Originally posted by runetang
actually,
it's extremely dangerous to come in contact with an amazon tribe that hasn't made contact with the outside world.
they tend to kill you, maybe cook you up and eat you, people have vanished after looking for non-contacted tribes in South America.
As Chinese troops would be fought tooth and nail if they came ashore onto the beaches of America, so do primitive tribes fight any incursions into
what they deem their own. It's a microcosm/macrocosm thing... the same insinctive response is applied whether we're talking countries with hundreds
of millions or tribes with a few dozen. no-one likes interlopers right off the bat. It's human nature to repel invaders.
Cooking and eating your enemies is different from outright torture and murder how? Cannibalism is a human moral issue, not a rule of nature. In fact,
animals kill and eat their own species in a wide number of cases.
(ie., a male lion will kill any cubs fathered by another male if he fancies the flick of that particular she-lions tail)
That we in our civilized society abhor the eating of human flesh is a morality transferred inti Civil Law... even to the extent that we may not
partake of human flesh even if it is the only way a larger group can survive. There are instances of people arrested, charged and convicted for doing
just that.
BTW... isn't the Sacrament a form of ritual cannibalism when we 'eat the flesh' and 'drink the blood' of Jesus?
And I say, well then, cannot a man's soul be saved in death? If I knew not Jesus, then died after living a good moral life, wouldn't Jesus
save my soul, even in death? Because I think he would. I think this explains how non-Christians get to heaven, and I think it is a powerful idea.
Christ can save you after your death, if you happened to not know him whatsoever when alive.. due to this reason or that reason.
Interesting concept.
Not one I've ever heard before.
In answer, all I can think of in response is to put forward the idea that what makes a Christ is the
symbolic suffering for the 'sins' of a
culture.
Just as Mayan kings would perpetrate ritual bloodletting on themselves to absolve the wrongdoings of his subjects, so do other 'saviours' all
through ancient history (ie. Horus) suffer and pay bloody penance for the sins of others. It's hardly a 'Christian only' idea.
As one who believes in a
historical Jesus (even with the scant evidence available), it makes sense to me that
the teachings He received
were what stood Him apart from the rest of his society. It is what elevated Him to the status of Healer and Worker of Miracles. The man became
Christos because of His training and became Saviour because of His sacrifice according to the same line of thinking that forces a Mayan king to his
yearly bloodletting.
It is an acknowledgement to the reality of the spiritual realm and the idea that there is a price to pay if we expect our God/s to continue to provide
for our needs in this material world.
That there is a judgement or a 'weighing of the soul' upon death is also not just a Christian idea, but one which prevails throughout many religions
as well. What one has written in The Record of their Life is forever.
To address the title of this topic...
Christians ARE right in what they believe. It's just that the true meaning of the message that Jesus taught has been changed to fit 'the times' too
often and has been 'transformed' into something unintended.
IMO... 'The Christos' is a symbol for the presence of the God
within ourselves.
[edit on 12/2/08 by masqua]