The Quantum Jesus Project
From Barbelith
The Quantum Jesus Project
I’m going to head back to the bare bones of the discussion for a moment here. Essentially what has been proposed is that we attempt to change the surrounding ideas that go along with the name Jesus or some variant of said name that is attached to a possibly existing historical personage.
Oh a note, particularly for anyone who might feel his or her faith is being manhandled a bit. I do not intend any of my postings to this discussion as put on. On the other hand what I am working with what I’ll term an As-If space. I am operating as if there may or may not ever have been a real Jesus, as if we could never know the truth about Jesus, as if the milieu surrounding Jesus is wrong or at least not the only valid interpretation and, lastly, as if changing the interpretation of Jesus could be beneficial or desirable. Consider what I say as a game played as if those propositions were true. If you want to play by those rules you will perhaps get the most out of the conversation. Neither you nor I necessarily have to hold those beliefs in real life.
We want to re-brand Jesus.
This process would have more or less five parts
- Identify what we find bad about the current memeplex.
- Identify what we find as good about the current memeplex.
- Decide what we want to add from outside to the memeplex.
- Put it together.
- Figure out how to package the new idea-set in order to spread it.
The following are things that I (given my game-rules) find problematic with the current ideas around Jesus/Yeshua. For simplicity I am going to use the name Jesus from this point forward. Jesus’ connection to and interaction with scripture is definitely difficult. To what degree should Jesus be linked to currently orthodox scripture, to what degree should he be separated from it or to what degree should he be linked to other scriptures such as the Gnostic Gospels? In this context, I believe that Jesus needs to be divorced from most of the Old Testament or at least removed from a literal interpretation of most of it. Perhaps the only scripture left to Jesus should be the Parables attributed to him, perhaps not even them. Another thing that I particularly find inappropriate is the current acceptance of usury by the people who hold the Jesus meme. So if anyone wants to add or refine anything that they feel is inappropriately attached to Jesus or that they feel needs excising from the memeplex, have a go. Also any discussion about how to relate the concept of and content of scripture to Jesus is, in my opinion, vital to the discussion.
There are many things good, beneficial or useful which are parts of the Jesus myth (for lack of synonyms for memplex) but I do not want to go into all of them now. I’ll let others flesh out some of the keepers before I come back to this topic.
One of the main things already expressed, as needing adding to Jesus is the acceptance of multiple interpretations or a fuzzy and partially indeterminate model, a la Quantum science and hence the title The Quantum Jesus Project.
I’ll come back to these topics again when I think of more but there is no point in going further until the first three steps in the process is fleshed out. The last two can only be completed later.
When I looked at religious paintings of Jesus in Art School I noticed the tendency of painters to depict Christ in subjective, inventive terms, and more often than not, Jesus would end up resembling the Artist himself. A kind of artistic vanity seemed to be emerging, that makes a lot of sense really. The Artist would want to communicate the Divine grace an in doing so, creates a mirror of those emotions in the subject that reflects how the artist wants to be perceived. By changing the face of Jesus take care not to put your own face onto his.
The critique of potential artistic vanity is part of the reason we have been going about this as multiple models. With enough different faces Jesus no longer looks like an artist. If you collect ALL the paintings of Jesus and you look at all of them you no longer see an artist’s face you see what isn't the artist's face.
Some Sample models:
Jesus the Comedian
I like to think of Jesus as the first stand up comedian. I see the Bible being compiled by a bunch of gray faced critics who edited out all the profanity in the interests of mass consumption. Thus you have the situation where there are no punchlines left and all there is, is a very clever take on a situation followed by a moral.
Jesus the Buddha
Wow! Can you dig that Jesus was a Buddha? Can you grok a laughing Savior? A Zen Buddha from Nazareth? Nothing is more heretical. Nothing is more treasonous. Jesus had a sense of humor. That idea will destroy Western Civilization as we know it.
Jesus the King
Jesus as a messiah in the political sense. His movement would then have been only an attempt to free the Jews from Rome. Actually this would be a very boring model because this Jesus would have no real relevance today. As a failed king whose state now exists despite him he is of no interest unless you believe the stories that he "knew" Mary Magdalene. Then at least we could speculate about the existence of an heir or successor.
Jesus the Communist
Perhaps Jesus is a Dialectical Dualist rather than Marx, the Dialectial Materialist. There is a lot of discussion that could surround this point. An example is the trinity as a dialectic process. One consequence of this idea is that "god" would then be a changeable or non-static entity. Another is the clear social consequence of concentrating on Jesus’ views on money. Charity and the kingdom of heaven would then become similar in meaning to communal shared non-commodity wealth and a communistic utopian society.
Jesus the Symbolic Ideal
Pick anyone in the 'Multiverse' that you respect, it doesn't have to be Jesus, and for one day, try to live up to your expectations of them. And by your actions you judge what is right and good, by your interpretations of your own feelings, by how you live your life. Its starts by respecting who you are -and if you can feel 'Love', then you can begin. Find out what your own personal context is, and then break it open. This religion has no name. It has no savior.
A comparison of current models based on Occam’s Razor:
Posits a god:
- Jesus the Redeemer 1
- Jesus the Incarnation
- Jesus the Divine Sacrifice
- Jesus the Murdered/Resurrected God
Posits supernatural powers:
- Jesus the Magician
- Jesus the Mystic (direct contact with the Powers What Be)
- Jesus the Prophet
Posits a real human:
- Jesus the Philosopher
- Jesus the Comedian
- Jesus the Rebel
- Jesus the King
- Jesus the Hippie
- Jesus the Buddha
- Jesus the Communist 2
- Jesus the Leader
- Jesus the Friend/Confidant
- Jesus the Lunatic
- Jesus the Teacher
- Jesus the Victim/Betrayed
- Jesus the Scapegoat
- Jesus the Iconoclast
- Jesus the Historical Figure
- Jesus the Blasphemer
- Jesus the Rable Raiser
- Jesus the Boss of Me
Posits a mythical character:
- the well built white man with beard on a cross made from planks of wood
- Jesus the cartoon TV Talkshow Presenter
Posits nothing:
- Jesus the Symbolic Ideal
- Jesus the Personified Individuation Process
- too complicated not really a single model
- potentially compatible with a “Jesus as god” model
updates/changes
- elsware: I've added some more views of Jesus. I'm not sure where to put the media images of jesus, feel free to move 'em.
