Some people genuinely do not understand what I mean by “genetic morality.” It is a totally alien concept to all our philosophies. All of our moralities act as if genes didn’t exist AT ALL.
Even the churchmen who condemned him admitted that Origen was one of the most learned theologians of early Christianity. After learning the theology of the early church, Origen castrated himself. To him, this was the matural conclusion of the mixture of Christianity and degenerate Zoroastrianism that was early church doctrine.
You can accuseme of not understanding early church doctrine, but you cannot accuse Origen of that. The Church condemned him for actually castrating himself, but the early church was entirely in favor of the same result.
When I quoted Saint Paul as saying that unmarried women ideally should not have sex ever, but if they MUST have sex, then it is better to marry than to burn, the response from commenters was that this was a counsel of moderation.
When people start saying things like THAT with all seriousness, I retreat. If one cannot understand Saint Paul as seeing sterility as the ideal, as Origen did, then the idea of a genetic morality is a completely alien concept.
Once again, none of this is the fault of the Old Testament, and my testimony is a rare compliment to that book on my part. Whatever you may accuse Jehovah of, genetic suicide is not one of them.
To repeat, ALL of this sterility as an ideal comes from the major religion of the time in which Christianity grew up. a religion history has conveniently forgotten completely. That was Zoraostrianism, the official faith of the entire Parthian Empire, which was large and powerful as that of Rome until its collapse seven hundred years after Christianity began.
It is from Zoroastrianism, and nowhere else, that we got our ideal of self-castration and death.
After reading this, everybody will keep asking where our civilization got its death-wish.
Which is a lot like the Jews still waiting around for a Messiah, while Jesus is recognized by both Christians and Islam.
What do you about people you GIVE the answer to, but who insist on repeating the question as if you hadn’t SAID anything?
#1 by joe rorke on 01/16/2006 - 7:37 pm
The answer to the last paragraph of your piece, Bob, is that you do nothing. You merely understand that they don’t want to hear the answer to the question. Jesus knew that. For one thing, he said to shake the dust off your feet when you leave that city where the people don’t want to hear your gospel. Aside from that, he also said to his disciples who asked Him why He would not speak to certain people (roughly paraphrasing) “their hearts are hardened, their ears are stopped up, they cannot hear.” It’s in the book. Jesus knew he couldn’t get through to them. He had a short time on this earth. He spoke to those who could hear Him. There are many people today whose hearts are hardened, who cannot (will not) hear, who cannot (will not) see. It is very common. They repeat the question to IMPLY that you haven’t said anything. To them you can’t say anything. There’s nobody home. They will reap the whirlwind of their arrogance. They will roll in their own vomit. They cannot escape truth forever.