We often hear the refrain that were it not for the gods we would be living like animals or savages. But if we were to examine the history of many of the gods we would see that the gods were fighting each other including siblings and parents for power and glory.
Thus among the Greek gods the Titans were the most prominent and they were kings and they dispossessed their own fathers by unfair means to gain power. Of these Zeus or Jupiter had married his own sister Rhea and the two of them together got their father Cronus drunk and imprisoned him in a cave and took over the crown. It may have been this example that Aurangazeb followed when he imprisoned his own father Shahjahan in order to usurp the throne.
The above-said Cronus, Zeus's father, who is depicted with a harpe, scythe or a sickle, which was the instrument he used to castrate and depose Uranus, his own father. Uranus' sex organs were thrown into the sea where the semen frothed up and from this was born a goddess whose name I do not remember. This reminds one of the Mahabharath stories wherein a Rishi seeing a beautiful woman bathing in the river masturbates or ejaculates into the river and the semen is swallowed by a fish which gives birth to Satyavathi. As a young woman Satyavati met the wandering rishi (sage) Parashara, who fathered her son Vyasa out of wedlock.
Sanghis scoff at the Semitic religions for their violence. But how peaceful were the Vedic societies compared to the Semitic ones?
According to Hindu Mythology Kashyap was Brahma's son and he had many wives most of whom were daughters of Dhaksha Prajapati. Two of these wives were Khaksha and Aditi and the former's sons were the Devas and the latter's sons were the Assuras. So the Devas and Assuras were half-brothers; but fought each other from birth by both fair and foul means - foul means such as Vaman banishing Mahabali by treachery only because the latter was an Assura.
According to Zoroastrian version of much the same story the Assuras are the good ones while the Devaas are the wicked ones. Obviously the Vedic people have descended from Kasyap through Khaksha while the Persians or the Avestans descended from Kahsyap through Aditi.
Then there is Manu the law-giver. He had many wives and many children like Kashyap. But Manu's laws and ethics do not seem to have influenced his sons 60 of whom were murdered by their own brothers in fraticidal wars
Then there is the Mahabharath war between cousins which if true ended up in the biggest genocide the world has seen or will ever see, all this over a few hectares of land.
Abraham is the ultimate patriarch as far as the Semitic religions are concerned and what does he do? He pimps off his wife Sarah to the Egyptian King (Genesis 12) and then to King Abimelech of Gerar (Genesis 20) for huge rewards in cash and in kind.
The great thinker Thomas Paine said of the Bible
The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed. [The Theological Works of Thomas Paine]
Every phrase and circumstance (of the Bible) are marked with the barbarous hand of superstitious torture, and forced into meanings it was impossible they could have. The head of every chapter, and the top of every page, are blazoned with the names of Christ and the Church, that the unwary reader might suck in the error before he began to read. [Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, p.131]
The declaration which says that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children is contrary to every principle of moral justice. [Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason]
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel. [Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason]
There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice..... [Thomas Paine]
Much the same can be said of most religious myths which stay alive and influence us today even after thousands of years only because of the superstitious fear of the consequences arising from questioning the myths like any rational being should, a fear that has been drummed into us from childhood by millions of times of repetitions at an age when we are not in a position to distinguish fact from fiction and corn from the chaff.
--Regards
Myth Buster
"All new ideas good or bad, great or small start with a one-man minority" - anonymous www.keralites.net          |
Posted by: Xavier William <varekatx@gmail.com>
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