Entry XV--Perfecting the Hatred of Life (Part 2)

While the hatred of life has been around a lot longer than christianity, christianity has perfected hating life.

Why regard the notion of a spiritual existence beyond death as the 'hatred of life?'

After all, some would regard that characterization as a bit dramatic. Over the top.

But that's what it is, when you pull back the nice little curtain of 'heaven,' that's what you see...

Life being hated for being life.

With christianity, it all starts with the crucifixion, or “crucial fiction” as it might better be classified. The crucifix is the perfect symbol for representing christianity’s hatred of life; the dead deity hanging from the cross, like fresh meat after the kill.

The crucial fiction and its primary symbol reveal out in the open that the focus of the religion is clearly affixed to christ’s death, and not on christ’s life, not on christ’s teachings, not even on christ’s 'glorious resurrection.'

Why isn't the symbol that of christ emerging from his cave/tomb, resurrected from the depths of hell and triumphant? If you recall, in the third fictional segment (purple), the boy Roger asked the priest why the stations of the cross did not depict christ's resurrection and ended with his being laid in the tomb.

Why isn't the symbol that of christ surrounded by a flock of his followers, eager to bathe in his divinely inspired wisdom? Surely that would project a more positive representation of christianity?

Why is the central symbol of christianity, that which virtually every tried'n'true christian wears around his/her neck, that of the cross, the crucifix, the dead christ?

Because death is inescapable? In the very near future, that may not be the case. But for now, we will accept that premise of people worshipping death because it is inevitable, that is they surrender to it because to try to resist it is ultimate futility and most people don't want to be on the losing side. They approve of death and are proved right when it happens.

It's for this same reason people fall for christianity and American military operations, no matter how unjust they might seem, because they don't want to be seen as on the 'wrong side.'

This is the symbol of the crucifix operating on multiple levels of symbolic meaning simultaneously. Besides demonstrating its hatred of life, the crucifix also symbolizes the sacrifice that christ underwent for the sins of huamity, and the sacrifice each christian is expected to undergo in order to prove one’s faith is sincere.

Just as christ “sacrificed” for every living person by being beaten, nailed to the cross and finally dying, so too is each christian required to sacrifice her/his life. This is done by denying her/himself pleasures, intellectual freedom, and even spare time (christians must spend what would otherwise be free time going to church, praying, reading scripture, and if one is a born-again, free time must be spent converting others to the faith, so that they too, can begin to sacrifice).

By committing the christian to sacrifice his/her life to christ, christianity controls the actual life via its inherent hatred of life—by convincing the christian that the afterlife should be the focus of his/her life.Life is everything christianity is not—the focus of christianity is death. If the reader comes away with nothing else in this book, then it was worth the trouble of writing and publishing it.Christianity resents life and seeks to undermine it as often as possible.Christ’s life (which may or may not have any value), pales in comparison to christ’s death.

In death is where the promise of christianity exists—or rather, doesn’t exist.All the things that provide christianity with its power stems from its hatred—or opposition, if you will—of life.

Because life is far from eternal, it is death—or the afterlife—which holds the only promise of extending one’s existence. The end of one’s existence—everything going black for an eternal cold rest--is a scary thought, and naturally, the mind entertains the possibility, that somehow, some way, he/she will live on in another form, that his/her consciousness and awareness will continue to function. (EDIT: May have to transfer this to the essay on christianity & psychology).

Just as christianity replaces life with death, it replaces the engine of man’s life, the mind, with the fictional “soul.”Christianity robs one of her/his mortality by asserting that she/he has an immortal soul.The soul magically lives on, even after physical death and brain cessation. Even though there’s not a sliver of evidence for the actual existence of any kind of soul, it’s been held in higher esteem than the mind pretty much throughout human history.

Because it exists only in the abstract, the soul is “perfect,” for the simple reason that because it does not exist in 3-dimensional reality, it is therefore is not subject to any sort of testing or observing to discover imperfections. It's akin to discovering imperfections on a talking, three-legged horse.

Unlike the mind, the soul is not subject to confusion and ill use. The soul is the device that is used to establish a tangible connection to god/christ/the afterlife.The soul is superior to the body and mind; it achieves immortality, regardless of whether it gets its ticket punched for heaven or hell.

But it was christianity that wholeheartedly embraced the hatred of life, rendering death as its primary symbol (back to the crucifix). It should be no shock that christianity is the most powerful religion in the history of humankind, because it is the ultimate culmination of what religion, and before it, spiritual concepts have always represented—the hatred of life.

