Religion: God's Gift or Man Made

By Evan James Pilavis and Christopher Diakodimitris

Finally after over 2000 years the truth of the Hebrew, Christian and Islamic religions are revealed in this factual and unbiased expose’ of greed, lies and corruption of the leaders of each religion. As Pope Innocent III stated in 1215 “the source of man’s corruption was the clergy and the church”, a statement that remains as true today as it was spoken in 1215. The “Holy books” of the three religions are based upon Genesis which was stolen from the ancient pagan Sumerian magico-religion. The fact that Genesis and it’s evils was stolen from a pagan story and not Revelation as preached by the “Holy religions” unequivocally proves that the “Holy religions” were created on lies, deceit, evil and greed by charlatans who sought power and wealth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781631926020

Book preview

Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

Like so many of us, I was born into a faith-based family. In my case I was born into a Greek-American family and became a member of the Greek Orthodox religion. I was no different than any other child of a faith based religion. My friends went to either church on Sundays or synagogue on Saturdays. In my youth I attended Christenings, Confirmations, and Bar Mitzvahs. At that early age I quickly discovered that all of us had a lot in common; 1. No matter from what religion we hailed, we all hated going to church/synagogue; and 2. We were all taught, to believe that our religion was the religion and therefore better than the others.

In my late teens I met a family from the Middle East. They were Muslim and were honest, hard working and peaceful people. This was the first time I had actually met a Muslim family. I was curious about their religion and they told me that theirs was a religion of peace. I queried them on their perspective, in light of the problems in the Middle East and especially between the Muslims and Israelis. Their response to me was simple: There are fanatics in every religion.

I have been fortunate to have traveled extensively abroad and have seen, explored, and been exposed to many beliefs and cultures. I also put myself through law school and as an attorney I have seen how religion has permeated our justice and political systems.

The motivation for writing this book stems from my experiences from childhood through and including my years as an attorney coupled with a curiosity to understand man’s need for religion. As I have discovered through my travels, man’s need for religion, or enlightenment, is universal.

To seek the answers to the above questions I decided to do an in depth study of Western Culture and its religious and philosophical basis, namely the Judeo-Christian religions and ancient Greek philosophy.

We will examine the literal reading and understanding of the Old and New Testaments and to a much lesser extent the Koran. It is conceded that there have been a multitude and inexhaustible number of interpretations and opinions about the subtle inferences and meanings of the Old and New Testaments as well as the Koran. However, most, if not all, interpretations have been based on the personal point of view and bias of their writers and as such have distorted the literal meanings of the bibles.

To avoid such fallacy and subjective elements this study is based strictly on the literal meaning of the scriptures and objectively underlines their contradictions. More important, we will examine the sources, if any, on which the religions are based upon or founded.

We will also consider the history of the Roman Catholic Church and its claim of Primacy in order to determine whether it is a true apostle of Jesus and a living example of his teachings. For the purpose of this book, the Roman Catholic Church is being used as the representative of all Christian churches since it is one of the oldest, most populace and financially most successful.

But first we will discuss ancient Greek religion, civilization, philosophers, and their philosophical and scientific accomplishments with particular emphasis on their philosophical/natural theology and its effect on religion.

We will then take an in depth look into the Old Testament since it is the basis of the New Testament and Koran. It is only after we have examined the Old Testament can we then move on to examine and understand the New Testament and Koran.

This book was not written to refute the existence of God. It was written to demonstrate what has been done in the name of God and/or religion. I found that when theologians wrote about or referred to a section of the Bible as being an epic, or legend, a fable, or culture that those terms were used interchangeably and did lead to confusion whether they meant legend when they should have been saying fable or whether they were saying that an event was historically true. Some of those terms are defined below.

Epic is defined as designating, pertaining to, or characteristic of a kind of narrative poetry dealing with heroes and written in elevated style. (Ancient Heroes are mostly myths).

Legend is defined as a fictitious narrative or statement; specifically: (a) an untruth; falsehood.

Culture is defined as a developing by education or training; as the culture of the mind; … increase in knowledge and improvement in Taste resulting from education;…. refinement in manners, appreciation, thought etc…a particular stage of advancement in civilization, as Greek culture.

As stated, Western civilization is based on Christianity and Greek Culture. It is therefore compelling that we review Greek Culture and its unique genius which contributed so much to mankind and has never been equaled at any time by any people.

THE ANCIENT GREEK RELIGION

The Ancient Greek religion is referred to in many quarters as a myth. It started in Crete about 4000-5000 BC, spread to the mainland and was later adopted by Rome as its religion. i.e.: its twelve Gods are the same as those of ancient Greece.

Greek myth is not an entertainment story. It had a historical and cultural presence for years during which cities were built and colonies established. During this time, Greece became an empire and spawned philosophers, scientists mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, developed a language, grammar, literature, architecture, sculpturing and political science etc, all in vogue and relevant today.

