Jesus , the facts

This is a story about a middle eastern son of a carpenter who started preaching and faith healing at the age of thirty, for three years of his life. He had twelve disciples representing the twelve tribes of Israel, all of whom betrayed him in his hour of need and was crucified at the age of 33 by the Jewish establishment of the time.

His mother claimed that his birth was parthenogenic. He was born most probably when the planet Jupiter was in the constellation of Aries and could be seen to stop over Bethlehem when viewed from the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, on April 17^th 2006 years ago.

As per all reports he preached that one had to love God with all ones’ heart and love ones’ neighbour as oneself , as his main doctrine, amongst other various utterances were those favouring monogamy and the permanent nature of the marriage bond. He was reported on in the books written by one Matthew and one Mark who lived around that time.

A little while later, other authors called Luke and Paul wrote about him, mostly Paul based on revelations purported to have been received on the road to Damascus from Jerusalem. Since Paul had a lot to lose and little to gain in claiming these revelations, it can be safely assumed that these were his firm beliefs.

However all of these authors knew little of his personal life, and though they recorded various anecdotes in his life seem to have recorded little of his opinions on life in general, or his philosophic principles, possibly because they wished to remain factual and objective in their reporting, or possibly because they just did not know him well enough.

As a result, what can be deduced about his philosophy is only based on anecdotes, which practically makes any sort of interpretation justifiable. Another author called John reported seeing Jesus in a dream in which he spoke metaphorically, about the future of mankind and the earth, foreboding doom to those who did not believe in him. The exact nature of this doom, in the context of physical life as we know is not clear, nor is the paradise, delineated as a Kingdom belonging to himself/his father/ a spiritual entity. The nature of this belonging in the unspecified absence or presence of other claimants to this kingdom is also unclear.

Most of his worldview seemed to be based on the beliefs of the Jewish gene pool into which he was born and he did not make any corrections to the existing beliefs then that the Sun revolved around the earth or that of genesis versus evolution, though those who believe in Him as a Saviour, claim that he would have known differently.

As can be deduced from reports about him he appeared to place a high premium on belief and trust and little premium on scientific knowledge or logic though there were established schools of logical thought before him. Little is known or referred to about his education, whether he was literate beyond the needs of his life as a carpenter.

The matter of his remains after his death on the cross also is shrouded in controversy, with believers claiming that he rose after his death and ascended to the sky, in which direction they believe Heaven, a state of bliss, exists. It appears that this process happened over a period of several days during which several people claimed to have seen and spoken him.

A detached observer however, cannot discount the possibility that the group of his followers, all of whom did not rise to his defence, saw an absolution of sorts in claiming his appearance before them, in order to assuage feelings of guilt and peer pressure, especially when the most doubtful of the lot, one Thomas, was reported to have even felt a wound inflicted by a Roman spear.

The religious group that he inspired, however, though in myriad splinters now, has contributed tremendously to charity as a result of his message of Love, and has served the cause of education and knowledge to a remarkable extent. They have done so selflessly for the most part and work toward developing their social model tirelessly in a manner that is unparalleled amongst all other religions.

It has in the process accumulated enormous wealth, because of the practice of tithing wherein every convert must give 10 percent of his income to the organisation, the Church, that propagates the faith. It is interesting to note that this Church was never recommended by its inspiration and the founders were amongst those who betrayed its inspiration.