So i guess you’ve noticed that Elton has done a John Lennon and made a comment about how Jesus is just like himself.  One of the celebrity bloggers added to the outrage by saying that Jesus was a fictional character anyway, so why wouldn’t he be gay like Batman.

Of course the minute you mention Jesus, you’ll get fifteen thousand comments flaming each other with the torches of internet comment hell. Well no i won’t, but mr superficial got many, mostly because he dared use the F word: fictional!

Anyway i left my own comment there, and this is it:

There’s a great book called “The Pagan Christ” by Tom Harpur, a Canadian Anglican minister. He explores the Christ stories back to 5000BC.

..and similarly to the  Zeitgeist movie, Harpur concludes that the original “Yasu Christos” stories contained a series of metaphors for the human soul’s journey through this life..

.. but the early Christians decided it would help their church if the guy had really lived.

The stories make more sense to me if it’s about the human soul, actually: if you stay connected with your soul during this life, you can walk across the waters of your troubled emotions, always find plenty of food to feed your family and friends, heal the sicknesses that devastate us.

i guess Christians prefer to project that power onto an external spiritual being. And why not, if being powerful upsets you.

Yes i’m certainly in the tiny minority for entertaining these thoughts. Even non-Christians usually believe that this actual person walked the earth at some stage. Not me. The stories are bigger and stronger than that.

Peace be with you all, despite your different beliefs.
michael

Links:

• photo credit: looking4poetry
• Mr Superficial’s incendiary response to Elton’s outrageous comment.
• A long article explores the idea that the historical Jesus is fictional over there: nobeliefs.com/exist.htm
• Tom Harpur’s “Pagan Christ“
• Zeitgeist the movie (Yes i know, it’s a terrible mish-mash of conspiracy junk, but we love that stuff!)

Some great photos from flickr.com

photo credit: danny.hammontree

photo credit: The Searcher

photo credit: Beerbauf

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