In the Ancient Greek religion Hades was the God of the underworld where the dead spirits went. It was briefly and once visited by only a few mortals such as Hercules and Orpheus. But it did not deal with matters such as the fate of souls. Souls and the after life were left to Greek philosophers. The most telling feature of the ancient Greek Religion was that their Gods were as fallible or had the shortcomings of man. The singular duty that the Gods imposed on man was that man had to revere the Gods.

The ancient Greek religion had 12 major gods, six were male and six were female. It also had lesser Gods of both sexes. In the Hebrew, Christian, (with a few exceptions) and Islamic religions however, women were and still generally remain unfit to serve in the synagogue, church or mosque. Moreover, no woman is a deity in the latter religions, not even Jesus’ mother.

About 1450 B.C. Crete was destroyed by the volcanic eruption on Santorini after which the volcano imploded falling into the Mediterranean causing tidal waves of 150 feet high, which destroyed Crete. However, Crete’s culture and religion was saved as a result of having been spread to Greece. This flood story was interpreted as being Zeus’ punishment for the people’s irreverence towards their gods.

In the Ancient Greek mythology or way of life, love stories of Heroes abound. Women were adored and men grieved all their lives for the loss of a loving wife.

In the Old Testament a wife was not only a chattel but could be divorced at any time. Her principle purpose was to bear children. She was conditioned to share her husband with other wives and concubines and paramours. But had a Hebrew wife been unfaithful, she would be stripped naked and stoned to death. Keeping of concubines was allowed and/or accepted in the Hebrew religion well into the Middle-Ages. Girls were married off at the age of twelve (12) and had nothing to say about whom they were being married to.

The ancient Greek culture’s treatment of women differs from the Hebrew religion culture. In Ancient Greece deep love, order and harmony was the true hallmark of marriage, while in Hebrew marriages there was discord and intrigue between the several wives and the concubines. Its principal purpose was to have heirs to serve Israel.

Is the source of discord between men and women in today’s Western Culture the continuum of the gender bias that was part of the Hebrew Religion, which is also part of the Holy Bible? Would such a relationship affect family serenity, an individual’s peace of mind, preoccupy us with predatory sex, and stunt the development of man’s intellect and blunt his creativity?

The Ancient Greek playwright, Euripides in his play Bacchae questions among other things, the effect of too much religion on man as being fanatical.

Euripides concludes that too much religion leads to fanaticism, too much liberty leads to chaos, too much law and order leads to tyranny. Fanaticism impairs reasoning and it distorts facts. So stated Plato about Timocracy in his dialogue or Book titled the Republic.

THE ANCIENT GREEK CIVILIZATION

The Ancient Greek Civilization developed an alphabet, a vocabulary and a grammar. Its religion, grammar and alphabet were adopted by the Romans. Its vocabulary was used and or borrowed by religions and/or countries which lagged in developing vocabularies with which to express their thoughts, ideas and or their observations. For example, the words that the Hebrews used in the Old Testament, such as Pentateuch, Decalogues, Hexateuch, Deuteronomy, Logos, Agiographia or Hagiographia, (sacred writings containing some 39 books of the Old Testament scriptures), are words unequivocally Greek, as is the word tetra grammaton which refers to the four consonants in the Lord’s name which He told Moses. Even the word synagogue is not a Jewish word but a Greek word meaning assemblage or gathering.

Greece’s contributions to mankind are not limited to vocabulary and grammar. Its contributions are so vast and original in every field of study that such a genius has never been seen before or since. The Classical Age of Greece ran from 600BC to 100AD. There was not a field of study that they had not conceived and or refined whether it was arts, biology, chemistry, medicine, physics, metaphysics, astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, engineering, literature, poetry, theatre, history, political science, philosophy, democracy, etc.

What brought about such a miraculous phenomena? The answer may be that the Ancient Greek Religion did not consider intellectual pursuits as a threat or as irreverence to God or Gods. Nor did it demand a fanatical obedience motivated by fear that one might be smittened by a God of War or might lose his soul and suffer in Hell. Socrates adopted a maxim on how to live life, namely, in moderation there is perfection. Such a maxim and or way of life is totally unacceptable in the Hebrew and Christian religions. In other words, the Ancient Greek Religion freed man by giving him a free will to explore nature and seek universal truths. Otherwise, ancient Greece would not have done anything more than the Hebrews, Babylonians, Sumerians, Egyptians or any others had done. Nor would the Ancient Greeks have attempted to avoid responsibility for their actions by creating, as the Babylonians etc, a scapegoat or in other words a god that was also a snake or a devil, which the Hebrews adopted and which later the Christians adopted from the Old Testament. (Rev. 12: 7-9).

