I count myself lucky to have been educated by some very enlightened, open minded Christians. The school I attended from 6th through 10th grade was attached to a church that had split off from an Orthodoxed Presby/Calvanist church in Holland, Michigan. The pastor was a sweet guy, raising teenaged kids and all the deacons/teachers were raising toddlers and up.
Anyway, the way they taught Bible class was like a text book. They encouraged conjecture and critical reading. From that, I remember that even the Bible doesn't say that the Christian movement was started by Jesus. It was already well underway, like the Civil Rights movement in this country, just waiting for a leader or martyr to rally around.
I do think a man existed who fits that profile. I don't know what his mother named him or what anyone thought of him at the time. If you look at some of the accounts from the gospels, he weren't no damned saint! The New Testament describes him as a rabbal rouser, a disruptor or the status quo; more like a poverty born Usama Bin Laden than a Southern Baptist. The man hung out with hookers and criminals, for Christ's sake! And took it upon himself to tell a bunch of impoverished and desperate people to reject the legal authorities and religious establishment and, instead, to "anoint" themselves and just love eachother.
There's some fairly credible research that indicates that the magic ingredient to that anointing oil was none other than India Indicus or Cannabis (sweet cane) Sativa. I can easily imagine tripping one's brains out and seeing God if covered in oil strongly infused w/ Cannabis resin.
As to the nature and existance of God, I have a theory. It's only a theory. I'm not about to kill or die over it. It's just an idea. Seems to me that all of the traditions that describe what God is are describing the imutable laws of nature. Maybe the Wiccans and native people to these continents had it right all along.
It will be generally found that those who sneer habitually at human nature and affect to despise it, are among its worst and least pleasant examples
--Charles Dickens
