Christianity Without God

 The following was posted today (28 January 2010) on AlterNet by fellow blogger,  "christianhumanist"
I think that it is very good, and am re-posting it here, without change or addendum:

Christianity Without God   by christianhumanist

There is no serious doubt among contemporary historians regardless of their religious faith that Jesus was a real person who lived in Palestine in the First Century. Historians agree that Jesus was an itinerant Jewish teacher who traveled and taught throughout Palestine, gathering disciples around him through the force of his personality and the compelling nature of his message. There is general agreement that Jesus was perceived by the Roman occupiers of Palestine as a dangerous religious radical and a disturber of the peace in consequence of which he was arrested by the local authorities and summarily executed by the Romans by public crucifixion, the standard method used by the Romans to deal with political troublemakers.



There is considerable disagreement among historians about how much of the New Testament record can be relied upon as history in the ordinary sense in which we understand history, given the fact that a fairly long time passed from the days in which Jesus lived and taught in Palestine until the traditional stories about him and his teachings began to be collected from the oral tradition and eventually acquired their present form as the gospels of the New Testament.



It is clear from the surviving historical record that something happened following the crucifixion of Jesus that led his followers to continue his message and teachings. When their leader was arrested and executed by the Roman authorities Jesus’ followers were discouraged, disappointed and frightened. They feared for their safety as they contemplated the fact that they too might be arrested and executed. They abandoned Jesus to his fate and ran. However sometime after his arrest and crucifixion, the crushing sense of disappointment, frustration and defeat the disciples experienced at the death of their leader suddenly gave way in the face of what is called “the Easter Event.”



That “something” that “happened” after the crucifixion is described in the Gospels in mythological terms as Resurrection. We have learned to demythologize these accounts so that we can understand and interpret their significance to us. Once we get beyond the mythological language, it is clear that the disciples had a life-transforming experience that resulted in a re-ordering of their priorities and a new way of thinking about what was seriously important that led to their commitment to carry on with Jesus’ teachings.



They interpreted this life-transforming experience to mean that the spirit of Jesus did not die with him but was alive in them challenging them to continue what he had started. It was a life-transforming awareness. They understood this to mean two things: they were to model their lives after his life and they were to carry on his teaching.



Once we have worked our way through the mythological and theological baggage that has accumulated through the ages, we are left with a fundamentally important truth that those who met this itinerant teacher and who heard his teaching were sufficiently captivated by his personality and his message that they were compelled to follow him and his teaching. At its core, being a “Christian” means exactly the same thing for us as it meant to his first disciples: consciously choosing to be a follower of Jesus and his teachings. It does not necessarily involve a belief in gods so much as it involves commitment to the values of Jesus. It means to live as Jesus lived and to teach as he taught, to honor truth and show compassion, to stand with the victims of this world against their oppressors, to stand with the weak and the powerless against the abusers and the comfortably powerful, and to maintain one’s integrity no matter the cost. In short being a follower of Jesus meant then and now to be faithful to the spirit of Jesus and his teachings.

Hey Democratic Party..... Remember Us?

I don't like to dabble in politics on this blog, but our country is at a rather crucial juncture just now, and I would like to discuss some of the implications thereof. There just might possibly be a "silver lining" for the Democratic Party in its loss of Ted Kennedy's senate seat. Having "only" fifty-nine seats in the senate may be "just what the doctor ordered"; an opportunity for the Democratic Party to re-connect with its base, and to part ways with all those well-healed industry lobbyists that it has been assiduously courting on its merry way to a Health Care Bill. We shall see:

The current Democratic administration has "lost the base". In pandering to the demands of Big Money (Wall St. Bail-out) Big Insurance, and Big Pharma, it has no room on its plate for Little Old Us. If Obama wants any chance at a second term, he better mend fences with the little people, and fast. We couldn't have a Public Option (for the little guy) because the Insurance Industry objected. We can't negotiate the price of pharmaceuticals (downward) because big drug companies wouldn't like that. We could bail-out the "too big to fail", but there is no money for helping out people who are upside-down on mortgages for the house that they live in...mortgages that "made sense" before the bubble burst.. (I am not talking about sub-prime...that's a whole 'nuther problem of "fraud" that needs investigating). And there is no “stimulus/rescue program” from the Small Business Administration  that would "do something"  for the small businesses that big banks currently aren’t lending to.

