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- Xref: sparky alt.atheism:24804 talk.religion.misc:24985
- Newsgroups: alt.atheism,talk.religion.misc
- Path: sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!uniwa!cujo!martin
- From: martin@cs.curtin.edu.au (Martin Dougiamas)
- Subject: Christian racism
- Message-ID: <martin.726049316@marsh>
- Keywords: Christian racism depiction of christ
- Sender: news@cujo.curtin.edu.au (News Manager)
- Organization: Curtin University of Technology
- Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 08:21:56 GMT
- Lines: 43
-
- Related to my recent post "Evolution implied by the Bible" is
- another question that's always worried me about the racism in
- contemporary Christianity.
-
- Every Christian bible or movie I've ever seen depicts Christ and his
- followers as very nordic-looking people, for some reason, especially
- Christ. Even the Turin shroud has an image of a man with a very thin
- face and long nose.
-
- Not once have I seen the point raised that the characters in the
- Bible were much more likely to have been dark-haired, dark-skinned
- and not overly tall, and had the same physical characteristics that
- most middle-eastern people share today. I suspect many Christians
- would be a whole lot less comfortable about things if they knew
- Jesus looked more like Saddam Hussein than some skinny Thor.
-
- I doubt many people associate their bible to the middle-east at all,
- despite it being completely set there. I know Christians who
- absolutely can't stand Jews, and yet worship the King of the Jews in church.
- (Come to think of it, same with Hitler)
-
- Other things that bother me is the complete absence of any mention
- in the bible of things happening in other great civilizations of
- the world. Do the Pyramids crack a mention? Is there a single
- reference to the great achievements of the Chinese? Not to mention
- the remains of dinosaurs and what-not. These are undeniable important
- events in the world.
-
- Suddenly God's view of himself and his creation as expressed in the
- bible looks very piddly indeed... confined as it is to a small number
- of people in one corner of the Mediterranean over a very short time span.
-
- I didn't notice any discussion of these ideas in the FAQ.
- I would like to know what others think about them... have these
- points been discussed before?
-
- Martin
- --
- Your eyes are weary from staring at the screen. Your eyelids feel very heavy.
- You feel sleepy. Notice how restful it is to watch the cursor blink. Close your
- eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt
- otherwise. When you awake you will follow up this post and enthusiastically
- agree with it. Then you will send all your money to martin@cs.curtin.edu.au.
-