Tyaeda's take on religion.
This is going to be interesting. See, I didn't take religion in school, nor did I ever read the bible, go to church, or for that matter, look into it that hard. But regardless of our teachings, we all have an opinion. With that being said....
Jesus didn't exist. Not god... Jesus... or whatever son of God you worship. No one walked on water, performed miracles, or resurrected anyone from the dead. The bible, although filled with many moral teachings, was based on lies. Think about it.... there's a new testament to the bible... if the old one was God's word, why was it changed? Basically we edited to exclude practices that simply wouldn't pass today, and topped it off with a awesome new section that describes our eventual doom. It's hard enough alone to believe anyone who says that God spoke to them, and then uses that gain any such following, but there's more to this than just that.
There are more similarities between different religions than there are differences. Many religions have their own version of "Jesus" who was born of a Virgin on Dec 25th.... there's 3 wise men who came baring gifts for the baby miracle in many religions.... and the list of similarities go on. They all just have different names, and some different rules to follow.
It all originates to astrology. What we now refer to as "Space" and the "Universe" filled with stars and planets and asteroids, was once "The Heavens" filled with many gods to the people without science, or telescopes for that matter. The son of God... was actually once the SUN of god. People knew that the Sun brought about life... they didn't know how... so they attributed it to a higher power.... they also knew that night brought about many dangers, such as predators, and the inability to see. Remember... we didn't always have street lights. If you've ever been somewhere very remote, at night, with only fire to light your way, you'll know how scary it can be. We once harmonized with nature in a way that we were once part of the food chain... and not necessarily on top. WE shared the same exact territory with wild predators, and we were lacking the equipment that we've since developed in order to combat them, and protect ourselves.. like guns, traps, bear mace, an escape vehicle, sound structures, etc etc. There was also a time where we had no idea how or why there was daytime and nighttime. We didn't know that the earth moved, we didn't know why the sun went away, and why the moon came out.
Since our natural defense mechanism is our brains, and opposable thumbs, and not exoskeletons, or huge teeth and claws, it only made sense for us to be driven by that, to figure shit out... in order to survive. Even today, we are looking to science to answer those ultimate questions of our origins and purpose. Our answer.... well because we didn't have science, there was no other explanation than a higher power/creator. We also thought that there ought to be two sides of that. Besides, why would any god do good for it's people, and then turn around to do bad? There had to be evil vs. good. Ultimately they thought that there was an ever lasting battle between evil and good, in the heavens. Each day the Sun would rise = good prevailed. At night, evil prevailed over the good. Even now, some of us believe that when something bad happens during an otherwise good time, that either evil demons are to blame, or that god was punishing us... while if something good happens in an otherwise bad time, god is looking out for us after all. I can only imagine that our earlier ancestors said the same things during droughts, floods, and everything in between.
The Zodiac.... we think of it as our daily horoscopes, and a way of identifying star patterns... seeing as there are soooo many of them. When really, a long long time ago, those were the gods. They named those gods based on earthly figures and elements. There was the god of water, and it's constellation = Aquarius. There was also Virgo the virgin. We have the 3 kings/ wise men.... and so on and so forth. These names were not given to these constellations to symbolize Jesus, and his story... but rather the other way around. Many religions have based their stories on constellations and their movement patterns. It just soooo happens that the 3 Kings and virgo line up on Dec 25th. It also just so happens that other religons have gods and children of gods, that were born of a virgin on Dec 25th... religions mind you that are thousands of years older than Christianity.
I can't say that I don't believe in God... nor can I say there is a God. We don't know as of yet. But many of the occurances that we have once attributed to the acts of God(s) has been proven otherwise with the development of new technologies, innovative thinkers, and world altering discoveries. I don't believe in Jesus... at least anything said of him besides him being a Jew, and a carpenter.