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February 25, 2006

Finding the roots of my former faith

I've written before about leaving the religion of my youth and becoming a Deist. Nevertheless, I do have a fascination with my former faith, especially its history and how its come to be what it is today.

Last week I had lunch with my friend Becky who like me, is on a constant search for her own spiritual truths. Also like me, Becky was raised in a conservative Christian home and struggled with the unyielding, unquestioning authority of her church.

During our lunch, Becky mentioned to me that she'd been researching the roots of Christianity. Specifically how Christianity seems to have swallowed up the religious and cultural tenets from the region where it germinated.

Becky emailed me some links that attempt to explain some of the roots of Christianity. I don't know how much of this is plausible or accurate--but it is interesting:

And so we have our first example of how balance is important in life. If the Sun shined brightly overhead all the time bathing us in it's wonderful light and warmth we'd just get hotter and hotter and eventually die from excessive heat. Likewise if the cold darkness of night reigned constantly supreme we'd just get colder and colder and eventually die from lack of warmth and light. Life is only good when it is in balance. We need both the day and the night. We need the constant cycling between them.

This site offers up the assertion that the spiritual "light" and "dark" stem not from God and Satan, but from man's need for balance and explanation of the day and night.

There are other discussions of geography and the stars--and how it all ties into to Christian mythology.

This cite treats Jesus as a creature of myth. His thesis appears to be backed up by all sort of historical evidence..which I haven't looked into myself yet. I'm going to forward some of this to my friend James who has studied this material at length. I trust his knowledge in this area and I'm hoping he'll give me some direction on where to study further.

Of all of the links Becky sent, this seems the one with an ax to grind. It is heavily footnoted, however. It too attempts to dispell the notion that Jesus ever existed.

I've been examining my fascination with my former faith as well. Why does it interest me? What's my motiviation for wanting more answers? I'm not entirely sure. Maybe its because I want to understand my family better...to come to terms with their beliefs that differ so much from mine.

I find myself consistently drawn to reading pieces of historical fact on the roots of the Christian religion. It comforts me somehow to believe I'm filling in the gaps that weren't given to me as a child growing up in that faith.

I've been thirsty for knowledge in this area for as long as I can remember. But I'm skeptical about what's historically correct--what material I can rely on to offer an honest look at how the Christian faith grew into what it is today.

Posted by Carla at February 25, 2006 10:30 AM