Saturday, August 18, 2007

Why "Mr. Serpent"?
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It's an homage to the serpent in the "Abrahamic Tradition" i.e. the Judeo-Christian-Muslim idea of the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were "sinless" and little more than dumb animals who didn't understand what good and evil were. As I read the stories (especially in the bible's Genesis 3) of Adam, Eve, and the serpent, its apparent to me that the serpent was a liberator, not a liar and deceiver as it is portrayed by Judeo-Christians. ("The serpent" isn't in the Koran, but he is in other extra-Koran literature).

Christian rhetoric includes talk of Jesus being "the keys to the kingdom", and 'god' being "the king" and heaven "the kingdom" and Christians being "his special chosen people" and "the elect" that were predestined to be chosen to go to heaven even before the foundation of the world, which of course means that everyone else was predestined to go to hell/Hades/lake of fire/spiritual death/cast into the pit or abyss/or absent from 'god'. (Choose your favorite form of 'god' torture from the list).

"He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." ~ Ephesians 1:4-5

"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." ~ 2 Timothy 1:9

These are classic examples of delusions of grandeur.

If one gives a critical and literal reading of Genesis 3, one will easily understand why Judeo-Christian theology has created all sorts of sophistry and vapid apologetics regarding the story of "the fall" of mankind. Christians would have us believe that A&E knew it was not good to disobey 'god' BEFORE they knew what good and evil were. They would have us believe that A&E knew that it was immoral to disobey 'god' before their "eyes were opened" unto the truth. However, morality requires moral choice and moral choice requires knowledge of good and evil.

No, its apparent that A&E were persuaded to listen to 'god' because they were REALLY (within the context of the story) threatened with death, not some vague nuanced punshment that we, even in all our modern sophistication cannot make sense of even today. No doubt the dumb-animal minded A&E pre-fall would not understand "death" that is not really death. Judeo-Christians can't even agree which "not really death that day" version they want to tout. Is it that A&E became mortal that day and will die someday, or is it "spiritual death", i.e falling out of favor with 'god'? No, for reasons noted in the previous paragraph, it's obvious that this borrowed and "tweeked" myth was about people threatened with literal death should they disobey. The serpent, being wise, didn't tell a lie, it told the illicit truth, and 'god' was busted in telling a fib. (Hence the reason for the apologetic acrobatics. Christians wish to believe that their 'god' doesn't lie, even though there are verses in the bible that says he does.)

What the serpent was "guilty" of was telling "the woman" (that no one had bothered to give a name to yet) that, having freewill, she had a choice and could choose to pursue truth rather than remain a slave to the will of 'god'.

I see this as the "moral of the story" and even a synopsis of Judeo-Christianity as a whole. The gist of the story is that if you pursue what is true and it goes against the will of 'god', then he's going to mess you up and punish you. If you "have faith" and just ignore and pretend to not notice that things don't add up, you can stay in the gilded cage of paradise and remain chattel to a dictator that threatens to punish those that disobey his commands by burning them or giving them one or more of the punishments listed in the 'god'-punishments list noted earlier.

And what of "paradise" in heaven? It's explained as being much the same. Everyone in heaven must kowtow to 'god', tell him how wonderful and groovy he is all the time, fly around singing "holy, holy holy", OR one gets banished from heaven, "fall" from grace and eventually burned in hell and destroyed. Heaven is described as a pre-civil war deep south American slave plantation in the sky. If "Tobe" steps out of line and doesn't do the will of Master, he'll be severely punished, tortured and possibly destroyed. To say that 'god' allows Christians to exercise freewill is as ludicrous as suggesting that African American slaves were free when they could choose to serve as a slave or be tortured, mutilated or destroyed if they didn't.

'god'/YHWH/Allah does not tolerate any expression of freewill within the Judeo-Christian-Islam context. One must renounce freewill and adopt an attitude of slavery to the will of 'god' instead. If one doesn't do this, then one is "sinning" and will suffer eternal torment by one or more of the 'god'-tortures previously listed.

Christians don't have freewill, working within the context of Christianity, they have the opportunity to ABDICATE their own freewill in deference to the will of 'god', just as any slave would.

I'll leave you with some words from the horses mouth; the so-called "word(s) of 'god'" itself.


1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (New World Translation)
"What! Do YOU not know that the body of YOU people is [the] temple of the holy spirit within YOU, which YOU have from God? Also, YOU do not belong to yourselves, for YOU were bought with a price. By all means, glorify God in the body of YOU people."

2 Corinthians 10:5
"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"


Romans 6:22 (NAB)

"But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life."


Koran Al-Hijr (15)
30-31
So the angels fell prostrate, all of them together. Save Iblis. He refused to be among the prostrate.

(Allah)
32 He said: O Iblis! What aileth thee that thou art not among the prostrate ?

(Iblis, aka Satan)
33 He said: I am not one to prostrate myself unto a mortal whom Thou hast created out of potter's clay of black mud altered!

(Allah)
34-35
He said: Then go thou forth from hence, for lo! thou art outcast. And lo! the curse shall be upon thee till the Day of Judgment.

(Iblis, aka Satan)
36 He said: My Lord! Reprieve me till the day when they are raised.

(Allah)
37-38
He said: Then lo! thou art of those reprieved Till the Day of appointed time.

(Iblis, aka Satan)
39-40
He said: My Lord! Because Thou hast sent me astray, I verily shall adorn the path of error for them in the earth, and shall mislead them every one, Save such of them as are Thy perfectly devoted slaves.

(Allah)
41-45
He said: This is a right course incumbent upon Me: Lo! as for My slaves, thou hast no power over any of them save such of the froward as follow thee, And lo! for all such, hell will be the promised place. It hath seven gates, and each gate hath an appointed portion. Lo! those who ward off (evil) are among gardens and watersprings.


Mr. Serpent

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