Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Constructive & Destructive Power of Myths


Random Internet Chatter  on the border line- -
Moral Rudderless Network Detected
Long Distance Opperator - - I heard this call is on the House
Policeman – Blow your Whistle - - I see No Way Out
I’d Change my plea to Guilty - - But I don’t think it would stick
Hey Mister Bartender - - I swear I’m not Too Young
Please allow me to introduce myself I’m a man of wealth and taste
The best laid plans of mice and men - - Sin at leisure - - Repent in Haste
The Tea Preacher gets Rich with the money he’d made on your Dreams
I fear my dear that it’s eminently clear that you can’t see the trees for the forrest.  Your father was an extrordenary Man - - but you don’t seem to have inherited any of his Manorisms.
Your little friend here - - You think she came down here to rescue you - - but I’m telling you right now - - She’s not what she Seems
She gathered all her neighbors around - - she wanted to make sure they understood
Legal Suicide is for law systems that have become terminal
Mitt Romney’s soul is filled with crawling worms.  A shot of alcohol will fix that.
Mathematicians, unlike theologians, are NOT looking for Infinite solutions.
“I need to know which one of these many wires to pull right now to diffuse this Bomb.  What does Dr. Schuller say?”  “He gave me this fortune cookie for you.  It reads “The possibilities for you are infinite”.  “What you mean is “Irving’s gun was there but Irving was off hiding”  “That’s pretty much the way I read it”
Are you a Fool - - or is it True?


There is a place for Myths in our society to illustrate a moral or philosophical point.  But myths become dangerous when the point of them is Destructive, as in the case of the Tea Party or Christianity, or where the Substance of the myth rather than its alligorical truths are taken as the thing that you carry away from the story.  For instance we know that the story of Jonah is a myth, but it is a constructive myth to the effect that "God isn't Done with any man or woman till God DAYS that he's done with you".  This is a basic truth which theologically I am in full agreement with.  However if you go on to say that the whole three days and death and ressurection of a life is THEE thing that you carry away from the myth- then something is wrong.  Jesus taught not only that Adam and Eve really lived as a historical fact, but also that they had a Godly "marriage" of the sort celebrated in any Jewish society.  Poll question:  How many agree with the lyrics of "Love and marriage - go together like a horse and carriage".  I'd like to see you point out one time where it says Anywhere in scripture that Adam and Eve loved each other.  It's not there- anywhere.  Look for yourself.  People go on to spawn hard doctrine from myths and a popular one among Fundamentalists these days is the doctrine of the Priesthood of Adam.  God was so legalistic that he instructed Adam on making sure all the T's were crossed and the I's dotted.  If the term "Priesthood of Adam" rings a bell from somewhere- - it is the Mormons that first came up with the concept of the Priesthood of Adam, and the Fundamentalists picked up the fumble and ran with it.  But we have downright Destructive Myths out there or a "story line" that is pure lies.  For instance the Obama "story line" the "story that is told" involves Obama's father being this anti colonialist dangerous socialist whom son Barock was Obssesed with.  And Obama was born in Kenya and faked his birth cirtificate.  He palled around with Socialists during the Viet Nam war and evaded the draft.  And then hung out with Jeremiah Wright- - who of course is really a Moslem terrorist.  And the President wants to hike gasoline prices to five dollars a gallon to get Americans off their beloved petrolium products in favor of risky schemes that will never work involving win and geothermal and solar energy power.  And Al Gore is a bad man and a hypocrite according to Dr. Levy because we all know the scientists who agree with Global Warming are all some kind of Socialist of Communist conspirators, and all these economists who advise in favor or raising taxes on the rich are all part of a giant conspiracy.  And the main stream media is a giant propaganda machine to deny us the real tea party facts is to what is going on.  And we know gas prices are so high now because President Obama closed all the oil wells in the Gulf and won't allow America to drill for oil so energy production in America is only a fraction of what it was when Obama took office, and we know that gasoline prices have doubled from what they were under George Bush.  All of this is accepted as Gospel truth by the tea party and people like Dr. Levy believe it.

