The Christian MythologyLeatherbee, E. B. (Ethel Brigham)
Religion
The Christian Mythology
Leatherbee, E. B. (Ethel Brigham)
Christianity and other religions; Mythology
The principal weakness of all the great theological systems now in
practice is that they are terrestrial in their conception of God and
man. Their foundations were laid at a period when mankind knew little,
and cared less, about the planets; at a period when it was presumed
that the sun, moon, and stars were either beneficent deities or natural
objects placed in the firmament to light the world and please the eye
of man by their beauty. Therefore God, as recognized in these systems,
takes heed of naught else than this particular world. He totally
ignores the other innumerable spheres of matter floating in space,
many of which may support life. All his interests center on this
infinitesimal portion of his creation. It is with the doings of the
inhabitants of this planet that he is engaged. For this earth alone
he creates man, animals and vegetables; to this alone, he sends his
only son, or Savior; and it is here, in the purified state, that the
souls of men shall eternally dwell after the great judgment.
Since science has proved that our solar system is but one of the many,
and that in this system the earth is not the largest nor most important
body, should not such absurd theological ideas be abandoned and a
grander and vaster conception of the Deity be inaugurated? Should
not organized theology turn to nobler thoughts and say with Paul,
"When I was a child ... I thought as a child; but when I became a man,
I put away childish things" (1 Cor. xiii, 11)?
All such doctrines as predestination, which are based upon the sin
of Adam, are now anachronistic. The acceptance of the theory of
evolution, which entirely destroys the reality of the mythical Adam,
sweeps away his biography and leaves no foundation for such dogmas. If
the Christian church desires to remain, she must cast aside these
worthless doctrines, founded upon false hypotheses, when the minds
of men were in darkness regarding the origin of species, and when
they saw in these the only solution of their problem.
Having accomplished his ascension and entered on his eternal kingdom,
one of the Christ's attributes is that of judging the dead. This
idea undoubtedly came from the Alexandrian school of theology,
where so many of the Christian theories were promulgated, for one
of the best-known attributes of Osiris was that of the judge, and
he was generally represented as seated on his throne of judgment,
bearing a staff (the crozier of the modern bishop) and holding the
crux ansata. Buddha is also supposed to be the judge of the dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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