Jesus Christ: The biggest lie ever told
Biblical scholar Joseph Atwill says the Jesus story
is an invention – so will his theory help free LGBT people from
religious oppression?
Jesus Christ? It is the biggest lie ever told.
This is what controversial American biblical scholar Joseph Atwill thinks about the ‘son of God’ who is said to have created the first Christian communities.
Atwill, who wrote a book ‘Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus’ will be in the United Kingdom this weekend for a conference in Holborn, central London.
According to the US professor, the story of Jesus Christ was invented by the Caesars as propaganda to control and enslave the poor, who were threatening the stability of the Roman Empire.
In evidence, he says there are striking similarities between the story of the Emperor Titus told by the historian Josephus and the Gospels, claiming the latter was based on the former.
And he points out the Emperor Constantine, who introduced Christianity to the empire, also brought into law the feudal system, where peasants became little better than slaves to rich overlords. The system thrived during the Medieval era in Europe and traces of it survive to this day.
Constantine is considered a Christian hero, but those laws demonstrate he was really an evil tyrant.
If Atwill’s evidence is correct, the Catholic and Protestant Churches, and the whole of Christianity, which has caused so much pain to the LGBT community all over the world, would be founded on a lie.
On Saturday (19 October), Atwill will present his theory in London.
‘Christianity may be considered a religion, but it was actually developed and used as a system of mind control to produce slaves that believed God decreed their slavery,’ he says.
And his book, which is set to become a bestseller, will be launched in the UK as well.
The news made the headlines in Italy, where the LGBT community is mostly made of atheist or anti-Church men and women.
Commenting on the news, which appeared on the online edition of the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, dozens of LGBT people said gays and lesbians had been cheated for centuries.
A reader wrote: ‘I’ve already known, my priest is a liar.’ Another added:‘Now LGBT people can raise their voices. The church is a fraud.’
Atwill’s theory is one of the many Bible conspiracy theories. According to these theories, secret societies, mystery schools and other religions created the story of Jesus Christ in order to have one state religion only.
It is unlikely any of them will lead to the immediate dismanteling of the Christian churches.
And even if the Jesus story was a partial or entire invention, it doesn’t necessarily question the central belief of people of faith – that there is a benign deity and we should love our neighbors.
But it may free people to accept those parts of the Bible which are well fitted to modern society and question or reject the dogma used to persecute millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other people around the world.
This is what controversial American biblical scholar Joseph Atwill thinks about the ‘son of God’ who is said to have created the first Christian communities.
Atwill, who wrote a book ‘Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus’ will be in the United Kingdom this weekend for a conference in Holborn, central London.
According to the US professor, the story of Jesus Christ was invented by the Caesars as propaganda to control and enslave the poor, who were threatening the stability of the Roman Empire.
In evidence, he says there are striking similarities between the story of the Emperor Titus told by the historian Josephus and the Gospels, claiming the latter was based on the former.
And he points out the Emperor Constantine, who introduced Christianity to the empire, also brought into law the feudal system, where peasants became little better than slaves to rich overlords. The system thrived during the Medieval era in Europe and traces of it survive to this day.
Constantine is considered a Christian hero, but those laws demonstrate he was really an evil tyrant.
If Atwill’s evidence is correct, the Catholic and Protestant Churches, and the whole of Christianity, which has caused so much pain to the LGBT community all over the world, would be founded on a lie.
On Saturday (19 October), Atwill will present his theory in London.
‘Christianity may be considered a religion, but it was actually developed and used as a system of mind control to produce slaves that believed God decreed their slavery,’ he says.
And his book, which is set to become a bestseller, will be launched in the UK as well.
The news made the headlines in Italy, where the LGBT community is mostly made of atheist or anti-Church men and women.
Commenting on the news, which appeared on the online edition of the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, dozens of LGBT people said gays and lesbians had been cheated for centuries.
A reader wrote: ‘I’ve already known, my priest is a liar.’ Another added:‘Now LGBT people can raise their voices. The church is a fraud.’
Atwill’s theory is one of the many Bible conspiracy theories. According to these theories, secret societies, mystery schools and other religions created the story of Jesus Christ in order to have one state religion only.
It is unlikely any of them will lead to the immediate dismanteling of the Christian churches.
And even if the Jesus story was a partial or entire invention, it doesn’t necessarily question the central belief of people of faith – that there is a benign deity and we should love our neighbors.
But it may free people to accept those parts of the Bible which are well fitted to modern society and question or reject the dogma used to persecute millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other people around the world.
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