As we will discuss later, so strict was the Hebrew religion that according to the Old Testament the Lord unequivocally specified the materials to be used to build Noah’s Ark, its length, width, and height; similarly, he specified the type of wood and colors for the building of the altar and the ARK and the size of each. The Lord further specified that only clean oxen, lamb, goat or fowl should be sacrificed to him and also dictated what constituted a clean oxen, lamb, goat and fowl. The Lord then specified how to collect the blood of a sacrificed animal and what to do with it. Any deviation was deemed heretical and punishable. He dictated dietary laws, laws of cleanliness and other codes of conduct.

The same strict control was exercised by the Christian churches. For example, the library at Alexandria that housed the Greek, literary, historical, scientific and philosophical works was burnt to the ground by the thugs of a Bishop who claimed that it housed the works of the devil. The Vatican was ready to excommunicate and imprison and/or kill Marco Polo for allegedly acquiring the devils knowledge through his travels. Galileo died while under house arrest after the Vatican put him through an inquisition.

While the Hebrew Priests and Prophets were re-writing and upgrading the Genesis and Moses, they did not alter their Lord’s original demand that the men should copulate not only with their wives’, but also, with their concubines and their wives’ maids. Also, Genesis approves of deceit and deception, as Laban’s deception of Jacob; as Abraham deceived the Egyptian Pharaoh and also King Abimelech. The Lord also allowed Abraham to become rich when he passed off Sarah as his sister allowing the Pharaoh and later a King to abduct her. The writers of the Old Testament were quick to point out that Sarah’s chastity was not violated because the Lord appeared in the Pharaoh’s and later in the Kings’ dreams forbidding their touching of Sarah.

On the other hand deception and injustice such as the above and/or sexual promiscuity with or without a wives’ consent was violative of the Ancient Greek Ethic and was severely punishable by the Greek gods.

Having concubines was condemned by Greek Philosophers. Although it had been practiced as in the case of Agamemnon during the Trojan War and also when he returned home from Troy with a concubine. Of course, his wife had a lover and she murdered Agamemnon on his return. Such were the results of infidelity in the ancient Greek culture.

WHILE THE HEBREW SCRIBES WERE TEACHING/INDOCTRINATING

The Nomadic Tribes of the One God Who Designated The Hebrew Race as His Chosen People What were the Ancient Greeks Accomplishing?

As stated, the Ancient Greeks created a language and a grammar which the West has adopted. Latin grammar is based on Greek grammar and therefore it’s the grammar of English and all romance languages.

Homer wrote the world’s first two novels, the Iliad and the Odyssey, about 900 B.C., which told the story of the Trojan War and its heroes of about 1200 BC.

The first historian was Herodotus who was born on or about 484 BC in Asia Minor. He is known as the Father of History.

Thucydides authored the book titled History of the Peloponnesian Wars about 425 B.C. That war started about 421 B.C. He was of Athenian heritage and is considered by historians as the greatest political historiographer.

Aesop is known as a moralist making his point by writing fables. During the sixth and fifth century B.C. ancient Greece produced many playwrights and poets. Some well known playwrights are Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Poetry abounded in Greece. One of its great poets was Pindar who is known for the Ode commonly referred to as Pindar’s Ode. Ancient Greece was first in the painting and sculpture of humans and animals with the proper musculature, proportional and facial expression and with the appearance of movement. They developed and/or refined mathematics, geometry, algebra, trigonometry, calculus and physics.

Thales of Miletus was the first scientist-philosopher (624 BC) and is known as The Discoverer of Electricity. He is also credited with the discovery of five geometric theorems and was the first to predict a solar eclipse. He further theorized that the whole universe was a living organism nourished by the exhalations from water. Thales knew that the mineral magnetite and or lead stone, a magnetic oxide of iron attracts iron and other pieces of the same mineral. Armed with this knowledge Thales discovered magnets.

Thales and his successors Anaximander and Anaximenes through their scientific and philosophical teachings bridged the worlds of myth and reason.

These Ionian philosophers sought to explain the workings of nature in the simplest and most logical way and in terms of purely physical phenomena. They determined that matter could exist in the form of a solid, liquid or gas and that these could be equated with earth, water and air. Thus the primal substance had to be like or similar to one of these.

Thales thought it to be water. Anaximander believed that an indefinite mass existed out of which matter was created. Anaximenes chose air as the basic material. Even though each believed different element was the primal substance, all perceived a force called infinity, which created and controlled everything.

Pythagoras (570 BC) established the Pythagorean School where he taught by lectures. His students were sworn to secrecy concerning his teachings. He perceived that order and harmony existed in nature and in the universe and that order exists and is inherent in all living things especially in the harmony of opposites.

He held that order and harmony should also be the behavior of men, but would occur only if man has virtue, which comes from prudence, justice and courage.

Zeno (464 BC) was another scientist-philosopher. He is referred to as the inventor of dialectics and the theory of transformation of matter and dynamic transformation of things. He is also credited as the father of the Theory of Relativity.

Heraclitus (549 BC) is the founder and/or expanded the Theory of Evolution. He coined the phrase all is flux. He was acutely aware of the strife between opposites and their eventual modification.

Democritus of Thrace, who was generally held as