24 December 1998, 861 words
Tomorrow, Christians around the world will mark the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, who was probably born sometime between March and May. You'd think that Christians would want to celebrate their Saviour's birthday some time around the time when he was actually born. But the date wasn't chosen because it was accurate, but because the early Christians were trying to convert the pagans who marked several agricultural and mid-winter solar observations in December. The Roman feast of Saturnalia, which consisted of merry-making and gift-giving, was celebrated on December 17, while December 25 was viewed as the birthdate of the Iranian mystery god, Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness.
This is not surprising. Jesus claimed to be the Truth, but his followers frequently disregard the truth when it is to their advantage to do so. That is why people follow the injunctions of the Church rather than Jesus, who preached that you should give your possessions to the poor, not fight, not go to church, and not judge. Nobody ever got into power that way. Indeed, when Franciscan friars once attempted to teach the doctrine of apostolic poverty, the Pope immediately condemned them and declared their doctrine heretical. This is also not surprising: after all, the Vatican got its power and wealth through a bald-faced lie.
In the eighth century, Rome was a centre of political and military conquests and Popes had to obey the emperors. Pepin the Short, who ascended to the throne in 751 AD, needed Pope Stephen to legitimize his title as king. In return, Pepin bestowed Ravenna and all territory to the Pope. In order to give apparent legality to Pepin's gift, churchmen forged a document purporting to be a decree issued by the Emperor Constantine (312-337 AD.), who had made Christianity an official religion of the then-crumbling Roman empire (hence the term Roman Catholic Church). This document claimed that, when New Rome was founded, Constantine had bestowed upon the Pope Old Rome and all its western territories. That fictitious bestowal became the basis of the Pope's political power and was accepted throughout the Middle Ages. The document wasn't discovered to be a forgery until 1439, by which time the Church was immensely powerful.
Christianity, like all other religions save the early brand of Islam practised during Europe's Dark Ages and liberal Judaism, has always been based on a culture which rejects fact. Nearly all scientific and social progress in the Western hemisphere in the past five centuries has come about in spite of the Catholic Church. Galileo was publicly condemned by the Inquisition in 1632, after which he recanted and promised never again to say the Earth either rotated or revolved. Rene Descartes, the father of modern philosophy, never published Le Monde because it contained two heretical doctrines: that the universe was infinite and the Earth rotated. (The leaders of the Catholic Church were apparently terrified of of a moving Earth back in those days.) Although he was a practising Catholic, Descartes had to flee to Holland to escape persecution. Holland, being Protestant, was about the only safe haven in the 17th century for philosophers who were persecuted because of their ideas. Thomas Hobbes had his books published there; John Locke lived there for some years; and Spinoza wouldn't have been able to work anywhere else in Europe. (Of course, the Protestant tolerance was impelled partly by a desire to shaft the Catholic Church as much as possible.)
This persecution was not merely an academic issue. The Church's intellectual bigotry walked hand in hand with its opposition to social progress. It did little to prevent the genocide of Amerindians in the New World; it opposed the abolition of slavery and equal rights for women; and it did nothing to prevent the Holocaust in World War Two. There were even Popes who opposed the prevention of cruelty to animals and the teaching of grammar. Whatever enlightenment and tolerance the Church now practises has come about because of the efforts of Freethinkers (the antediluvian term for agnostics and atheists.)
Nor has the Church learned any lessons from its history: it still categorizes women as second-class; is intolerant of homosexuality; and opposes birth control. And the correlation between religion, irrationality and social inequity remains clear: Brazil, 90 percent Catholic, has one of the hemisphere's highest number of street children and illiteracy rates; India, where Hindusim is a way of life rather than just a religion, ranks 138th of175 countries in the UNDP development index; and the United States, which has the greatest number of fundamentalist Christians of all industrialized countries, also the highest murder rate of all industrialized countries.
There is not necessarily a causal link in all this. But the history of all theocracies clearly shows that when a society embraces a belief system whose details are essentially myth and whose axioms decry analytical thought, the consequences to individuals and minorities are usually pernicious. Religious leaders always claim that their goals are entirely spiritual. But there is frequently a political element - i.e. a desire for power - in their religion. That political element was the real reason Christmas was invented: thank God that nowadays it's just a commercial event.
Copyright ©1998 Kevin Baldeosingh