What was Jesus then?

[Humble Janitor]

George Carlin said it best about religion. While I don't have the exact quote, he compared people who believe in God to people who believe in Extraterrestrial Life.

Pastors, Reverends and Popes are revered by society. People who believe in God are respected.

Ufologists, contactees and general believers of extraterrestrial life are shunned, ridiculed and dismissed as quacks.

It doesn't make sense to me. There's plenty of photos of UFOs but no photos of God.

Shouldn't it be the other way around? Or perhaps are they one and the same?

[Mystica]

Originally Posted by 100thmonkey

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My hypothesis doesn't exclude yours, however yours makes christianity redundant.

It is possible to follow that third principle without Jesus, to love our Creator without christianity, without the bible, etc.
All the bible story does is add those first two elements... the implied 'or else'.

I'm all for finding the truth within, as were the gnostics.
The original man behind the Jesus story, whatever his name/form/purpose really was, as revered by gnostics, has been hijacked by the man-wranglers into what we see today.

It's the version of Jesus pushed by the bible that has created an 'anti-christ'.

It is likely that the Roman church was either created (or hijacked by individuals) to control the masses. Jesus showed disdain for organized religion and warned repeatedly of it.

There is abundant evidence that Jesus lived, taught and influenced many. There isn't any evidence that he was a story created by the Roman Empire. In the same manner as politics today, the Romans used his story to their own ends.

True Christianity is not learned in a church and is anything but redundant.

In a sense, it isn't any different than following this New Age Guru or that Eastern philosphy. For that matter it isn't any different than believing in the 100th monkey theory. We all choose the path we take. Unfotunately some paths are dead ends.

Originally Posted by End_Times012

George Carlin said it best about religion. While I don't have the exact quote, he compared people who believe in God to people who believe in Extraterrestrial Life.

Pastors, Reverends and Popes are revered by society. People who believe in God are respected.

Ufologists, contactees and general believers of extraterrestrial life are shunned, ridiculed and dismissed as quacks.

It doesn't make sense to me. There's plenty of photos of UFOs but no photos of God.

Shouldn't it be the other way around? Or perhaps are they one and the same?

I don't take advice on my faith from comedians - but his point about them being one and the same is close. Sure would make it easy if Adam and Eve had cameras. But if it was easy, it wouldn't be worthwhile.

[milk and honey]

From the horses mouth,

http://www.askrealjesus.com/index.html

[Humble Janitor]

Originally Posted by Mystica

I don't take advice on my faith from comedians - but his point about them being one and the same is close.

That wasn't his point. That was my question. I should have clarified. Great man who was more than just a comedian.

[Majorion]

Originally Posted by Humble Janitor

It doesn't make sense to me. There's plenty of photos of UFOs but no photos of God.

Shouldn't it be the other way around? Or perhaps are they one and the same?

HJ, it all depends on how you define God.

Some people believe that the Universe is God, and we have plenty of pictures there. Some people believe that God can be seen all around us in that 'mother earth' or 'Gaia' is God. Personally, I happen to believe that many religions were inspired by and came from extraterrestrials. Of course no one knows for certain, but its an explanation that in my estimation -- holds more water than the explanation about an actual deity.

Putting religions and the thousand different belief systems aside, I think the only real God is a force all encompassing and timeless and something/someone so unfathomable to our minds, it's almost pointless dwelling on the matter for too long.

Here's something else to think about:

Foundationism (not to be confused with the school of philosophy called foundationalism), is a fictional religion invented by J. Michael Straczynski for his science fiction television show, Babylon 5. Foundationism appeared on Earth around the year 2157 in response to contact with other intelligent species in the universe. Dr. Franklin explains that "the idea behind the Foundation is that to get back to the roots of all the Earth religions, get past the doctrines to the core of each belief system to find out what they have in common. And they've got a lot more in common than you think. It's just when politics and money and nationalism get in the way that things get a little messed up." He also explains that Foundationists believe that "The closer you get to defining God, the further away it gets."

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