Did Jesus REALLY cast demons into swine?

by gumby 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  gumby

  The gospels tell us that on one occasion Jesus exorcised a man of demons who called themselves "Legion" because there was about..."two thousand of them." These demons are cast by Jesus into a large herd of pigs, which rush over the edge of a hillside and are drowned.

  Exactly the motif is found in the rites of the Mysteries at Eluesis ( about 20-40 miles from Greece) As part of the purification ceremony before initiation, some 2 thousand initiates all bathed in the sea with young pigs. This bathing ritual banished all evil into the pigs, which were then sacraficed, as a symbol of the initiates own impurities, by being chased over a chasm.

  These latter rites and performances were LONG before Jesus time. Pigs were used in MANY rites as such by others, if you'll take the time to check it out.

  For refrences a person can simply type in 'Eleusis' in a serch engine and read a bit on it.

  Or...... See Burkert, W.(1985), or Harrison,J.(1922) 153 Harrison, op cit., 152 Burkert, op.cit, 242

  Gumby
• 

  funkyderek

  Did Hercules REALLY kill the Lernean Hydra?
• 

  Brummie

  It could be true, I was eating breakfast yesterday and noticed a slice of bacon acting very perculiar. hmmm!

  Brummie
• 

  anglise

  lol FD

  I have often wondered if hundreds of years future people will look back on the faiths of today and view them as myths and legends much as we do the Egyptian, Roman,Greek, Inca etc beliefs.

  Anglise
• 

  gumby

  I have often wondered if hundreds of years future people will look back on the faiths of today and view them as myths and legends

  Well......it been much more than hundreds of years since Jesus supposedly walked the earth.......it has been 2 thousand years........and still people believe it as true and not myth. I think he will be seen as a real person for quite some time. People NEED something to believe in and many believe simply on faith with no evidence.

  Gumby
• 

  Vita Nuova

  People NEED something to believe in and many believe simply on faith with no evidence

  Well, it really wouldn't be Faith if you had apprehensible evidence. Faith is faith exactly because there is no evidence. It is rather belief proceeding from testimony or authority.
• 

  funkyderek

  Faith is faith exactly because there is no evidence. It is rather belief proceeding from testimony or authority.

  Exactly. Which is why belief in Jesus is no more defensible than belief in Hercules. There is no virtue in believing without evidence.
• 

  drwtsn32

  Well......it been much more than hundreds of years since Jesus supposedly walked the earth.......it has been 2 thousand years

  Yep. The difference is that many Christian beliefs are unfalsifiable. Ancient greek and roman gods, for example, were defined too literally and were easy to disprove. (There is no Atlas holding up the earth.) Religion is evolving to protect itself from extinction. Christianity today is probably much different than it was 2,000 years ago.
• 

  SanFranciscoJim

  DEMONS - the Other White Meat
• 

  gumby

  Religion is evolving to protect itself from extinction. Christianity today is probably much different than it was 2,000 years ago.

  Religion evolves every time it gets itself in a corner it can't get out of.

  Such as creation/evolution theologians. It would have been a sin for a christian to admit, years ago, to the possibility of the bible creator to have perhaps USED evolution to populate the earth. Now many are drawn to that field.

  As man continues to find evidence against many concieved ideas in the religious field, christianity will in time, struggle much harder than it now does to survive. There will always be a taker for a story however.

  Gumby

  Gumby