This is as good a time as any to address the notion of “life,” at least in the context of this essay. “Life” isn’t just human existence, i.e., the state of being “not dead,” but also the quality of a given life.

Whether that life is led independently--or in servitude of this or that faith. Whether a life is high quality (freedom) or low quality (servitude).

Simultaneous to christianity representing a literal hatred of life (existence), it also hates the truly free and independent life—the figurative (high) 'quality of life.'

To mask its hatred of life, christianity employs a shroud. This one's not from Turin, but rather, a shroud of heaven. But, the christian heaven is naught but a fictional realm, devised by men to cajole the masses into accepting the tenents of faith in return for the reward of the eternal bliss of heaven, whether it be filled with fluffy clouds or bright spiritual light.

If posited to the average christian, he/she scoff at the notion that christianity is anti-life. Most would be offended, quite frankly, because christians generally pride themselves on being 'pro-life.'

christians would likely retort that it is islam, with its suicide bombers and plane crashing terrorists that serve as an example of a faith that's 'anti-life.' But most christians are blissfully ignorant to the fact that islam originiated as an amalgam of arab mythology, judaism...and christianity. (Many of the judaic/christian elements were stripped away when islam was subsequently rejected by jews and christians).

And what are those islamic suicide bombers anyway, but…martyrs? And it was not christianity that set the precedent for the glorification of 'martyr-dumb?' In the early years of christianity, martyrs went willingly, trading their life for some sort show of integrity for their faith. If christ could die for their sins, could they in turn refuse to die for christ?

christians, of course, will scoff at the very notion that their faith represents the literal hatred of life, especially in the context of their vehement opposition to abortion. Yet witness their equally vehement opposition to stem cell research, dramatized in the fictional opening of this essay.

Their opposition to life extension in general—as they view cloning, genetic engineering and the like as being an 'affront to a god' christians argue that they are against scientific advancements in life extension (such as stem cell) because it 'was god that created us and it is god that will call for us at the appointed time.'

We can't 'play god' christian say. But haven't they been doing it for 2000 years? Speaking god at the very least.

Just as women’s bodies exist merely as a vessel for pregnancy, all human bodies exist as vessels by which god acts. When god’s done with one of us, up (or down) we go.

The secret is, christianity opposes life extension because christianity requires death in order to exist. When christianity’s cultural grip loosens and life extension becomes a reality, physical immortality will be inevitable, and christianity will have no corner on the “spiritual realm.” Subjects such as metaphysics and spirituality will be the province of quantum theory.

The end of death will signal the end of christianity. The use of christianity as a justification for war is another literal demonstration of the religion’s hatred of life. A religion of love, a religion that loves life, would never endorse war, not even if its own existence were threatened.

Religion isn’t supposed to be some kind of invisible yet all-powerful “nation-state,” it’s supposed to be about turning the other cheek (christianity) and surrendering (islam).

As to the hatred of the quality of life, this is, ironically enough, seen in christianity’s opposition to abortion. Here the faith seeks to diminish the quality of a woman’s life, to reduce her, again, to a pregnancy vessel. Further evidence that these “pro-lifers” are nothing of the sort is that the vast majority of them tend to support the death penalty. It’s all right for the state to kill, but not the individual.(Not that abortion should be regarded as “killing” on any level).

And it is this hatred of life that has and still does impact the culture and the individual in numerous insidious ways, and that is the primary purpose for this essay and this entire book.

If it is accepted that christianity represents the hatred of life, then the obvious question to be both asked and answered is—“Why should christianity be applied to any aspect of life, including one’s one personal, private faith?”

The answer that this essay, and verily, this entire book will provide is, “It shouldn't.”

Additionally, if it can be concluded that christianity equals the hatred of life, then it must be likewise concluded that the opposition to christianity equals the love of life. (Or at the very least, a real strong platonic affection for life).

The hatred of life invariably leads to a examination of the soul.

Understanding the concept of a soul is crucial in penetrating the contradictions and fallacies of christianity because so much of the religion is based on the premise that each individual person has a soul that 'lives on' after the host body has expired.

Indeed, was it not the soul christ was saving with his sacrifice, as opposed to the mere human body?

So, what is soul?Soul is a popular form of African-American music.

It seems the biggest proponents of a soul don't really understand the true nature of a soul, if such a thing even exists.

For instance, there is the psuedoscientific claim that a human soul 'weighs' 21 grams. This is based on a dubiousIt is logically impossible for the soul to have any 'weight' as by its very nature of surviving the death of the host body, it cannot be part of physical reality, and therefore would not have a microgram of weight, let alone attain a mass of 21 grams.

