Naughty Naughty Boy

“If heaven is such a wonderful place, then how is getting crucified such a big fucking sacrifice?”

- Igby Goes Down (2002)

Writing about religion feels like an animal walking through a game park. There are people waiting to blow your head off, skin it, and mount in on a wall.

No better reason to do it then.

Faith. How much evidence does one need before it becomes truth? If enough people believe, do you doubt your own beliefs because you are the minority?

Peter Joseph’s 2007 documentary Zeitgiest raises some interesting points about Christianity. It shows many similarities with ancient Egyptian theology, a practice based on respect and adoration for the sun.

The sun, which rises every morning to overcome darkness, bring warmth, and nourish crops. That descends in the northern sky during the winter equinox on December 22th, falls under the Southern Cross constellation, stops moving for three days then rises again on December 25th where it is aligned with Sirius - the star from the east, and the Three Kings - the three brightest stars of Orion’s Belt.

The documentary states Egyptians worshipped the sun’s movements so much they personified them into the god Horus. Born December 25th accompanied by three kings and an eastern star, Horus brought light and warmth to the world, conquered darkness, died for three days, and then rose again.

Three thousand years later, Christianity translated the movements of the sun into their own deity – Jesus Christ.

It gives examples of other ancient gods which had similar lives to Jesus Christ. Attis and Dinoysus from Greece, Krishna from India, Mithra from Persia. All had virgin births on December 25th accompanied by three kings and a star from the east, performed miracles during their life, died for three days, and were resurrected.

These figures were simply mythical personifications of the sun.

Now, Zeitgeist is not the world’s greatest documentary but what if it’s true? What if Christianity is nothing more than an adaptation on the ancient Egyptians’ adoration for the sun?

Take two rats in a cage. A box is placed in the cage with a hole in it. One rat crawls into the box and receives an electric shock. The other rat sees this and stays away. The first rat is then replaced with a new one. The old rat warns the new one to stay away from the box because he saw his friend get shocked. Then the old rat is removed and replaced with another new rat. Now there are two rats in the cage that are staying away from the box, based on a handed-down story.

Neither of them saw the electric shock, yet they stay away.

That’s the whole point about faith. We take things as truth even when we don’t know why. We follow obediently without question or rationality, as if motivated by a mystical force.

Maybe the real motivation behind religion can be found back on earth.

Proponents of positive thinking say believing in good things becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. What better way to promote positive thinking than believing a higher power is protecting and guiding you? A power that is all-knowing and all-powerful. To have that on ones side must surely be a confidence booster.

Maybe that’s why people choose to be religious. To gain strength and confidence to get through the day. But people can’t admit that. Our highly intelligent minds need two thousand year old handed-down stories to justify things that are scientifically flawed.

It’s ok. Faith is inherently blind, it needs no justification. The more people try to justify religion, the more ridiculous it sounds.

Just believe.

Or don’t.