So, Democratic Party, if you want to remain in office, wise-up. Pander to the voters for a change. Give us a Health Care Bill that contains only  the following:

A robust Public Option; a Medicare Buy-In for 55 and older would be nice, with a Medicaid Buy-In for the working poor, regardless of age, who make a tad too much for "free Medicaid".  And give us a Public Pharmaceuticals Option that would allow us to buy our drugs from Uncle (from the VA, perhaps?) at “big discount pricing” based on Uncle's negotiating muscle. And let us buy our drugs from Canada  if we want to.
And don't offer anything to the Insurance Industry lobbyists.

 Don't offer anything to the Pharmaceutical Industry lobbyists. Just go after “51 votes in the Senate”, forcing anyone who wants to block “People Power” to read phone books into the Congressional Record...in public...televised. Maybe then you will be deserving of re-election. In any event, the Democratic Party will have reclaimed its base.

.A Comparison of Liberal Quaker, Hindu, and Gnostic Points of View

.A Comparison of Liberal Quaker, Hindu, and Gnostic Points of View:

Liberal Quaker

.1>Liberal Quakers emphasize the Light Within.

.2>Liberal Quakers emphasize that humankind is made in the image of God

.3>Liberal Quakers see a principle of moral and spiritual purity within us

.4>Liberal Quakers take an optimistic view of human nature.

.5>Liberal Quakers believe that we can do something good and pure, free of sin
(though we also do bad things)


Hindu Vedanta is similar to the view of human nature of the liberal Quakers

1> We are guided by an Inner Light we call Atman.

2> Atman is our True Nature and It is of the same substance as Brahman (God)...
(we are essentially Divine)

3> Because we are essentially Divine, the principle of "moral and spiritual purity" abides within us

4> Hindu Vedanta has an optimistic view of human nature;

We have temporarily lost our awareness of our Divine Nature,
We can restore our Divine awareness through Faith and Effort.

Gnostic

1> Gnosticism (Like Buddhism ) begins with this fundamental recognition”
Earthly life is filled with suffering

2> Many religions advocate that humans are to be blamed for the imperfections of the world.
Gnostics have an optimistic view of human nature, responding that the blame for the world’s failings lies with the creator.(1)

3> Man mirrors the duality found in the world: in part we were made by the false creator God
and in part we consist of the light of the True God. (2)

4> We enter this world ignorant of the divine spark residing within us.(3)

5> We are spiritual beings trapped within a material world. Freedom (Salvation) from our
condition may be achieved by “knowledge” (gnosis) of what we are, where we came from, and where we are going. We are spiritual beings, sharing in the divine nature of the Pleroma (the All, the Fullness; "God") by virtue of the sparks of light that still reside within us. We came from the Pleroma, and we yearn to remember our true (divine) nature, and to be reunited with The All from whence we came.
The indwelling spark must be awakened from its terrestrial slumber by the saving knowledge that comes “from without” (4)





Notes:

(1) Many religions advocate that humans are to be blamed for the imperfections of the world.
They interpret the Genesis myth as declaring that transgressions committed by the first human pair brought about a “fall”.Gnostics respond that this interpretation of the myth is false. The blame for the world’s failings lies not with humans, but with the creator.

Since -- especially in the monotheistic religions -- the creator is God, this Gnostic position appears blasphemous, and is often viewed with dismay even by non-believers.

Once the initial shock of the “unusual” or “blasphemous” nature of the Gnostic explanation for suffering and imperfection of the world wears off, one may begin to recognize that it is in fact the most sensible of all explanations. To appreciate it fully, however, a familiarity with the Gnostic conception of the Godhead is required, both in its original essence as the True God and in its debased manifestation as the false or creator God.




Diety

The Gnostic God concept is more subtle than that of most religions. In its way, it unites and
reconciles the recognitions of Monotheism and Polytheism, as well as of Theism, Deism and
Pantheism.

