Thoughts On Christianity

        The Bible is increasingly thought of as a mere book of myths, not to be more trusted or believed than any tall tale from our past. Christians, of course, feel the Bible to be something different; although Christians do vary in how much they believe in the Bible, all of them feel it to be a Holy book to some degree or another. Granted, the Bible has inaccuracies-it was written by humans. Yet, historians have found it to be historically in-tune with other, non-religious or non-Judeo-Christian texts. In any event, the Bible, by all accounts, is a large, complex, and often confusing text. I will here share my basic interpretation of the Bible and of the Faith it represents. I do not claim to speak for all Christians or all Jews. I claim to represent myself only.
        First off, the most basic and most important question of all: is there a God? Well, I shall try to prove, in my own way, that there is. If you are not satisfied with my proof of sorts, I am sorry. This is not an essay topic to grasp. First, something had to create the universe. The Big Bang Theory can scientifically explain how the universe may physically have been created; it cannot explain why the universe was created or what created it. There must have been a time before the first Big Bang. There had to be a first Big Bang-what existed before that? Well, the universe did not. Before the first Big Bang, there were no molecules, no energy, and no space. Nothing existed. Something had to create the very energy and mass that composes the universe. Logically, there is an error in thinking that the universe could simply come into existence. The laws of science that govern the universe would not exist before the universe itself existed. So, we cannot look to them for answers. What I am trying to say is there has to be something outside of the universe for it to have been created. Something cannot create itself. Whatever that force is, is God. I cannot fathom any explanation of the creation of the universe unless you explain what came before it and what started it. Again, whatever that force is however it works or exists, is what I call God.
        My second proof of something beyond this reality is our consciousness. We can explain the human brain as a computer of sorts, a machine. It takes in data and then formulates a reaction. Nerves and brain cells are like little gears that turn under certain stimuli and cause a reaction. This can all be explained scientifically. What cannot be explained scientifically is our consciousness. A computer has no consciousness; it does not "see," "hear," or "feel," even if it has light, sound, and pressure sensors. Again, like little gears, the computer works on input and spits out certain data to form a reaction. But, unlike humans, it does not have a window on this. Consciousness is like our ability to watch ourselves live. If this paragraph is confusing, I apologize. This concept is quite hard to describe. Take this example. We see a tree; our brain computes and recognizes the shape, the color, brings up data on trees: what they are, if they are dangerous, if we can use them for some purpose, etc. But we also "see" the tree. We could make a computer with a camera and complex coding that could identify trees and do all I said above, except that the computer could not "see" the tree as we do. It would just be a series of computations in the computer, the processor would process and spit data out to a screen or data bank. But, it is not conscious; it is just processing numbers. Our consciousness is our window into ourselves; we can see our mind working. I believe this to be our soul. Whatever consciousness is, it is our soul, however you want to describe it or think of it.
        The above to concepts are my basic proofs on the existence of God and of spirituality. I tried to explain them as best I could. I will now delve into proving the Judeo-Christian theory of God. My basic interpretation goes thusly. First, God creates the universe and the earth. We are eventually created, and for some unknown reason, we sin and fall short of God. I here digress. A natural question is "why did we sin?" I don't know. Perhaps the entire creation of the universe is part of some massive battle between good and evil that we cannot even fathom. There is an agnostic side to Christianity: I try to explain and understand what I can; yet I know there are things I can never understand. Now, back to the story. We fall short of God and soon are separated from Him. Much time goes by as we fall farther from Him. The different races and cultures develop, each with beliefs originally rooted in the original faith, but that have since grown away from Him. He then leads the hitherto minor Hebrews out of enslavement and gives them a covenant and laws to abide by. This is the first reunion with God, the Jewish one. Here humans are again brought back to God and the process of bringing all His children back to Him begins. But, for various reasons, Judaism fails to spread out into the world and bring many people back. Thus, Jesus is eventually sent to our world in the second reunion. This one proves much more successful. Here, the teaching is more in-depth and more straightforward. This new understanding of the original faith (that is, the original relationship the first humans had with God) now begins to spread.
        By 200 AD, Christianity is spreading throughout the Mediterranean and modern Middle East. But at about 400 AD it is taken by a Roman Emperor and mixed with politics. The early Christians had been extremely faithful; but at this point a fight inside of Christianity begins. The faithful fight those using Christianity for their own gains. This fight has not ended; and it is only because some still stayed faithful that a third reunion was not needed.
        Here you might say, "what of Islam?" Firstly, Jesus said not to follow false prophets, and that many such prophets would come after him. Secondly, Islam seems to contradict Judaism and Christianity. It is overly ritualized, relies far too much on violence and repression, and seems only to really work within a strict cultural framework. Women are basically property, the laws against murder and adultery seem ignored, and it does not seem universal. Basically, it seems like a political twist on the original faith to galvanize Arabs in rebellion (which it does quite well). But, I say here, I am not condemning Muslims, I am none to judge. I am giving you my best ideas on the topic. To continue my essay, I don't feel the Islam religion to be a valid continuation of the original Faith for the above-mentioned reasons.
        Now, to speak of the Ten Commandments. They all seem logical and fair to me, I don't think anyone has too many complaints about them. But, an astute reader will find after the Commandments two important things: one, that the text approves, to a degree, slavery, and two, that it allows, in some circumstances, a slave-owner to kill their slaves. This is one of the few things about the Bible that bothers me. First off, I want to say that God created the universe; whatever He says is right is right, and whatever He says is wrong is wrong, period. We humans cannot tell the creator of everything what to do or how to act. I don't think this is a hard concept to understand. But, I don't think God really approved of this part of the text. Note that this is not in the Commandments; it is in an after section that seems to have been written by humans to form a civil code (and here begins the failure of Judaism, I suppose you could say). I don't think this is a valid God-inspired part of the text; note that Jesus never condones slavery (and I think it quite clear from His teachings He would have opposed it). Other than this section of the Old Testament, I don't think there is much controversial.
        The New Testament presents Jesus, an enigmatic character by all accounts. His teachings actually seem in tune, mostly, with the standard feelings of today (at least as people say them-our actions betray our words, though). He wanted peace and love for all mankind. I don't think there is too much controversial about Him either.
        Well, that is my attempt to show my ideas on Christianity, a faith to which I belong. I may add to this essay when I have new things to discuss.