Religious babble

As we round the orbit to another season of Christmas, I’m once again bringing up as an ex-Christian that a lot of “Christian doctrine” that believers lay claim to was actually written by Paul, then expanded over time by countless Catholic expositions, Protestant philosophers, and modern-day Evangelical charlatans.

Almost everything that we know about what Jesus personally taught can be read in the three and a half gospels (the Gospel of John is less of a historical record and more a philosophical interpretation of what Jesus did from a certain religious perspective, but anyway), and when you focus only on what Jesus taught it’s…actually not that much.

Jesus taught that love for your fellow humans was more important than adherence to Law. He taught empathy for the misfit, the oppressed, and the marginalized. He despised relentless monetization. He fed the hungry, lifted the downtrodden, and “healed” without condition. He preached nonviolence and a separation of religion and power.

Paul was not one of the original twelve apostles—those with direct knowledge of what Jesus did—but a religious scholar of sorts, who first persecuted Jesus, but then had a change of heart, and took it to himself to spread the “good news” of Jesus. In the process, he invented an entire theology and narrative about Jesus that the latter never actually claimed, along with rules and regulations that were more a product of his time than any eternal set of values.

It’s interesting to note that almost every “culture war” topic US conservatives complain about today is either a Pauline concept, or something Jesus never addressed, or worse, actually opposed. Homosexuality? Paul (Rom 1:26–27). Women in power? Paul (1 Cor 14:34). Abortion? Actually nobody mentioned that one (trick question).

In fact, Paul was proud of the fact that when he turned from persecuting Jesus’ followers to promoting his teaching, he did not consult any of the original apostles. He went on a three-year world tour to promote the new Jesus religion before speaking to a single one of the actual people who lived with Jesus. Read Gal 1:13–24 and tell me Paul doesn’t sound like an opportunist to you.

Anyway, this is a rant from an atheist who used to read the Bible. I think Jesus was actually a cool dude: a humble illegitimate son, born to a teenage mother who was knocked up by a man who got away with it. He was a friend to the underdogs. He mostly ignored the Roman Empire but nevertheless annoyed them more than any of the bigwigs of Judea. He hated wealth-hoarders and monetizers. He wanted a society that fed and clothed each other. And for that, the establishment (both religious and secular) tortured and killed him.

Then some people turned him into a resurrected god, and it went downhill from there.

• #opinion