity (and other religions) is one of inculcating spiritual rules and values into the behaviours of the body to produce an appropriately religious life.
You have the opportunity to move life in another direction through the wonders of the intarnat!
The internet is great in that it isn't really abstract in the way a value or a code can be considered ideal. The connectiveness and productivity of the internet is not only immediately practically productive, and it is so globally without any requirement on your part to discipline your body. Anyone can utilise the internet for any purpose, and the capacity for practical change and growth is completely extra-human. Where religion utilises a negative function and seeks to limit behaviours, the internet is wholly positive (well the way we use it it isn't really, but perhaps it is in itself).
The internet gives you an ontological advantage over Jesus! You exist more than Jesus. God is not everywhere - you are.
2) Jesus wasn't as interesting as you are
Bit of an open goal here. I'm fairly sure that Jesus would not understand a movie. You do, and there are great movies out there. Such as Twister and Deadly Buddhist Raiders. If Jesus saw DBR he'd just want to turn the chairs over in the cinema, and he wouldn't be able to do it as they're bolted down in rows. In short, he'd just look daft with his beard wobbling up and down, spitting religious objections into the popcorn of the person sat behind him. He'd likely say something like "give to Odeon what belongs to Odeon", and people would say "what? my ticket? my eyes? ... what? ... what?!".
You are able, unlike Jesus, to make friends without having to sleep together in fields. You wear better clothes, are able to speak lots of languages, you can go to the theatre and learn about the human condition from William Shakespeare. Jesus never saw or read Shakespeare. Jesus never went on holiday. Jesus didn't have a George Foreman grill, nor did he see him fight.
Jesus only really knew what there was to immediately know, everything else was probably just Roman propaganda. And even though everything you know is propaganda, you might also know something about Physics, and significantly less about camels.
3) you know that the golden rule is false
"Do unto others what you would have them do unto you" is nice and fluffy and all that but you DO IN FACT know that acting correctly often takes specific knowledge, skills, understanding, and the intelligence to acquire and select these appropriately. You know this because that is your daily life. And of course, we live in a time of high technology, unlike Jesus, and prize good judgement above all else (well I don't but that's because I live in a cave). Going back to my first point - how does the golden rule apply to selecting what to search on the internet? Should I learn about different kinds of ponies or should I check the weather? What would Jesus do? Probably not wash, that's what.
Philosophically speaking, the golden rule implies that you can determine what you deserve to happen to you easier than you can determine what deserves to happen to others. But we don't know ourselves better than we know other people, all our self-knowledge being shared and social. What's more, we are often wrong about ourselves in vastly exaggerated ways. Every anecdote puts the lie to the principle of love your neighbour. Given perfect knowledge then yes, sure, the principle works (and would work automatically actually without having to be said or adhered to). But unlike Jesus, whose perfect knowledge (vis a vis being God) clearly didn't include the idea that others don't have perfect knowledge, we just simply don't have perfect knowledge. Or something.
Oh and the only reason Jesus said we have to be nice to each other is because we love God and can deduce this principle from that one. Not loving God is therefore a bit of a non-starter for trying to adopt this principle, which is really only an appeal to piety, and not actually what you believe it to be at all. So there.
V
Anyway. I closed my dissatisfying conversation with a loud word to my wife, who was eagerly edging forward away from silly old me and my ways, to the tune of "oh well, we almost had a discussion here". The splendidly suited simple Christian offered the parting shot "make sure you believe in Jesus". I laughed at the cringeworthy comment, but the whole thing left me noticing again that religion is still quite a force in people's lives (and I have to try to notice this as I don't have any overtly religious input into my daily life). So long story short (actually you've just read the long story), I've decided that Jesus wasn't a delightful chap that happened to live in an age that couldn't appreciate him. I've decided that he was not as delightful as you in fact are, right now!
Here's a hasty list of things I've thunked.
1) Jesus had no internet
Yes, you live in a unique moment in history where human consciousness is sidelining itself in favour of the productive connectedness of the internet.
The idea of God can be seen to be an empty idea, the most abstract idea, able to ground the ideal qualities of religious moral codes, values and concepts, which we would not be able to positively embody in the practical sense in daily life. Abraham, for instance, really needed to translate his idea of a monotheistic God into a mark, such as circumcision, for God has to be forced onto a people, they have to be cruelly leashed to Him exclusively for the abstractions of religion to have physical bite.
Jesus invoked the idea of monotheism as the ground of his teachings (i.e. the highest commandments; the three temptations). Arguably, the meaning of human consciousness for Christianity (and other religions) is one of inculcating spiritual rules and values into the behaviours of the body to produce an appropriately religious life.
You have the opportunity to move life in another direction through the wonders of the intarnat!
The internet is great in that it isn't really abstract in the way a value or a code can be considered ideal. The connectiveness and productivity of the internet is not only immediately practically productive, and it is so globally without any requirement on your part to discipline your body. Anyone can utilise the internet for any purpose, and the capacity for practical change and growth is completely extra-human. Where religion utilises a negative function and seeks to limit behaviours, the internet is wholly positive (well the way we use it it isn't really, but perhaps it is in itself).
The internet gives you an ontological advantage over Jesus! You exist more than Jesus. God is not everywhere - you are.
2) Jesus wasn't as interesting as you are
Bit of an open goal here. I'm fairly sure that Jesus would not understand a movie. You do, and there are great movies out there. Such as Twister and Deadly Buddhist Raiders. If Jesus saw DBR he'd just want to turn the chairs over in the cinema, and he wouldn't be able to do it as they're bolted down in rows. In short, he'd just look daft with his beard wobbling up and down, spitting religious objections into the popcorn of the person sat behind him. He'd likely say something like "give to Odeon what belongs to Odeon", and people would say "what? my ticket? my eyes? ... what? ... what?!".
You are able, unlike Jesus, to make friends without having to sleep together in fields. You wear better clothes, are able to speak lots of languages, you can go to the theatre and learn about the human condition from William Shakespeare. Jesus never saw or read Shakespeare. Jesus never went on holiday. Jesus didn't have a George Foreman grill, nor did he see him fight.
Jesus only really knew what there was to immediately know, everything else was probably just Roman propaganda. And even though everything you know is propaganda, you might also know something about Physics, and significantly less about camels.
3) you know that the golden rule is false
"Do unto others what you would have them do unto you" is nice and fluffy and all that but you DO IN FACT know that acting correctly often takes specific knowledge, skills, understanding, and the intelligence to acquire and select these appropriately. You know this because that is your daily life. And of course, we live in a time of high technology, unlike Jesus, and prize good judgement above all else (well I don't but that's because I live in a cave). Going back to my first point - how does the golden rule apply to selecting what to search on the internet? Should I learn about different kinds of ponies or should I check the weather? What would Jesus do? Probably not wash, that's what.
Philosophically speaking, the golden rule implies that you can determine what you deserve to happen to you easier than you can determine what deserves to happen to others. But we don't know ourselves better than we know other people, all our self-knowledge being shared and social. What's more, we are often wrong about ourselves in vastly exaggerated ways. Every anecdote puts the lie to the principle of love your neighbour. Given perfect knowledge then yes, sure, the principle works (and would work automatically actually without having to be said or adhered to). But unlike Jesus, whose perfect knowledge (vis a vis being God) clearly didn't include the idea that others don't have perfect knowledge, we just simply don't have perfect knowledge. Or something.
Oh and the only reason Jesus said we have to be nice to each other is because we love God and can deduce this principle from that one. Not loving God is therefore a bit of a non-starter for trying to adopt this principle, which is really only an appeal to piety, and not actually what you believe it to be at all. So there.
V
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