Embedded here is a MythVision podcast entitled “Goodbye to Christianity.” Unironically ironically, perhaps we may say “Hello to Christianity.”
I watched most of this, and I’m probably not going to re-watch it. But somewhere in this video the host Lambert says “the strong survive” is technically incorrect and it should be “the adaptive survive.” And we see this with the Christian religion itself, and why it is a mashup of European Paganism mixed with Judaism. The religion itself adapted in order to survive.
What I find over and over again, is that every time people take a deep dive into the Jesus Christ rabbit hole, they never come back with a “Eureka!” moment. The closer you look at the Bible, or the closer you look into the historicity of the whole thing, the more frustrating it is and the more confounding it is. More and more it appears there is no literal historicity of the Bible anywhere. Moses, Solomon, Jesus – you’re going to need more good luck than lottery winnings will allow you to buy if you want to prove their historicity.
It begs the question… what is happening here? People think that you need a high IQ in order to survive. In actuality, you don’t. In fact the truth is, if your IQ is too high, you may actually have a very difficult time ADAPTING. And only the adaptive survive. So what is happening with the Christians who are presented with things like doublets or contradictions in the Bible and yet still remain Christian instead of leaving Christianity? They are adapting. And what is happening with the Christians who are presented with doublets and contradictions and decide to leave Christianity? They are not-adapting. Does this mean they are “maladaptive”? This, I do not know. In fact there is probably not enough data to show whether Christian expats adapt and survive. And by “survive” I mean, “continue to propagate the species” and/or get married, have children and raise them that so that in turn their children may have children, live happily ever after, repeat, etc. Dr. Edward Dutton believes he has data that shows people “high in religiousness” are more adaptive, but times are changing rapidly.
And when I thought about this, I had my own “Eureka!” moment. Bible stories were only stories meant to gift people with a moral compass and a moral code. It was never about the literalism. These stories were just tools that people could use to survive in their own life. If you happen to have a moral compass and a moral code, congratulations. Maybe you got it with the Bible, or maybe you already had enough morality in your DNA you didn’t need a Bible. Morality is just a thing you either understand or you don’t. Further, moral clarity probably improves with age, especially after your teenage hormones drift away.
Predictably, towards the end of the video, the host and guest allege that “European Paganism is liberal” and “white supremacy is bad.” The latter of which I think is in perfect alignment with Christianity, so the apple didn’t completely lose sight of the tree from which it fell.
My eureka moment was followed by another eureka moment, regarding the Bigfoot Question. Isn’t it amazing how serious people can spend so much time, energy, and effort trying to marry their lives to the Jesus Puzzle only to come away ultimately fruitless and broken hearted? Whereas, I believe that with not even 1/4 of the time, energy, and effort throwing themselves into the Bigfoot Question or UFO Question they would come back with many, incredibly significant and compelling fruits. It definitely begs the question as to whether or not the Jesus Puzzle is really a mean-hearted conspiracy or not. It’s kind of not-funny to make so many serious people so broken-hearted. But, I think it’s possible that wasn’t the intention. I think it’s possible that main driver was to give people a sense of morality. The stories are just stories, and maybe it’s a little more obvious that they’re just stories once you look into something paranormal and get results.
Interestingly of course, often times discovering the paranormal can be a negative experience and can certainly throw people back into the arms of Jesus Christ to rid themselves of the negative paranormal encounters. So many people can feel religiously boxed in. I think that’s probably quite troubling for anybody that that happens to. Regardless, I don’t think negative paranormalisms prove Biblical historicity by academic standards. In a recent Mysterious Universe episode, one of the hosts said if Christian exorcism tools work, then by all means use them. “If it’s not broken don’t fix it.”
Sometimes I wonder “why” or “how” the Christian tools work to rid evil spirits. The cross, for example. Jews recognize that the Christian cross kind of doubles as a “plus sign” to where anti-Christian Jews will utilize ‘﬩’ in mathematics instead of ‘+’. What is plus and minus other than positive and negative? Religion is supposed to be positive. Evil is supposed to be negative. Thus, waving a cross around is merely using a rudimentary symbol that represents positivity. And evil dislikes positivity the way anybody in a bad mood doesn’t want to be around somebody who’s in a good mood. Maybe it’s that simple. Even if Jesus died on the cross, he still died on a symbol of positivity. Anybody anywhere who has had to have a positive attitude for more than 24 hours knows that it’s very tiring work. Jesus dies on the plus sign and yet rises again, so he represents eternal positivity. So I guess it doesn’t matter if you use a blank cross or a crucifix. Lol, I’m just spitballin’ here, I don’t know the real reason why waving a cross around works against evil. I digress.
My ultimate point is that Bible stories are just stories, and you shouldn’t get all maladaptive about them. I don’t call myself Christian because it hurts my brain the same way it hurts other thinking-people’s brains. But I’m a willing ally towards any Christian who I think has a legitimate moral compass and moral code. Christianity will continue to adapt and survive, and so will I. Nobody has to trip out anymore. We can all relax. Eureka!