freeinfidel

In first-century Judea, apocalyptic prophets with serious messiah complexes were thick on the ground. When Saul/Paul set about creating a church, did he pick the wrong one?

After the death of the Jewish despot Herod (several years before the alleged birth of Jesus, by the way), the Jewish world was in a chaotic state. Herod, in spite of his savagery, was still something of a Hellenised Jew. By and large, however, the Jewish civil war - or Maccabean revolt, if you will - that had occurred decades before had sent Judaism lurching back into a more fundamentalist form. This savage period, dishonestly sanitised and decorated with the fabricated miracle of the eight-day oil lamp, is now celebrated as Hannukah. In first-century Judea, however, the result of this reversion to a more totalitarian church was not light but darkness - a deep brooding and foreboding.

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Christianity is a peaceful religion? Well, maybe some of it is ineffectual and a large proportion of its adherents are placidly deluded. But like islam, it contains a hardcore of activists who are not only prepared to contemplate violence but positively relish the idea.

Read this article on AlterNet to see how some fundamentalists believe that war is righteous and desirable. Then check out the video.

It would be easy to dismiss these people as the loony fringe. But they are simply the most visible symptom of a disease that runs right through christianity. Some of these people may be insane. Some may have hidden political agendas. Some may be just plain vicious. The majority are probably just deluded. But they are all dangerous.