In the Gnostic view, there is a true, ultimate and transcendent God, who is beyond all created universes and who never created anything in the sense in which the word “create” is ordinarily understood. While this True God did not fashion or create anything, He (or, It) “emanated” or brought forth from within Himself the substance of all there is in all the worlds, visible and invisible. In a certain sense, it may therefore be true to say that all is God, for all consists of the substance of God. By the same token, it must also be recognized that many portions of the original divine essence

(2) Human nature mirrors the duality found in the world: in part it was made by the false creator God and in part it consists of the light of the True God. Humankind contains a perishable physical and psychic component, as well as a spiritual component which is a fragment of the divine essence. This latter part is often symbolically referred to as the “divine spark”. The recognition of this dual nature of the world and of the human being has earned the Gnostic tradition the epithet of “dualist”.

(3) Human nature mirrors the duality found in the world: in part it was made by the false creator God and in part it consists of the light of the True God. Humankind contains a perishable physical and psychic component, as well as a spiritual component which is a fragment of the divine essence. This latter part is often symbolically referred to as the “divine spark”. The recognition of this dual nature of the world and of the human being has earned the Gnostic tradition the epithet of “dualist”.
Humans are generally ignorant of the divine spark resident within them. This ignorance is fostered in human nature by the influence of the false creator and his Archons, who together are intent upon keeping men and women ignorant of their true nature and destiny. Anything that causes us to remain attached to earthly things serves to keep us in enslavement to these lower cosmic rulers. Death releases the divine spark from its lowly prison, but if there has not been a substantial work of Gnosis undertaken by the soul prior to death, it becomes likely that the divine spark will be hurled back into, and then re-embodied within, the pangs and slavery of the physical world.
Not all humans are spiritual (pneumatics) and thus ready for Gnosis and liberation. Some are earthbound and materialistic beings (hyletics), who recognize only the physical reality. Others live largely in their psyche (psychics). Such people usually mistake the Demiurge for the True God and have little or no awareness of the spiritual world beyond matter and mind.


Salvation
(4) Evolutionary forces alone are insufficient, however, to bring about spiritual freedom. Humans are caught in a predicament consisting of physical existence combined with ignorance of their true origins, their essential nature and their ultimate destiny. To be liberated from this predicament, human beings require help, although they must also contribute their own efforts.
From earliest times Messengers of the Light have come forth from the True God in order to assist humans in their quest for Gnosis. Only a few of these salvific figures are mentioned in Gnostic scripture; some of the most important are Seth (the third Son of Adam), Jesus, and the Prophet Mani. The majority of Gnostics always looked to Jesus as the principal savior figure (the Soter).
Gnostics do not look to salvation from sin (original or other), but rather from the ignorance of which sin is a consequence. Ignorance -- whereby is meant ignorance of spiritual realities -- is dispelled only by Gnosis, and the decisive revelation of Gnosis is brought by the Messengers of Light, especially by Christ, the Logos of the True God. It is not by His suffering and death but by His life of teaching and His establishing of mysteries that Christ has performed His work of salvation.
The Gnostic concept of salvation, like other Gnostic concepts, is a subtle one. On the one hand, Gnostic salvation may easily be mistaken for an unmediated individual experience, a sort of spiritual do-it-yourself project. Gnostics hold that the potential for Gnosis, and thus, of salvation is present in every man and woman, and that salvation is not vicarious but individual. At the same time, they also acknowledge that Gnosis and salvation can be, indeed must be, stimulated and facilitated in order to effectively arise within consciousness. This stimulation is supplied by Messengers of Light who, in addition to their teachings, establish salvific mysteries (sacraments) which can be administered by apostles of the Messengers and their successors.
One needs also remember that knowledge of our true nature -- as well as other associated realizations -- are withheld from us by our very condition of earthly existence. The True God of transcendence is unknown in this world, in fact He is often called the Unknown Father. It is thus obvious that revelation from on High is needed to bring about salvation. The indwelling spark must be awakened from its terrestrial slumber by the saving knowledge that comes “from without”.

Sources from which I borrowed heavily for this article:
the Gnosis Archive
and select forum postings from  the Universal Life Church (U.K.)
forum, with a hat-tip to "Pete" and "Hermano Luis"
ULC-UK Forum