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Originally Posted by Mind's Eye
I think it is just what I said in the first place; a man made system of fear and guilt.
For starters, let's take a look at the Old Testament in the Bible. There is no archaeological evidence whatsoever to support that Moses or Abraham ever existed. There is no historical or archaeological evidence to support that an Israelite named Joseph was ever second in command in Egypt under the pharaoh. All of the mass invasions recorded in the old Testament where Israel took possession of the so called promised land did not happen either. Historical records and modern archaeology have proven these facts and has shown that the supposed history of the Bible is not accurate at all. Some of the foreign lands that Israel supposedly defeated in the old testament and put there kings to death did not even have kings when these invasions supposedly took place; They were small farming communities or towns that were just starting out ... showing that the OT was actually written at a much later date than the dates given in the books themselves.
And to go hand in hand with that, there is no archaeological evidence to support that Jesus ever lived either. If all of the stories about him healing, preaching and causing such an enormous fuss in the town, cities and villages where he lived were true, why is there no record of it? There were a number of noted Jewish historians alive at that time, and none of them ever mentioned Jesus at all....
So if the records show that the Bible as a whole is historically inaccurate and none of its main characters never existed, then what does that say about the belief system? It may be a "religion" but it is a false ideology being fed to the masses as being a historically truth. And it is a "religion" that has caused much fear, violence and unrest in people's personal lives and in the world.
Hence: It is a man made system of fear and guilt.
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I agree that the religion of Christianity has caused a lot of fear, violence and unrest, but there is a huge difference between what I would like to call Churchianity, and Christianity. Jesus taught the Kingdom of Heaven. A spiritual Kingdom of Love and Faith, that resides in the heart of all who would let it. There are so many differences between what true Christianity is, compared to religion. Some examples would be, religion says, ''don't eat this, don't drink that, go to this building, wear this, don't wear that, worship on this day, make this day holy, do this special action, fulfill this special ritual, blah, blah, blah''. Jesus didn't teach any of these things.
I think if you could stop reacting against religion, you may see how your bias is causing you to 'throw the baby out with the bath water'. We do have some historical records that Jesus was a real person, i.e. the gospels. That's not much different from any other account of a person or event in the past. But my guess is you have some reason to WHY those records aren't true, too?
On my side, I couldn't really care less whether the bible was historically accurate or indeed whether it was written by a little green martian. What I do know is that those words 'attributed' to Jesus, hold the key to meaning of life and the universe, and if people could just stop being so religious and surrender to his spirit, we would have a beautiful world.
Christianity as taught by Jesus is NOT a religion. Christianity as practiced by the majority of Christians in the world today, unfortunately IS.