Yes I do, but not exactly as the bible tells us.

I believe there was a man named Jesus who lived about 2000 years ago. I believe he was wise, visionary, good-hearted, charismatic, intelligent, and I believe he had a particular bent for helping people and his countrymen – I think maybe he was very proud to be a Judian. I think he used these qualities and skills to create what we now call Christianity. He not only talked the talk, but he walked the walk – he was certainly a leader.

People around him couldn’t help but to admire him and soak up all he said and did. These were very repressed days under tight rule of the Roman Empire and people needed a leader (or maybe a saviour). People elevated Jesus and wrote about him and told stories about him, and the more people heard and saw, the more it happened. This obviously threatened the power strong-hold that Pontius Pilate had over the empire, and as a ruler does when this happens, Pontius Pilot removed the threat. He executed Jesus.

Did Jesus reappear and ascend to heaven? Who knows? I don’t think so. But it made for a cool story, and that story was added to the growing stories of Jesus. This made Jesus ‘supernatural’, and unique – now that’s a pretty good strategy to further your cause, don’t you think? Of course these stories were collated into the bible – and the bible remains the best-selling book on the market today – over 2000 years later. Somebody did a really good marketing job here, no doubt.

Of course the bible has undergone many ‘re-drafts’ and each different ‘church’ has it’s own interpretation and version of the bible. So we now have different accounts of the bible, and different beliefs about what it actually means – sometimes, very different. Did Jesus create these different opposing views on the same stories, and segregate them into different bibles? Did he require different churches to teach different beliefs? Sounds a bit odd to me. You see, what is likely, is that, because Christianity had become so popular, rulers around the world had to embrace it – I’m sure if they were able to, they would have just ignored it – they had their own agendas. But the movement was too big. They needed to embrace it, but at the same time, they needed to influence it with ‘their own’ beliefs. It was the perfect way to deal with it. In short, they just altered the bible to suit themselves, and that is why today we have different versions and different accounts of the same stories, for different churches. Add to this, the fact that two people can read the same passage or verse in the same bible and interpret it differently. Stories in the bible make for great reading and are good thought provokers, but you can glean from it whatever you want.

So we have a situation where a good powerful man in a repressed society was influential and was promoted to become supernatural. Both, the poor communication links of the time, and the need for rulers to ‘control’ their dominance, lead to a distortion of the only account of this great man, and his beliefs – the bible.

Today of course, most Christian religions believe that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. Pretty amazing really, that one mortal can become three supernaturals, but it appears to be the populous belief among followers. I’m not so sure about that. I believe there is a God however, but I believe that person is actually, more rightly, the man called Jesus. I believe he exists because of our belief in the version of the bible we read, and our personal interpretation of that version. I think the man is actually dead, but he lives on in our belief, so to many people he is very much alive and with us. I think Jesus, who may have even proclaimed to die for our eternal sins, is the person I know of as God. And, hey isn’t it great that no matter what us mortals do wrong, we don’t have to worry too much, because Jesus picks up the responsibility and shoulders our sins – what a nice guy. How convenient is that?

And will Jesus return to assess our suitability to enter his kingdom, or burn in hell? Well of course he is not going to return – he’s dead – get it? But I have to tell you, there is nothing like a good scare campaign to get people to do as you want them to, particularly when you are threatening them with eternal condemnation.

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