If there is a soul, and it derived from some sort of 'spiritual reality,' measuring constructs such as 'mass' would not and could not apply, as a soul is obviously not governed by the laws of nature (the body dies, but the soul lives on).

Legitimate discussion of the 'soul' and such metaphysical maters are better left as the province of quantum theory.

The notion of a 'soul' has existed in one form or another ever since the dawn of the first known civilization, Sumer (now Southern Iraq). But in Sumer, the afterlife was a grim place, it did not offer a false promise of eternal salvation. That would come later.Judeo-christianity was influenced by many mythologies that preceeded it, but the top three have to be Zoroastrianism, Ancient Egypt and Mithraism.

Zoroastrianism was the first monotheistic religion to be unleashed onto the masses, and was the first to introduce the concept of the spiritual afterlife to the masses, as depicted in the second fictional section of this essay (blue text).

Ancient Egypt was the culture that venerated the afterlife like none before had even considered. It was from their mythology that the concept of a god's resurrection was first promulgated, as depicted in the first fictional section (red text).

There was a brief historical pause for a serving of sanity in Ancient Greece, where mythology served more of a cultural/psycho-social function than for any traditional religious poltical purposes. Likewise, life became the focus of life, not the afterlife/death.

But with the rise of the comparatively philosophically hollow ancient Rome, the hatred of life began to rear its ugly head once again, exemplified in such mystery religions as Mithraism.

The similarities between Mithraism and christianity are too numerous to ignore, and will be detailed in a later essay. [EDIT NOTE: I think it will be detailed in a later essay. The validity of Mithraism predating christianity has to be researched. My suspicion ] Suffice it to say, Mithraism brought back the emphasis on life/death/resurrection deification.

And then, regardless if christ really did die, escaped to France and had babies and was the basis for a secret society or never truly existed, christianity came on to the scene, subtly at first, but then gained a complete toehold on Western culture. The hatred of life was triumphant. It's hardly a coincidence that the Dark Ages followed.

The primary concern of this essay, in context of the entire book is: Will the hatred of life emerge triumphant once again? Is that where our cuture is headed, what with the religious revival in America of the new millenium?

Nobody's being naive about it, however--the hatred of life never completely went away; we still live in a culture that values death, instead of seeking to transcend it in every manner possible (through the science of life extension, by seeking a nonviolent path as an approach to personal life, opposing militarism, etc.).

These days, it's a softer, kinder, gentle christianity, not the fire and brimstone of old that warned of eternities spent in hell should god/christ be disobeyed.

christianity has resorted to modifying itself thusly due to the general climate of the culture remains one that is secular, however corporate. But I fear there are forces lurking that seek to restore the rule of religion, to reestablish the hatred of life as it was before. That is the ultimate implication of the hatred of life, and it manifests itself in so many fashions.

The christian hatred of life loomed large in the islamic wars.

It's found in a small town with smaller minded folks who won't let two men or two women live together

It's found in the private chambers of a priest when he sexually abuses an altar boy.

It's found in the whispered mentions of 'theocracy'--religious rule in America--where most freedoms once taken for granted and the quality of life in general will be greatl diminished.

Its ultimate manifestation is nestled snugly in the apocalyptic theology of holy rollers like the Crusaders. This is where the hatred of life is actively encouraged, for it is only with the fiery destruction of earth (the 'endtimes') that will result in their lord and savior returning for the second and final time.

Some readers might think the author of this work is opposed to a spiritual existence following death, and nothing could be further from the truth. While the prospect of retaining one's consciousness and memories beyond the termination of brain functions seems dubious at best, this author has no objectios to such an unlikely occurence taking place.

A philosophy known as transhumanism, that postulates a time when extremely advanced technology will facilitate human beings transcending their physical limitations of flesh and existence in a multi-dimensional quantum state that will approximate--if not surpass--a 'spiritital existence' such as is spoke of in christian texts.

The above is a life-affirming alternative to the hatred of life. It may not be everyone's choice, but it's an option other than christianity's cold finality.

Thus, one not need to die to achieve a legitimate 'spiritual existence.' Taking the death out of life is the province of science. Taking the death out of death is my expertise.

When removing the death from death spreads far beyond me and these pages, then christianity--and the hatred of life--will be rendered obsolete.

Until that time, it is a skirmish day in and day out against death, and the forces that manipulate the hatred of life.