Understanding Religion's Relationship To Human Social Systems

 Responding to this video.  Time index: 27:00 When Ehrman says the book of John has Jesus calling himself God, ... I recognize this as leftover from when he was a fundamentalist Christian. Nowhere in that book is such an idea even hinted at; except after a later Christian church (or their cultural influence) installs those goggles. The so-called "I AM" statements of Jesus are a great example of this. According to Christine Hayes (who would know more about this than Ehrman would), it is absolutely not certain that any name was given there. Neither is any particular rendering certain. [When I have time, I'll re-watch this entire lecture, to provide timestamps where she addresses this]   It's possible to render that verse to mean that this deity was refusing to give any name. It's also possible to render in several other ways where it's something like "I shall cause to become" or "I shall prove to be who I shall prove to be", or ...

Revelation chapter 1 does NOT say that Jesus is their "God". The unknown author of this book starts off by clarifying that Jesus is not God. He says it happened this way: The entity called "God" told the separate entity called "Jesus" something. It's something that "God" already knew but that Jesus did not already know. God was going to tell everyone something he had not told anyone before.  So he told Jesus. He told Jesus to tell their followers about it. Jesus told an angel. An angel told John. John told others. Eventually, someone who heard oral rumors about this wrote down their own personal understanding of what they heard about it. It's hearsay; spread from unverifiable sources.  That's what "Bibles" are. It's all just rumors handed down by people we know nothing about. But we can set that matter aside. Today, we're just looking at what this particular block of texts says about Jesus' relationship to ...

It makes no sense for there to be a secret time limit. It would be an even worse injustice   to set a limit that is different for every person. It makes no sense for a Benevolent Super-Being to say "TIME'S UP. Now I'm going to decide your eternal fate based on the details of my relationship to you (or: lack of relationship) when you died". MY LIFE is not a game show. Nor should my life be ABOUT someone else's life. Nor should somebody else's life be ABOUT mine. Even as a parent, I want my kids to outgrow their dependencies. A good father does NOT want his children to remain as children. A good father does not want his children to dedicate their lives to: being all about their father. My journey belongs to me. Yours belongs to you. Even if a Creator exists, that's how it should be. TRUE friends and TRUE family respect each other's pursuit of mutually respectful autonomy. Don't obsess over me. Just physically show up for visit...

  In order to create a situation where any of that is even something to worry about, ...  First, I must let other fallible humans define the word g/God for me.  Next, I must arbitrarily decide such a thing totally, definitely, for sure exists.  [Helpful advice: If the religion you've emotionally chosen to psych yourself into believing is based on the preachments found in Christian bibles, or Jewish Bibles, or the Quran, ...  Try ~very badly~ understanding various fields of science, so that the pseudoscience of Genesis Creationism seems legit. Or, if this works better for you, just let your emotions be tampered with by the manipulations of whatever religious culture you happen to be surrounded by.   Let your heart (and other people's heart) be your guide!  -except also totally don't do that, because the heart is wicked and can lead you astray. -except also totally DO do that, because that's what leads to God.] Next, I must let other fallible humans...

  The moment we solidify our identity with a story ... so that it validates "who we are, and "what we're worth",  we limit ourselves to it;  unable to see, move, or grow beyond it.  Thus, I would beseech any who listen to give much thought to which pillars you anchor deep and build upon.  Whatever we build our identity upon  could empower or cripple us.  It will also become the way we evaluate everyone else's worth; -if we're being consistent. This is why racism and other "otherings" can be hard to unlearn.  So then, for example:  If a religious person says we all need to be "washed clean",  and if they think they HAVE been "washed clean"  but I (as an outsider) have not been,  then:  That means I am "unclean" in some powerful sense of the word; in their eyes. So they won't be able to rightly respect me. They can SAY they do. But they just got done telling me exactly why they don't. And I have hardly any time to...