It's hard for us at this point in the development of our society to get our minds and hearts around the meaning of Easter. We are, even in the USA, becoming less religious in the full sense of the term. Religion is something that we bind ourselves to, an overall framework that anchors our life. Christians should understand that Easter is central to their religion--here Jesus Christ after a horrible death rises out of his tomb to hang out and further instruct his disciples--being born is cool and all that but the drama is in death and resurrection because Jesus defeated death just as spring defeats the winter and life is renewed. Certainly, Easter is much less of a big deal these days.
The question is did the events surrounding Jesus really happen? To those who live by the mythological framework that is conventional Christianity they believe that yes the story is true. Many in my part of the world (the South) believe that every word in the Bible is not only inerrant but literally true--none of this is a metaphor or symbolic or mythical it's as true as waking up in the morning. Believers must believe all this or, as some have said, the whole story falls apart and, therefore, the whole framework of life. But I don't think most Christians really believe that the events in the Bible are literally true--it's just that they must believe it and it makes them feel really good to "believe" because certainty is calming--you have a good framework, millions of people, your family, your friends all believe in the framework whether it is actually true or not doesn't matter that much unless you are really serious about your life, spirituality and truth. Or, maybe you are serious about all those things but need a safe psychological "space" to explore from.
Thinking that highly religious people are stupid or deluded is not very smart--in many way we ought to envy them their certainty and communities. they don't have to think so hard about everything, they don't have to think as much about structure or always be on the lookout for something new. The only major problem I have with Christianity is the idea of Hell. To think that a loving God would send people into punishment that lasts forever is ugly at best and psychotic or even evil at worst. We punish people in order to correct them--once they have gone to Hell what good will punishment do--they have no opportunity to change. In Tibetan Buddhism they believe in various "hell realms" that you experience and grow out of--it's not permanent it's just there to refine souls. Besides, how is it possible that eternity is "in" time--that is endless time. Eternity is not in time--it is a dimension outside of time and so the concept is entirely foreign to me. I've experienced heaven and hell and I believe they are states of being not real estate locations. Besides, the dominant Christian story just doesn't follow from the actual scripture. Still, the certainty Christianity brings people seems to work and convincing them to get of that train is pointless. Some just leave and then come to people like me to give them a different sort of framework.
This brings me to the fact that many people are convinced that human beings primarily are moved by facts, by truth, by logic. I've never found this to be the case regardless of ethnicity, social class, education or anything else. Social science backs this up by findings that indicate that most people once they take hold of a point of view will stick to it despite new information that contradicts that view. From an evolutionary point of view this makes sense--the most important adaptation strategy for human beings is to be a social animal--that was our advantage over competitors--we could function in groups thus we kept to our group, it's mores and its stories and myths because these things hold human communities together. This may be why there's an increasing sense of panic in our culture--we lack these common stories and even those stories we tend to share, somehow, they change so quickly and move the focus of concern constantly.
So, whether we think its a good thing or a bad thing it is mythology that is the primary motivator and not truth. Without frameworks you cannot create or build anything whether it is physical or metaphysical. We cannot live without them. My own framework is based on the Western Humanist tradition which includes, for me spirituality at its center--for me this spirituality is based in Christianity because that is the framework I grew up in--but I've re-interpreted it as something that is connected to what Aldous Huxley called the "Perennial Philosophy" which is the framework of the saints and mystics across religious traditions and cultures.
The question is did the events surrounding Jesus really happen? To those who live by the mythological framework that is conventional Christianity they believe that yes the story is true. Many in my part of the world (the South) believe that every word in the Bible is not only inerrant but literally true--none of this is a metaphor or symbolic or mythical it's as true as waking up in the morning. Believers must believe all this or, as some have said, the whole story falls apart and, therefore, the whole framework of life. But I don't think most Christians really believe that the events in the Bible are literally true--it's just that they must believe it and it makes them feel really good to "believe" because certainty is calming--you have a good framework, millions of people, your family, your friends all believe in the framework whether it is actually true or not doesn't matter that much unless you are really serious about your life, spirituality and truth. Or, maybe you are serious about all those things but need a safe psychological "space" to explore from.
Thinking that highly religious people are stupid or deluded is not very smart--in many way we ought to envy them their certainty and communities. they don't have to think so hard about everything, they don't have to think as much about structure or always be on the lookout for something new. The only major problem I have with Christianity is the idea of Hell. To think that a loving God would send people into punishment that lasts forever is ugly at best and psychotic or even evil at worst. We punish people in order to correct them--once they have gone to Hell what good will punishment do--they have no opportunity to change. In Tibetan Buddhism they believe in various "hell realms" that you experience and grow out of--it's not permanent it's just there to refine souls. Besides, how is it possible that eternity is "in" time--that is endless time. Eternity is not in time--it is a dimension outside of time and so the concept is entirely foreign to me. I've experienced heaven and hell and I believe they are states of being not real estate locations. Besides, the dominant Christian story just doesn't follow from the actual scripture. Still, the certainty Christianity brings people seems to work and convincing them to get of that train is pointless. Some just leave and then come to people like me to give them a different sort of framework.
This brings me to the fact that many people are convinced that human beings primarily are moved by facts, by truth, by logic. I've never found this to be the case regardless of ethnicity, social class, education or anything else. Social science backs this up by findings that indicate that most people once they take hold of a point of view will stick to it despite new information that contradicts that view. From an evolutionary point of view this makes sense--the most important adaptation strategy for human beings is to be a social animal--that was our advantage over competitors--we could function in groups thus we kept to our group, it's mores and its stories and myths because these things hold human communities together. This may be why there's an increasing sense of panic in our culture--we lack these common stories and even those stories we tend to share, somehow, they change so quickly and move the focus of concern constantly.
So, whether we think its a good thing or a bad thing it is mythology that is the primary motivator and not truth. Without frameworks you cannot create or build anything whether it is physical or metaphysical. We cannot live without them. My own framework is based on the Western Humanist tradition which includes, for me spirituality at its center--for me this spirituality is based in Christianity because that is the framework I grew up in--but I've re-interpreted it as something that is connected to what Aldous Huxley called the "Perennial Philosophy" which is the framework of the saints and mystics across religious traditions and cultures.
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