I'm going to shorten up this rant from what I had planned out in my mind at breakfast (when I seem to do all my creative thinking)  Here's a good campaign slogan "We'll give you Pawlente of Romney" this November.   Here are the real unvarnished facts as I see them surrounding the crusifiction of Jesus Christ, as told by John the Baptist.  First of all the crusifiction as we view it was on November 24th 29 AD during a partial eclipse of the sun.  There were no feasts going in in Jerusalem them.  It was perhaps on a Sunday that the Egyptian- - named Crestus by the Romans, came into town with his partisans.  Like John the Baptist he believed that the temple system was utterly corrupt and railed against it and overturned the money tables for starters.  "Just as I am" would no longer cut it but your "Gift" you gave to God out of your Own Substance, had to have a kosher tag on it, and these could only be had at a stiff premium.  Crestus said "Tear down this temple made with hands and in three days I will build up a temple NOT made with hands" but nobody understood what this meant.  They did not understand the Isaiah scripture that said "And as for his generation they considered that he was cut off from the land of the living"  But God said "I will prolong his days".  Crestus himself told his detractors, "I am going away and you will look but you will not be able to find me".  Another wrote of him "When your rooster crows at the break of dawn - look out your window and I'll be gone".  One time when Crestus was talking to his detractors in Jerusalem it clouded up and roared out a thunder.  Others said "It thundered against him".   And Crestus said "It thunders not against me but against you.  For I say to you this day: "I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole nation.  On that day you will look up and when the enemy comes you won't know why, but it's because you rejected me."  He also said to them "God could take these stones you see all around you and make for himself Children of Abraham, if he so desires".  Now Judas Iscariot (whose twin sister is named Gabriel) did meet with the priests and scribes and he was paid a sum of money for betraying Crestus.  And it came about that one evening when they were planning an attack- that Judas told them he was in a moment of weakness, in prayer, and now he could be taken.  And there was a great battle in the valleys east of Jerusalem.  And Crestus was taken and held in Prison back in Jerusalem and beaten and then manicled.  But it came about that Judas had a change of heart and felt guilty for his actions and desired to see the Master so arranged to visit him in his cell.  But in the process of that night during the visitation his two captor guards fell asleep and the key to the manicles was found and used, and behold many of the locks had been jammed so that they didn't lock.  And the Drifter made his escape and joined his troops and headed off to Egypt to live another day.  But Judas himself was caught and thrown in prison as a conspirator.  And he demanded to see a Priests and he did confess and threw down the blood money he had obtained and said "I have sinned against God".  And they did say to him "We don't understand why you're so filled with remourse because you proved to be on target- you backed the right horse".  And it came about that the next morning the crowd who had supported Crestus was angry and gathered in the pavillion and Governor Pilate came out to them and he brought Judas with him and - - he told them.  "In Rome we have a law that says any guards who let a prisoner escape must suffer the fate of the condemned man, even it it is unto death".  Therefore what shall I do with this man?"  And the crowd looked at Judas and shouted with one voice "Crucify him - crucify him".  And while on the cross one of the two condemned guards turned to Judas and said "We are getting the just penalty for our misdeeds - - but you did nothing wrong but were only doing your civic duty".  He said this not knowing the full story.  And Judas said to him "He who discovers the Truth accomplishes a great thing.  And Judas cried out to the Lord for mercy "My God, my God, why has thow forsaken me".  And as the three man hung on the cross a strange darkness enveloped the land that afternoon.  And nobody could explain it.  But the Romans took it as a sign that - - somehow God was displeased by their actions today.  Judas died.  Crestus lived in Egypt and gathered strength and then made his way to Rome where he and his followers prospered, at least untill AD 50 when Claudius threw these "Jews" out Of the City.

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