Of Sacrifice

I have spent a good deal of time throughout these past writings dismantling almost all of Christian dogma and theology.  I have done so because at Christianity’s foundation is the fundamental fatal flaw of believing that the self, the ego, is Real, of Reality, when it is not.  However, there is another piece of Christian theology which is real and true, and that is the truth of sacrifice. 

Before I go further, let me explicitly state that the truth of sacrifice is not at all one in the same with Christianity’s notion of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ being necessary to open the gates to human salvation.  If anything, the story of Jesus’ sacrifice serves only as a poetic metaphor for us, for the fact we too must “carry our cross,” the burden of our egos, and “die” to the illusion of our egos to be “reborn,” “resurrected” if you will to “Eternal Life,” True Salvation.

Since I took a second look at Christianity about a year ago, after having been essentially an atheist/secular humanist since moving away from traditional religion at about the age of 22, I wanted to finally answer the question of what Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection really meant, as I questioned it might not be the same as what I was taught in Catholic CCD class.  It took me about a year to realize what exactly it was that bothered me so much about the theology of the notion God would send his only begotton Son to be brutally tortured and murdered to satisfy God’s price for sin.  The origins for “The Mystical Voice” book had their seeds in this very question.  I had found that the very notion of God being “bought,” with a “price,” and with human “sacrifice,” of God’s son taking the “punishment” that “should have been ours,” was completely inconsistent with everything I knew to be true about a God of love.  It sounded more like the Pagan gods or the Aztec gods to whom human sacrifices were made to win the gods’ “favor.”  It made me ask, among other things, the following questions…

 “Can the True and Living God really be bought, at any price?”

“Does God need the blood of His Son to satisfy his wrath?”

“Does it make any sense that a so-called “just” God would be so incredibly unjust as to have the innocent slain for the sake of the guilty?”

None of this made any sense to me because at every turn, this theology contradicts itself.  And while the theology is a lie, the fact of sacrifice is true. 

The truth is, life is sacrifice.  Sacrifice is life.  This is a natural law, a fact of existence which is neither “good” nor “bad.”  Parents make sacrifices for the benefit of their children.  Those who successfully maintain healthy bodies make sacrifices in their diets and lifestyles to assure they stay healthy.  We sacrifice our time at a job to earn money so we can live and get the things we need.  And at the level of basic survival, things always die, are “sacrificed” if you will, so that others may live within the cycle of Life, since any organism must consume another to perpetuate its life.  The elements of life are in constant consumption of other elements to continue their existence until death.  This is the way of Life, as life is sacrifice. 

This fact of life, that life is sacrifice, is evident to anyone who looks at life.  It is obvious to all of us we must consume other living things to remain alive since it is an indisputable fact we must eat to live. What is not so obvious to those who are not Christians, is the notion Jesus Christ died in our place to “pay” for the sins of the world.  This notion is a concept, an idea, not a fact.  That is the difference between the fact of sacrifice, and the belief in the notion Jesus paid the price for sin by dying on the cross.  This notion is what missionaries believe they must preach throughout the world to ensure all would “believe,” and therefore have “eternal life” to be spared the agonies of “Hell.” The fact this notion is not obvious to everyone – namely the approximately four-billion people in the world who live outside the Christian bubble, confirms the non-reality of it.  Believing in something is not the same as seeing Reality, seeing what is.  Knowing the facts of what is has nothing to do with “belief.” 

The author of the “God is Imaginary” website made a good point that if Jesus did in fact make an appearance to the Apostle Paul to enable his conversion, then he should be appearing to each one of us, to give everyone equal opportunity to either accept or reject him as the exclusive Son of God, especially if the fate our our “eternal souls” hangs in the balance.  If he were to simply appear to everyone, as he did to Paul, then it would not be an argument of hearsay, the way it is today – the notion we must “believe” simply because of hearsay accounts of a supposedly “factual story.”  If Jesus were to literally appear to every single human being, the way he did to Paul, then the “fact” he is the Son of God in whom we must believe to have Eternal Life could be seen by everyone in the same way we can all observe the fact that life is sacrifice.  To say Jesus could not do that because it would no longer be based on faith does not work because he supposedly appeared to Paul, and that didn’t damage his faith.  If anything, it changed his entire life.  Why should not everyone enjoy the benefit of a personal encounter with the resurrected Jesus?  If that were to happen, there would then be no bickering, no fighting, just acceptance of what is.  This is what a truly fair, just, and loving God would do.  But clearly, this does not happen, and adds yet one more bit of evidence against the case for dogmatic Christianity’s “righteousness.”  The reason it cannot happen is because Truth is never about ego and belief in the exclusivity of one man’s supposed “divinity.” It is never about what we believe.  It is about inclusivity, knowledge of the Oneness of All.  With knowledge of the Oneness of All, all questions are ultimately answered, as knowledge of Truth is the only “answer” for anything. What is whole and One produces oneness, not division.  Had Jesus Christ actually existed as the most enlightened being on the planet, he would not have cared what anyone believed, but what was within their hearts, and if they were aware of the unity of All. 

What really is the point of animal and human sacrifice? What purpose does it serve? The only purpose it could possibly serve is the appeasement of an egotistical conception of “god.”  Clearly, the Aztecs, the Pagans, the Jewish people as well as Christians all thought they could “buy” something from God by offering what was supposedly an “acceptable sacrifice.”  And why did they think God could be bought at a price? Because they all believed God is an ego with wants, desires, likes, and dislikes, who makes things happen or prevents things from happening, just like people – an ego with whom one could “find favor” which would result in a good harvest, rainfall, or some other “blessing.”  We all know this notion is absurd because no amount of sacrifice, animal or human, influences any of these natural events. To believe so is silly superstition, nothing more.  Given this fact, Christians need to ask themselves the following questions…

“Why do I believe in a God who requires human sacrifice, which I know is an abhorrent abomination?”

“Why would God require the blood of His very Son as “payment” for sin, when it is clear neither God nor salvation can be bought, and actions always bring their own consequences anyways, rendering such “payment” meaningless?” 

And perhaps most of all, we must ask the question, “What parent on Earth or in Heaven, human or “divine,” could possibly tolerate the slaughter of their own child no matter what the potential payoff?” 

It makes no sense whatsoever when thought through rationally because there are no rational, honest, and truthful answers to such questions.  And when it is known God is not an ego, then a God who would be capable of such absurdity is impossible.   The belief God would actually require these “sacrifices,” or behave in the childish way God is said to behave in so much of Judeo-Christian belief, is yet one more example of unreasonable faith.  To believe in a God who requires animal or human sacrifices of any kind is to believe in an imaginary god no different from the gods of the Aztecs or the Pagans. 

No matter what one worships, it is almost always an object, whether it is the sun, the moon, the stars, Jesus Christ, or any other idea. And what are all of these objects?   Ego.  Object is ego.  Ego is that which is a noun – a person, place, thing, idea, or concept.  As long as it is a noun we are worshipping, it is ego-worship,  idolatry, and not the True and Living God.  The True and Living God is not a noun because God is no thing.  God not a “being.”  God is BEING.  God is the Oneness of All, and therefore has no body, no “form,” no “object” if you will.  True worship has nothing to do with nouns.  It has everything to do with recognizing the Oneness of All.  The True God, being nothing more or less than the Oneness of All, is without object, and therefore completely free, with absolutely nothing to hold on to, as Life, like death, is about letting go, about sacrifice, about the Oneness of living, as well as dying…

 

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